Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants

ACCEPTED!!! Got the call at 3PM today! And a fellowship!

Submitted: 01/02/13
Mid-Cycle Decision: 01/29/13 (27 days)
Interview: 02/07/13 (36 days)
Evaluation: 02/10/13 (39 days)
Final Decision: 02/20/13 (49 days)

*warning* : digression from admissions related stuff (or not, if you are still searching for schools)

good friend souvik showed me this CBS follies video yesterday - Married But Available (MBA). Pretty funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... icsJ7pMfxA

Admitted.

Call from Blocked/'Unknown' number.

Totally psyched. Almost certain I will accept, though have not yet received any info regarding a deposit timeline. Looking forward to potentially meeting some of you at the upcoming happy hour events.

Best of luck to all of you still waiting!

IN!!!!

Here is my timeline:
applied: 1/15
Invited to interview: 2/26
Interview: 3/14
Feedback: 3/17
accepted: 3/29

Yes ED applicants are considered for fellowships. The fellowship deadline is simply the latest date by which you can apply and still be considered for merit based fellowship, not a distinct round strictly for fellowship consideration. Remember CBS does not technically have rounds, but rather rolling admissions with key deadline dates (i.e. Early Decision, fellowship consideration, last call).

A little bit of nostalgia and amusement while we wait:

I recently was digging through boxes in my basement, and found a 1999 copy of BusinessWeek's Guide to the Best Business Schools (6th edition) -- the year when Columbia's tuition broke (ohgosh) the $27,000 ceiling. Yes, that's right: $27,000/yr.

Some other incredible tidbits from a decade and change ago, to distract us from our communal freak-outs:

Columbia Graduate School of Business (Ranked #6 by BusinessWeek)

Corporate ranking: 4
Enrollment: 1284
Average age: 27
Applicants accepted: 12%

Average GMAT score: 680
Average GPA: 3.45
Average work experience: 4 years

Median starting pay: $125,000
Average starting pay: $146,400
Annual tuition and fees: $27,770
Room and board: $9918

Who else misses the 90's?

I looked up the interviewers on LinkedIn and found one in my industry. It went well as we had a lot to talk about. I don't think that my interviewer was the first person on the list, however, but it didn't seem to be an issue. (I can't recall if that message about order was even there when I applied). Just a thought!

Thought I might do an interview debrief for those who are still watching and waiting, because I have nothing better to do and am already starting to get antsy. I hate that CBS' app status tracker this year doesn't actually show status changes -- so we have no way to know if the interviewer submitted the feedback form or not yet

Anyway, got my interview invite on 9/12. Got the names of my potential interviewers on 9/13 and emailed the first one on the list that day. She had already moved out of my area, and responded quickly, so I emailed the second interviewer also on Thursday. No response, so Monday night emailed the third person -- was getting really nervous at this point that no one would response. Thankfully the third person on my list responded, and we set the interview up for Saturday morning (9/23)

The interview itself was a LOT more formal than I expected from what I've read here on the boards. I know all interviewers have their own style, but mine was a very recent grad and asked to meet at a coffeeshop instead of a workplace, so I assumed it might be a little more relaxed. Nope - all in business attire, and had a portfolio spread out on the table with my resume and a notepad. Felt a lot like a job interview, actually. My interviewer was definitely cordial and spoke very passionately and positively about the community at CBS, but I'm not sure what to think overall because it pretty aloof and professional throughout.

Questions:
- tell me about yourself -- used this to launch into a very broad interview of my resume and how I got where I am. There weren't that many resume specific questions, though.
- why MBA, esp with my background
- why CBS?
- lots of CBS-specific questions: how much did I know about the core and flex-core, and how I wanted to use this to achieve my goals? Specific classes and clubs I was interested in? Other opportunities I might want to look into? This was definitely IMO the biggest chunk of the questions and where my interviewer dug in the most, and it matched up pretty well with Essay 1b (where they ask you to watch the diversity video). My advice to future interviewees: really get to know the CBS methodology, class structure, clubs, etc!
- tell me of a time you faced adversity, and follow-ups to this: what makes a good leader and why you are a good leader, how you might bring that to your studies and to your learning teams, etc.
This took somewhere around 35-40 minutes.

Then my interviewer let me ask questions about the various opportunities at CBS, clubs, etc. The emphasis was definitely on COMMUNITY, getting involved in clubs, learning from other people both in classes and in social settings, etc. The feeling I got was that he wasn't feeling me out so much in terms of why I wanted to get an MBA, but how I might be able to fit into the intellectual and esp. the social community of CBS. He really stressed that you go to CBS not for the hard skills as much as for the networking and soft skills and the people.

Total interview time - a little over an hour. Overall, I feel pretty ambivalent about it -- we talked a lot and my interviewer was friendly but so formal that I couldn't get any specific vibes off of him. Worries me, compared to some of the really enthusiastic interview debriefs I've read here and on other sites...

Anyway, hope this helps some of you out there preparing for your own interviews! For me, it's now just time to settle in, wait, and try to stop worrying either way.

Just had my interview today, so I thought I'd share my experience with everyone.

