Calling all Columbia MBA Applicants: Class of 2023 (2021 Intake)!

International GPA conversions are indeed tricky. It’s hard to know what’s actually going on here. Was your GPA “below average” or was your grading scale just that much less forgiving? Grade inflation (especially at top schools) is very real in the U.S. and usually AdComs know this. For instance, top Indian schools and french schools have students graduating in the top decile ranking with cumulative GPA scores in the 60-70/100 range. So the same could also be true for Turkey. What matters more is *where you were on a relative basis* for the rest of your class. Were you in the top quartile? Top decile? Top percentile? If so, say so, and this converted GPA doesn’t really matter much.

Now, if your GPA was objectively poor on a relative basis, then you have two options 1) ignore it and hope that the rest of your app is strong enough to compensate or 2) explain it in the “optional” essay. If you choose the later approach, make sure to “get in and get out quickly” (e.g., my undergraduate performance is not an accurate representation of my potential MBA academic performance because I was working 40 hours/wk to support my family while a full time student OR my parent died while I was in my sophomore year from a long, protracted illness OR I was living away from home for the first time and I had a hard time adjusting to the work/life balance and newfound freedoms of college. This wrecked my freshman year GPA but I improved it meaningfully by the end of my collegiate career). Take ownership of what you learned from the academic underperformance and why it won’t repeat itself in MBA.

If you went to the top-ranked school in your country, CBS will likely have heard of it. Still, there’s no harm in stating “top ranked university in Turkey with #5 ranked physics departments in the world according to the Economist”… or whatever your area of study was in your resume or the comment section of the CBS app.

One way to compensate for less-than-stellar undergraduate GPA is to have good academic credentials outside of your undergraduate transcript to show that you can do well on high-stakes testing (e.g., CPA, CFA, other professional licenses, GRE, GMAT, EA, etc.).

Has anyone who interviewed end August heard back yet?

I interviewed August 30th and I'm yet to hear back.

From the decision tracker, I see fanfan1247 has recently got an admit from CBS.

Hi!

I am currently working in a client facing role and was wondering if it would be a good idea to get my second recommendation from a client? My first one would be from a current supervisor and I was wondering if mixing up perspectives might be a good idea.

Any thoughts?

Hey - I've reached out to two people from the Hermes society pending responses. How long should I wait before reaching out to someone else? It's been 3 days for the first person and 1 for the second....I'm trying to apply ED so I know I have some time but I do want to connect with at least one person before I submit.

Hey! I reached out to 1 last week and she replied within the day - I think you can reach out to one more in 1-2 days if you dont hear back - some of the students are super busy (what I heard from the student I reached out to)
Did you email them via their CBS mail? (that's what I did - that may be the trick)

A whole lot of dings from CBS. Mostly for people who applied in August.

Could this mean that apps saw a surge? And they filled out quite a few ED spots?

Hi Guys!

Just got my admit from Columbia on the 30th of September. Super excited and on top of the world at the moment.

Looking forward to meeting everyone who comes to school next year.

Cheers!

Can people who have been accepted/rejected talk about what the timeline looked like after submission?

What did the interview invite look like? An email or a portal update? Do you have to keep checking the portal at all?

I know you get a call if admitted but that's a ways away for me right now.

Hi, I can only talk about ED application as I was one of them. I submitted my application on 15th Aug, got an interview invite on 12th Sep, scheduled interview on 19th sep and got an admit on 21st Sep. Every communication from Columbia was via email as I am an overseas applicant.

Posted from my mobile device

I applied ED on 08/31. Got an interview invite on 09/21. Interviewed on 09/26 and feedback submitted within 30 mins. Admitted on 09/29. All correspondence including acceptance was done via email and portal updates.

Posted from my mobile device

Hey Arjunsh18, may you share your profile other than the jumbo GMAT? Also, were you interviewed by a member of the Adcom or an alum ?

Posted from my mobile device

Sure. So I have around 6 years of work experience across diverse industries - Investment banking, Consumer goods, supply chain and assurance services. From these 6 years, I have spent 2 years working for my family business.

In terms of education - Qualified CA and also currently pursuing my CFA as well.

And I was interviewed by a current student. It was a really good and easy conversation. He didnt dive too deep into my profile more the generic Why MBA? Why now? Why Columbia? kind of questions.

Great ! Thanks for the response. I didn't know one could get inteviewed by a current student as well- definitely sets the stage for a relaxed conversation. Are you admitted to August or January intake ?

Posted from my mobile device

Yeah neither did I. I thought it would be the adcom or alumni. But maybe because I come from a city that does not have any alumni they could have asked me to interview with a current student.

August full time intake. Are you applying to school this year?

Hey guys. My name is David and I'm an MBA student at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. I posted a Youtube video of how I prepped for my interviews (and managed to convert 100% of my interview invites to admit offers) and a lot of people on Reddit found it insightful. I wanted to share it here since many of you are getting ED interviews and I think will be useful for you. Check it out. If you find it helpful, do me a favor and hit the like button. If you love it and want to see more, hit that subscribe button. Good luck!

Interview Video: https://youtu.be/N1hWngyg6qo

For those of you applying R2, I will be posting another video on essays in about two weeks so subscribe to get notified as soon as I post it!

Question for fellow CBS applicants. I have a better score in EA quant, so I used EA for my CBS application without submitting my ok GMAT score. Would it impact my chances of admission by using EA score instead of GMAT?