Admissions for the academic year 2010 at over 150 business-schools will be delayed.
This, the B-schools say, is due to the delay in Common Admission Test (CAT) results. The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), however, say that only personal interviews could be delayed by a few weeks.
CAT scores are mandatory for students to study at the seven Indian Institutes of Management and over 150 other B-schools in India.
Results for the computer-based CAT will now be announced around the third week of February instead of January 22, as Phase-II of the computer-based CAT will be conducted on January 30-31, 2010.
“Due to the new changes in the CAT schedule, the vacation period of the admission staff at IMI would have to be compromised with. However, we would begin the new academic year on schedule,” said C S Venkata Ratnam, director, International Management Institute (IMI). IMI accepts only CAT scores for admissions. The New Delhi-based institute has postponed its admission process from March to April.
Similarly, at the Bangalore-based Institute of Finance and International Management (IFIM), admissions could be delayed by around three weeks. “Around 25-30 per cent of our candidates come through CAT. We will look at releasing the final list of accepted candidates in mid-April and starting our orientation programme in second week of June,” says Swami Krishnan, CEO and Director of IFIM. The institute is offering 240 seats for its two-year management programme and accepts the Managemnet Aptitude Test of the All India Management Association scores as well.
The admission process for these institutes include processing of applications based on cut-offs, organising group discussions and personal interviews between the months of January and April.
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The final list of accepted candidates is released in April-May. The academic year starts in June for most of these institutes. With the delay in admission, announcement of the final list could be delayed by a few weeks but most institutes are confident about starting their terms in June.
Khandala-based Kohinoor Business School (KBS) says it will have to hurry up its admission process by a month. “We spread our admission process to around three months but this year we will have to hurry it up. We will conduct the group discussions and personal interview by March, so that we begin admissions in April. The academic year will, however, begin as per schedule in June-July,” says Bigyan Verma, director, Kohinoor Business School, which admits around 300 students for its two-year management programme. KBS accepts CAT and XAT (Xavier Admission Test) scores. The cut-off ranges around the 70th percentile for CAT scores.
The computer-based CAT, plagued by technical errors this year, has left many students confused on their possible scores. This has prompted many to apply to more institutes than usual. “Since the last date for applying to many institutes closes before the CAT results are announced, students are confused about their target approximation. They would probably not want to take a risk and will look at various options,” says G R Nair, deputy registrar at Institute of Management, Nirma University.
The institute has postponed its last date of application from December 30 till January 15. The institute generally sends details of the applicants to the IIMs, who attach the CAT score of the applications after the results are out. More confusion has also come students’ way as CAT this year, for the first time, was conducted in a window of eight days in the first phase and two days in the second phase.
“Although the level of difficulty was kept alike for all the days, there is still doubt in students’ minds as to what they may have scored as compared to others, leaving them in a dilemma on which institute to apply. Institutes that have a later submission date may benefit, since this gives more time to candidates to take a decision,” says the director of a top institute.
Originally scheduled between November 28 and December 7, 2009, the first computer-based CAT had to be extended by an extra day as technical errors marred the test.
Around 20,000 students were not able to take the exam in the first three days. At the end of the testing period, it was estimated that around 8,000 students had difficulties taking the test. Nearly 241,000 applicants registered for the CAT this year, which saw turmoil in the first few days, with centres facing technical issues. The IIMs blamed the computer virus ‘Conficker’.