Admission to IIMs thru GMAT for NRIs

This post is all about admission to top B-schools of India (including IIMs) by GMAT route for eligible NRIs (and foreigners) for MBA/PGDM courses. Though there is no NRI quota as such in IIM/ XLRI, most IIMs admit few overseas candidates (between 1-4, but not fixed) every year based on GMAT scores and eligibility criteria. Most of other top private B-Schools have 15% seats reserved for NRIs. A list of all top B-schools admitting students based on GMAT score is given below in the post.

1) IIMs (Indian Institute of Management)
IIM Ahmedabad : IIM-A Overseas candidate (NRI) Info
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/programmes/admission-details/overseas-candidates.html
IIM Bangalore: IIM-B Overseas candidate (NRI) Info 2011-13, IIM-B Overseas candidate (NRI) Info 2010-12
http://www.iimb.ernet.in/node/2309
IIM-Calcutta: IIM-C Overseas candidate (NRI) Info, IIM-C Overseas candidate (NRI) Form
http://www.iimcal.ac.in/admntc/index.asp
IIM-Lucknow: IIM-L (Lucknow) Overseas Candidate (NRI) Info
http://www.iiml.ac.in/admission_process_overseas.html

2)      ISB-Hyderabad : ISB International Student Info
http://www.isb.edu/pgp/International_Applicants.shtml

3)      XLRI- Jamshedpur: http://www.xlri.edu

4)     FMS- Delhi: FMS Delhi Admission 2011 FAQ,  http://www.fms.edu/programmes/admission_faq.php

5)      MDI- Gurgoan:   http://www.mdi.ac.in/admissions/pgpm.asp?id=1

6)      IIFT- Delhi: IIFT-Admission-NRI-2011-13, http://www.iift.edu/iift/Admissions_2011/index.asp

7)      IMT Ghaziabad : http://www.imt.edu/Admissions/AdmissionsPGDM.aspx

8)      ICFAI – http://www.ibsat.org/Application_modalities.asp

9)      Great Lakes, Chennai- Admissions Info 2011-13,  http://www.greatlakes.edu.in/

10)   Maharashtra CET: One can apply under NRI Seats if one of the parents of a candidate is a NRI. 15% of the seats in every institute are reserved for such a candidate. Following is a list of top ranked management institutes under MH CET

1.      Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) – Mumbai
2.      Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) – Mumbai
3.      Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) – Pune
4.      Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSR) – Mumbai
5.      Sydhnem Institute of Management Studies and Research (SIMSREE) – Mumbai.
6.      P. N. Wellingkar’s Institute of Management Studies – Mumbai
7.      Chetana’s Institute of Management Studies – Mumbai

To get a sense of eligibility criteria to accept GMAT scores for overseas candidate’s admission to IIMs, please go through below procedure as described on IIM website.

 

IIM Ahmedabad: Eligibility Criteria for NRIs/ overseas candidates:
Indians resident outside India, and foreign nationals, fall under the “Overseas Candidates” category. To qualify as an Indian resident abroad, a candidate should be an Indian who expects to live, work or study outside India for at least 12 months continuously as of December 15, 2009. Overseas candidates who expect to be resident in India during the period July 1, 2009 to December 15, 2009, will, however, have to take the Institute’s Common Admission Test (CAT). The second stage of the admission process, i.e. personal interviews, will be held in India. An overseas category candidate who applies with a GMAT score instead of a CAT score should have scored at least 45 in the quantitative and verbal sections and should have a total scaled score of at least 700. Note that these are only necessary conditions, and all candidates satisfying these conditions are not guaranteed to be short listed, in fact the actual cut-offs used for short listing will depend on the performance of candidates in CAT/GMAT, and has traditionally been higher than the percentages and scores mentioned above. A candidate’s prior academic record is also used in the short-listing process.

IIM-Bangalore: Eligibility Criteria for NRIs/overseas candidates:
To be eligible to apply through the GMAT route, a candidate must had resided abroad for at least 18 months in the preceding three years (Jan 2007 to Dec 2009) and should not be in a position to appear for CAT 2009. The first short list among such applicants is created by applying the same percentile cut-offs, as used for the general category in the CAT route.

GMAT Score:

While IIM-A specifically has noted minimum GMAT score of 700. Based on past data, most IIMS accept candidate with GMAT score ranging from 700-760 and work experience between 4-10 years. ISB has set min. GMAT score of 680. Great lakes needs a minimum score of 620. The GMAT scores required for admissions to IIM/ XLRI/ ISB are similar to those required by Asian applicants to get admissions in top US business schools (>720).

Tuition Fees:

While IIMs charge about US$20K per year as tuition fees from overseas candidate per year, top-private colleges charge from US$20K-35K per year as Tuition fee. The tuition fee for students qualifying from CAT exam is around Rs.3 lacs per year.

Conclusion:
Admission to IIMs via GMAT route is quite competitive but provides avenue to those who cannot appear for CAT exam in India. For most other top private B-Schools in India, overseas candidate can try their luck thru’ GMAT test or appear for CAT or MH-CET as they have specific seat reserved for NRIs/ overseas candidates. Please note that it is quite competitive even under NRI quota as I know about IMT-Ghaziabad- the institute has about 20 seats for NRIs but receives applications from about 125 candidates and the candidates go thru’ GD/PI round to be eligible for those limited seats. Finally, I will share the big idea adopted by most NRI with MBA dreams (but lacking high GMAT/CAT scores)- appear for Maharashtra CET test to get admissions thru’ NRI reserved seats in some of the best B-Schools in Mumbai/ Pune (the list is already given above in the post).

Good Luck.

P.S.: In case one is interested to know more about GMAT/CAT/MH CET test pattern and Sample Test; the following website is quite useful:

www.test4free.in

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