CAT 2025 Cut-Off for Top MBA Colleges in India

Q: Is MBA admission possible with 85 percentile in CAT?

If you&#39;re not set on getting into IIMs, an 85 percentile in the CAT is good for MBA admissions 2024. Many reputable government and private MBA colleges with excellent pedagogy and placement records are open to MBA students with a CAT score of 85 percent or higher.

The CAT 2025 cutoff for top MBA colleges in India is expected to be issued in January/ February 2026 after result declaration. The CAT cutoff is the minimum percentile or score you need to secure to be eligible for subsequent rounds in admission process.

Table of Contents

CAT 2025 Cutoff: Highlights
CAT 2025 Final Cutoffs for Selection in IIMs (Expected)
CAT 2025 Qualifying Cutoffs for Selection in IIMs (Expected)
CAT Sectional Cutoff 2025 (Expected)
CAT Qualifying Cutoff Vs CAT Final Cutoff
CAT Cutoff 2025 for Top Non-IIM MBA Colleges (Expected)
Factors Affecting CAT 2025 Cutoff
CAT Cutoff 2025: Score vs Percentile
How to Meet the CAT 2025 Cutoff?
Faqs

The CAT 2025 cutoff for top MBA colleges in India, along with the IIMs, will be declared around January or February 2026. For the older and highly ranked IIMs, the expected cutoff for General category applicants is likely to fall between the 98 and 100 percentile range. Students applying through reserved categories can expect comparatively lower cutoff requirements. On the other hand, the younger IIMs generally keep their cutoffs much more flexible. As per early trends, the CAT 2025 qualifying percentile for the newer IIMs may lie anywhere between 75 and 90 across institutes.

The CAT cutoff simply refers to the minimum percentile an aspirant needs to obtain to earn MBA admissions at their chosen colleges. Clearing this benchmark is only the first stage of the selection journey. You must remember that meeting the CAT 2025 cutoff alone doesn’t guarantee admission. In this article, we’ve included the essential details regarding the CAT 2025 cut-off for top MBA colleges in India to help students aiming for MBA admission through the CAT exam !

Also Read:

IIT CAT Cut off	IIM CAT Cut off
MBA Colleges Without Sectional Cutoff	CAT Score vs Percentile

CAT 2025 Cutoff: Highlights

Each IIM will release the CAT qualifying percentiles/ cutoff marks on its official website soon after the CAT result declaration. Both the overall cutoff and sectional cutoff are included in the CAT 2025 cutoff for IIMs. Most top-ranked IIMs require a very high percentile, while newer IIMs may accept around 85-90. For Tier 1 IIMs like IIM Calcutta, IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Lucknow, and IIM Kozhikode, you can anticipate that the CAT 2025 cutoff will be 99+ percentile. The CAT Cutoff for Tier 2 colleges, however, typically stays in the 80-85 percentile range.

The CAT exam cutoff has several characteristic features that you need to be aware of:

The qualifying cutoff is often announced before the release of the results, while the final cutoff is usually announced after the result announcement.
The IIM CAT cut off is divided into two categories: qualifying cutoffs and final cutoffs.
The cutoffs are made public by IIM.
To be selected for the IIM selection round, it is crucial to achieve the minimum CAT Cutoff.

CAT 2025 Final Cutoffs for Selection in IIMs (Expected)

CAT is one of the most popular MBA entrance exams in India . All of the top Indian B-Schools accept CAT scores for admissions. Once the CAT exam results are announced, top management colleges in India start releasing their respective cutoffs, which are the minimum percentiles required by a candidate to be eligible to apply to the respective college. Management aspirants can find the CAT 2025 cutoffs for top MBA colleges in India given in the table below.

Name of the Institute	CAT 2025 Final Cutoff (Expected)
IIM Ahmedabad	99-100
IIM Bangalore	99-100
IIM Kozhikode	97-99
IIM Calcutta	99
IIM Lucknow	97-98
IIM Mumbai	99
IIM Indore	97-98
IIM Raipur	94-95
IIM Rohtak	95
IIM Udaipur	92-94
IIM Kashipur	94-95
IIM Tiruchirapalli	94-95
IIM Ranchi	94-95
IIM Shillong	90
IIM Vishakhapatnam	92-94
IIM Jammu	90
IIM Nagpur	92-95
IIM Amritsar	92-95
IIM Bodh Gaya	92-94
IIM Sambalpur	92-94
IIM Sirmaur	90

Also Read :

MBA Colleges Accepting 90-95 Percentile in CAT	Colleges Accepting CAT Score 50-60 Percentile
Colleges Accepting 60-70 Percentile in CAT	Colleges Accepting 80-90 Percentile in CAT

