IIT Mandi MBA in Data Science and AI admissions 2026 through CAT scores

The School of Management at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi has invited applications for admission to its Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence programme for the 2026-28 batch. Eligible candidates can fill out the application form through the official website at iitmandi.ac.in by January 27.

To complete the application process, male candidates belonging to the general, OBC (NCL), and EWS categories will have to pay an application fee of Rs. 2,400, and female applicants have to pay Rs. 1,200. Meanwhile, the fee for SC, ST, and PwD applicants is Rs. 1,200.

For foreign nationals and NRIs, the application fee is USD 100 for candidates from SAARC countries and USD 200 for those from non-SAARC countries.

Also read CAT 2025 cut-offs for all IIMs out; sectional cut-off percentiles remain high for first-stage selection

IIT Mandi MBA Admission 2026: Selection process

Candidates will be shortlisted based on their Common Admission Test (CAT) or Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score, academic performance, and work experience, depending on their application category. Candidates who are shortlisted will be invited for online or in-person interviews, or any other selection process determined by the selection committee.

According to the schedule, personal interviews (PI) and group discussions (GD) are scheduled to be held in March 2026, and classes will begin in the last week of July 2026.

Candidates who are shortlisted will be required to pay the admission fee within one week of the announcement of results.

IIT Mandi MBA Admission 2026: Eligibility criteria

Candidates applying for the MBA in DS and AI at IIT Mandi must meet the eligibility criteria based on their application category.

Category 1: Candidates who have completed a full-time bachelor’s degree with at least 60% marks (55% for SC/ST/OBC (NCL)) and have a valid CAT 2025 score are eligible to apply for the IIT Mandi MBA programme.

Category 2: Candidates applying under the CAT-exempted category must have completed their qualifying degree with at least 65% marks (60% for SC/ST/OBC (NCL)) from a Centrally Funded Technical Institution or an institute ranked among the top 100 in the NIRF 2025 rankings (overall or engineering category).

Also read IIT Delhi develops ‘AILA’, an AI agent that can conduct real lab experiments without human inputs

Foreign nationals and NRIs must have a valid GMAT 2025 score and will be considered equivalent to application category 1 (general).

All candidates must have studied Mathematics in Class 12. Those appearing for the final degree examination are also eligible to apply.