Great Lakes - PGDM & PGPM Admissions 2026
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With over 2.95 Lakhs CAT 2025 applications this year and out of which 2.58 lakh students took the CAT 2025 exam. Candidates are now curious about how many students get selected in IIMs. Since IIMs are considered to be the most prestigious management institutes in the country. The number of students aiming for the IIMs every year is more than 2 lakh. However, the IIMs only select a handful of candidates, i.e. approximately 8000. Among these 5500 IIM seats, a great number of seats are reserved for the candidates who belong to the reserved categories. This makes the competition for IIM seats more fierce.
The IIM CAT 2025 final answer key will be available in PDF format. CAT login details are not required to download the final answer key.
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The IIM acceptance rate for candidates is very low. From around 2 lakh candidates appearing for the CAT exam, only a few thousand are shortlisted for the PI round. The finally selected candidates are very few. The total number of candidates selected in each IIM varies as per the batch size of the respective IIM. The seat matrix for different IIMs is given in the table below.
Name of the IIM | Total candidates selected | Total General candidates | Total EWS candidates | Total OBC candidates | Total SC candidates | Total ST candidates | Total PWD Students |
404 | 189 | 9 | 101 | 56 | 29 | 20 | |
523 | 201 | 53 | 137 | 78 | 38 | 16 | |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
507 | 194 | 51 | 135 | 77 | 39 | 11 | |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
489 | 204 | 33 | 133 | 73 | 35 | 11 | |
231 | 97 | 38 | 62 | 30 | 4 | 0 | |
356 | 163 | 45 | 76 | 42 | 21 | 9 | |
323 | 137 | 36 | 85 | 49 | 16 | - | |
430 | 161 | 42 | 113 | 63 | 32 | 19 | |
439 | 238 | 33 | 88 | 46 | 23 | 11 | |
248 | 80 | 24 | 81 | 37 | 22 | 4 | |
346 | 140 | 36 | 93 | 53 | 23 | 1 | |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
301 | 123 | 30 | 81 | 45 | 22 | 0 | |
400 | 300 | 40 | - | 42 | 9 | 9 | |
281 | 104 | 43 | 75 | 47 | 12 | - | |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
324 | 127 | 32 | 85 | 48 | 25 | 7 |
The IIM Selection criteria for candidates aspiring to pursue any of the offered MBA/PGDM programs are listed below.
A candidate must have a Bachelor's degree with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA (45% in case of reserved categories).
Candidates must have a valid CAT scorecard.
The candidate should mandatorily qualify for the CAT cutoff specified by the respective IIM to send an application.
Candidates shortlisted for the PI round are evaluated based on their performance in the different tests. Apart from that, the overall profile of a candidate is also given significant weightage.
IIMs have prescribed reservation criteria for different categories of candidates. The OBC category has a 27% reservation quota, while the SC and ST categories have 7.5% and 15% respectively. 10% of seats are reserved for the EWS and 5% for the PwD candidates. The distribution of seats in the IIMs is provided in the table below.
Category | Category-wise Distribution of IIM Seats |
General | 3500 |
OBC | 809 |
SC and ST | 538 |
PwD and EWS | 550 |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The selection rate of all the IIMs combined comes to be less than 3% (approximately 2.17%). This is the selection rate for over 2 lakh candidates appearing for the CAT exam and the candidates finally making it to an IIM.
The seats across all the IIMs are approximately 5500. The seats are an individual IIM depending on the batch size issued for the particular academic session.
From over 2 lakh CAT applicants, around 10,000 candidates get shortlisted for the PI rounds of an IIM. The final number of selected candidates in IIM is around 5500.
Out of the total CAT-qualified candidates only 10-15% are shortlisted for the PI rounds. After the PI rounds are conducted along with other evaluation tests, only around 2% of the applicants receive the final admission letter from IIMs across the nation.
On Question asked by student community
Hello,
For a raw score of 56 in CAT 2025 Slot 3, your expected overall percentile is likely to be in the range of the 90th-95th percentile. The exact percentile can vary slightly on the final normalization process and the process and performance of all test-takers. In this article you'll find more about the CAT result.
I hope it will clear your query!!
Hello,
With a projected CAT percentile of 87% but not clearing sectional cutoffs, your chances at top IIMs are limited because they require both overall percentile and sectional minimums. However, you still have a good shot at other reputed management institutes and non-IIM B-schools. Consider colleges like NMIMS, SPJIMR, IMT, TAPMI, Great Lakes, and other well-ranked private or state-level B-schools that accept CAT scores and weigh your profile holistically. Your academic record, BSc in Animation with 80%, and 5 years of work experience at Ubisoft India are strong points and may help in institutes that value work experience in their selection process. Also, explore institutes that accept XAT, MAT, or CMAT, where your profile can be competitive.
Hope this helps you.
Good Morning,
NIT Rourkela CAT cutoff range is between 70-85 percentiles for the general category. 70 is the minimum percentile needed to apply, and 85 is the highest percentile. However, the maximum percentile depends on the particular year competition. It can be changed.
Thank You.
If you filled the UGC NET form under EWS but you don’t have a valid EWS certificate, then forget using the EWS category. They won’t accept it. You’ll automatically be treated as General category during document verification.
And no, this won’t make your form “invalid” or “illegal.” It just means you won’t get the EWS benefit.
So yes — you can still go for General category posts and Professor recruitment. Just don’t try to submit a fake/invalid certificate; that will get you disqualified.
Hello,
If your CAT admit card shows your surname first followed by your first name as entered in the form, it is correct. You do not need to worry about this format as long as it matches the details you provided. Ensure all other information on the admit card is accurate and carry it to the exam along with the required identification documents.
Hope this helps you.
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