CAT 2025 Qualifying Cutoffs for Selection in IIMs (Expected)

Candidates are required to obtain the minimum required scores to seek admission to the IIMs that have been mentioned in the table below:

Name of the IIM	CAT 2025 Qualifying Cut Off (Expected)
IIM Ahmedabad	85
IIM Bangalore	85
IIM Calcutta	85
IIM Lucknow	90
IIM Sambalpur	93
IIM Trichy	93
IIM Indore	90
IIM Kozhikode	85
IIM Amritsar	90
IIM Nagpur	85
IIM Jammu	93
IIM Raipur	93
IIM Ranchi	90
IIM Kashipur	94
IIM Vizag	80
IIM Udaipur	93
IIM Bodhgaya	93
IIM Shillong	75
IIM Sirmaur	93
IIM Rohtak	95
IIM Mumbai	96-98

Note : Some of these are perceptual estimates only. Actual cutoffs may vary according to colleges' discretion.

CAT Sectional Cutoff 2025 (Expected)

Clearing the sectional CAT Cutoff is one of the requirements for receiving a call for PI from the institutes, in addition to the overall CAT Percentile. The following section discusses the IIM Sectional Cutoff for CAT considered to choose candidates for Personal Interviews from the General category:

Name of the Institute	CAT Cutoff Percentile for Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension	CAT Cutoff Percentile for Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning	CAT Cutoff Percentile for Quantitative Ability
IIM Bangalore	80	75	75
IIM Calcutta	≥80	≥80	≥75
IIM Ahmedabad	70	70	70
IIM Bodh Gaya	70	70	70
IIM Amritsar	75	75	80
IIM Lucknow (PGP)	85	85	85
IIM Nagpur	72	72	72
IIM Indore	80	80	80
IIM Jammu	70	70	70
IIM Kozhikode	75	75	75
IIM Raipur	>=70	>=70	>=70
IIM Ranchi	80	80	80
IIM Sirmaur	>=70	>=70	>=70
IIM Tiruchirappalli	>=70	>=70	>=70
IIM Sambalpur	70	70	70
IIM Udaipur	70	70	70
IIM Visakhapatnam	70	70	70

Also Read : What is a Good Percentile in CAT 2025?

CAT Qualifying Cutoff Vs CAT Final Cutoff

IIM qualifying cutoffs and final CAT cutoffs (IIM call cutoff) are the two different categories of cutoffs. The differences between the IIM Eligibility Cut Off vs IIM Call Cut Off are mentioned in the table below:

CAT Qualifying Cutoff	CAT Final Cutoff
It is also referred to as the IIM eligibility cutoff or the IIM shortlist cutoff and is the minimum required score to qualify for an interview call from the IIMs for the WAT/GD-PI phase.	The minimum score specified by the IIMs for choosing candidates for the WAT/GD-PI phase is known as the IIM call cutoff.
The candidate may still not be chosen for the WAT/GD-PI round despite meeting the qualifying cutoff.	Meeting the final CAT cutoff does not guarantee admission for the applicant.
Before the CAT results are announced, the qualifying cutoff is determined.	After the CAT results are announced, the CAT final cutoff is determined.
Each campus releases the qualifying CAT cutoff percentiles along with their announcement of the admission requirements and selection process for that academic year.	No IIM or even other top MBA institutions formally publish the final CAT cutoffs.
Most IIMs have qualifying CAT cutoffs in the 85-90 percentile range, while newer IIMs may keep them around 75-80 percentile.	For all prestigious IIMs, the final CAT cutoffs continue to be as high as 99+ percentile, and for new IIMs, 95+ percentile.
The CAT qualifying cutoff is fixed for each category. The cutoff for students in the general category is high (90), but it is low for those in the reserved group (70 and below).	The CAT final cutoff is fixed for each category. In comparison to students in the reserved categories, female students, and those without an engineering background, the final cut off is higher for general category male students with engineering backgrounds.

CAT Cutoff 2025 for Top Non-IIM MBA Colleges (Expected)

The CAT 2025 cutoff percentiles for General category students for admission to top non-IIM MBA colleges are listed below:

Name of the Institute	CAT 2025 Cutoff (Expected)
TA Pai Management Institute	85
Loyola Institute of Business Administration	70
Institute for Financial Management and Research, Chennai	80
Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad	90-95
SP Jain Institute of Management and Research	95-99
Xavier's Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar	91
IIT Delhi	90
IIT Bombay	90
Management Development Institute, Gurgaon	93+
Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi	98-99
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies	96
K J Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai	86
FORE, New Delhi	85
IRMA, Anand	80
MICA, Ahmedabad	80
XIME, Bangalore	70

Students must remember that these are not the cutoffs set by the respective institutes. These numbers have been formulated after detailed research and analysis of CAT cutoffs in the past few years. Also, having scored the minimum cutoff does not ensure admission to the respective colleges. Other criteria, such as past academic performance, work experience, educational background, and gender diversity, also play an important role in the selection process.

