IIM Visakhapatnam vs IIM Raipur: the interview-heavy solo against the JAP host

The lowest first bar in this comparison series faces the joint-process host. IIM Visakhapatnam shortlists at 82 overall and hands nearly half the final score to the interview; IIM Raipur hosts JAP 2026 — one registration, one joint interview for four IIMs — and spreads its final across 150 marks with the PI at 40. Vizag’s printed bill is Rs 23,58,590 before its outside-the-headline extras; Raipur prints Rs 20,08,000 with the mess billed separately. Both official pages were re-read today, 23 October 2026. The softer door sits at the coast; the cheaper bill sits in Chhattisgarh.

The two bills, side by side

	IIM Visakhapatnam (PGP 2026-28)	IIM Raipur (PGP 2026-28)
Printed total	Rs 23,58,590 grand total (Rs 11,79,295 x 2 years)	Rs 20,08,000 (excluding caution, boarding, insurance)
Structure	Rs 3,79,765 tuition x 6 + Student Welfare Rs 40,000 in terms 1 and 4	Year 1 Rs 10,37,500 (3,83,500 + 3,23,500 + 3,30,500); Year 2 Rs 9,70,500 (3,23,500 x 3)
Hostel and mess	A Rs 25,000-per-term advance (mess, AC, printing) OUTSIDE the headline	Lodging INSIDE the printed total; boarding (mess) Rs 16,620 per trimester outside
Caution and insurance	Rs 40,000 caution, outside	Rs 30,000 caution at registration + Rs 1,500-a-year medical insurance, both outside
Acceptance	Inside the schedule	Rs 1,00,000 adjusted against Term 1
All-in as printed	About Rs 25.5 lakh with the deposit and six terms of advances	About Rs 21.4 lakh with deposit, six trimesters of mess and insurance
Document	Official program-fee page	Official fee-structure page

The honest label: neither headline is the whole bill, but Raipur’s extras are the smaller add-on — roughly Rs 1.3 lakh against Vizag’s roughly Rs 1.9 lakh. Like-for-like, Raipur is about Rs 4 lakh cheaper.

Two doors: the solo shortlist and the joint process

Vizag prints the lowest General first-shortlist bar in this series — 82 overall with 70 sectionals (EWS and NC-OBC 72, SC 50, ST/PwD 40), with the printed caution that these are shortlist bars, not admission bars — and then runs its own three-phase machine alone. Raipur runs nothing alone: it HOSTS JAP 2026, the Joint Admission Process shared with IIM Kashipur, IIM Ranchi and IIM Tiruchirappalli. Registration happens on the JAP portal after the CAT 2025 result and the invitation email; the Personal Interview is conducted jointly; then each of the four institutes draws its own merit list. One application effort at Raipur’s door covers four campuses; Vizag’s door takes a separate, scored, detailed application.

The formulas behind the lists

Vizag’s final aggregate, printed to the mark: PI 48, CAT 25, Class X 4, Class XII 4, Bachelor’s 4, gender diversity 5, work experience 10 — the heaviest interview block in the series, with the IIM-Bangalore/Kozhikode/Lucknow/Indore PI-averaging import for candidates those institutes already shortlisted. Raipur’s final, printed in marks: CAT 2025 Index Score 50, PI 40, Class X 15, Class XII 15, work experience 15, gender diversity 8, profile 5, academic diversity 2 — out of 150, with the rule that a candidate receives either the gender or the academic diversity score, never both. Raipur also prints a hard graduation floor beneath the whole exercise: 60% for General, EWS and NC-OBC, 50% for SC, 45% for ST and PwD. Vizag’s page prints no equivalent floor.

The Phase-2 middle at Vizag

Between its bar and its interview, Vizag scores a detailed application out of 100: CAT 50 (split VARC 18, DILR 14, QA 18), Class X 10, XII 10, Bachelors 10, gender diversity 10, work experience 10 on a printed curve — zero under 12 months, the full 10 across 24-36 months, tapering to 2.5 beyond 48, measured to 31 December 2025. Raipur’s process has no published middle layer of this kind; the JAP shortlist leads straight to the joint PI and the 150-mark final.

The quota question, answered from print

Neither institute prints any management, institutional or discretionary route — no IIM does. Vizag admits through its solo published process; Raipur admits through JAP 2026 under the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, which its policy names. An agent quoting a priced seat at either campus is selling fraud; both official pages are the verification.

Who should pick which

• Pick Vizag if your percentile sits in the 82-93 band — its printed first bar is the only one of the two doors you demonstrably clear — or if you interview well: a 48-weight PI is the largest single lever in this series.
• Pick Raipur if you want one registration to cover four IIMs and the lower honest bill — about Rs 21.4 lakh all-in against Vizag’s roughly Rs 25.5 lakh — and your graduation marks clear the printed 60% floor comfortably.
• Either way — one CAT 2025 registration feeds both. Watch for the JAP invitation email after the result for Raipur, and fill Vizag’s Phase-2 detailed application carefully: it is scored, not decorative.