The total seats in IIM for 2025 admission are over 5,500. At present, there are around 21 IIMs in India commonly classified under three sections- Old, New and Baby IIMs. All these IIMs consider CAT (Common Admission Test) scores for admission. Some of the IIMs also accept GMATs for international students.

IIMs offer undergraduate, graduate, executive, and doctoral programs. The full-time MBA program offered as the Post Graduate Program (PGP) is a characteristic program known across all the IIMs.

The top IIMs that gained recognition by the NIRF (National Institute Ranking Framework) are IIM Ahmadabad, IIM Calcutta, and IIM Bangalore. Students looking to secure admission to the top IIMs can check out this article for total seats in IIM.

How Many Seats Are There in IIM 2025?

Tabulated below are the approximate total seats in IIM that can help the candidates evaluate whether they should seek admission to an IIM or try for any top B-school in the non-IIMs category:

How to Get into an IIM 2025?

After understanding the seat matrix of the IIM colleges, students generally question how to get into an IIM? Securing admission into an IIM is not easy at all. Firstly, one should attempt the CAT exam and check for the cut-off percentile for each IIM. You can apply if the scored percentile follows the cut-off percentile. The CAT score is valid for only one year and one cannot try for admission with the same score in the upcoming year.

Candidates who have scored low in CAT may still get admission into the top business schools in the country and also into an IIM. The CAT score can be utilized for admission into the best business schools abroad.

Selection Process for IIM

Each IIM has its selection criteria and process. However, the main common criterion for all IIMs is the CAT percentile. Candidates meeting the CAT cut-off percentile should be ready for a Writing Ability Test (WAT). WAT is followed by Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI).

Each candidate is assigned a cumulative score based on their CAT percentile and performance in WAT, GD, and PI. Based on this cumulative score, a shortlist and waiting list of candidates is prepared.

Getting into IIMs is highly competitive. The total seats in IIM are a deciding factor for the selection of students. Another important factor that determines one’s percentile is the top scorer or top ranker's score.

As over two lakh candidates attempt CAT each year and the availability of IIM seats is only about 5500, the percentage of students who will not be admitted to IIM no matter how well they score is high (about 97%). Hence, the goal of each IIM aspirant should be to attain the best possible score in CAT.

All IIMs accept the CAT score and percentile. However, some of the IIMs also accept the GMAT score. Listed below are the IIMs that consider GMAT scores for admission:

Also, IIM Lucknow accepts GRE scores in addition to CAT scores. IIM Kozhikode accepts CAT, GMAT, GRE, UGC JRF, and GATE for admission to various graduate programs.

IIM Category-Wise Seats 2025

In IIM there are seats reserved for students based on categories and as per the reservation criteria based on the Central Government rules. For the general category around 40.5% of seats is available at IIMs, for OBC it is 27%, for SC it is 15%, for ST it is 7.5%, and for PwD and EWS categories around 10% of seats are available.

Further, students must check the category-wise seat distribution for IIM mentioned in the table below.

Thus, after understanding the IIM seat matrix, candidates are advised to start preparing for the exam accordingly. They must crack the relevant MBA entrance exam with the desired cutoff marks to get into these top colleges.