How to deal with envy when a friend with reserved category status gets better MBA college calls despite similar CAT percentile scores?

Scoring 93.85 percentile as a general category candidate while a friend with 94 percentile under a reserved category receives calls from IIM K, FMS, IIFT, and IIM I (HR) — while you're looking at baby IIMs and tier-2 colleges — is genuinely difficult to process. The frustration becomes sharper when teachers around you seem to validate the outcome as a reflection of who's "better." We want to address this honestly, because we've seen this exact situation come up repeatedly across student conversations.

The admission outcome is not a verdict on your ability.

Consider what we've tracked across admissions cycles: a candidate with 99.3 percentile didn't receive an FMS call because composite score cutoffs — which factor in sectional performance, academic scores, work experience, and category-wise merit lists — didn't align. Separately, we've seen a candidate miss a DU college by 3 marks on the final composite despite scoring 245 marks more than another admitted candidate in CUET. These aren't anomalies. They reflect how multi-variable admission systems actually work. Percentile rank is one input, not the decision.

Your friend's two gap years, for instance, represent a meaningful placement disadvantage that will surface during MBA recruitment — while your active degree status is an asset in that same process. The scoreboard at admissions time and the scoreboard at placement time are not the same scoreboard.

On the reservation system itself — the picture that emerges is genuinely complex.

We've seen this perspective from experienced professionals and alumni: comparison at the admissions stage will consistently steal your focus. Reserved category students will outperform general category peers in placements in some cohorts, and the reverse will be true in others. The more useful frame is what you do inside the program.

The sociological context also matters and shouldn't be dismissed. Caste remains a social reality in India, and reservations are designed to ensure representation in institutions that have historically excluded certain groups. Without the system, top B-school cohorts would skew overwhelmingly toward general category students — the data on this is consistent. At the same time, we've heard from reserved category students themselves — including those from Delhi University — who acknowledge the system's complexity: that more privileged candidates within reserved categories sometimes benefit more than genuinely disadvantaged ones. These are legitimate tensions that exist simultaneously, and holding both truths is more honest than collapsing into either pure frustration or pure defence.

What actually remains in your control.

IIFT is a strong outcome — even candidates at 99 percentile don't always convert their target colleges, and that's not rhetorical comfort, it's admission reality. If you want to revisit the comparison entirely, retaking CAT with a sharper strategy and targeting IIM A conversions is a concrete path forward. But regardless of which college you attend, the variables that determine your MBA ROI — interview performance, the network you build, the roles you target, and how you execute during placements — are almost entirely effort-driven. Category-based admission disparities are real and largely outside your control. Your performance inside the program is not.

The inferiority you're feeling right now is a response to an outcome, not evidence of your ceiling.

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