wschaeff wrote:
crackalack wrote:
It really is nuts, isn't it? For those of us that applied in the week before the Fellowship deadline, this past month has been an absolute bloodbath. Had I known in advance, I still wouldn't have applied ED but come on... Can you really call it "Regular Decision" if it accounts for less than half of admits?
Is it true that more than of the admits come from ED? I realize that CBS uses ED to get their yield up and improve their ranking, but wow... I chose not to apply ED to CBS because I like to have flexibility in my decision making. Like, maybe I'll get money at another school and that would influence my decision.
No, I have no idea if it's true. I was just exaggerating for effect, but...It worked! Got my first Kudo! Let's try it some more!
Warning: Everything in this post is speculative, self-entitled and probably flat wrong.I have been scouring these boards for CBS clues over the last few months, and I don't think I've seen any figures on the actual ED-RD % breakdown. On the BW blog I once saw an admissions rep say that "the numbers aren't published, but you have the same overall chance of admission in either round." As my grandmother used to say, "The numbers aren't published, but that's probably a load of malarkey." I applied early January RD for precisely the same reasons as wschaeff and a lot of others. I incorrectly assumed there was a discrete amount of spots allocated to RD and ED applicants (like college applications, and 90% of B School admission rounds).
But as it turns out, Columbia seems to have 3 rounds, each of which is fluid. Check it - Round 1: ED, Round 2: RD (September - December), Round 3: RD (December - April). I thought I was applying in something like a Round 2, because I got it into my head that any RD app submitted before the fellowship deadline had the same odds. Better research (or an admissions consultant) would have told me that significantly better RD odds are in the window right after ED. Now the ding-parade has really started cruising since that handful of early January applicants got invites (nearly all on Feb 16, see page 171). I made flawed assumptions, and that's my fault. I surely can't call Columbia disingenuous, even if they are trying to jack up their yield. But if not misleading, the CBS admissions process suffers from a gross lack of clarity and transparency.
It is one of the best business schools in the world. I would do just about anything to get a Columbia MBA. Period. But this here forum has at least 50(!) MORE PAGES than Stanford, HBS, Booth, McCombs, Haas, Wharton, Tuck or any other forum. That's 1,000 more rants, questions, unanswered prayers and pleas than any comparable B-School! What could possibly account for such a difference? The fact that we can't go to the source to get even a modicum of insight into this long, expensive and highly stressful process! Every one of these places is a black box, but CBS goes above and beyond to torture its applicants with uncertainty. Maybe if we were given a bit more information, both prospectively and after submission, I wouldn't spend 20 minutes crafting an uninformed internet diatribe against an institution I want so badly to be a part of.
I'm blowing in the wind here, guys. I just need some clarity.
Oh, and if I get an interview invite tomorrow, I will burn this post to the ground faster than you can say Morningside Heights.
I attended a CBS admissions event in October. The presenter (I believe he was the dean of admissions) said that there's no difference between an ED applicant's chances of acceptance and a RD applicant's, as long as the RD applicant submits his/her app before Dec 15.