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Can Non-Engineers crack CAT and make it to the IIMs?
Updated: Jun 29, 2020
Despite the many posts published on this blog to date including 25 posts solely on CAT Preparation and 68 posts solely on IIM Interviews, you're only going to trust me if I present data that states, "Yes, non-engineers can definitely get into the IIMs". So, here is some evidence in front of you to accept that it's possible.
Presenting to you, the Non-engineers of IIM Ahmedabad Batch 2018-2020 (my batch). Though, I can't disclose their names, their academic profiles or their CAT scores, what I can reveal is their:
Educational Backgrounds
Fresher or Work-Experience
After the list there is some analysis for you to note and see for yourself who all made it to the Batch of 2020. So, let's begin listing their educational backgrounds. Please note that the number in front of the degree's name is the the number of students who pursued that degree before joining IIM-A.
B.A. Eco (H) - 13 (9 freshers)
B.A. Eco & Pol.Sc. - 1 (no fresher)
B.A. Journalism - 1 (no fresher)
B.A. Land Economy - 1 (no fresher)
B.A. Political Science - 1 (1 fresher)
B.A. Psychology - 2 (2 freshers)
B.A. & LLB - 3 (2 freshers)
B.Architecture - 1 (no fresher)
BBA - 3 (2 freshers)
BBA & LLB - 1 (1 fresher)
BCAF & CA - 1 (no fresher)
B.Com (H) - 32 (22 freshers)
B.Com & CA - 31 (6 freshers)
B.Design - 1 (no fresher)
BFIA - 2 (2 freshers)
BMM - 1 (no fresher)
BMS - 4 (2 freshers)
B.Pharma - 1 (1 fresher)
B.Sc. Accounts & Fin - 1 (no fresher)
B.Sc. Agriculture - 1 (1 fresher)
B.Sc. Agri Mkt. & Coop. - 1 (1 fresher)
B.Sc. Chemistry - 3 (2 freshers)
B.Sc. Economics - 3 (1 fresher)
B.Sc. Electronics - 1 (1 fresher)
B.Sc. Mathematics - 3 (2 freshers)
B.Sc. Physics - 5 (3 freshers)
B.Sc. Statistics - 3 (no fresher)
MBBS - 2 (2 freshers)
M.Sc. Ap. Geology - 1 (no fresher)
M.Sc. Biology - 1 (1 fresher)
M.Sc. Computer Sc. - 1 (no fresher)
M.Sc. Economics - 1 (no fresher)
M.Sc. Philosophy - 1 (no fresher)
M.Sc. Physics - 1 (no fresher)
These were 129 non-engineers who graduated from IIM-A in 2020 (PGP) out of the total batch strength of 410 i.e. a whopping 31.46% of the total batch was that of non-engineers.
There are freshers in the above-mentioned list as well, in fact 49.6% of the non-engineers were freshers i.e. 64 fresher non-engineers in the batch, which is why I keep telling the freshers that there is nothing to worry about if you don't have work-experience.
At the same time, if there is any individual who is above 26 years of age and is wondering if it's too late to attempt CAT, I'd like to share that there were many non-engineers in our batch who had a work experience of more than 2-3 years after their bachelors and in some cases even masters!
Also notice the diversity in terms of the courses from which the non-engineers got selected. There were students from architecture, design, law, political science, psychology, etc. in the batch.
So, whenever you feel that the odds of a non-engineer getting into an IIM are not so good, remind yourself of this list and then think, if IIM-A had 129 non-engineers in its 2020 PGP Batch, why can't you be one of them in the upcoming batches? Of course, non-engineers can make it to the IIMs.
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