Five big MBA admission trends in 2014.

2014, has kicked off with a lot of surprises for B-Schools. Last year, the UGC had revoked the governing rights of the AICTE which governs B-Schools in India on account of a Supreme Court verdict. This decision created a lot of problems as students were unaware as to the authority governing B-Schools. Recently the UGC clarified that B-Schools will be under the purview of the AICTE as before. While one issue was resolved another arose in the form of a study done by a MBA website which revealed that MBA aspirants feel, admission process to management colleges are cumbersome. The aspirants sought reduction in tuition fee, better public disclosure on placement track record and normalization process in the CAT qualifying scores. While this has highlighted a number of issues regarding B-Schools, business goes on as usual. This year, the admission process will be more streamlined and there are some trends we see catching on in 2014.

1.  WAT - The new yardstick

Writing ability test has been playing an important role in the second round of MBA admissions. Most of the IIMs and top B-Schools have substituted GD with the Writing Ability Test in a post CAT scenario. IIM A, IIM B, IIM C only use WAT for PI Round. The six new IIMs, namely IIM Ranchi, Raipur, Rohtak, Trichy, Udaipur and Kashipur, have started conducting a common admission process since the academic year 2011-13 and have substituted Group Discussion(GD) by written ability test (WAT). What this means is that writing ability has now become very important. The ability to express yourself through the written word is an important skill, but one which isn’t developed completely in school and college. Nevertheless regular practice should make you proficient in this regard.

2. Work Experience becoming more important

If you are a working professional, you stand a better chance to get an admission in a top B-School. IIMA awards 5-7% out of its 30 percent weightage, IIMB 10; IIMC 8; IIML 4; IIM Kashipur 5 and IIM Kozhikode provides 8 percent weightages respectively to candidates having post degree work experience.

3.  Woman candidates are the new rage

Probably one of the most interesting developments in recent times is the effect woman empowerment is having on top B-Schools. If you’re a female candidate you stand to get bonus points to get into your dream B-School. Top three IIMs A, B, C earlier didn’t provide any weightage to gender diversity but now old as well as new IIMs have begun assigning some points to fair sex. IIML awards 10; IIMC 3; IIMA and B have devised a formula to entertain more girl candidates out of their total weightage points; IIM Kashipur awards 7 points; IIM Rohtak and Raipur 20; other top ranked institutes have also started following suit. Women candidates have all the reason to smile on this count.

4. B-School no more engineers domain

MBA aspirants from other than engineering background used to have apprehensions before registering for CAT and XAT as getting admission in IIMs and XLRI was considered easy for the candidates with engineering background. But now the scene has changed. To encourage candidates from other streams the admission criteria in IIMs has changed with some points awarded to applicants from other disciplines. IIML awards 2 marks; IIM Rohtak 20; IIM Raipur 10 (Out of 30 awarded to female and non engineers).

5. Fading appeal of GD

Group discussions used to be held in the second round of MBA admissions in top colleges. However most top B-Schools have replaced it with WAT. However a few institutes still conduct the GD. IIM Lucknow, IIM Shillong, IIM Kozhikode all still conduct Group Discussion although the weightage is getting reduced year on year.