Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants

Sorry to hear that. Good luck with your other schools. Also, keep in mind ED this summer.

Thanks for the encouragement, but I'm already getting on the old side for a traditional MBA program. 1 year older most likely wouldn't do me any favors.

Sorry to hear about the dings guys.

Seems like a lot of strong profiles are getting ding w/o interviews. As NY'er who works at a bank and has a lowish-GPA, I can't say I feel too good...

Yep, got dinged w/o interview today. Not to sound like I am flattering myself but I am slightly surprised, thought I would have been strongly in the running for interview, but oh well.

I re-took the GMAT and went from a 700 to a 750 which I think helped a lot. Also I got help the second time around. The problem with the military is there is nobody with a decent MBA let alone anybody who went to a Top 10 school to help you with essays and things. So I was really under-prepared my first time around. My re-applicant essays were more coherent and explained why CBS was the best fit for me. Also I applied ED which has a better yield it appears.

To be honest...not sure how much it helped. The donor thought I would be a "perfect" fit for the school and was also surprised/upset that I didn't even get an interview. Guess it shows that RD this year was pretty tough, especially if you applied after Thanksgiving.

That's interesting to hear about application timing. Does Columbia place a large emphasis on demonstrated interest through early submission/class visit etc? I assume so, given that they have binding ED round? To be honest, I actually chose to apply to Columbia later in the process than my other schools, submitted on January 3rd and didn't have a chance to visit the school, unfortunately. While it might be a stretch, I think I'll tell myself that that hurt me so as not to feel discouraged about my outstanding applications.

There is definitely a preference at Columbia for Early Decision applicants and those who show they are very committed to the school. There is an impression that a number of people apply to HBS, Wharton and CBS with CBS as the backup school. The yield of students who accept admission offers plays into a schools ranking with Businessweek so they have an incentive to accept students they feel reasonable certain will accept the offer. Also there are a flood of applications in January to make the Fellowship deadline.

Dang, wish I had been more cognizant of that. Columbia was certainly not a backup school for me, although, now, in addition to rationalizing my denial as a symptom of application timing, I will also tell myself it is because they are so certain I will get into HBS; never underestimate the power of rationalization! Impressive jump on the GMAT, btw, don't see that large of a jump too often. Also, congratulations on your acceptance.

The way an alum explained it to me during my interview (and this could be incorrect for all I know) is that the admissions office works closely with the career center and puts people in various brackets based off of the school's recent graduating class's career outcomes. So if 20% of graduates were hired for consulting jobs, then they look to accept around 20% consulting-oriented people for this year. As it's a rolling admissions process they essentially fill each bracket up on an ongoing basis, and the fewer slots are left the more people you're competing with for that bracket. So it pays to submit earlier.

For some perspective, he told me that I had submitted too late (I sent in my Columbia app on 11/20).

**NOTE** that I'm not confident that the alum in my interview had accurate information, as this was all news to me, and I'm friends with two other Columbia alums at work. Has anyone else heard that Columbia does their process this way?

Wow he said 11/20 was too late?! Where does that leave us folks who barely made the scholarship deadline...

I cannot beleive thats true. I mean, think of it ... If the interviewer says someone is late applying in mid november, he is implying that the class is already filled by then. I attended a CBS event in late nov and the admission representative said it was all okay to apply in RD.
i would beleive the interviewer was not well informed and live in hope as i applied on 12/31.

CBS always tries to hide how many seats are filled in ED. It encourages us to apply in RD simply for its own benefit.

The only thing I can think of is that TheFool is focusing on marketing which is not a huge draw for Columbia like say Kellogg. So if they focus their admissions rates based on historical employment trends the number of "marketing candidates" they accept will be relatively small to the number of "banking candidates." So if you are going for a niche market area the rolling admissions would hurt you more than applying with Investment Banking aspirations where they can be fairly certain of high employment rates.

That's the only way I can make sense of the comment but in reality I still think it's a stretch. Even Harvard and Stanford are admitting students in Round 3 so I can't believe that Columbia will have filled it's class by January. Certainly there are fewer seats the longer you wait but people are still going to get admitted in Feb/March. Your odds get worse the longer you wait but why would the admissions council bother accepting more applications for months after the class was already filled?

not very sure about this it increases the "selectivity" and benefits the rankings etc. I am guessing too.

Did someone get accepted after being waitlisted / deferred?

I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to your question. But were you waitlisted post-interview? Could you list your timeline?