IIM Rohtak vs IIM Nagpur: The 97-Bar Door Against the 95-Bar Door

Two second-generation IIMs, two solo admission machines, and a Rs 3.1 lakh fee gap. IIM Rohtak’s printed PGP fee totals Rs 17,90,000. IIM Nagpur’s prints Rs 21,00,000. Both processes were re-verified on 7 October 2026 — with one disclosure, since resolved: iimrohtak.ac.in would not load that day, so Rohtak’s policy was read through the extraction mirror; the site returned on 10 October and the fee PDF was re-downloaded and re-verified the same day. Neither number moved.

The two bills, side by side

	IIM Rohtak (PGP Batch 17, 2026-28)	IIM Nagpur (MBA 2026-28)
Printed total	Rs 17,90,000	Rs 21,00,000
Split	PGP I Rs 8,95,000 (Term I Rs 3,55,000; Terms II-III Rs 2,70,000 each); PGP II identical	Rs 1,00,000 at offer acceptance, adjusted into Term I; term-wise structure downloadable
Mess	Outside — Rs 48,000 a year	Inside the printed total’s residence heads
Other charges	Placement facility Rs 40,000; development Rs 10,000 a year; alumni Rs 6,500	—
Caution deposit	Rs 10,000, refundable	Printed in the term-wise structure
Scholarships	Not printed on the fee document	Twenty full two-year tuition waivers (10 merit at CAT 95-plus, 10 need-cum-merit under Rs 8 lakh income) + K S Cheema Rs 10 lakh pool + PM-Vidyalaxmi
Refund rule	Before online registration, less Rs 1,000, in 150-180 days; nothing after registration	Before 12 July 2026 9 am, less Rs 1,000; acceptance and Term I forfeited after
Document	Official programme-fee PDF (re-verified 10-Oct on the restored site)	Official fees and admissions pages, re-read 7-Oct

The honest label: Rohtak is the cheaper door by Rs 3,10,000 before Nagpur’s scholarship grid enters — and that grid is real money: twenty candidates pay no tuition for two years. A need-cum-merit waiver flips the comparison entirely, so the income line (Rs 8 lakh family income) matters as much as the fee line for eligible families.

The bar: 97 flat against 95 with sectionals

Rohtak gates higher and simpler. Its Table-1 prints General 97 aggregate percentile with no sectional cut-offs published, stepping through EWS 93, NC-OBC 83, SC 60, ST 50 and a DAP ladder. Nagpur gates lower but wider. Its table prints General 95 overall — plus a 70-percentile floor in every section, positive scores in all sections, and category steps at 85/55 and 65/40. The practical consequence: a 96-plus candidate with one weak section is alive at Rohtak and out at Nagpur; a balanced 95.5 is out at Rohtak and alive at Nagpur. Read both tables against your scorecard before choosing where to register.

Two solo formulas that disagree about diversity

Rohtak runs five stages — registration, PI, a final list built as CAT percentile 60% + PI 20% + academic and gender diversity combined 20%, offer, reporting. Its policy states the intent in plain words: the institute recognises a possible skew toward male engineers and weights diversity to correct it. Nagpur runs three stages and a more granular Final Score: CAT 45% + PI including Extempore 25% + past academics 6% + work experience 9% + academic diversity 5% + gender diversity 10% — the heaviest single gender block in our IIM comparison series, and the only one of the two that scores work experience at all (peaking at 18-24 months, scoring zero from 36).

The sequencing matters as much as the formulas. Rohtak’s registration window (tentatively 26 December 2025 to 9 January 2026, Rs 3,095, link by email) closes a day before Nagpur’s opens (10-28 January 2026). Candidates treating these as one combined calendar get both; candidates who miss Rohtak’s email window get Nagpur only.

The quota question, answered from print

Neither institute prints any management, institutional or discretionary route — no IIM does. Both pages carry the same defence in the same shape: Rohtak’s offers arrive only from [email protected] signed by the Controller of Examinations; Nagpur’s arrive only from [email protected] with the printed line that no offer communication happens through calls or any other email ID. An agent quoting a priced seat at either is the thing those sentences warn about.

The placement evidence, stated honestly

Neither institute publishes the audited, denominator-clear salary table our placement-report methodology asks for on a public page today. We state the gap rather than borrow aggregator averages. When either institute’s official placement report reaches you, run the five checks in our placement-report guide before letting it settle a Rs 18-21 lakh decision.

Who should pick which

• Pick Rohtak if your percentile clears 97, your profile is CAT-heavy (60% of its final list), the Rs 3.1 lakh lower bill matters, or a smaller 264-seat batch appeals. Watch for its registration email the week after Christmas.
• Pick Nagpur if you sit in the 95-97 band with balanced 70-plus sectionals, carry 18-24 months of work experience, benefit from the 10% gender-diversity weight, or your family income makes the twenty full fee waivers a live possibility.
• Either way — both forms are solo, cheap relative to the decision, and sequential on the calendar. Eligible candidates should register with each and let the formulas, not an aggregator, rank them.