Quick stats:
28/Male/American
GMAT 710, Q47, V41
UGPA 3.1 from top public university
Entrepreneur/Business Owner

Interview Location: Starbucks in Orange County, CA

My interview was with a CBS alumni, class of 2005. He had a background in Finance and worked and his first job out of CBS was at Citigroup. He then moved over to a hedgefund for a few years, and is currently working for one of the worlds largest bond companies. He was also an international alumni orginally from South America, so the international element definitely played into the interview.

Demeanor: Very laid-back and soft spoken, he wanted me to feel comfortable and simply have a conversation about Columbia with him. I walked him through my resume and shared my story of starting a company after college with him, and my various accomplishments. He definitely understood everything I was saying, but was not trying to "grill" me i.e. poke holes in my story, or stump me with random questions. He seemed very satisfied with my reasons for getting an MBA, and even told me that my reasoning was almost exactly the same as his when he applied.

The only mandatory question he said he had to ask me was "Tell me about a time in which you faced adversity" He told me this was the only question he was required to ask. He also told me that the school does not communicate with him about the interview, they just look at the interview sheet that he fills out.

All in all, it was much easier than I had prepared for it to be. My advice to those yet to interview, is go through the columbia interview boards, write down all the different questions that have been asked to past applicants, and prepare a response for each one. that's about 25 possible questions. If you do this, you will be ready for whatever comes your way, and even if they don't ask the questions you prepared for, you can work that information into the interview anyway.

I'm very happy with the interview, and even if things don't work out, I know for a fact that my interview won't be the reason I didn't get into Columbia.

Hope to get the call soon!!!!!

Hey guys,

Got the admit call!!

My profile -

IT consultant, 23 y.o, female, Intl student, GMAT 700.

It took 3 weeks to get the interview invite, but got the call a week after my interviewer submitted his feedback.

I wish you guys all the best!

Got the admit call about an hour ago. Good luck to the rest of you waiting to hear back, I know how stressful it is. By the way, any admits from the Toronto area on here?

Here's my stats & timeline:

Male, Canadian
Engineer / project manager, 3 years WE
75/100 GPA Engineering
760 GMAT (49Q, 44V)
Submitted 9/14, invited 10/5, interviewed 10/24, feedback received 10/25, admitted 11/5 ~2pm EST

For what it's worth RJ, I have a 3.2 undergrad GPA as well and was admitted ED. I did not address my GPA in the optional essay - I chose not to write an optional essay at all.

I understand where you're coming from, because if you're like me you look at the 3.2 and know you could have done better, but if you ask me it is also not so bad as to warrant highlighting/explanation.

That said, my GPA was of my own making - no excuses. If you're in a different spot - i.e. extreme family commitments, or a taxing part time job while studying (something material that distracted you from your studies) you could mention/explain it. Otherwise I would leave it and let the best parts of your application speak for themselves. No need to highlight a weaker part of of your candidacy.

Your 3.2 should not keep you out. It didn't for me.

Hope that helps.

Submitted november 16th, got an invite on 23rd interviewed on 30th nov.. 3rd dec feedback submitted.. awaiting final result :-/

got the call for RD! I'm in
Applied early Oct. Got the interview invite on Nov 26. Interviewed Dec 4th. Feedback submitted Dec 6th. Got the call Dec 12th. 12/12/2012! lucky 12!

I forget the exact numbers but in past years it comes out to roughly 50% of interviewed applicants are accepted. So I think it was something like 28% are interviewed and 14% accepted or roughly in that region. So if you get the interview invite you have made it over the largest hurdle and are up to a 50% chance of success. This metric seems to hold roughly true at almost all of the Top 10 schools.

Actually it wasn't two months -- I caught that right after I posted and it's been edited above. Sorry about that!! Timeline was:

Interviewed: 1/11
Interview report submitted: 1/15
Decision: 1/22

The first 50 minutes of the interview went fine. While the questions were tough ("give me a ballpark estimate of how many brand managers get hired every year" "Besides the six companies and three industries you mentioned that use brand management, what other companies recruit at Columbia for your desired field?").

I was answering them pretty well, I thought. But near the end the interviewer asked me how I chose him as my interview contact. I replied that I followed the instructions on Columbia's letter, which was to contact the first person on the list of three. He became visibly upset at this and told me that I had done it wrong: rather, I should have done research on all three Ambassadors and chose my contact that way, as in business you're supposed to vie for every advantage. I replied that while I agree in theory with that, I wasn't about to try and cross the admissions committee on this. He noted that someone he interviewed just the week prior had done this very thing, and had chosen him because they had a lot in common.
Then he started lecturing me about the importance of seizing the advantage in networking, noted that I'm competing against my fellow students "including the guy with two years' of experience at McKinsey who is just interviewing for fun, but who looks better on paper."

He then asked me why I was applying so late and to so few schools. I replied that I had applied to five schools and submitted my application to Columbia on November 20. He said that was too late and to too few schools, and didn't seem optimistic about my chances of getting in.

Honestly, none of his advice was bad or unwelcome (though I still disagree about not following Columbia's instructions), but the tone of the conversation took a very negative turn near the end. I'm not sure if I was unlucky, if I said the wrong thing, if he was trying to push my buttons or that's just his manner.

Just got in off the waitlist.

Got a call this morning, I'm in. Doing the Pre-MBA World Tour for 2 months for sure, who's down?