2012 Columbia Essays Analyzed

Great question and apologies for not making that clear - because the difference is huge.

They like to see a back-up plan. In our opinion, they do NOT like to see "unique" career paths. In fact, it is the opposite. And both of those seem to stem from the same place: lessons learned from the spring of 2009, when all the i-banks just vanished overnight and they had a bunch of people floundering, trying to figure out what to do. The more niche the career interest, the less resilient the student, the harder it was to place them. CBS seemed to decide that spring to never be in that situation again. They've made career services a bigger part of their admissions process (there are rumors that career services has a "veto" right on any "close call" candidate if the career goals don't seem realistic) and we've even heard stories of students getting pulled in by the admissions office prior to their alumni interview, with instructions to "adjust" their career goals.

The rule of thumb is this for Columbia career goals:

- Make sure you can land the job you describe

- Make sure that you *do* need the knowledge, network, and pedigree of Columbia - or at least the access to recruiters - to take this step (in other words, don't make it too aspirational, but you also don't want to list a job that you can get just by walking down the street)

- Avoid niche industries like fashion, sports, media, or other places where job prospects have shrunk to almost nothing (a confusing thing for applicants because Columbia does have strong programs in such areas, such as luxury goods - still a total stay-away)

- Make sure to include a secondary, back-up ("alternate") short-term career path that still gets you to your long-term goal (this is basically a way to say "look, sometimes crazy things happen in life and if for any reason I can't do X, I will pursue Y."
NOTE: This is pretty unique to Columbia, so please don't perceive it as a sea change in the MBA space. Some schools - Tuck, Ross, and Haas, to name a few - have expressed some curiosity at seeing back-up plans in place and so many programs might not mind it, but we don't believe there are any other b-schools who *need* to see what your Plan B looks like
NOTE #2: This line of reasoning is reinforced by the very common Columbia interview question "What will you do this fall if you don't get in?" - A lot of attention paid to contingency plans here

- Make sure that you display experiences and accomplishments that point to specific transferable skills that you will need in your post-MBA job - never just state experience and accomplishments and leave it to the reader to fill in the gaps; this is a major error that 90% of applicants make

In all, we strongly recommend working with a vetted consultant on your Columbia app. Not only is there a clear "right way" to do it (while a school like Tuck or GSB might favor more personal expression, thus mitigating the value of a good consultant a bit), but once you have the CBS career goals essay nailed, you will be able to build from that for over a dozen other schools. If we were going to rank MBA programs based on the idea of "how much value a good consultant can add," Columbia would be at the top of the list. Not to turn this into a big sales pitch, because that really is not the point (we will soon be full for Rd 1 anyway), but it was starting to feel obvious so I just went ahead and said it.

Good luck out there!

Respectfully,

Paul Lanzillotti