IIM Ahmedabad Admission 2026: Selection Criteria, Eligibility & Application

IIM Ahmedabad runs PGP 2027-29 admission on CAT 2026, held on Sunday, 29 November 2026. IIM Indore conducts the exam in three sessions across roughly 170 test cities.

Its PGP 2027-29 Admission Policy fixes the CAT-2026 cut-off at 95 overall and 85 sectional for General and EWS candidates (PGP 2027-29 Admission Policy). It plans to release the shortlist in the second week of January 2027 and offers in the second week of April 2027. Offer acceptance closes in the first week of May 2027. The institute labels those three dates tentative.

Every stage on this page traces to an official document. Those are Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad's admissions page, its dated Admission Policy PDFs, and the official CAT notification. Where the institute has not published a figure, this page says so rather than estimating one.

The calendar below follows the institute's own published policy, with its tentative labels intact.

What is the IIM Ahmedabad admission dates pattern for the next cycle?

IIM Ahmedabad now publishes its PGP 2027-29 dates itself, so you no longer need a pattern. It labels the shortlist, offer and acceptance dates tentative, which means it can move them. IIM Indore, the conducting institute, fixes the CAT 2026 registration and exam dates. Those do not move.

IIM Ahmedabad checks four things before your CAT score matters at all.

• Bachelor's degree of at least three years, any discipline, recognised university.
• Minimum 50% marks or equivalent CGPA (45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates).
• Age 19 or older by 30 June 2027, for the PGP 2027-29 admission cycle.
• Final-year candidates may apply. They must complete the degree by 30 June 2027 and submit proof by 31 December 2027.

Domestic Indian candidates apply through CAT. Candidates under the Overseas Indian Category or the foreign-national Supernumerary Quota apply through GMAT. IIM Indore conducts CAT 2026 on 29 November 2026. Registration ran from 3 August to 15 September 2026, and admit cards release on 4 November 2026 (official CAT website).

The Overseas Indian Category accepts a valid test-centre-administered GMAT score in place of a CAT score. It charges a non-refundable application fee of US$ 200 for the 2027-29 batch (OIC Admission Policy).

Six stages stand between registration and a seat.

1. Register and appear for CAT (or GMAT, for the overseas Indian and foreign-national routes).
2. The institute computes your Composite Score: your normalised CAT percentile at 65%, plus your Application Rating at 35%.
3. The institute releases the shortlist for candidates who clear the category-wise CAT percentile cutoff and the Composite Score threshold.
4. Shortlisted candidates sit the Analytical Writing Test and the Personal Interview.
5. The institute releases final offers on the combined CAT, AWT, PI and Application Rating scores.
6. You accept the offer and pay the fee inside the institute's stated window.

What is the IIM Ahmedabad admission eligibility rule again, in one line?

You need a three-year bachelor's degree with 50% marks, or 45% for SC, ST and PwD candidates. You must also turn 19 or older by 30 June 2027, for the PGP 2027-29 cycle.

IIM Ahmedabad weights your normalised CAT percentile at 65% and your Application Rating at 35% to build the Composite Score. The Application Rating draws on your academic record, work experience and profile details already sitting in your application form. It is not a fresh test.

A candidate at 97 percentile with a thin Application Rating can still lose ground. A 94-percentile candidate with a stronger one can pass them. Most guides skip that nuance and quote only the CAT cutoff.

How does the IIM Ahmedabad selection criteria actually work at the interview stage?

IIM Ahmedabad scores the interview stage on a separate Final Composite Score, or FCS. It has three parts: 50% Personal Interview, 10% Analytical Writing Test, and 40% your Stage-1 Composite Score.

That Stage-1 score carries forward whole, rather than splitting back into CAT and Application Rating. So CAT, at 65% of a score that itself carries 40%, contributes roughly 26% of the final number. The Composite Score only earns a shortlist slot, not the final outcome. The Personal Interview alone carries half the weight at that stage.

IIM Ahmedabad shortlisted 1,308 candidates for the Analytical Writing Test and Personal Interview stage in the PGP 2026-28 cycle. It shortlisted a further 3 candidates under the Overseas (GMAT) Indian candidates category. That sits just below the 1,312 shortlisted for PGP 2025-27, even though the cutoff rose 15 percentile points.

The category-wise split for that shortlist:

Category-wise shortlist figures: IIM Ahmedabad PGP 2026-28 media release.

IIM Ahmedabad does not route admission through JoSAA or CSAB, the centralised counselling systems engineering institutes use. It runs every stage itself, from shortlist through final offer.

IIM Ahmedabad asks for your latest available marksheets for all completed semesters or years, at every stage of the process. It also asks for your bachelor's degree marksheets and certificate. Final-year candidates additionally submit a degree-completion certificate signed by their Principal, Head of Department, Registrar or Director.

• Latest available marksheets for every completed semester or year, submitted at each stage the institute asks for them.
• Bachelor's degree marksheets and certificate, provisional or final.
• CAT or GMAT scorecard, matching your application category.
• Degree-completion certificate for final-year candidates, once available.

Withholding an available marksheet for any semester or year can lead to disqualification, per the institute's own admissions page. For the PGP 2027-29 cycle, final-year candidates must complete the degree by 30 June 2027. They must submit the marksheet and completion certificate by 31 December 2027. The PGP 2026-28 cycle set the equivalent deadline at 31 December 2026, and missing it cancelled the provisional admission automatically.

IIM Ahmedabad has fixed the PGP 2027-29 CAT-2026 cut-off at 95 overall for General and EWS candidates. Each section needs 85. That holds the PGP 2026-28 bar flat, after a 15-point rise from PGP 2025-27.

The IIM Ahmedabad CAT cutoff and category-wise table page carries every category, sectional and overall. It also covers the Academic Category route, which averages your Class 10 and Class 12 marks. That academic bar gates candidates the percentile alone does not.

IIM Ahmedabad follows the standard Government of India categories: SC, ST, OBC-NCL (non-creamy layer), EWS and PwD. Each carries its own relaxed CAT percentile cutoff, listed on the Cutoff page. It assesses transgender candidates applying under the General category against the NC-OBC cutoff. Its own shortlisting criteria set that rule.

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad applies these categories at the CAT-percentile stage and again at the Composite Score stage. It does not stop at the cutoff line.

Admission and financing are two separate decisions that land on a family in the same month. IIM Ahmedabad's own Scholarship Guidebook lists 43 scholarships open to PGP and PGP-FABM students. The IIM Ahmedabad scholarship routes and renewal conditions page covers every route. They run from a single Rs 25 lakh award to income-linked government schemes with far more recipients.