Will IIM Raipur release a second waitlist merit list after the first round of admissions?

There's significant uncertainty around whether IIM Raipur will release a second merit list, and we've seen this question surface repeatedly among waitlisted candidates in the current cycle.

One data point worth noting first: IIM Raipur issued approximately 1,500 calls across all categories this year, down from around 1,700 last year. That reduction in call volume actually makes second-list movement more mathematically likely, not less — fewer offers means fewer acceptances, which means more seats to fill.

When a candidate reached out directly to an admissions committee member, the response expressed doubt about whether a second list would materialize, with the caveat that without CAP (Common Admission Process) confirmation, movement may be more limited than in previous years. However, we'd urge waitlisted candidates not to read too much into this. Admissions committee members — often current students — typically don't have visibility into administrative timelines or institutional seat-release strategy. Their uncertainty reflects their own limited access to that information, not a reliable signal about what the institute will do.

The more telling signal may be the extension of the fee payment deadline to the 16th. In our experience tracking admissions cycles, deadline extensions of this kind are typically a strategic move to encourage more first-list acceptances and reduce early drop-offs — which is precisely the kind of institutional management that tends to precede a second list, not foreclose one.

There's also strong precedent here. Last year, despite similar call numbers, waitlist movement was substantial — approximately 350+ conversions in the SC category alone. That kind of institutional history doesn't disappear in a single cycle without a clear structural reason.

It's also worth noting that other IIM campuses — including Lucknow and Shillong — are already seeing waitlist movement in this cycle. The picture that emerges is one where IIM Raipur closing admissions after a single list would be the outlier, not the norm.

That said, a more measured perspective is worth holding alongside the optimism. Increased competition from newer IIM campuses — Trichy, Udaipur, and Ranchi among them — and higher acceptance rates across the board could dampen the scale of movement compared to last year. A second list is likely; a dramatic one is less certain.

The cautiously optimistic view is the one we've seen resonate most with candidates who've been through multiple cycles: movement will happen, but waitlisted candidates should plan for a range of outcomes rather than banking on a specific timeline or volume of releases.