Calling all Columbia Applicants for 2009!

This may help.
https://adam-markus.blogspot.com/2008/05/columbia-business-school-january-term.html
https://blog.accepted.com/acceptedcom_blog/2008/5/23/columbia-january-2009-accelerated-mba-program-essay-tips-and.html

thanks for the link!

I was the one that first mentioned not liking the passion essay but as I've thought about it and looked back at all my drafts I'm concerned also. I agree with sterny and others. It is nearly impossible to get good balance with these essays. The passion essay was tough, but it was also the only real opportunity to talk about something personal and non work related. I now see nowhere to talk about ECs/personal interests etc. Right now my esssays are all career. there is no balance. As someone stated earlier -

Essay 1 - Professional
Essay 2 - Professional. I guess it's technically possible to talk about an EC here but I don't see how and I don't think it would make for a very compelling essay or answer the question very well.
Essay 3 - For most people this will also be professional. But even if it's non professional it's a failure essay. It's not a chance to talk about ECs you really enjoy, or your leadership successes in those ECs, etc.

If you throw out essay 1 because it's a forward looking goals essay and every school has one, we only have 2 essays to talk about our accomplishments/leadership/work/ECs and one of those two essays is a failure essay!!

To all of those who are currently visiting the school, I was told that do not visit in the summer because there are few classes and the campus is empty.

From the looks of it, you guys seem to be having a nice time sitting in these classes!?

I was holding off the visit till last week of August so that I could see CBS in action in full glory, but if a visit in the next 3-4 weeks can do the same I would be willing to book the tickets right now!

So is it worth it to visit in the summer?

I wanted to give you my take on this. As an overall suggestion, I would say think outside the box just a little bit. Don't be pigeonholed by the exact words of the essay prompts.

To begin with, why do you say, throw out essay 1? That's nuts! Try to think a little beyond the rigid nature of the question. This is not designed to be a call and response type of exercise.

Question: What is your short-term goal?
Answer: Get a job as a management consultant
Question: What is your long-term goal?
Answer: Start my own consulting company

I realize this is a gross exaggeration, but I'm just trying to get my point across. You can't talk about your ST and LT goals without talking about what you have already done. RIGHT? Why do you want to be a banker, a consultant, or a brand manager? What life steps have you taken that lead you up to this decision to get an MBA? At some point, you said I want to do "X.” What caused you want to do that? Are you good at something? Do you already have some skills but lack others? A key thing that you need to do is talk about your experiences. There is definitely room in the word count to briefly discuss leadership.

"I worked on Project X in which I implemented a process improvement system. I was the project manager and worked with 3 different divisions and management teams to facilitate the process, design the system, and implement the solution. That's when I knew that I wanted to be a management consultant. I have raw leadership abilities that I need to cultivate as well as build a fundamental business background as my foundation. The next step is an MBA from CBS. etc, etc. Now I didn't make that very articulate or use my best grammar, but that was 79 words. 671 to still use elsewhere.

Also, what about Essay 2. Why can't you talk about leadership in this essay? Do you not have leadership examples from your own practical experience? Again, you don't need to talk about leadership activities for 500 words, but there is definitely room.

Finally, as far as EC's go, Columbia has a specific section in their application for you to discuss college EC's and post-college EC's. You don't get a ton of space, but enough to get a main point across.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
ryguy

If you want to see Columbia in its hustle-and-bustle stage, then you should wait till the fall term to visit. As for myself, since I already know the university campus and the business school itself, I pretty much know what to expect. The few things I need from the campus visit is to talk to an admission officer for more info and sit in an actual class.

Summer is usually pretty empty, with not many people on campus.
I had always enjoyed staying on campus over the summer during my undergrad time, much more relaxing than usual. Hope it helps.

I agree with your points and I'm actually doing that stuff in my drafts. My essay 2 shows accomplishment/leadership and of course I touch on my career and what I've done a bit in essay 1. I didn't mean to say that essay 1 is a throw away question. In fact a Columbia adcom I talked to said they consider it the most important essay (I think most schools do). But, the essay questions are still limiting. Essay 1 lets you touch on your past a bit (but it's not the focus of the essay), essay 2 will let you incorporate some kind of achievment but you still need to answer the question. There is still no essay that's great to talk about ECs or your non work interests. And none of the essays allow you to just purely focus on telling a story about an accomplishment or a leadership example (though I agree those topics can be weaved in a bit in essay 1 or 2).

