Is the rant against non-engineers justified in Indian management education?
No, the rant against non-engineers is largely unjustified and reflects frustration rather than actual data. The viral Reddit thread with 619 upvotes split roughly 60-40 in favour of non-engineers, with the community pushing back against engineer entitlement claims.
The Numbers Tell a Different Story
Engineers still constitute 55-60% of admits at top IIMs even after diversity policies. At IIM Ahmedabad (Rs 27.5L fees, Rs 35.22 LPA average salary, 99%+ CAT cutoff), IIM Bangalore, and IIM Calcutta, placement outcomes show zero correlation between undergraduate discipline and final compensation. The 2023 placement reports reveal that commerce graduates, humanities students, and engineers all cluster within the same salary bands at top consulting firms like McKinsey (Rs 45-50 LPA) and BCG.
The diversity bonus itself is modest, typically 3-5 percentile points, not the 10+ percentile advantage that rants claim. A 99.2 percentile engineer and a 98.8 percentile commerce graduate competing for the same seat face similar academic bars when you account for the full selection criteria (WAT, PI, past academics).
Why the Complaints Miss the Mark
The core arguments in anti-non-engineer rants fall apart under scrutiny. First, the equation of engineering with intelligence ignores that academic performance varies more within fields than across them.
A physics researcher studying NLP (as Pishpash56 noted in the Reddit thread) likely has stronger mathematical foundations than an average IT engineer who hasn't touched calculus since second year. Second, the claim that non-engineers cannot handle MBA coursework is contradicted by decade-long data showing identical academic performance across disciplines once students complete foundational quant modules in Term 1.
Third, the "unfair diversity" argument fails to acknowledge what business education actually needs. CA graduates bring accounting expertise that helps in corporate finance roles.
BBA students often have early internship experience that engineers lack. Economics graduates understand market structures better than most computer science majors.
When Unilever or Asian Paints recruits for marketing roles, they explicitly seek diverse academic backgrounds because the job requires consumer psychology insight, not coding ability.
What Engineers and Non-Engineers Should Actually Do
If you are an engineer frustrated with IIM admissions, redirect that energy toward 99.9+ percentile preparation. Your real competition is not the commerce graduate with 98.5 percentile but the 50,000+ other engineers in the 99+ range. Accept that when 70% of CAT takers are engineers, admission committees need some balancing to build functional classrooms where case discussions draw on varied perspectives.
If you are a non-engineer facing this rant, do not internalize it. Your admission is earned through the same selection gauntlet.
Focus on articulating in interviews why your background adds value, whether that is audit experience from your CA training, research skills from your MA, or customer-facing work from hospitality management.
Pro Tip: Engineers dominate MBA admissions by absolute numbers, not superior merit. If you cleared CAT at 99+ percentile regardless of background, you have proven analytical capability.
The remaining selection components (essays, interviews, past academics) test business readiness and interpersonal skills where undergraduate major matters far less than individual preparation. Stop worrying about quotas and focus on controllable factors like mock interview performance.