Late for MBA-It’s never late to start!

It appears true at least for MBA Aspirants who have woken up late for admission to B-schools in the academic session 2013-15.

“I want to apply for MBA programme in 2013-15. What is the admission procedure? Can I apply now for the course?”

MBA Aspirants are generally in doubt on the admission options, especially when they decide late. While still waiting for their final graduation results, some of the aspirants even drop their plan of pursuing MBA/PGDM course just because they think that the management institute must have closed down their admission process by March-April.

But as a matter of fact most of the B-schools keep their admission open till as late as August-September.

The reason for this could be many: less number of students applications, urge to lure top students from various other entrance exams, search for the right mix of candidates or even to have a plan B in case students enrolled didn’t joined or deposited their 1st installment of fees.

There are many B schools across region i.e. East, West, North and South that keep their admission open without specified last date. For example, Myra School of Business, IFIM, ISB&M Bangalore, M S Ramaiah Institute of Management, Alliance School of Business, IMI & BIMTECH Bhubaneswar, ITM Business School, MITSOB, Universal Business School etc.


Another candidate Pooja Chawda from Vadodara asks, “how to take admission without CMAT?”

Many aspirants think that a written exam is a pre-requisite to get into a B-school. It might sound bizarre, but some B-schools offer admissions on the basis of academic background and personal interview. This way, these B-schools fill their seats with desired mix of batch. These B-schools, however, asks the aspirants to take an entrance exam at a nearest possible opportunity and submit the scores to the admission committee as a formality.  The most favorable entrance test in such a scenario is Management Aptitude Test (MAT), which is conducted 4 times a year.

A number of B-schools including a few run by Private Universities like Alliance University, KIIT University, Symbiosis International University, UPES, etc conduct their own entrance exams and also accept scores of other management entrance tests.

Some Aspirants also fail to appear for GD/PI assuming their low score in written MBA exam score would not be enough to secure admission in any good B-school. Sample this: “I have scored very low marks in CMAT, as I was preparing for my final exams. Is the percentage of marks for entrance exam is a very important factor in getting admission?” asks Hindusha Chellappa, another MBA Aspirant.

So, is it really necessary to score very high in MBA written exam to secure admission in good B-schools?

In fact, many B-schools give very limited weightage to CMAT scores. As ITM University Vice Chancellor Dr Prem Vrat says, “Eligibility criteria for our MBA programme is at least 50% marks in Bachelor’s Degree and qualifying CAT/CMAT/MAT. The scores are given a 30% weightage apart from academic percentage in bachelor’s programme, experience, GD & PI in a multi-criteria evaluation Framework. However, written exam scores are not used to screen out candidates using a cut-off. This helps in overall profile evaluation.”

B-schools also evaluate aspirants’ ability to grasp, their understanding for business environment, and their willingness and positive attitude towards MBA education. They also consider the spirit of an individual and their background in their final selection procedure. Dr. Stefano Caselli, Academic Director, MISB Bocconi, Mumbai endorses this view, as he says, “At MISB Bocconi, the selection is based as well on merit, combining both CAT and GMAT with challenging interviews and a deep analysis of the CV.”