IIM Kozhikode has released the CAT 2025 Results on 24 December 2025. Scorecards are available for download on the official site – iimcat.ac.in.

Gender diversity and academic diversity are two important factors that can increase your chances in the final merit list, even if your CAT percentile is less.

Not only this, but the gender diversity has also changed.

  • At IIM Ahmedabad, the male-to-female ratio was approximately 2.75:1 in 2021, with women constituting just 26.6 per cent of the student body.
  • By 2024, this figure had marginally increased to 27.3 per cent.
  • A similar trend is observed at IIM Calcutta, where female enrolment slightly declined, reaching 26.3 per cent in 2024.

Contrary to the common misconception that IIMs favour engineering students, many top IIMs actively prioritise non-engineering students through bonus points and adjusted rating scores. Students holding degrees in disciplines such as BCom, BA Economics, BBS, BBA, and related fields often possess an advantage during the admission process.

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CAT Diversity at IIM: Benefits for Non-Engineers and Female candidates

Key Summary

  • Gender and academic diversity help to improve your shortlist chances, even is you have a low CAT percentile.
  • Non-engineers dominate the CAT 2025 toppers list, as out of 12 candidates, 9 were from a non-engineering background
  • Female representation at IIMs is increasing, with newer IIMs reporting female enrolments of around 25%–75%.
  • Non-engineering candidates are no longer at a disadvantage,as many IIMs give bonus points through academic diversity
  • Institutes such as IIM Rohtak, Kozhikode, Sambalpur, Mumbai, and Kashipur have reported high female enrolments in recent batches.

CAT IIM Diversity Profile

Now, regarding CAT Diversity, five Indian Institutes of Management have recently announced record female enrolments into their MBA programs.

  • With newer IIMs leading, the percentage of women enrollments ranged between 25% and 75%,
  • There is a minor increase in women's representation, ranging between 25 and 40 per cent in the older IIMs.

Record-Breaking Female Enrollments:

  • IIM Rohtak: 73% women in its 15th batch
  • IIM Kozhikode: Almost 60% female cohort
  • IIM Sambalpur: 60% female MBA cohort
  • IIM Mumbai: Over 47% for 2024 (more than double the 21% from the previous year)
  • IIM Kashipur: 42% women students enrolled in the 2024-26 batch

Traditional IIMs Show Gradual Progress:

  • IIM Ahmedabad: Female representation increased from 26.6% (2021) to 27.3% (2024)
  • IIM Calcutta: 26.3% female enrollment in 2024

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Academic Diversity: Non-Engineers on the Rise

Now, if we look at the diversity of academic background, the results are no different. Here also we can also see an increase in non-engineering students.

  • IIM Kozhikode: 28.4% surge in non-engineering students (from 218 to 280)
  • IIM Sambalpur: Almost equal split - 160 non-engineering vs 163 engineering students
  • IIM Ahmedabad: 33.5% non-engineering students in 2022-24 batch, with 28.6% increase in subsequent year

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Weightage of Diversity at IIM

The inclusion of B.Com and BA graduates improves the overall learning experience by fostering a diverse mix of perspectives and ideas. B.Com graduates, in particular, have a solid foundation in business principles, financial management, and accounting. To understand how much emphasis is put on the diversity aspect at IIM, you can check the table below:

IIM Academic Performance (UG, 12th, 10th) CAT Score (Overall & Sectional) Work Experience (Weightage) Diversity (Academic & Gender)
IIM Ahmedabad Significant Weightage Very High Cutoffs High Weightage Moderate Emphasis
IIM Bangalore Important Factor Very High Cutoffs Moderate to High Weightage Moderate Emphasis
IIM Calcutta Important Factor Very High Cutoffs Moderate Weightage Moderate Emphasis
IIM Lucknow Significant Weightage High Cutoffs Moderate Weightage Moderate Emphasis
IIM Kozhikode Moderate Weightage High Cutoffs Moderate Weightage High Emphasis
IIM Indore Moderate Weightage Moderate to High Cutoffs Moderate Weightage Moderate Emphasis
Newer IIMs Moderate to High Weightage Moderate Cutoffs Lower to Moderate Weightage High Emphasis

IIM Entrance Exam: Academic Diversity Points

Certain IIMs have taken intentional measures to mitigate the engineering-centric bias often associated with the CAT exam. To ensure a more equitable representation of students from diverse academic backgrounds, candidates from non-engineering streams are granted extra points during the admission process. The specific allocation of these points varies from one IIM campus to another.

