Home » Blog » CAT 2018 Cutoffs: Apply to top MBA Colleges and B-Schools based on CAT Score

CAT 2018 Cutoffs: Apply to top MBA Colleges and B-Schools based on CAT Score

Sunday, January 6th, 2019

Now that the results for the CAT 2018 Exam are declared, one of the most common questions that I get from students is which colleges can I apply to and which colleges can I get a call from. While there are no hard and fast rules to such things, I have still tried to compile a list of colleges that you can and should apply to. In case you have already applied to some of them, you will be able to access if you stand a chance at getting calls from any of those colleges.

I will be talking about the non IIM colleges in this blogpost. Also, there is still time left to apply for Post Graduate Program in Business Analytics by IIT Kharagpur + IIM- C + ISI.

MBA Colleges with CAT cutoffs more than 95

Cutoffs for all IITs are typically more than 95. Roorkee, Kanpur, Madras are typically lower (around 96) while it is higher for Delhi and Bombay. For IIT-B, it can go up to as high as 99. The application for most IITs will start this week.

Cutoffs for FMS and SP Jain are typically in the 97-98 range. When I am talking about SP Jain, I am talking about the non-profile based calls.

Cutoffs for MDI and NITIE are typically around 95-96.

MBA Colleges with CAT cutoffs in the 90-95 range

• MDI, Gurgaon
• IMT Ghaziabad
• IIT Madras
• IIT Roorkee
• IIT Kanpur
• IIM Nagpur
• IIM Visakhapatnam
• IIM Sirmaur
• IIM Sambalpur
• IIM Amritsar
• IIM Jammu
• MIB , Delhi
• Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai (Application Link)
• IISWBM Kolkata

IMT Gaziabad and IMI New Delhi are couple of good options in this category.
MBA (IB) and MBA (HRD) from Delhi School of Economics are really good options for CAT aspirants with scores in the 90-95 range. The fees is next to nothing for these and it should be on the radar of every CAT 2018 aspirant who is looking for a good education at a low price.

MBA Colleges with CAT cutoffs in the 80-90 range

• Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa
• IMI Delhi (Application Link)
• IIFM, Bhopal (Application Link)
• Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management (LBSIM) (Application Link)
• National Institute of Technology (NIT Trichy), Tiruchirappalli
• National Institute of Technology ,Trichi
• Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute of Management development & Research ,Bangalore
• SIMSREE
• TAPMI, Manipal (Application Link)
• Trinity College for Management and Technology, Ghaziabad
• Nirma University
SIBM, Bengaluru
• KJ Somaiya (Application Link)
• Syednam
• LIBA, Chennai (Application Link)

FORE school of Management is my personal favorite in this category. It typically has cutoff in the mid 80s.
NIRMA is also a good option with cutoff around 80.
UBS Chandigarh is also a decent choice and so is K K Somaiya. BIM Trichy could also be one of your options.
You could also consider the following colleges (if you HAVE to do an MBA this year):
LBS, New Delhi
IIFM, Bhopal
Welingkar, Mumbai (Application Link)
LIBA, Chennai

Those who got percentile between 70-80 range , go through the below colleges list who accept score between 70-80 percentile –

• Amity University( Raipur, Gwalior, Mumbai, Jaipur, Noida,Lucknow )
• Alliance University
• Asia Pacific Institute of Management, Delhi
• BIMTECH , Noida (Application Link)
• Christ University, Banglore
• Dr. Mahalingam International Institute of Technology, Coimbatore
• Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon (GLIM Gurgaon)
• IBS Business School(Ahmedabad, Gurgaon, Banglore, Mumbai, Jaipur, Pune)
• Nirma University
• lovely Professional University
• XIME, Kochi
• Faculty of Management Studies, Banaras Hindu University
• IMT Nagpur
• VIT, Vellore
• Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow
• SRM University, Chennai
• KIIT School of Rural Management, Bhubaneswar
• Balaji Institute of International Business, Tathawade

Should you try for CAT 2019?

To be honest, if you are looking at colleges in this category – there isn’t too much that separates these colleges. There is not going to be a significant difference in terms of brand value in these colleges. If you are worried about placements, well – you should be. But to be honest – the B-school is not going to define your placement. It is what you are going to do in the two years in the college, that will have the maximum amount of impact.
Ask yourself the following questions and based upon that decide whether you should join one of these colleges or not.
1. Is this my only option? (If you have a full-time job or if you can get a shitty full-time job, answer NO)
2. Have I given MY 100% in CAT preparation this time? (Not a theoretical 100% but YOUR 100%. Please try and understand the difference. CAT preparation does not require more than 1-2 hours of studying on a daily basis.)
3. Was this my 2nd / 3rd serious attempt at CAT? (If you studied for more than 2 hours a day for 2 months or more – it is a serious attempt)
You should join one of these colleges if and only if your answer is YES to all of the above questions. If not, you should seriously think about giving it another shot.

You can also see Scaled Score vs Percentile in CAT 2018

Application deadlines and cutoffs for top B-schools in India

I know that you might be going through a tough time right now but if you want to talk and / or want to discuss, email me a copy of your scorecard (do not write your percentage – send me a screenshot / PDF) with the subject line “Help wanted – CAT 2018 Results” along with your questions. Do mention your number as well. I will call you in the coming week and discuss it with you. My email id is [email protected]

Best of luck!