Twenty-one-year old Saloni Parikh has a bachelor’s degree in zoology. Since engineering students usually dominate the list of candidates selected for the second round by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), she was listed as a candidate with an unusual academic background. But as she has managed to bell the CAT (Common Admission Test) by securing 99.9 percentile, Parikh’s joy was visible as she got a call from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), said to be one of the best business schools in the country.
Parikh is no exception though. For, even non-engineering students with a score of 99 percentile have received calls from IIMA. The news is significant as it is one of the much needed efforts by IIMA to bring in students from varied academic backgrounds. Currently, IIMA is dominated by students from engineering background with as many as 98% of them crowding many batches.
In fact, IIMA has also changed the admission criteria to make the students’ list more diverse and break the monotony of having a majority of engineering students. Changes are in the formula of calculating application rating and a provision for shortlisting students directly to written analysis and personal interview (WA-PI) for top performers in the five academic categories included by IIMA for the first time. These are agriculture, arts-humanities, commerce-economics, management, agriculture engineering and architecture.
“I always wanted to study medical science as I liked the subject and because my father and sister are doctors. However, I could not study medicine. I used to visit hospitals with my father and I realised that India lacks the infrastructure needed to tackle larger medical problems. From here, my interest in running hospital effectively started and forced me to study management,” said Parikh about her decision to appear for CAT.
The second student, who appeared from Ahmedabad in CAT and made it to IIMA’s call list, is Anjum Khakhu, 26, and armed with a bachelor of arts degree, having English as major. “Being a student of literature, I was inclined towards reading. It was during my job with an airline company that I realised I am interested in more managerial-execution work and felt the need to study further,” she said.
But how did Khakhu manage to crack CAT despite being an arts student? Pat came the reply: “It is important to be composed and have the right attitude to do anything. It is important not to give up one’s effort.”
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