Engineers, Women Retain Strength at IIM-Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD: Engineers have retained their strength at the Indian Institute of Management , Ahmedabad (IIM-A ) for the new 2011-13 batch. The percentage of women candidates , too, has been the same at 10.9% like last year in the 380-strong batch. The batch size for both the years has been the same.

IIMs traditionally see engineers dominating the list of candidates shortlisted for the two-year post-graduate programme in management course. The flagship programme has 94% engineers this year, a marginal drop from 95% admitted last year. The institute has offered seats to 3.5% students from commerce background and to 2% from science stream.

The institute has given 380 offers and has asked the candidates to take decision on joining IIM-A till May 13. CAT scores, performance in group discussion and personal interview apart from educational background form the basis for admission to the IIMs.

"This year too, engineers have performed better," IIM-A admission chairperson Professor Diptesh Ghosh told ET. The 2009-11 batch had 91% engineers and 2010-12 batch had around 95% engineers . IIM-A started its admission process on January 12 and interview rounds on February 23 that ended on March 24.

The institute has interviewed 918 students. There are 52 students who have been put on the waiting list. The institute released the list of its first offer to the students for the 2011-13 batch on Monday. For the 2009-11 batch, the institute had the highest proportion of 19% women students , a significant jump from the 6% admitted in the year before (2008-10 ).

"There would be a number of students who would secure offers from more than one IIM and those joining elsewhere will be replaced from the waiting list," Ghosh said. This year almost 70% have work experience. The number of experienced candidates stood at around 60% in the previous two batches.

"The average age of the batch is 23 years and 19% of the students have experience of more than two years," Ghosh said. This year, IIM-A , IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta coordinated with each other to hold interviews at the same centre for students who received interview calls from all the three IIMs. "Earlier , they had to visit their respective cities. This year, the coordination helped them save time and money," he said.