If you look at Columbia questions in the past they had the entrepreneur question - that's easy leadership and accomplishment. Then they had the passion essay - ECs. Then there was the career goals question and then one rotating question. You were able to tell your whole story more completely and more easily with this set of questions.

I'm glad I can talk about ECs in my app. If they give room for resume, bullet point type info (I'm pretty sure I remember djhouse saying that they do) then that would at least give me a chance to talk a bit about what I've done and accomplished outside of work. My best leadership example is outside of work and I want to mention it somewhere - I guess a bullet or two in my app is good enough. Though I'd obviously prefer to write an essay on it....

I guess I just wished CBS had the same questions as Kellogg. Best ones in my opinion, in terms of giving you room and "latitude" to paint the whole picture.

But yeah, I can see #1 and #2 giving some space for past accomplishments/leadership, and I agree on the need to "connect the dots". #3 tricky. Still difficult to get "values" across, but we'll have to figure something out!

I actually think there's some scope to introduce personal/extracurricular themes in both essays 2 and 3. The questions are worded such so as to allow you to draw from experiences beyond the academic/professional context.

Anyway, I sat in on a class at CBS today with the J-term students. I definitely, and this is purely my subjective opinion, got the sense that the students were really sharp - some went into what one may call a rather heated discussion with the professor, but with good reason. But observing the students' interaction with each other before and after class made me feel like a lot of the students were generally aloof - perhaps that's where the perception of CBS being a "commuter school" stems from? Didn't really feel a pronounced sense of camaraderie within the section.

Interesting. Nevertheless, I'm still applying ED unless the alumnus I'll be talking to later this week really freaks me out or something.

I'm hopefully speaking to a current student later this week. So we'll see how that goes. I'm still on the fence about ED.

I would predict that the camaraderie between J-term students is less than it is among September term students. J-term students seem to basically want to get in and get out of there - and I believe that a far greater percentage of J-term students come from NYC, whereas September term students come from all over hte place.

How did you find the facilities? I am reading from many sources that Columbia's facilities are quite poor.

The facilities at both Columbia and NYU are mediocre, at least compared to my undergrad - a private school in the Midwest. Tha might just be because of New York City real estate prices constraining any large expansions by the schools. Columbia's are slightly better, I found both Warren and Uris halls to be nicer than NYU's Kaufman Center.

But that's not to say that facilities alone will distract from the learning experience in any way at either school. And moreover, I've only visited the classrooms and general student lounge areas, so who knows - maybe the libraries and labs are fantastic?

Yeah I think Uris hall and warren are both nice. The Kaufman Center is a little bit unfriendly, security to every classroom. And people keep sending me to undergraduate admission office Once you get pass security, admission officer people, the students are all friendly

Has anyone visited Kellogg or Chicago, as well as Columbia? How do the facilities stack up comparatively?

Are Columbia's facilities similar to Kellogg's?

I visited Kellogg, Columbia, and NYU. I don't think the quality of their facilities would stop me from attending their programs if they accept me. I liked the food at Kellogg. The prospective students whom I met at Kellogg all said that Chicago GSB was amazing compared to Kellogg. (sorry riverripper if you ever read this post. I love Kellogg.)

How do Kellogg's facilities compare to Columbia's?

I think kellogg's facility looks older compare to Columbia. Kellogg's cafeteria is a lot better than Columbia's cafeteria though. But, I heard Columbia is going to build a new cafeteria.

I didn't feel particularly different in either places. The common area felt a bit crowded at Columbia, but it can depend on the time of the day. The classroom I sat in at Kellogg was smaller than the one at Columbia. There were several study rooms in Kellogg's main building but I am sure they will be packed during mid-terms or final. Kellogg area was beautiful and calm. I work near Times Sq., so I appreciate some calmness.