IIM Udaipur vs IIM Kozhikode: The 94 Invitation Against the 60/60/60 Floor

Two solo IIM doors whose final lists share one rare habit — both score the CAT itself, not the percentile — and whose filters could not disagree more. IIM Udaipur’s six-term MBA 2026-28 table totals Rs 21,51,258 with hostel and mess inside every term. IIM Kozhikode’s signed fee table reads Rs 23,50,000, mess outside. Both documents were re-read today, 11 October 2026.

The two bills, side by side

	IIM Udaipur (MBA 2026-28)	IIM Kozhikode (PGP 2026-28)
Two-year total	Rs 21,51,258	Rs 23,50,000 (Rs 11,75,000 x 2, signed table)
Scope	Hostel (Rs 25,000-26,250/term) and mess (Rs 24,255-28,298/term) INSIDE every term	Mess on a refundable Rs 40,000/term deposit OUTSIDE; caution Rs 25,000 + welfare Rs 2,000 at admission
Term split	Rs 3,29,955 / 3,83,298 / 3,79,255 / 3,56,250 / 3,51,250 / 3,51,250	Rs 4,75,000 + 3,50,000 + 3,50,000 per year
Offer acceptance	Rs 1,00,000, adjusted in Term I	Rs 1,00,000 offer acceptance
Assistance	Tuition waivers at the Rs 6,00,000 household-income line	Per institute schemes
Document	Official fees-and-financing page	Signed fee PDF, read by OCR

The honest label on the gap: Rs 1,98,742 in Udaipur’s favour — and the scope widens it further, because Udaipur’s number is fully residential while Kozhikode’s still needs the mess added. Among the close-priced pairs in this series, this is one of the few where the cheaper print is also the fuller print.

The gates: the invitation against the floor

Udaipur’s table asks General candidates for 94 overall with 75 in every section (EWS 81 with 55s, NC-OBC 81 with 52s, SC 66 with 45s, ST and DAP 42). Clearing it triggers the institute’s invitation email — a mandatory online registration after the CAT result that is a pre-interview requirement, not an interview call. The policy reserves the right to move the bars to fill category-wise PI counts.

Kozhikode’s Table 1 asks 85 overall with the same 75 sectionals — nine overall points lower — and then applies the filter Udaipur does not print: 60% in Class X, 60% in Class XII, 60% in graduation (the 60/60/60 floor; OBC-NCL/EWS carry the same 60s at a 75/65 CAT bar; the CA/CMA/CS route asks 50% in those examinations). The percentile gate is easier at Kozhikode; the life-record gate does not exist at Udaipur. That is the entire admissions philosophy of this pair in one sentence.

The formulas: the test against the whole file

Both final lists read the CAT score — Udaipur’s policy spells it out (“the CAT Score would be used and not the CAT Percentile”), and Kozhikode computes a CAT Index from scaled section scores. After that shared habit, the two formulas want different candidates.

Udaipur’s final merit = Normalised CAT Score 55% + PI 25% + Profile 20%. Fifty-five percent on the test is the heaviest CAT reliance among the solo doors in this series — the formula of an institute that trusts the exam.

Kozhikode’s final = CAT Index 35% + PI 35% + WAT 20% + resume 10% — the only final in the pair carrying a Written Ability Test and a scored resume, run across six WAT-PI cities (Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Mumbai, New Delhi). Its Stage-2 shortlist (Aggregate Index Score) weights CAT 50%, Class X 15%, Class XII 20%, diversity and up to 5% work experience — the school marks that gate eligibility also score the shortlist.

The quota question, answered from print

Neither institute prints any management, institutional or discretionary route — no IIM does. Both admit through CAT alone under Government of India reservation law, and Kozhikode’s policy carries the no-authorised-agent position. An agent quoting a priced seat at either campus is selling exactly that fraud.

The placement evidence, stated honestly

Kozhikode is one of the older IIMs; Udaipur, on its 16th batch with 375 planned, is the newer institute with the fuller fee disclosure. Neither side’s current audited salary table was re-opened for this page, so no package figures are quoted here. Run any report you are shown through the five checks in our placement-report methodology before it settles a Rs 21-24 lakh decision.

Who should pick which

• Pick Udaipur if your CAT score is your strength (55% of its final), your sectionals are strong (its 75s match Kozhikode’s), your transcript has a weak line, or the fully residential printed figure makes budgeting cleaner. Watch your registered email — the invitation window is the whole game.
• Pick Kozhikode if your record is uniformly 60-plus, your overall percentile sits in the 85-94 band, and you can write and interview — a third of its final is the WAT and resume. Pay the roughly Rs 2 lakh premium knowingly, for the older brand.
• Either way — both processes run on email after the CAT result. The institutes’ own pages, not any aggregator and not any agent, carry the operative dates.