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CAT Eligibility Criteria 2017: The eligibility criteria of the Common Admission Test or CAT refers that any MBA aspirant who has completed or appeared in the Bachelor’s Degree final examination with minimum 50 per cent aggregate are eligible to appear for the test. CAT 2017 eligibility criteria will be officially announced in the last week of July along with the official notification. The eligibility criteria of CAT has remained same over the years and it is expected that it will continue to be the same this year as well. The CAT eligibility criteria 2017 vary according to the category of the candidates. It is advised that before applying or even considering about appearing for CAT, MBA aspirants should know the eligibility criteria properly. IIM Lucknow will be conducting CAT 2017. This article of Careers360 brings to you CAT 2017 eligibility criteria.
- Know your chances of getting a call from IIM & Non-IIMs
- Know how good is your academic profile for IIMs & Non-IIMs
- Know the required eligibility criteria
- Check the percentile required for IIMs & Non-IIMs
IIMs have mentioned the CAT eligibility criteria in terms of the academics and candidate categories. The following points bring to you the eligibility criteria of CAT as stated by the exam conducting authorities.
Highlights of CAT Eligibility Criteria 2017
Applicants should hold a Bachelor’s Degree with minimum 50 per cent marks or equivalent CGPA awarded by a recognised university or educational institute as incorporated by an Act of the Parliament or State legislature in India or declared to be deemed as a University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India. For the reserved category candidates, such as Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disability (PWD), the minimum percentage to be secured in Bachelor’s Degree is 45 per cent.
Candidates appearing for the final year of Bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification examination and those who have completed degree requirements and are awaiting results are also eligible to apply. However, they will be given provisional admission only till the time they submit a certificate from the Principal / Registrar of their University/institution (issued on or before the date as stipulated by the respective IIM) stating that they have completed all the requirements for obtaining the Bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification on the date of the issue of the certificate.
During the time of application, candidates need to fulfill any one of the following three conditions:
1. Completed Bachelor’s Degree with requisite percentage of marks
2. Completed Professional Degree with requisite percentage of marks
3. Should be in the final year of Bachelor’s Degree with requisite marks percentage
The calculation of the marks percentage will be done on the basis of the practice followed by the respective University/Institute. In case the Institute/University offers grades/CGPA, the conversion to percentage of marks would be based on the procedure as certified by the respective University/Institution. In case there is no such conversion scheme followed by the institute, the equivalence will be calculated by dividing the candidate’s CGPA by the maximum possible CGPA, and multiplying the result with 100.
CAT 2017 Eligibility – Reservation Criteria
According to the legal requirements, IIMs and other government institutes have to follow the reservation criteria as given below:
15 per cent of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC)
7.5 per cent of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST)
27 per cent seats are reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBC) belonging to non-creamy layers
Three per cent seats are reserved for Persons With Disability (PWD) candidates. The three categories of disability are: a) low vision blindness, b) hearing impairment and c) loco motor disability/cerebral palsy. This provision is applicable if the candidate suffers from any of the listed disabilities to the extent of not less than 40 per cent, as certified by a medical authority as prescribed and explained in the said PWD Act, 1995 (Section 39).
The candidates belonging to the reserved categories have to score minimum cutoff percentile at CAT 2017 along with the eligibility criteria in order to be shortlisted for the admission process.
Information for Reserved Category Candidates
The caste or tribe of candidates belonging to SC and ST categories have to be listed in the Government of India schedule. The caste certificate which they would submit to IIMs should carry the following information: (a) Name of caste or tribe
(b) Whether candidate belongs to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe (c) District and the State or Union Territory of original residence
(d) the appropriate Government of India schedule under which your caste/tribe is approved by it as Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.
During the application process, the reserved category candidates have to upload the SC / ST / NC-OBC / PWD certificate(s). In case candidates fail to upload the documents, the application may get rejected by IIMs.
At the time of selection process or interview rounds, candidates have to show the original documents and copies have to be submitted at IIMs during final admission process. In case they are unable to submit the documents, they may not be considered under reserved categories.
The application process of CAT 2017 is likely to begin from the first week of August. Last year, 2,34,434 candidates applied for the exam whereas 1,95,000 of them appeared for the test. CAT scores will be accepted by 20 IIMs along with over 100 B-schools across India. IIMs offer around 4,000 seats. The exam pattern of CAT will be objective type test carrying 100 questions from Quantitative Ability, Verbal and Reading Comprehension and Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning. While majority of the questions are multiple choice type, some are Non-MCQs, i.e. they do not carry any option and test takers have to type the answer with their mouse on the space provided.
Stay tuned to bschool.careers360.com for more news and updates on CAT.
