IIM Ahmedabad CAT 2026 Cutoff

IIM Ahmedabad requires at least 95 overall percentile and 85 in each CAT section for General and EWS applicants without PwD status. These are minimum cutoffs for the domestic PGP 2027-29 selection process, not a guaranteed interview or final admission score.

The sectional requirement applies separately to VARC, DILR and QA. A higher overall percentile cannot compensate for a section below the applicable floor. For example, a General non-PwD applicant with 98 overall but 84 in QA does not meet the published sectional condition.

The institute ranks eligible applicants using a profile-and-CAT composite before the AWT/PI stage. The broader CAT cutoff guide should not be used to replace these institute-specific thresholds.

Eligibility for IIM Ahmedabad PGP 2027-29

The qualifying degree requires at least 50% marks, relaxed to 45% for SC, ST and PwD. A bachelor's degree or equivalent must involve at least three years of education after Class 12 or equivalent. EWS and NC-OBC applicants use the 50% academic threshold.

The domestic applicant pool must have taken CAT 2026, selected IIMA's two-year full-time PGP and be Indian nationals. Applicants must be at least 19 years old on 30 June 2027, meaning a birth date on or before 30 June 2008. This programme-specific minimum age is distinct from CAT's general exam-appearance eligibility.

Final-year and result-awaited candidates can apply with the required marks in the latest available results and the prescribed institutional certification. They must complete all degree requirements by 30 June 2027 to join provisionally.

Foreign passport holders staying in India use the separate supernumerary route with the specified test-centre GMAT format, not this domestic CAT route. The CAT eligibility page covers the examination rules; the institute can impose additional programme conditions.

Application Rating: Academics, Work and Gender

IIMA adds five ratings: A for Class 10, B for Class 12, C for the qualifying degree/professional marks, D for full-time work experience and E for gender diversity. The same academic bands apply separately to A, B and C.

All non-male candidates receive 3 gender-diversity points; male candidates receive zero. Work experience below 12 months scores zero. At 12 months, D is 0.2; at 24 months, it is 2.6; at 36 months, it reaches 5.

Illustrative AR calculation: Class 10 at 88% gives 8, Class 12 at 76% gives 5, and graduation at 72% gives 5. With 24 months of work experience, D is 2.6. The raw AR is 20.6 for a male applicant and 23.6 for an otherwise identical non-male applicant. These are raw rating totals, not admission probabilities.

A score of exactly 90% gets 8 academic points; more than 90% gets 10. That boundary is why rounding a percentage into the next band can change the calculation incorrectly.

How the AWT/PI Shortlist Composite Works

The shortlist combines 35% normalised application rating and 65% CAT total percentile, then normalises that composite within the undergraduate discipline. Use CAT percentile in this formula, not the raw or scaled CAT marks.

IIMA divides raw AR by the average of the top 50 AR scores across the applicant pool. It then divides the raw composite by the average of the top 1% raw composite scores in the relevant discipline, using at least five and no more than 100 scores for that reference group.

Undergraduate discipline groups

• Fashion & Design
• Computer Science & IT
• Commerce, Accounting & Finance
• Medical & Health Sciences
• Statistics & Actuarial Science
• Economics
• Agriculture & Allied Sciences
• Social Sciences
• Arts & Humanities
• Hospitality & Food Sciences
• Architecture & Planning
• Journalism & Media
• Life Sciences
• Law
• Engineering & Technology
• Mathematics
• Management
• Others
• Pure Sciences
• Professional (CA/CS/ICWA/FIAI)

The institute decides the discipline classification. For multiple undergraduate degrees in distinct disciplines, it calculates and normalises the corresponding composites separately and uses the highest normalised score for shortlisting consideration. For an integrated master's or dual degree directly after Class 12, classification follows the integrated programme's discipline.

A later higher degree after graduation does not replace the relevant undergraduate discipline and marks for this shortlist calculation. Because the reference-group averages depend on the full applicant pool, a personal marks-and-percentile calculation cannot establish the exact final shortlist score in advance.

Final Selection: AWT and Personal Interview

The 40% component is the normalised composite carried from the shortlist process, not CAT alone. The final formula is 0.50 x normalised PI + 0.10 x normalised AWT + 0.40 x normalised composite.

IIMA prepares category-wise selection lists after the Analytical Writing Test and Personal Interview. It shortlists independently of other IIMs, so a call from one institute does not establish a call from Ahmedabad. The interview preparation page and writing-test guide address those later selection stages.

AWT/PI locations listed for this process are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. Applicants chose two interview-city preferences in the CAT form; these are different from the CAT examination-city preferences.

Reservation shares are NC-OBC 27%, SC 15%, ST 7.5%, PwBD 5% and EWS up to 10%. The applicable Central Government category list at the CAT registration deadline governs the claim. Minimum eligibility and reserved-category status do not remove the required performance conditions.

Academic Records, Final-Year Deadlines and Offers

For Class 10 and 12, include every subject on the marksheet regardless of the board's best-subject convention. For graduation, the institution's awarded percentage governs. If it excludes some listed subjects, obtain certification of the institution's calculation practice for the interview.

Where no bachelor's percentage is separately provided for an integrated or dual degree, use the aggregate of the latest available completed semesters/years. Submit all available marksheets; an institution may need to certify that a missing marksheet has not yet been issued.

Completed CA, CS and ICWA qualifications use the average of Intermediate and Final percentages for rating C. FIAI uses the aggregate entered in the CAT form. These professional-mark rules should not be replaced with the score of an unrelated later degree.

Final-year admission has two separate deadlines: complete every degree requirement, including any supplementary examination, by 30 June 2027; submit the final marksheet and degree certificate by 31 December 2027. The completion certificate must be issued on or before 30 June. Missing the completion condition prevents joining; missing the final proof cancels provisional admission.

The January, April and May windows are tentative. Waiting-list offers depend on acceptance by selected candidates. IIMA sends calls and offers to successful candidates; it does not send individual regret letters to everyone outside the shortlist. Admissions queries can be sent to admission@iima.ac.in.

Cutoff and Profilecategory floors, eligibility and rating Selection and Datesnormalisation, AWT/PI and documents

1. Category and PwD Cutoffs
2. Domestic Admission Conditions
3. Application Rating Bands

1. Shortlist Calculation
2. Final Selection Weights
3. Documents and Admission Dates