Admitted to Columbia Business School: Class of 2013

Hey Bionic - I'd call the admissions office at CBS. We all have to complete several hours of pre-MBA work before matriculating at CBS. I don't think those materials are available yet, but since the school requires us to do that type of work, I'm sure they'd have some suggestions on resources you may wish to look at.

Of all the lucky folks who have received a fellowship, did you apply ED?

Hey Josie - I'm just being nosy and seeing CBS Class of 2013 in blue under your pic...you make that official? If memory serves me, you were still making up your mind last time I checked.

If so - congrats!

Yes I've decided to go to CBS!!! I am impressed you remember!

Excellent decision!!
You 're not going to regret it

thank you! looking fwd to meeting you all.

Hey everyone,

Does anyone know how long the Kroll check takes? I just faxed in my form yesterday.

I feel like this is the LAST obstacle to matriculation! Can't wait to become "official" and rid myself of all admission-related worries once and for all!

It took me less than a week. They were pretty fast. I think I faxed on Monday or Tuesday and I got the status complete email on Saturday?

They might give you a hard time, but I highly doubt they will take back your admission offer.

Mary explicitly said that "every year" she has to deny matriculation to someone who either didn't do it or failed it. Maybe she's bluffing, but she seemed pretty convincing to me.

My guess is that these courses aren't terribly challenging, but they have to set a certain standard for base knowledge that folks have before starting the program. As long as people do it right, it's probably not THAT hard to pass these tests, you just gotta put in the effort.

And I agree with Moss, Mary meant business. At one point she said, "Spouses come and go, but CBS is forever." And she was dead serious.

Well Mary sounds like a lovely person doesn't she? Maybe you have to get a tattoo of Alma Mater on your calf as part of the pre-matriculation tests.

Somehow I think this is a combination of kool aid and scare tactics.

That's kind of insulting... I have a feeling she has a chip on her shoulder from her personal experiences. A better phrase would've been "jobs come and go" because the MBA degree is directly related to your career anyway.

Mary took me and my wife out to lunch, and she was extremely pleasant. This sounds like she had to be joking about the spouses thing. CBS is great, but an MBA doesn't define you, how you lead your life does.

As far as the difficulty of these classes go, I was told that you have forever to complete it, so its is just a matter of effort. I have a feeling doing all that Fin Aid paperwork was the worst hurdle.

Look what I found with a google search: https://ci.columbia.edu/ci/premba_test/c0332/

Don't get me wrong, I think Mary is wonderful person and frankly I admire her passion in the work that she does for Columbia.

While I joke about what she said in her closing remarks at Connect, I definitely see that the root of her message was more to say simply -- the next two years that we have with Columbia has the potential to change our lives forever. Each person is different on how they will take advantage of what the school has to offer, but overall, this experience can shape our futures in a very profound way, both professionally and personally.

Yup, I drank the kool aid big time and I'm not afraid to admit it

I thought that was Dean Ziv rather than Mary that said the thing about spouses "coming and going." It was a part of a broader discussion in trying to pitch people on coming to CBS over other schools. He was illustrating that the choice of business school we make puts us into a lifetime network we can't change or leave -- where we get our MBA is set in stone. I think he used the marriage analogy as something that appears permanent but is actually not necessarily more "forever" than your choice of MBA in order to articulate the gravity of the decision. The point of the analogy was "choose wisely."

I had a few discussions with Mary that weekend and she's great. It was almost a let-down that we'll probably have dramatically less contact with her post-matriculation.