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Admission Process for PGP Batch 2026-28

Phase-1 

In the first phase process, all eligible candidates who have appeared for CAT 2025 and have selected IIM Visakhapatnam as one of their preferences in the CAT 2025 Registration form will be considered. Candidates who qualify at this stage will be asked to apply via submission of an online application form for admission to PGP 2026-28 of IIMV through the IIMV website (www.iimv.ac.in).

1. The first shortlist of candidates is based on candidates securing minimum section-wise and aggregate percentile scores in the CAT 2025. Candidates obtaining a positive (greater than zero) raw score in all sections of CAT 2025 will only be considered. The percentile cut-off scores used for CAT 2025 are shown in Table 1. All the subsequent processing, standardization and selection is limited to candidates belonging to this first shortlist alone. This means that the CAT score alone (for candidates who have selected IIM Visakhapatnam as one of their preferences in the CAT 2025 Registration form) is used as the basis for arriving at the first shortlist.

Table 1: First Shortlist -for the PGP batch of 2026-28 based on CAT 2025

*These cut-offs are not for admission offers, but only for Phase 1 shortlist. The cut-offs for admission offer could be much higher. 

2. All candidates in the first shortlist (i.e. those who have selected IIM Visakhapatnam as one of their preferences in the CAT 2025 Registration form and also meet the minimum CAT 2025 percentile requirements given in Table-1 above) would be receiving an email from IIM Visakhapatnam by the second week of January 2026, with a link to a web page where they MUST apply for admission to PGP 2026-28 at IIM Visakhapatnam, by a stipulated date and time by filling a detailed online application form, which will be used for the purpose of Personal Interview to the shortlisted candidates.

3. All Phase-1 Shortlisted Candidates will be invited to submit a detailed online application as stated above.

4. In the Phase-1 online application form, candidate information from CAT will be pre-filled. Candidate can modify certain details such as SSC, HSC, Graduation and Work experience (except Category), if required. 
   

5. Only those Phase-1 Shortlisted Candidates, who have submitted the detailed Online application (including all the required documents) by the due date, will be considered for the next phase of Admissions Process as described below.

Phase-2

6. All the Phase-1 shortlisted candidates, who have applied for admission to IIMV by filling the detailed online application (hereinafter referred as Qualified Confirmed Candidates) by the stipulated date, will be considered in Phase-2 of the admission process.

7. In order to prepare the Phase-2 shortlist, the candidates' percentage scores in the 10th and 12th Board exams are initially adjusted by dividing each such score by the 90th percentile score obtained in that Board. The database of 10th and 12th scores of all CAT applicants of the past two years is used for identifying the 90th percentile score for each 10th and 12th Board, for this purpose.
• In cases where candidates lack a 10th and/or 12th board score due to COVID, the corresponding component(s) will not be assigned any weightage, and the weights of the remaining components will be proportionately re-allocated. 

8. For all Qualified Confirmed Candidates, final scores obtained by the candidates are used for the bachelor’s degree and professional degrees (if any). Incomplete or intermediate scores are considered only if the candidate’s final score is pending. Thus, for final year bachelor’s degree candidates (at the time of CAT 2025 registration), their incomplete graduation score would be taken in lieu of final graduation score. The Graduation scores are adjusted within their respective streams. This gives the adjusted score for the bachelor’s degree for all Qualified Confirmed Candidates.
• In the absence of a bachelor’s degree score (due to COVID), no weightage shall be assigned to this component, and the weights of the other components shall be proportionately redistributed.

9. For all Qualified Confirmed Candidates, with Chartered Accountancy (CA), Cost Accounting (ICWA), and Company Secretaryship (CS), Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of India (FIAI) certifications are eligible for weight under ‘professional course’. No other professional course is eligible for weight under ‘professional course’. The ‘professional course’ score is also standardized for all Qualified Confirmed Candidates.
• Candidates possessing Chartered Accountancy (CA), Cost Accounting (ICWA), or Company Secretary (CS) certifications shall be eligible for weightage under the professional course component. The scores from the completed final level of these professional programs are normalized, and the corresponding weightage is computed accordingly.
• For candidates who have completed any of the above-mentioned professional courses and also possess work experience, the higher of the two—work experience score or professional course score—will be considered under the common parameter i.e., ‘Work experience’.

10. For all Qualified Confirmed Candidates, the score/weight for work experience is calculated as:

Where x is the months of work experience up to December 31, 2025, as captured in the IIMV PGP application form.

12. For all Qualified Confirmed Candidates, the weights for the six components are fixed as:
    1. CAT = 50
    2. 10^th Board = 10
    3. 12^th Board = 10
    4. Bachelors = 10
    5. Diversity = 10 {Gender (Female & Transgender)}
    6. Work Experience = 10

13. The 50 points for CAT are derived from the performance in each of the three sections as follows: Verbal and Reading Comprehension (VARC) – 18 points, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) – 14 points, and Quantitative Aptitude (QA) – 18 points.

14. For all Qualified Confirmed Candidates, the weighted aggregate of the six components, namely (a) CAT; (b) 10th Board; (c) 12th Board; (d) Bachelor’s; (e) Gender Diversity; (f) Work experience or professional course; as stated above, is used to prepare a pre-PI rank list based on which a second shortlist of candidates is prepared, for an assessment through Personal Interview. Sufficient candidates will be shortlisted to enable selection based on the additional evaluation component i.e., Personal Interview.

