Confronted Non-Transparent MBA Admissions at Indian Institute of Management Mumbai
I scored 99.52 ( 99.73/92.87/98.66) in CAT 2025 and 85/93.5/85.33 acads and 35 months of work experience, meeting all published criteria for the MBA program at IIM Mumbai.
Yet, I was not shortlisted for the interview, while candidates with lower percentiles in the same category were.
This suggests the use of undisclosed selection criteria, which violates the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017, which says “Admission to every academic programme shall be based on merit assessed through transparent and reasonable criteria disclosed through the prospectus prior to the commencement of the admission process.”
With no clarity from the institute, I approached the Telangana High Court, which granted interim relief. However, the institute’s response was they considered the cutoff in DILR to be 93.5 and Offering interview for a different program (MBA Sustainability Management) instead of the flagship MBA and that too as part of second round of shortlist calls which many candidates got and not as a compliance of courts orders. This led to filing contempt case for non-compliance with court directions
If a 99.5+ percentile cannot secure even an interview, it raises serious questions:
- What is the role of CAT in admissions?
- Why are key criteria not disclosed upfront?
- If DILR is of utmost importance why not conduct an exam of their own having only DILR. What even is the purpose of CAT?
This highlights a larger issue: CAT performance—despite being a rigorous, standardized national exam—is not given adequate weightage in the admission process. Instead, opaque criteria and student’s past academics who didn’t perform exceptionally are at a inherent disadvantage. If past academics, academic diversity can influence current admission scenario and weightages are given to a section, what is the point of a CAT score?
TL;DR
I scored 99.52 in CAT, met all criteria, but was denied an interview at IIM Mumbai while lower percentile candidates were shortlisted. I challenged this lack of transparency in court—now under judicial and public scrutiny.
Media articles:
http://epaper.deccanchronicle.com/articledetailpage.aspx?id=19633490
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