Indian Institutes of Management

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are the premier management schools of India, located in the cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Indore, Kolkata, Kozhikode and Lucknow. They award post-graduate diplomas in Management with various specializations. The CAT (Common Admission Test) conducted by the IIMs is a very competitive test conducted for admission to the numerous graduate programs in Management at the six campuses, and is usually considered one of the most competitive exams in the world, with a success rate of less than one in a hundred. Each institute conducts group discussions and personal interviews to evaluate the students shortlisted after the test. 150,000 students compete for less than 1200 general seats in the IIM's which makes it even more selective than all the Ivy League Universities put together. Even with a top 1% score, a candidate must also win through the equally stringent group and individual interviews. The overall acceptance rate ranges from around 0.15% to 0.4% of the applicants (compared with the acceptance rate of around 5-10% in the US ivy league universities) depending on the rank of the individual IIM, with the rate progressivly increasing roughly according to the following order IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore or IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore and IIM Kozikode. These six institutes are the top six business institutes in India and are the first choice of all MBA aspirants in India.