MDI Gurgaon vs IIFT Delhi: Two CAT-Only Doors, a Rs 4.7 Lakh Printed Gap

Twenty-five kilometres apart across the Delhi-Gurgaon border sit two of India’s most persuasive CAT-only doors — and a printed fee gap of about Rs 4.7 lakh. MDI Gurgaon totals Rs 26,55,310 for two years; IIFT Delhi’s last published total is Rs 21.82 lacs, and both include boarding and lodging, which makes this a rare genuinely like-for-like comparison. Both brochures were re-opened on 29 September 2026.

The door: CAT, and only CAT, at both

IIFT’s 2026-28 prospectus routes admission through CAT 2025 plus a Group Discussion and Personal Interview conducted in physical mode across ten cities — Delhi, Kolkata, Kakinada, GIFT City, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Lucknow and Mumbai — and states plainly that the IIMs have no role in the selection process or the conduct of the programme. The application fee prints at Rs 3,000 (General/OBC-NCL/EWS) and Rs 1,500 (SC/ST/PwD/Transgender), non-refundable, and the printed last date for this cycle was 28 November 2025.

MDI’s 2026-28 brochure shortlists on CAT and then runs WAT-GD-PI plus a behavioural assessment, with application fees of Rs 3,000 for the Gurgaon programmes (Rs 3,590 both campuses; Rs 8,496 for NRI/Foreign National/Gulf Quota/OCI), inclusive of GST — the “Gulf Quota” there is an application category, not a seat-selling route; admission still runs through the same CAT shortlist. MDI’s completed 2026-28 window ran 25 September to 28 November 2025.

The timing truth is identical at both: the 2027-29 batch runs on CAT 2026, whose registration closed on 15 September 2026. Neither 2027-29 form was open on the pages opened today. With a CAT 2026 registration, watch both portals for their own windows. Without one, the missed-CAT map is the honest read.

The money: the printed gap, with one deferred figure

MDI itemises its Rs 26,55,310 two-year grand total to the rupee — tuition Rs 9,61,505 a year, learning material Rs 62,000, student activities Rs 31,250, library Rs 37,700, alumni Rs 15,000 once, refundable security Rs 27,500 once, boarding Rs 1,04,200 and lodging Rs 1,09,750 a year — and marks the whole table tentative and subject to revision. The dual-degree PGDM-IB prints Rs 32,54,000 combined, Europe costs extra.

IIFT’s prospectus prints its 2025-27 totals and defers the exact 2026-28 fee to the offer letters: Delhi Rs 21.82 lacs (covering tuition, boarding, lodging, library, computer and internet, medical insurance, alumni and student body), Kolkata Rs 21.32 lacs, Kakinada and GIFT City Rs 19.68 lacs excluding boarding and lodging, refundable security Rs 10,000. The non-residential MBA (Business Analytics) at Delhi prints Rs 17,87,506. SC, ST and PwD students receive a 50% tuition-fee concession, and refunds on withdrawal follow UGC guidelines, taking at least two months.

So the printed gap — MDI’s current total against IIFT’s last published one — is about Rs 4.7 lakh, residential against residential. Compare MDI against IIFT’s non-residential MBA(BA) and the gap stretches past Rs 8.6 lakh, but that is a different programme shape, not a like-for-like.

Selection and scale

IIFT’s Delhi MBA (IB) holds 240 seats; MDI’s machine is larger — its 2024-26 placement report counts 586 students across four programmes (313 PGDM, 124 PGDM-HRM, 31 PGDM-Business Analytics, 118 PGDM-IB). Neither brochure prints a cutoff percentile; both reserve their filters for the shortlist stage, so treat any aggregator’s “MDI cut-off” or “IIFT cut-off” as an estimate.

Placements: one report opened, one honestly blank

MDI’s official 2024-26 report (re-read 2 October 2026) prints PGDM average Rs 29.5 lakh and median Rs 29.0 lakh, PGDM-HRM average Rs 24.8 lakh, PGDM-Business Analytics average Rs 26.2 lakh, PGDM-IB average Rs 26.3 lakh (corrected 2 October 2026 — an earlier read misattributed the PGDM top-50-percentile block, Rs 35.4 lakh, to PGDM-IB), highest Rs 97.5 lakh domestic and Rs 80.20 lakh international, 157 companies with 75 new recruiters. IIFT’s prospectus carries no salary table and we have not re-opened its latest placement report today — no IIFT figure is quoted here. Ask the institute for its audited report and run both through the placement-report methodology.

The quota question, answered by both brochures

Neither document prints a management, institute-level or donation route. IIFT’s is a deemed university under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry filling 240 Delhi seats through a national CAT process; MDI’s is an AICTE-approved residential PGDM whose brochure lists CAT plus its own selection stages and nothing else. For the searcher typing “MDI management quota” or “IIFT direct admission”, those two PDFs are the complete answer — and the Delhi NCR direct-admission map shows what the region’s legal routes actually look like.

How to choose

If you hold a CAT 2026 registration, these are not either-or — their institute windows run separately, so apply to both when the forms open. On printed money, IIFT’s residential total undercuts MDI’s by about Rs 4.7 lakh; on printed outcomes, MDI’s 2024-26 median of Rs 29 lakh is the number IIFT must answer with its own audited report before you pay the premium either way. What neither campus offers is a way around the exam — and in this comparison, that is the one fact worth more than every fee line combined.