Common GD PI for all IIMs?

Common GD PI for all IIMs?
Unlike the UPSC which conducts a common interview for the various cadres of the Civil Services Examinations, the IIMs have been conducting separate Group Discussions (GD) and Personal Interviews (PI) for each IIM. This has allowed each IIM to maintain its own discretion in selecting students as per its criteria - over the years we have often noticed that a students may get an interview call from say IIM Ahmedabad but not from IIM Bangalore or he may get a call from IIM Kolkata and IIM Lucknow but not from IIM Indore. This was because of certain differences in the selection criteria adopted by an IIM - in the last few years, it has been observed that IIM Bangalore prefers to give a GD PI call to a student with work-ex compared to another candidate who may have performed better at the CAT. Similary, the other IIMs had their own selection system.

Now an IIM Review Committee headed by R C Bhargava has recommended a common GD PI System for the IIMs. With the number of IIMs slated to increase to upto 13 in the coming years, the committee feels that it will no longer be feasible for candidates who get multiple Group Discussion & Interview calls to manage. It is also a waste of time, since the same job can be accomplished with much fewer GDs & PIs if the system was unified by the IIMs. The final allotment would then be similar to what happens after the IIT JEE or the Medical Entrance Exams - starting from the 1st rank students can choose the IIM they wish to enrol in.

However, the report adds that not all IIM Directors were happy with the recommendations and as such it may be initially implemented on a voluntary basis. While a common Interview System for the IIMs has its obvious benefits, the existing system had its own merits.

Different admission criteria allowed a larger pool of students to have a reasonable chance of making it to an IIM - a student may have been weak in a particular aspect, but if even one of the IIMs had a relaxed outlook on that particular point, this student stood a chance of realizing his IIM dream. The unified system would now have one 'ideal profile' or 'aggregate sum of points on one set of admission criteria', thus ruling out many bright students.

Another benefit of the separate GD PI system was that it reduced the pressure on the interviewee - just one bad day wouldn't make or break him; while a bad candidate would always be found lacking, a bright student who might have had a bad interview or GD at a particular IIM would get a chance to redeem himself in the next one.
source-http://gd-pi.blogspot.com/2008/10/common-gd-pi-for-all-iims.html