IIM Lucknow:

  • Assigns 5% weightage to academic diversity during WAT-PI and final selection stages
  • These points contributed to 44% non-engineering students in the 2023-25 batch

IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore:

  • Do not provide additional bonus points for academic diversity
  • However, use adjusted rating scores that favour non-engineers

According to the institute’s spokesperson, these points have significantly contributed to the enhancement of academic diversity within the campus, resulting in the admission of nearly 44% of students from non-engineering backgrounds in the 2023-25 batch.

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CAT Academic Diversity Approach in IIMs

IIMs like Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Kozhikode shortlist candidates using "Rating Scores" based on:

  • 10th standard marks
  • 12th standard marks
  • Bachelor's degree percentage (adjusted by discipline)
  • Work experience

Here, the percentage score in the Bachelor's Degree for non-engineers is kept higher as compared of non-engineers.

For eg - the Table below indicates the Rating Scores for the Bachelor's Degree Examination for IIM Ahmedabad MBA Admission

Rating Score Percent score in Bachelor's Degree
- Medical Degree Professional Degree Commerce Engineering and Technology Arts and Humanities
1 <=55 <= 50 <= 55 <= 60 <= 50
2 > 55 and <= 60 > 50 and <= 53 > 55 and <= 60 > 60 and <= 65 > 50 and <= 55
3 > 60 and <= 62 > 53 and <= 55 > 60 and <= 65 > 65 and <= 70 > 55 and <= 60
5 > 62 and <= 65 > 55 and <= 57 > 65 and <= 70 > 70 and <= 75 > 60 and <= 65
8 > 65 and <= 70 > 57 and <= 63 > 70 and <= 80 > 75 and <= 85 > 65 and <= 75
10 > 70 > 63 > 80 > 85 > 75

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Gender Diversity at IIMs

Gender plays a role in the selection process at IIMs. The institute provides special privileges to female aspirants. “At the shortlisting for our interviews, we have a criterion called the gender diversity factor, where we give extra marks to female candidates. This has borne good results for us,” said Himanshu Rai, director, IIM Indore.

  • Over the past few years, there has been a certain increase in the number of female candidates appearing in the CAT exam.
  • As the institutes are offering better opportunities to female candidates, the trend is expected to increase in the upcoming years.

Points awarded by some of the IIMs to Female Candidates under the Gender Diversity Factor:

Institute Diversity Factor: Gender
IIM, Calcutta 2
IIM, Lucknow 2
IIM, Kozhikode 5

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Why is female enrollment on the rise at IIMs?

According to Narayanan Ramaswamy, national leader of Education and Skill Development at KPMG India: "On the demand side, there is a pull for more women managers. On the supply side, there are more women getting into the higher-education ecosystem. All this is reflecting in improved diversity numbers in MBA classrooms."

This is also a reflection of growing demand for female managers among top corporations in India, which recruit each year from the cohorts of IIMs.

CAT Cut off 2025 (Expected)

Tabulated below are the sectional as well as the overall general category cutoff scores of the top 5 IIMs.

IIM Expected Cutoff
IIM Ahmedabad 99
IIM Bangalore 99
IIM Calcutta 99
IIM Lucknow 97-98
IIM Indore 97-98
IIM Kozhikode 97-98

Decrease in Weightage of CAT Score

With the change in admission criteria, IIMs change the weightage each year. It has been found that the weightage of the CAT Score is slightly lowered in the selection process, and more weightage is added to gender criteria.

Key Changes:

  • IIM Jammu: Reduced CAT weightage from 45% to 42%, increasing profile and PI weightage.
  • IIM Sambalpur: No change in CAT weightage (40%), but slightly increased the diversity weightage.
  • IIM Bangalore: High weighatge to the CAT score during the shortlisting. However, in the final selection, the CAT weightage drops to around 25%

Check List of Top Colleges in India Accepting CAT Score

So to sum up, the admission process basically depends on your academic background, gender, work experience, and overall profile, along with your CAT score.

Remember, if you score 97th percentile with strong diversity factors, then you can get an IIM call compared to someone with 99th percentile without diversity factors at many IIMs.