After I was done with CA, I filled up the CAT 2016 Form, not aware of where I stand and which college I should have a realistic expectation from. I was expecting a call from IIM Bangalore simply because it gives extra brownie points to CAs. To my dismay, I got calls from all IIMs except IIM Bangalore.
Every college has a different criteria. But fairly, almost all of them give some extra preference to CA/CS/ICWA. :
Here is the detailed responses from some 20 CAs who got calls from various IIMs.
Note: In the graduation column, it’s not clear whether it’s CA Marks or B. Com marks. Some CAs also received profile calls from Ahmedabad (Top 50) & Banaglore (Top 10). It’s difficult to analyse that.
IIM Ahmadabad :
Ahmadabad even calls for top 5% of CA applicants who appear for CAT-2016 direcly irrespective of their CAT Score. But, getting into this zone is fairly difficult. So if 800 CAs apply for IIM A, some 40 of them securing the highest marks get calls through this, irrespective of their CAT Percentile.
Thus, Many CAs get an interview call at IIM A even at 97 %ile. This is because it’s looking more at Academic Diversity. Once you get an interview call, your marks & CAT percentile hardly matter, it’s your interview performance that does.
Given the fact that IIM A Calls a lot of CAs for interview, the chances of a CA getting rejected increases. So I would advice a CA to work more on their interview skills rather than CAT Percentile if you’re specifically aiming for IIM A. So, if they call 50 CA’s for an interview, they are going to select just 15 out of them.
It’s probably the only B-school that has different sections for CA Marks, so basically getting a 63% in CA is equivalent to 80% of B. Com in IIM A. (The separate category is marked AC-2).
IIM Calcutta
It calls an applicant for Interview only if you secure a 99.5+ %ile. Period. Doesn’t matter if you’re a CA. People with work experience might get a call at lower percentiles.
Now, as very few CAs are able to breach that 99.5+ %ile mark, so the job of the interviewing panel gets easier. They are looking for Gender diversity, so there’s high chance of conversion once you get a call from Calcutta. i.e. if 15 people get called for an interview, 10 people will surely convert it.
They are the only IIMs who don’t have a weightage for Graduation marks, so if you screwed up in your BCom & CA marks, it doesn’t matter here.
IIM Bangalore
This is one college which values Work Experience more than any other B-School. So if you’re a CA with less than 1 year work experience aim for 99.8+ Percentile.
The top 10 candidates in CA automatically qualify for Personal Interview at IIM Bangalore. Sounds good. But, a person needs 72% in CA (IPCC+Final) to get into that top 10 candidates. Basically, more than AIR 30 in BOTH IPCC & Final.
They normalise CA Marks and consider it to be different from B-Com. Instead of considering someone’s marks as fixed percentages, they normalise it in percentile of the scores obtained by everyone else in CA.
CA/CS/CWA certifications are eligible for weight under professional course. The professional course score is also standardized for all candidates in the first shortlist. There’s no mention of how much weight is really given for professional degree.
For instance I didn’t get a call from IIM B with X|XII|CA|CAT|Work Ex at 94%|93%|69%|99.75%ile| 4 months. I think the work ex let me down.
IIM Lucknow
They consider same criteria for CAs and BCom. They also consider normalization of graduation marks just like IIM Bangalore but they have put BCom & CA under the same category of Commerce.
You get an extra 5% weightage for Academic Diversity (Mentioned as DFa in the criteria).
Lucknow looks for steller academics in XIIth & Graduation (No weightage for Xth marks). So if you have screwed up any one of them, aim for a really high CAT percentile.
IIM Indore
Let’s see what their criteria is for interview calls - 36% weight on Xth Marks, 40% on XIIth, 20% on CAT marks & 4% if you’re a female. So they give 76% on historic figures you churned out 4–5 years ago. CAs generally don’t have a steller academics, so it’s a negative here.
They don’t have any weightage for Graduation marks, so basically doesn’t make any difference in shortlisting whether you’re a CA or not. Just like IIM Calcutta.
Now, the principle that applies to IIM Calcutta applies here. Few CAs get an interview call, almost all convert. So if 50 people get called for interviews, almost 40 convert it.
IIM Kozhikode
They have a 75% weight on CAT %ile so, you need to score really well on CAT irrespective of your profile.
They also don’t consider CA Marks to be different from B-Com.
You get an extra 5% weightage for Academic Diversity.