Not good enough IIM-B turns down CAT toppers

Updated on: Tuesday, January 17, 2012

If you thought acing the CAT exam meant you were set for life, you could be in for a surprise.

Being allowed entry into the hallowed portals of learning at IIM-B is a whole different ball game. Never mind your superb CAT scores, it’s got to be excellence every step of the way, if this institution is where you’re heading.

Shashank Prabhu, a student at FMS (Faculty of Management Studies), Delhi, was one of the nine toppers of the CAT exam in the country, with a 100 percentile score. And he seems rather taken aback by the fact that he hasn’t been called by IIM-Bangalore, despite his perfect score and the fact that he is already studying in a reputed institution.

“IIM-B has always had different criteria, they don’t lay particular emphasis on the CAT score. They look at board exam results and graduation scores, while in Calcutta, the sole emphasis is on the CAT score. At this point, I’m not sure whether I want to quit FMS at all”, Prabhu says.

He’s not the only one talking. There are whispers about transparency issues across the country over the admission process at IIMs, as students with excellent scores find themselves sidelined. Ravikiran Sastry, who managed a 99.9 percentile on the CAT, has also received a call from the IIMs in Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Lucknow and Kozhikode, but not Bengaluru. “The curriculum is pretty loaded, so they want very consistent performers,” he says.

“The Finance and PGDP courses in Calcutta are my first choices, but the entrepreneurship programme in Bengaluru was a close second.”

Grey areas of any kind are exactly what IIM-Bangalore does not want to have to deal with. “Our admission process form is a comprehensive one and is also on our website, because we want students to know exactly what they have to do to get in,” says Mr Bringi Dev, from the media cell, IIM-Bangalore.

He refuses to go into any details about why the criteria exist, saying, “It will only confuse the students further”.

The admission process for IIM-Bangalore has evolved over the years, based on cumulative data on the CAT applicants and the academic performance of students at IIM-B. The process that the institute has arrived at is based on the relationship of academic performance in IIM-B, past performance, CAT score, the interview and also relevant work experience.

This process is revised every year at the beginning of each admission cycle.

Not good enough IIM-B turns down CAT toppers

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