IIM Waitlist Movement 2026: Expected Conversion Trends for All IIMs

Overview: The IIM Waitlist Movement 2026 plays a crucial role in the final admission process for MBA aspirants. Many candidates who receive initial offers decline them in favour of better options, which triggers movement in the waitlist across different categories.

What You Will Get in This Blog: IIM Waitlist Movement overview + institute-wise movement data + IIT MBA waitlist data + factors influencing movement + tips for waitlisted candidates.

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IIM Waitlist Movement 2026: Overview

The table below gives a quick overview of key highlights for IIM Waitlist Movement 2026.

What is IIM Waitlist Movement?

The IIM waitlist movement is the process by which candidates placed on a waiting list receive admission offers as and when initially selected candidates decline their seats. This typically happens when selected candidates choose to join other institutes such as a higher-ranked IIM, or join ISB, XLRI, FMS, SPJIMR, or foreign B-schools.

Understanding historical waitlist trends helps MBA aspirants estimate their realistic chances of converting a call before the academic year begins. Waitlist movement is category-specific, meaning the movement for General, EWS, OBC, SC, ST, and PwD seats is tracked separately.

When Does IIM Waitlist Movement Happen in 2026?

IIM waitlist movement generally begins after the first set of admission offers is released. Institutes progressively release additional offer lists as accepted candidates back out to join other colleges.

Factors That Influence IIM Waitlist Movement

• Several factors determine how much the waitlist moves at different IIMs each year.
• Acceptance Rate
• Top IIMs have higher acceptance rates, which means fewer candidates reject the offer. This results in smaller waitlist movement at colleges like IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore.
• Number of Seats
• Institutes with larger batch sizes tend to see greater waitlist movement. IIM Sirmaur , for example, sees movement of over 2900 in the General category alone.
• Competing Offers from Other Institutes
• Candidates who secure seats at ISB, XLRI, FMS Delhi, SPJIMR, or abroad often decline offers from newer IIMs, freeing up seats for waitlisted candidates.
• Category-wise Reservation Policy
• Each category (General, EWS, OBC, SC, ST, PwD) has separate reserved seats. Since acceptance behavior varies across categories, waitlist movement numbers differ accordingly.

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Tentative IIM Waitlist Movement 2026

The table below gives a side-by-side comparison of waitlist positions moved across all categories for Old IIMs and New IIMs during the 2025–27 admissions cycle. Newer IIMs like IIM Sirmaur (2,919) and IIM Kashipur (1,728) show far higher movement, since many candidates hold these offers as safety nets while waiting on older IIM decisions.

Tentative Waitlist Movement: (Based on 2025–27 Batch) - All Categories

Source: Official RTI responses, 2025–27 batch. Figures = total waitlist positions moved from first merit list to final seat allocation. NA = data not disclosed by the institute.

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Minimum CAT Percentile at Which Seats Were Converted (Batch 2025–27)

This is the data most aspirants don't know exists. The table shows the lowest CAT percentile at which a candidate actually received and accepted a seat at each IIM in the 2025–27 batch - not the published cutoff, but the real floor after all waitlist movement was complete. Some newer IIMs have surprisingly high general category floors - Rohtak at 97, Udaipur at 95.26, Kashipur at 95.09 - reflecting growing brand equity. IIM Visakhapatnam (82.03) and IIM Sambalpur (85.01) remain accessible for candidates in the 80–90 percentile range.

IIM Ahmedabad Waitlist Movement 2025

IIM Ahmedabad has one of the lowest waitlist movements among all IIMs. The very high acceptance rate among selected candidates means very few seats become available for the waitlist. Most students who receive an IIMA offer accept it over any other college.

IIM Bangalore Waitlist Movement 2025

IIM Bangalore offers two programs: PGP and PGPBA. The PGP program sees limited but notable waitlist movement, especially in the General and SC categories. PGPBA shows relatively higher movement in some reserved categories.

IIM Calcutta Waitlist Movement 2025

IIM Calcutta typically witnesses moderate to high waitlist movement, particularly in the General and OBC categories. Many candidates who convert IIM Calcutta calls also receive offers from IIMA or IIMB, leading to seat vacancies.

IIM Lucknow Waitlist Movement 2025

IIM Lucknow sees high waitlist movement in the General category (116 candidates). Many aspirants who receive multiple top IIM calls prefer IIMA, IIMB, or IIMC, which frees up seats for waitlisted candidates at IIM Lucknow.

IIM Kozhikode Waitlist Movement 2025

IIM Kozhikode has seen significant waitlist movement in recent years due to its large batch size. The General category movement of 272 makes it one of the higher waitlist numbers among older IIMs.

IIM Indore Waitlist Movement 2025

IIM Indore generally experiences one of the highest waitlist movements among older IIMs. With a General category movement of 802, its large batch intake is the primary reason for this high conversion rate for waitlisted candidates.

IIM Mumbai Waitlist Movement 2025

IIM Mumbai releases waitlist movements across multiple rounds. The bulk of the movement happens in the first round (WL-1), with smaller numbers in subsequent rounds.