15. IIMV will send an email to all qualified confirmed candidates to fill out an Interview consent form for participating in the IIMV personal interview for the PGP 2026-28 program. Only those candidates who have submitted the personal interview consent form by the due date (referred to as Phase-2 shortlisted candidates) will be considered for scheduling the personal interview.

16. For all Phase-2 shortlisted candidates, normalization or standardization in any component stated above is carried out using the following formula. All standardization is done with reference to the qualifying first shortlist. The standardized score (truncated between 0 and the weight (wt)) is computed from the raw score (val) as follows: 

Max [0, min {wt, wt/2 + ((val-mean)/sd) * wt/6}].

Phase-3 

17. Only those Phase-2 shortlisted candidates who have submitted the personal interview consent form by the due date will be considered for the personal interview stage in Phase-3 as described in points 18 and 19 below.

18. Candidates should note that those who are shortlisted for the Personal Interview (PI) by any of the IIMs ^(iv) —Bangalore, Kozhikode, Lucknow, and Indore (applicable only for their PGP/PGPM program), will not be required to attend a separate Personal Interview at IIM Visakhapatnam. For such candidates, the average of their PI scores, as provided by the aforementioned IIMs, will be used as their PI score for the IIM Visakhapatnam PGP 2026-28 admission process. However, please note the below point.

• Candidates shortlisted by multiple IIMs (IIM Bangalore, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Lucknow, and IIM Indore) must attend the PI process at atleast one of these IIMs. Failure to do so will result in the candidate being marked as "Absent" for the IIM Visakhapatnam PGP 2026-28 admission process, and they will not be considered for further evaluation. 
  

19. Candidates who are not shortlisted by any of the IIMs at Bangalore, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Indore (only for their PGP/PGPM programs) will be required to appear for the personal interview of IIM Visakhapatnam.

20. The information provided in the IIMV application form will be used for the computation of merit scores. If there are any discrepancies between the details furnished in the application form and the actual information, the respective profile will not be taken into consideration for the admission process at IIM Visakhapatnam for the PGP 2026-28 program.

21. The Personal Interview score, after standardization across multiple parameters, the final aggregate score will be prepared by using following parameters: 
    

1. 1. 1.  PI Score (weight=48)
      2.  CAT (weight=25)
      3.  10^th Board (weight= 4)
      4.  12^th Board (weight= 4)
      5.  Bachelor’s (weight= 4)
      6.  Diversity {Gender (Female & transgender)} (weight= 5)
      7.  Work Experience (weight=10)

22. The final offers of admission to candidates will be made strictly on the basis of rank within each category based on the final aggregate score as mentioned in the above Point No. 21.

23. If a candidate wishes to withdraw their admission, please refer to the refund policy of IIM Visakhapatnam mentioned on the Institute's website (www.iimv.ac.in) - https://www.iimv.ac.in/program/fee-refund-policy

(i) Applicants who do not have a bachelor’s degree but have completed their CA/ICWA/CS/FIAI after Class XII, are also eligible to apply for PGP 2026-28. The requirement of minimum percentage marks /CGPA is the same as a bachelor’s degree

(ii) Work experience will be considered only after the completion of a bachelor's (UG) degree. As work experience is tied to the completion of a bachelor's (UG) degree, candidates holding more than one bachelor’s degree must carefully identify their primary bachelor's (UG) degree. The start date of work experience cannot be earlier than the completion date of the selected primary bachelor’s (UG) degree.

Only full-time, paid work experience obtained after graduation should be entered. Part-time work, projects, internships, training, apprenticeships, articleship, or any pre-graduation experience must not be entered and will not be counted. Candidates must also refrain from entering any experience gained as part of their eligibility degree (bachelor’s degree or professional degree, as applicable).

Experience gained as an employee without salary or with cash salary will not be considered.

Work experience up to December 31, 2025 will be taken into account for subsequent admission processes. Candidates are therefore requested to enter the relevant information and upload all required documents on the application portal accordingly.

Experience Related Documents:

• The joining/appointment letter, the first two salary slips, the last two salary slips, and the relieving letter must be provided for all previous organizations/companies the applicant has worked with. The joining/appointment letter and relieving letter must be issued on the company letterhead and include the seal and signature of the authorized authority. Please combine all documents into a single file and upload it on the website.
• The joining/appointment letter, the first two salary slips, and the last two salary slips must be provided for the current organization/company the applicant is employed with. The joining/appointment letter must be on the company letterhead and include the seal and signature of the authorized authority.
• Candidates who have worked in the unorganized sector must submit bank statements for the entire employment period. The salary should have been credited from the employer’s bank account to the employee’s bank account.
• Candidates who are proprietors, partners, or directors of a firm must submit documentary proof such as income tax returns, relevant regulatory filings for the period of employment, and a business registration certificate from the registrar of companies or municipal corporation (or other sector-specific licenses). Additional documents include MSME certificates issued by the Government of India, Udyog Aadhaar Registration Certificate, a partnership deed signed by all partners, and the GST registration certificate.