Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai runs two full-time programmes. The PGPM is its one-year flagship, running since 2004 per the official programme page, built for candidates with around two or more years of work experience. The PGDM is the two-year programme for freshers and candidates with under 36 months of experience, AICTE-approved and validated by AIU as an MBA equivalent, per the official programme pages. The institute is AACSB and AMBA accredited, with NBA accreditation for the PGDM (accreditations page, greatlakes.edu.in).

There is exactly one way in, and the institute says so itself. Both admissions pages carry the same notice: Great Lakes does not admit students under management quota or any other form of reservation, and any third party offering such seats for its programs would be fraudulent. No third party is authorized to initiate applications. The real process is an online application on greatlakes.edu.in (Rs 2,200, per the admissions pages), an accepted exam score, essays, and interview rounds. One detail trips people up: NMAT 2025/2026 counts for the PGPM but is not listed for the PGDM, and this acceptance is Great Lakes’ own decision, nothing to do with NMIMS. No minimum cutoff is published for either programme, but the exam itself is mandatory. For what a management quota legally is and where it actually exists, see what management quota really means.

The published money is specific. The PGPM costs Rs 23,50,000 total for Indian students, of which Rs 19,39,000 is academic and the rest is single AC accommodation, a refundable Rs 10,000 caution deposit and a Rs 5,000 alumni subscription (2026-27 fee structure, official PGPM fee page). The PGDM costs Rs 22,50,000 total, with hostel mandatory as it is a residential programme (2026-28 fee structure, official PGDM fee page). Fees for the 2027 admission cycles were not yet posted as of 13 July 2026, so confirm the current figure on the official fee pages before planning. The PGPM also carries 40 diversity and merit scholarships worth Rs 5 lakh each, at least 30% reserved for female students, per the PGPM admissions page.

How Udaan helps with admission to Great Lakes Chennai

The real decision here is which programme fits: the one-year PGPM if you have the work experience, or the two-year PGDM if you are a fresher — the 2027-intake PGDM block, re-read on 24 September 2026, prints the same 50% bar across 10th, 12th and UG as the PGPM, with the under-36-months work-experience limit as the real divider (an earlier 60% reading on this profile no longer governs). Udaan helps you pick the right exam for your timeline (NMAT only helps for PGPM), build the essays, and prepare for the interview rounds where Great Lakes actually decides. We take no commissions and you pay only the college, directly. If someone has offered you a paid seat here, the institute has already called that offer fraudulent in writing, and we will show you the official notice rather than a shortcut that does not exist. If neither programme fits your profile this cycle, we will say that plainly too. See our Chennai MBA guide for the wider picture, the Gurgaon campus profile for the NCR door, or talk to us.

Details on this page are indicative and compiled from official sources; always confirm current eligibility, fees and deadlines with the institute before applying.

Sources: PGPM admissions · PGDM admissions · PGPM fees · PGDM fees · Accreditations