IIM Sambalpur vs IIM Rohtak: The Two Flat Bars and the Fee Only One of Them Prints

The two simplest bars in our IIM series sit at opposite ends of it. IIM Sambalpur shortlists at a flat 90 percentile — dropping to 85 for every female candidate and for men with a year of relevant work experience — with no sectional cut-offs at all. IIM Rohtak prints a flat 97. Both policies were re-read today, 11 October 2026. Twelve points and one concession separate the doors; one printed fee and one missing one separate the bills.

The two bars, exactly as printed

	IIM Sambalpur (MBA 2026-28)	IIM Rohtak (PGP Batch 17)
General bar	90 overall — 85 for all female candidates and 1yr+ work-ex men	97, flat
Sectional cut-offs	None — a positive score in each section suffices	None printed
EWS / NC-OBC	80 / 75	93 / 83
SC / ST	55 / 40	60 / 50
Process shape	Three stages, own application form	Five stages, own portal registration 26 Dec-9 Jan, Rs 3,095
Batch	About 320	264
Offer acceptance	Rs 50,000	Per the offer letter

Read Rohtak’s table once more before celebrating its simplicity: 97 is the second-highest flat General bar we have mapped, and there is no concession beneath it. Sambalpur’s 90-with-an-85 is the most concessional printed structure in the series — the women’s concession is not a points bonus but a five-point lowering of the bar itself.

The formulas: the work-experience institute against the diversity institute

Sambalpur’s Pre-PI score runs out of 75: CAT 40, Class X 3, Class XII 3, graduation 4, work experience 20, gender diversity 5. The work-experience table is the sharpest we have printed: zero below 12 months, 5 at 12, 10 at 18, 15 at 24, the full 20 at exactly 30 months, then declining — 15 at 36, 10 at 42, 5 at 48, and zero beyond 48 months. The final merit keeps the same components out of 100, adding the PI at 25.

Rohtak’s final is CAT percentile 60% + PI 20% + academic-and-gender diversity 20%. There is no work-experience mark anywhere in it. A candidate whose career is the profile’s spine is invisible in Rohtak’s formula and central in Sambalpur’s — that is the whole comparison in one sentence.

The bills: one printed, one still missing

Rohtak prints Rs 17,90,000 — Rs 8,95,000 a year in terms of Rs 3,55,000, Rs 2,70,000 and Rs 2,70,000 — with mess at Rs 48,000 a year, a placement facility charge of Rs 40,000, development charges of Rs 10,000 a year, alumni Rs 6,500 and a refundable Rs 10,000 caution. The document was re-read today.

Sambalpur’s flagship MBA fee is not published anywhere. Its /admission/ page 404’d on 10-11 October and serves again as of 12 October — still without a fee table — and the only signed institute fee on record is the MBA-BA Delhi programme’s Rs 17,25,000. We state that gap rather than quote an aggregator. Until the institute prints, treat any figure for the flagship as unverified, and expect the offer letter to carry the binding number.

The quota question, answered from print

Neither institute prints any management, institutional or discretionary route — no IIM does. Rohtak’s policy adds the operative warning: offers arrive only from [email protected], and anything else is invalid. Both admit through CAT alone under Government of India reservation law. An agent quoting a priced seat at either campus is selling the thing those sentences name.

Who should pick which

• Pick Sambalpur if your percentile sits in the 85-96 band (85 if the concession covers you), your profile carries roughly 24-36 months of real work experience, or your sectionals are uneven — there are no sectional gates to clear. Accept that the fee is still unpublished and plan with the offer letter, not a rumour.
• Pick Rohtak if you clear 97, want the printed Rs 17.9 lakh certainty, and your strength is the interview-plus-diversity profile rather than years of work experience. Its window is short: 26 December to 9 January.
• Either way — both are solo doors with email-driven calendars after the CAT result. The institutes’ own pages carry the operative dates; no third party does.