If you have appeared for CAT 2014, it is perhaps your best shot at getting into the IIMs so far. Each aspirant stands a 2.5 per cent chance of getting into an IIM this year. That is, of every 100 aspirants, 2.5 will get admission into the country’s top business schools.

The number of seats across the 13 IIMs has increased considerably from 3,335 to more than 4,000 this year with CAT 2014 opening admissions to the six newer IIMs. The number of test takers also fell to 1.68 lakh this year from 1.71 lakh last year.

With declining aspirants and increasing seats at the IIMs, the odds of one getting an IIM seat have improved (see table).

However, Sai Kumar Swamy, Director, CAT, of test-prep institute TIME, doesn’t expect more than a 10-12 per cent jump in the number of seats.

Number of seats

“The IIMs may increase 300-400 seats this year with six new IIMs coming up next year,” says Swamy.

“This definitely increases the chances of one getting an IIM call but I doubt it will be very significant.”

The IIMs may send out around 12,000 GD/PI (group discussion, personal interview) calls, according to Swami, of which around 4,000 final calls will be made. “The ratio for GD/PI selection might be 3:1 this year,” he says. Increased seats and fewer aspirants taking the test is a good sign for students but not for management education as a trend, says Keyoor Purani, Dean, Development, IIM Kozhikode.

“A decline in test takers once in a while may ease competition a bit amongst aspirants but if it turns out to be a trend, it becomes essential to look at the underlying reasons for declining interest among aspirants.”

The number of test takers may have decreased but CAT still remains one of the most competitive tests which eliminates 98 per cent of aspirants to consider a handful for the final selection process.

“A marginal shift in numbers will not affect the quality of students in IIMs but other business schools, who also take CAT scores, will have to make sure they get better students,” says Purani.

About six years back, only one out of 100 aspirants stood a chance of securing a seat out of 2,650 IIM seats. In 2011, CAT registrations fell from 2.41 lakh to 2.04 lakh, improving the odds for every 1.4 students. CAT 2012 didn’t see much change with 2.05 lakh registrations and 2,946 IIM seats up for grabs.

Declining registrations

More than 1.5 per cent aspirants stood the chance on the other hand.

CAT 2013 witnessed a considerable decline in the registrations and number of seats at the coveted institutes increased to 3,220. The change in trend allowed about 1.7 per cent of the aspirants to become part of the IIMs.

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