NIFT Eligibility Criteria 2025 - Check Program-wise Eligibility, Age Limit, Qualifying Exam, Marks

It is not compulsory to have studied Maths in Class 12 to appear for NIFT Entrance Exam. However, some questions from Mathematics are asked in the NIFT GAT section. Therefore, it is always beneficial to have some knowledge about the subject. The NIFT question paper for GAT will include questions from sections like logical and analytical reasoning, general awareness, verbal reasoning, and English . General knowledge questions may include topics like fashion industry, both local and global, and news of political and economic importance. The GAT paper will be conducted in a computer-based mode and will be for 120 minutes.

In case of the B. Des and B.FTech programmes, the candidates should be less than 24 years as on July 1 of the admission year. There is relaxation of 5 years for candidates belonging to SC, ST, and PwD categories. However, there is no age limit for applying to the postgraduate programmes at NIFT. When applying for admission to design courses at the NIFTs, the candidate must also carefully go through the academic requirements. Note that even if a candidate qualifies the NIFT Entrance Exam but doesn't meet the prescribed eligibility criteria, he or she will not be considered for admission.

Yes, the National Institute of Fashion Technology will allow candidates with late fees. The late fee application window will open once the deadline to fill out the NIFT 2025 application form with regular fee closes. The start and last date to fill out the NIFT 2025 application form with late fee will be notified by the institute before the regular application form closes or sometime thereabout. The late fee for NIFT 2025 will be INR 5,000. The late fee has to be paid in addition to the application fee, which is INR 3000 for open category candidates.

The eligibility criteria may differ depending on the course opted by the candidate. For instance, candidates seeking admission to the B. Des course needs to have passed 10+2 exam from a recognised institute and should be less than 24 years as of August 1, 2025. Relaxation of 5 years in the upper age limit applies for candidates belonging to SC, ST and PwD candidates.

The candidate has to select their admission category at the time of filling out the NIFT 2025 application form. The candidate must make sure that they have the requisite valid and verificable certificate supporting their category.

Note that the category selected by a candidate at the time of submitting the application form will be considered as final.

If a candidate selects a reserved category i.e. SC/ST/OBC (NCL)/EWS/PWD but fails to submitted a valid Category Certificate, he or she will be considered for open category seats provided any benefit of relaxed age or income or cut offs has not been availed by the candidate at any stage of the Admission Process. If any benefit has been availed, the candidate’s application will be rejected. 

Also, if a reserve category candidate is considered for open category, then he/she will have to pay the difference in amount of application fee as applicable for open category.

Candidates will be shortlisted for the NIFT 2025 Studio Test/ Interview based on their performance in the written tests.

Note that the NIFT 2025 written exams comprise the GAT and CAT exams.

If the candidate fails to be included in the shortlist, he or she is not eligible to appear in the Situation Test/ Interview.

The National Institute of Fashion Technology will conduct the Situation Test for the B.Des program sometime in April 2025. Meanwhile, the Personal Interview for the M.Des program will be held starting March 2025.

To be included in the final NIFT 2025 merit list, it is mandatory to appear in both the written exams and Situation Test/ Interview. The only exception is B.FTech applicants as the final merit list for these candidates is prepared based on GAT scores.

The application form for NIFT 2025 has to be filled online. To fill out the application form, go to the NIFT admission portal and click on the application link. A registration form will open. Enter registration details like email id, mobile number, and phone number, Upon registration, a unique candidate account will be created. Log-in to fill in the rest of the form, including personal, academic, and contact details. Documents the candidate has to upload during registration include photograph and signature in jpeg format and size not exceeding 100 kb. Finally pay the application fee of INR 3000 to complete the application process.

The candidate will be shortlisted for counseling on the basis of their NIFT scores. You can check your eligibility status by logging into the result portal.

The National Institute of Fashion Technology will conduct fresh registrations for NIFT counseling. 

For the current academic session, NIFT 2024, the counseling registration was conducted from June 5-15, 2024. As part of the registration process, the candidate also needed to fill in and lock choices.