mappleby
Can you share your profile? Invited to interview 1 day after submitting and accepted 1 week after interview went complete.
Nope, I got invite exactly 3 weeks after the interview and a week after the report was delivered.
As for background.
Born in the middle of nowhere, South Ural, unknown tech. university bachelor and master with ~4 GPA, pure IT consulting in Moscow for a year (not a star company), some entrepreneur experience in IT consulting, IT PM then Deputy CIO in a brokerage and asset management company (again not a star but known locally), between PwC offer and promotion to business PM chose later (some can think stupid but it suited better to my career aspirations), quite strong volunteering experience for many years (not so strong though as serving at Peace Corps). So, not a rock star at all. However, I know exactly what I want to do (asset management or IB), more importantly WHY I want doing this, what I already did to achieve my goals and what Columbia can offer me. I think if you are honest with yourself and can show this in your application, this is more important than your background or previous career experience. However, I do believe that numbers such as GMAT score and GPA play more important role for Columbia than for other schools. Applying in ED I can't take offers from other schools to which I applied. LBS and Booth are out anyway. It's difficult to say no to HBS but I feel that this is not my school especially after reading "Ahead of the curve". Wharton is a contender anyway, so here I should weigh more strong academic against being in NY. Honestly, I don't like Phil as a city and NY itself can open even more doors for those who is going to stay in NY. Surprisingly but people in Russia know only Harvard and Oxford, so both Wharton and Columbia are equal from this point of view. But who cares about their opinion - "The minority is always right" (HENRIK IBSEN). I hope it was my small contribution to this online community!
10 Oct 2012, 10:02
