A handmade poster in a modest PG flat on SG Road reads ‘CAT 2024: 100 Percentile’. For four friends, all BBA students at Nirma University, who shared this room, it was not just a motivational message, it was a daily reminder of their collective dream. Today, that dream stands realised though they missed the perfect hundred in the Common Admission Test results that were announced on Thursday.
Om Potdar leads the group at 99.8 percentile, followed by Soham Shukla at 99.39, Kevin Thomas at 98.14 and Athang Kulkarni at 97.03 percentile. All four are hopeful of getting into the top IIMs as they will now support each other for the next round – interviews and group discussion.
The friends initially met through IPMAT, the entrance exam for IIM Indore‘s five-year integrated program.
The friends initially met through IPMAT, the entrance exam for IIM Indore’s five-year integrated programme, which also qualified them for Nirma University’s BBA programme. They rented a room together in the Vaishnodevi area, creating a support system that went beyond academics.
Son of an income tax officer and a doctor, Soham, 20, from Nashik, says. “I was in the 90th percentile in the IIT-JEE results, but could not make it to an institute or course of my choice. So I focused on the management discipline. We started preparing for CAT in the second year of college,” he said.
“We would often ride past IIM Ahmedabad just to remind ourselves of our goal,” says Om Potdar, whose father is a tuition teacher in Kolkata. Om, who received a full scholarship for BBA, credits his family’s support for his success.
For Kevin Thomas from Bhopal, who lost his father when he was in the sixth grade, the journey has been tough. Kevin shifted from the science stream to management. “Without help from this fantastic peer group, I would not have scored these marks,” he says. Athang’s parents are both from the legal profession.
“Only those who are part of a shared journey can understand mood swings, anxiety and the need for discipline. I clearly am in the best company,” Athang says.
When two of them needed financial help – they won’t disclose who – others quietly pooled resources and paid the the exam fee.”What are friends for, after all?” says one of the friends.