Factors Affecting CAT 2025 Cutoff

The following list includes the factors that influence the CAT Cutoff:

The level of difficulty for the CAT 2025 exam
Number of applicants who took the CAT exam
Availability of seats at a particular institute
Ranking of the specific institution

CAT Cutoff 2025: Score vs Percentile

Check out the table below to evaluate your performance and possibilities of getting admission to a top MBA college by knowing the range of CAT scores vs. CAT percentile:

CAT Percentile	QA Score	VARC Score	DILR Score	Overall CAT Score
99.5 Percentile	48	45	33	104
99 Percentile	42	41	29	97
98 Percentile	37	37	26	86
95 Percentile	28	32	21	72
90 Percentile	23	27	17	59
85 Percentile	19	23	15	52
80 Percentile	16	21	13	44

Also Read : CAT 2025 Reservation Policy

How to Meet the CAT 2025 Cutoff?

To meet the CAT 2025 cutoff, it's essential to understand the specific requirements or criteria involved. Once you have a clear understanding of the expected cutoff/ percentile, set a strategic preparation plan focusing on target areas that need improvement or attention. This might involve dedicating certain hours of study, training, or practice, depending on your knowledge level. Additionally, seeking advice or mentorship from someone who has cleared CAT previously can provide invaluable insights and practical tips tailored to your specific goals. Implementing a regular review and assessment of your progress allows for adjustments to be made in your approach, ensuring you're always on the most efficient path toward meeting the cutoff. Stay disciplined, motivated, and open to feedback, and you'll significantly increase your chances of success.

Aspirants belonging to categories other than the general category must contact the college to get an estimate of the CAT qualifying percentile before applying. MBA admissions are done based on the overall profile, and what a student may lack in one area may be compensated for by another criterion. So, it is important to do a detailed analysis of the selection criteria and weightage set by the respective colleges and create an application accordingly. You must target your colleges smartly, as both time and money are important assets. Apply only to those colleges for which you have qualified the minimum eligibility criteria and the estimated CAT cutoff.

Related Articles:

CAT 2025 Cutoff for Top Private MBA Colleges for General, SC/ST, OBC	Top B-schools that Accept CAT Percentile Below 90 Other than IIMs
MBA Colleges Without Sectional Cutoff	Top Jobs After the CAT 2025 Exam

You can even check our CAT 2025 College Predictor and CAT 2025 Percentile Predictor tools to get an idea of your results based on your performance in the CAT 2025 exam. If you have any doubts related to the CAT 2025 cutoff, you can ask them in the Collegedekho Q&A zone .

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FAQs

Which colleges can I get with 90 percentile in CAT?

With 90 percentile in CAT 2024, one can apply toany IIMs or top MBA colleges in India. The best IIMs, including IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Lucknow, IIM Calcutta, and IIM Kozhikode, are open to those who received a 99+ CAT percentile.

Is MBA admission possible with 85 percentile in CAT?

If you're not set on getting into IIMs, an 85 percentile in the CAT is good for MBA admissions 2024. Many reputable government and private MBA colleges with excellent pedagogy and placement records are open to MBA students with a CAT score of 85 percent or higher.

Which colleges accept 50 percentile scores in CAT?

Colleges that accept 50 percentile in CAT 2024 include Asian Business School, New Delhi Institute of Management, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, AIMS Institute Bangalore, Balaji Institute of Modern Management Pune, International Institute of Management Studies Pune, Acharya Business School Bangalore, PSG Institute of Management Coimbatore, etc.

Is 73 percentile in the CAT exam a good score?

While a CAT percentile in the region of 70 to 80 cannot be regarded as a very good result, it is an above-average score that can get applicants a spot in a reputable MBA program. There are private colleges and b-schools where aspirants can pursue an MBA course with a 73 percentile in CAT.

Which IIM has the lowest CAT cut-off for MBA admissions?

As per previous year trends, IIM Ahmedabad has the lowest qualifying CAT cutoff of 85 percentile. That said, no IIM or even other top MBA institutions formally publish the final CAT cut offs. All IIMs continue to have qualifying CAT cut offs that are above the 90 percentile, with the exception of IIM Ahmedabad, whose qualifying cut off has recently been 85 percentile.