CAT 2026: IIMs witness surge in female, experienced candidates for PGP in management admission

Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) admit students primarily based on their CAT scores. However, the exact selection criteria vary across IIMs, with each institute also factoring in academic performance, work experience, gender diversity, and performance in the Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI).

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a national-level entrance exam held once a year for admission into MBA/PGP programmes at the IIMs and other top B-schools in India. It assesses candidates on quantitative ability, verbal ability and reading comprehension, and data interpretation and logical reasoning.

Engineering graduates have consistently maintained their dominance in IIM admissions over the years.

Careers360 had earlier reported a rise in female enrollment across several IIMs. While engineering graduates still made up the majority, MBA programmes also saw increasing participation from commerce, arts, and other academic backgrounds.

Notably, there’s a shift towards valuing students with prior work experience, mainly at IIMs, which takes professional experience into the selection process.

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IIMs female enrollment PGP 2026

Enrollment in IIM Indore for the PGP in management is the highest so far, among IIM Ahmedabad, Shillong and Bangalore.

According to the data shared by IIMs on their official websites, female representation across IIMs for the PGP 2026-28 batch is shown in the table below.

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IIM Ahmedabad PGP: 77% with work experience

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) welcomed 414 students for its PGP batch 2026-28.

In the PGP batch of 2026-28, engineering graduates constitute 60.87% of the cohort, while 39.13% come from non-engineering backgrounds. The gender composition stands at 30.92% female and 69.08% male.

Noticeably, the average work experience in the batch is 24 months, and approximately 77% of the batch holds prior work experience.

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IIM Bangalore and Indore PGP female intake

IIM Bangalore PGP intake

This year, 541 students joined the PGP, hailing from diverse educational backgrounds and domains. Of the total 541 students in the new PGP cohort, 42% are female, the highest so far.

Altogether, 67% of the batch comes from an engineering background, followed by commerce, science, and arts and humanities. Of the engineering graduates, 30% are from the IITs, 21% from NITs, and 49% from other institutes.

The average work experience stands at 27 months, with an average age of 25 years. On the international front, 15 students have gained admission through GMAT, with an average GMAT score of 713.

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IIM Indore PGP intake

As per the Inside IIM report, the flagship Post Graduate Programme (PGP) welcomed 487 students, making it the highest among all courses in this year's intake.

The batch comprises 487 students in total, with 265 female and 222 male students, making women's representation at 54.4% a majority in the cohort. In terms of academic background, 224 students are engineers, while 263 come from non-engineering disciplines.

Regarding professional experience, 209 students have prior work experience, whereas 278 are freshers.

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CAT Exam 2026

IIM Indore has begun the CAT 2026 registration process on its official website at iimcat.ac.in. Students can apply for IIM CAT 2026 till September 15 by 5 pm. IIM Indore will conduct CAT 2026 on November 29 across the country. CAT 2026 admit card will be issued from November 4 to 29, and the results will be announced in the first week of January.

CAT 2026 scores will remain valid till December 2027. The CAT 2026 application fee has been revised this year. General, EWS, and NC-OBC candidates will now pay Rs 2,700, while SC, ST, and PwD candidates will pay Rs 1,350.