CAT Exam On Sunday, November 16, 2008
CAT (Common Admission Test) is conducted by Indian Institute Of Managements (IIMs) for its admission to Post Graduate (P.G) Programmes and Fellow Programmes.
Candidates aspiring to get admission to the 6 Indian Institutes of Managements need to appear for the Common Admission Test. Apart from the IIM’s, 40 other Management Institutes use the CAT score for short listing the candidates. CAT is conducted once in a year usually in the month of November.
CAT Eligibility :
The candidate must hold a Bachelor’s Degree, with at least 50% marks or equivalent CGPA [45% in case of the candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST) or Persons with Disability (PWD) category], 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’sDegree 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 bythe university/institution from where the candidate has obtained the degree. In case of the candidates being awarded grades/CGPA instead of marks, the equivalence would be based on the equivalence certified by the university/institution from where they have obtained bachelor’sdegree. In case the university/institution does not have any scheme for converting CGPA into equivalent marks, the equivalence would be established by the IIMs by dividing obtained CGPA with the maximum possible CGPA and multiplying the resultant with 100.
Candidates appearing for the final year of bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification examination and those who have completed degreerequirement and are awaiting results can also apply. Such candidates must produce a certificate from the Principal/Head of the Department/ Registrar/Director of the university/institution 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 candidates belonging to SC/ST/PWD category) based on latest available grades/marks.
Eligibility For Post Graduate Programmes in Management :
The candidate should meet CAT-2008 eligibility as detailed above. A candidate who is in the final year of bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification, if selected, will be allowed to join the Programme provisionally only if he/she submits a certificate latest by June 30, 2009 from the Principal/Registrar of his/her college/institute (issued on or before June 30, 2009) stating that the candidate has completed all the requirements (the results may, however, be awaited) for obtaining the bachelor’s degree/ equivalent qualification on the date of issue of the certificate. The admission will be confirmed only when the candidate submits the mark sheet and a certificate of having passed the bachelor’s degree / equivalent qualification referred to in the certificate issued by the Principal/Registrar with at least 50% marks (45% in case of candidates belonging to SC/ ST/PWD category). The deadline for submission of the mark sheet and the certificate is December 31, 2009. Non-fulfilment of this condition will automatically result in the cancellation of the provisional admission. IIMs would not allow any candidate to join their Programme in case the candidate is unable to complete all the requirements for a bachelor degree on or before June 30, 2009. The IIMs would also not offer admission to any candidate after June 30, 2009
MBA Specializations-General Management Program vs. Special Management Programs
Students have the opportunity to pursue either a general management program or complete a specialization as part of the MBA program. Specializations are a matter of choice, not a prerequisite, and all students receive the same MBA education regardless of whether they complete a specialization. Students should consider their career goals and professional development in settling on a specialization. As more and more universities offer MBA programmes, it is becoming ever more difficult for candidates to decide on which business school offers the most suitable MBA programme to meet their requirements. Many business schools are digressing from the ‘generalist’ system, which has been the typical MBA model for the last thirty years. Today you can choose from a wide range of MBA specializations, ranging from an MBA in Financial Studies, as well as Insurance and Risk Management Accountancy and Finance, to an MBA in Sports Management, or even an MBA in Technology.
The trend towards one-year niche, or specialist MBAs, designed for particular groups of professional people, appears to be market driven. Some fields may be nearly impossible to enter without specialized training. Research your chosen industry to determine whether a specialty program may be a better alternative for you than a generalist MBA degree.
US schools in particular, reject the specialist MBA model. Their two-year format allows MBA students to be generalists in their first year, whilst specializing in their chosen field in their second year.
Shape your studies to complement all that make you inimitable — education, experience, aptitudes, interests, passions. Famous MBA schools abroad all have their own specialties; for example, Harvard Business School is at the head of the class in commercial management, the University of Chicago Graduate Business School in financial management, and the Kellogg School of Management in marketing.
Financing Global MBA
Leave your job from a secure job, moving country, even leaving family and friends at the back – these are some of the obstruction a potential MBA might have to face. But with programmes at top-flight schools now costing as much as US $75,000, one question seems to live in business school applicants more than any other – how do I find the finances to reimburse for my education?
Every year surveys with nearly 4,000 hopeful MBAs to set up whether the subject of finance was likely to establish a barrier to study. The recent poll found that practically all had by now looked gravely into how they would fund their time at business school and a wide assortment of methods were cited from scholarships to personal loans. Scholarships, perhaps not astonishingly, were the most popular option around the world, favored by 74 pc of respondents. Next came the student’s own savings at 68 pc and then some form of external loan at 61 pc. Only 28 pc realistically predictable to get financial lend a hand from their employer.
The significance that students place on funding methods seems to vary significantly from area to area. Help from relations and friends appears to be most common in the Asia-Pacific area where it was cited by 48 pc of those questioned, in difference to only 43 pc in the USA and Western Europe. Personal loans were the preferred source for over 81 pc of US students, but less than 57 pc of those from Latin America. Company backing was the choice of 36 pc of respondents in the Middle East and Africa, but only 21 pc of those in Latin America and a student’s own savings were the preferential method of 80 pc of Western European candidates, but only 62 pc of those from the Middle East and Africa.
