Here are Three Things You Need to Know About CAT (especially If you are planning to pursue a Ph.D. in Management?)
CAT 2022 is round the corner, and will see millions of graduates compete for a handful of MBA seats at the top Indian Business Schools.
With IIM’s leading the pack (especially the older IIMs at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore, and Kozhikode), the top business schools will see the beeline of graduates seeking admission to the PGDM/MBA courses.
No wonder, getting into an IIM (esp. A, B, and C) is considered tougher or at par with getting into an Ivy league business school.
A back of the napkin number crunching for IIM Ahmedabad shows that -?
Number of Aspirants who wrote CAT 2021 =1.92 lakh
Number of Seats at the IIM Ahmedabad (For PGDM) = 395
% of students that make it to IIM Ahmedabad = 0.2
i.e., Only 2 students out of 1,000 aspirants will get a chance to study in the iconic red brick building at Vastrapur campus.?
While this is just an indicative calculation, the competition is equally hard for other top institutes.
Now let us assume that you don’t make it to your desired institute, but still have a decent CAT score.
Here are THREE things you need to know about CAT even before you write it.
Revelation 1:
Even if you somehow miss the bus to your favorite IIM by few pointers, your CAT score can still land you in your favorite IIM.
Revelation 2:
Not many know that your CAT score is not just valid for an MBA admission, it is much more than that, for it can still get in the interview room for a Ph.D. in Management admission at an IIM of your choice.
Here are the three things that you need to know about your CAT Score.
Applying for a Ph.D. program at the IIM’s
Application for the Ph.D. Programme in Management is separate from application for CAT. Advertisement for the Ph.D. Programme appears during the month of September every year in daily newspapers/business magazines, on the Institution’s website and of course on Inkpothub.
(Disclaimer – For simplicity we have used the data for IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta, but these regulations are applicable for all top-notch institutes in India with one or two exceptions. You can refer to Inkpothub for details about top-ranking Ph.D. programs in India)?
FIRST,
Your CAT Score can help you qualify for Ph.D. program admission at the IIM's.
IIM’s take various qualifying exams into consideration to screen candidates for their Ph.D. programs (also, called Fellow Program in Management (FPM) or Doctoral Program in Management (DPM)).
These exams include CAT, GMAT, GRE, GATE, UGC-NET, UGC – JRF, and RAT (Research Aptitude Test conducted by each institution independently) to name a few.
Here is the detailed list of qualifying exams for IIM- Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta for simplicity.
IIM Ahmedabad
Please note the ‘Standard Test in lieu of CAT’ title.
领英推荐
IIM Bangalore
Please note ‘CAT Score as an acceptable score for each specialization’
IIM Calcutta
Please note the ‘Test in lieu of CAT’ title.
SECOND,
You can apply for a Ph.D. Program even if you are just a B.Tech.
The Eligibility criteria for IIM’s and top business schools in India is as follows:
A Master's Degree or Two-year Post Graduate Diploma (obtained after completing a bachelor's degree with 55% marks or equivalent) or a 5-year Integrated Master's Degree (obtained after completing higher secondary school in the 10+2 pattern) in any field with 55% marks or equivalent.
(OR)
Professional qualification - CA, CS, CMA (with a minimum of 50% marks) in addition to a bachelor's degree (with at least 55% marks).
(OR)
A four-year / eight-semester Bachelor's degree with a minimum CGPA of 6.5/10 or comparable grades
?
THIRD,
CAT Score (2019, 2020 and 2021) is considered valid for application to the Ph.D. Programme in 2022 in the IIM-A.?
The validity of the CAT and the other standard test scores (are given in the following table) should be valid on the deadline for submission of the application form.
Whereas for the IIM Calcutta Admission guidelines states,
"Validity of Score (other than CAT), Two years from the date of test and should be valid on the deadline of submission of the application form".
Which means that if you have an acumen for research or teaching, you can surely make it to an IIM and earn yourself a world-class doctoral degree.
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About the Author:
Hemant Sharma writes about Business Schools, Productivity, and how business schools can promote their Ph.D. programs to attract better scholars. Entrepreneur (Ed, & Ed.Tech ) | Building Inkpothub | Hemant Sharma Consults & MOST | Niiv Learning Labs | Ph.D. Dropout | Believer in 'Small Steps & Long Miles' & Power of Content | Minimalist & Boot-Strapper |
About Inkpothub:
Inkpothub (incubated at the ISB), is India's First Digital Media Platform for Researchers. We curate, and create stories to celebrate a researcher's journey.