Compare Army Institute of Management, Kolkata vs IIM Ahmedabad (IIMA)

The admission to AIMK through the Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management. CAT is the first step in the process for seeking admission to AIMK. Based on the performance in CAT, candidates will be called for Group Discussion & Personal Interview (GD/PI) to be conducted by AIMK at Kolkata. Final merit list is drawn up based on the candidate's performance in CAT & GD/PI.

Admission/Selection Process for Candidates for PGP at IIMA through CAT-2025

The selection of the candidates for admission to the 2026-28 Batch of the PGP at IIMA is a two-step process.

 In the first step, candidates are shortlisted for Analytical Writing Test (AWT) and Personal Interview (PI) from among the candidates who have a valid CAT-2025 score, have applied to the programme and satisfy the eligibility criteria for the programme described as below.

Only students who have appeared in CAT can apply for our MBA Programme. Minimum qualification for admission to MBA programme is Bachelor’s Degree in any discipline with 50% marks, recognized by the Association of Indian Universities. If the Bachelor’s degree is done through distance mode then the affiliated institute & the university must be within the same state.

Such candidate should produce Bonafide Certificate & Fee Receipt at the time of registration at AIMK. Candidates, who would be completing all requirements for bachelor’s degree by 30 June, can also apply.

Such candidates, if selected, will be admitted provisionally and will be required to produce evidence to establish their eligibility by 31 August. Those, failing to comply with the above criteria, will have to withdraw from the programme.

AIMK Eligibility Criteria

Candidates, who appeared in CAT would be called for Group Discussion & Personal Interview (GD & PI ). Two separate (one for Army and another for General) merit lists of the students will be prepared for GD & PI. The same is to be sent to the Chairman for approval. After approval, students of the merit list will be intimated individually.

Eligibility for Army Categories

The admission to the AWES Professional Colleges is for the children of eligible serving Army personnel, eligible ex-Army personnel and war widows of the Army. The children of following categories of Army personnel are eligible and they are required to submit the relevant certificate as given against the category applicable to them as proof of their eligibility for admission to AWES Professional Colleges along with the Application Form :-

The applicants must follow into one of the following categories:-

(a) Children of Serving Army Personnel, Retired/Released/Discharged/Killed in action/Died During Service/Disabled in Action/Medically Boarded out with Pension (Submit Certificate No 1):-

(i) Children of serving Army personnel with minimum 10 years continuous service in the Army

(ii) Children of ex Army personnel   granted/ awarded   regular   pension, liberalized family pension, family pension or disability pension at the time of their superannuation, demise, discharge, release medical board/ invalided medical board.  This includes wards of recruits medically boarded out and granted disability pension.

(iii) Children of ex Army personnel who have taken discharge or released after ten years of service.

(b) Adopted/Step Children and Children of Remarried Widows (Submit Certificate No 2):-

(i) Adopted Children of Army personnel if adopted at least five years prior to seeking admission.

(ii) Step Children are eligible provided they are born from a wedding where at least one parent belonged to the Army who is otherwise eligible

(c) Eligibility Criteria in Special Cases (Submit Certificate No 3):-

(i) Eligibility Criteria for Children of Ex Army Medical Corps Officers/Army Dental Corps Officers Presently Serving with Indian Navy or Indian Air Force (IN/IAF). Children of only those ex-Army Medical officers/Army Dental Corps officers presently serving with Indian Navy/Indian Air Force who have served with the Army for at least 10 years.

(ii) Eligibility Criteria for Children of APS/MNS/TA Personnel:-

(aa) Children of APS personnel classified as ex-servicemen as per Government of India, Ministry of  Defence letter No 9 (52)/88/D(Res) dated 19 Jul 89.

(ab) Children of those APS personnel who are on deputation and who have put in 10 years of service in the Army.

(ac) Children of APS personnel, who are directly recruited into APS who have completed 10 years of service and of those who as per their terms and conditions of service, retired from APS without reversion to P&T Department after completing their minimum pensionable service of which 10 years was in the Army.

(ad) Children of only those members of MNS who have 10 years service as regular members of MNS or are in receipt of pension from the Army

(ae) Children of only those TA personnel who have completed 10 years of embodied service.

The candidate must hold a bachelor’s degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA (in case of the candidate belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST)/Persons with Disabilities (PwD) category, this is relaxed to 45%), of any of the universities incorporated by an act of the central or state legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a university under section 3 of UGC Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Government of India. The bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification obtained by the candidate must entail a minimum of three years of education after completing higher secondary schooling (10+2) or equivalent. The percentage obtained by the candidate in the bachelor’s degree would be based on the practice followed by the institution/university from where the candidate has obtained the degree. In case of the candidate being awarded grades/CGPA instead of marks, the equivalence would be based on the equivalence certified by the institution/university from where they have obtained the bachelor's degree. In case the institution/university does not have any scheme for converting the CGPA into equivalent marks, the equivalence would be established by IIMA by dividing the obtained CGPA by the maximum possible CGPA and multiplying the resultant by 100.

A candidate appearing for the final year bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification examination and those who have completed the degree requirements and are awaiting results can also apply. Such a candidate must produce a certificate from the Principal/Head of the Department/Registrar/Director of the Institution/University certifying that the candidate is currently in the final year/is awaiting final results and has obtained at least 50% marks or equivalent (45% in case of the candidate belonging to SC/ST/PwD category) based on latest available grades/marks. Such a candidate, if selected, will be allowed to join the programme provisionally only if they submit a certificate latest by June 30, 2026 from the Principal/Head of the Department/Registrar/Director of the Institution/University (issued on or before June 30, 2026) stating that they have completed all the requirements (the result may, however, be awaited) for obtaining the bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification on the date of issue of the certificate. Their admission will be confirmed only when the candidate submits the marksheet and a certificate of having passed the bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification referred to in the certificate issued by the Principal/Head of the Department/Registrar/Director of the Institution/University with at least 50% marks (45% in case of the candidate belonging to SC/ST/PwD category). It is mandatory for a final year student, who is provisionally admitted, to submit the marksheet and degree certificate of the final year bachelor’s degree examination held on or before June 30, 2026 (including supplementaries, if any), to be eligible for admission to the Post Graduate Programme (PGP) 2026-28 Batch. The deadline for submission of the marksheet and the certificate is December 31, 2026. Non-fulfillment of this condition will automatically result in the cancellation of the provisional admission. IIMA would not allow any candidate to join its PGP in case the candidate is unable to complete all the requirements for a bachelor’s degree on or before June 30, 2026.