Whatever a student’s first favorite, the most common source of economics in put into practice is now the education or career loan. Here are some of the sources of such loans across the world:
Finance sources around the world
India
Indians have right of admission to a wide range of education loans geared to fund MBA study. Key initiators include State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, State Bank of Mysore, Bank of Baroda and the Industrial Development Bank of India. Loans can be used to cover the cost of fees, travel to an abroad school, the cost of books, computers, etc and income expenses. In most cases candidates will already need to have secured a put at a familiar association and may need to provide a guarantor, such as a parent or close relative, with enough funds to cover the loan. Repayment periods range up to four years after graduation and interest rates are at present around 8.5 to 8.75 pc.
USA
Sources of aid for overseas candidates looking to study in the USA include:
• IEFC – Students interested in studying at one of nearly 400 institutions around the world may be eligible for loans of up to US $45,000 from the IEFC (International Education Finance Corporation). The IEFC has three loan programs; the Stafford for US citizens or permanent residents, Can HELP for Canadians and ISLP for foreign students. To be eligible for ISLP you must be able to give a guarantor, who is a US citizen or lasting occupant.
• Citibank – Citibank has a very well-developed student loan division which provides ‘standard’ loans and also partners with person schools to give more tailored packages. The Wharton School in Philadelphia, for example, offers funding through Citibank, which guarantees most conventional students a prime plus 0.5 pc interest rate, with a 15-year payback period, and no co-signers or credit check required. www.citibank.com
Other European countries
Austria – CA-Post-Graduate, Creditanstalt – www.creditanstalt.co.at
France – French residents of any nationality who have worked in the country can apply to FONGECIF (Fonds de Gestion du Conge Individual de Formation) for up to 90 pc funding of tuition fees plus a part of their current pay.
Australia
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia does not have a specific student loan program but will consider applications on individual merit up to AUD $5000 at branch level and higher via the head office.
UK
HSBC bank offers loans to students of a number of British schools, including Canfield, LBS and Manchester. Unlike many other schemes this facility is open to students from wherever in the world. Interest is charged at 2 pc over HSBC’s base rate for the duration of the loan. There are no upfront commissions and no early repayment charges.
Spain
Several of the key Spanish schools have negotiated loan agreements with Spanish and abroad banks to help students with funding. IESE in Barcelona has a loan scheme offered though Banco Santander Centro Hispano, which is open to students of any nationality accepted by the school. Instituto de Empresa in Madrid has similar arrangements to cover fees and maintenance with repayment periods up to eight years.
Guidance for MBA
Before applying for the MBA admission you have to remember some lines which are listed below:-
Being active in the public services, charitable organizations are a widely appreciated quality. Great regards are usually because of those who help others. MBA commission is no dissimilar. The greater contribution you make in community service, the bigger respect your profile takes. Variety of cultural, communal and technical experience is a much respected skill. Excluding wider experience in the occupation, worldwide contact gives a huge increase to the profile’s attractiveness. Good consideration of the culture, languages and the past of the internationally visited countries can significantly help your profile. Work experience is one of the very significant parts of your complete profile. Your work experience must demonstrate growth in the career; validate your ambitions, your reliability and progress. The more work experience you get the more chance that you can put the parameters in the right standpoint. Even if you were unsuccessful, the effort counts. Failure does hinder the effects a bit, but it may be accredited to experience, finances and other things. The significant point is that you demonstrated the business insight and gained some priceless experience from it. Even if you were unsuccessful, the effort counts. Failure does hinder the effects a bit, but it may be accredited to experience, finances and other things. The significant point is that you demonstrated the business insight and gained some priceless experience from it. Challenges you faced in life and during work, how well you handle them. The challenges might be interpersonal such as firing a good friend. The difficult situation in fact created a better person out of you. It can give your paper a good decorate, but you are to have something to back it up.
CAT Exams Online as of November 2009
November 2009 and candidate appearing for Common Admission Test can seem forward to doing away with document work as CAT, one of the country’s impressive entrance exams is all set to go online from 2009. The choice will crash thousands of students who each year appears for the highly gung ho entrance exam at centers crossways the country in the ambition of making it to the hallowed corridors of IIMs.
Speaking on the new initiative, Asish Bhattacharyya, admissions chairperson at IIM Calcutta, said that an online system would “help us handle the huge number of students appearing for the test every year. Last year the number crossed 2.3 lakh”. This number is only predictable to add to with projections of three lakh-plus in 2009.
Once the new system would be in place, not all students will be able to take the exam on the same day as is the system applicable now. The exam would then take place in phases with ’spread out batches’ within a period of a few months. The other alter will be that instead of the current single exam paper, the online test will carry quite a few different papers of the same level of difficulty.
“With the online test, CAT will be similar to the GMAT test in its process. This will be definitely valuable for the students as they can appear in the exam according to their correctness rather than a particular day”, says, Dr S P Parashar, Director, and IIM-Indore. The online CAT exam will be conduct on the prototype of like global exams like GMAT (Graduate Management Aptitude Test), with the only exemption that the results will not be affirmed right absent.
