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Application Dates for 2013 January 2013 October 3, 2012 August 2013 Early Decision October 3, 2012 August 2013 Merit Fellowship Consideration January 9, 2013 August 2013 Regular Decision April 10, 2013
Essay Questions Short Answer Question: What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (200 characters maximum)
Essay 1: A. Why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career, and how do you plan to achieve your immediate and long term post-MBA professional goals? (Maximum 500 words)
B. Please view this video, entitled Community at Columbia. Diverse, tight-knit clusters and carefully selected learning teams are defining features of the first year at Columbia Business School. Along with more than100 student organizations and countless events each semester, the cluster system helps to create a supportive and devoted lifelong community. Describe why you are interested in becoming a part of the Columbia community. (Maximum 250 words)
Essay 2: Describe a personal experience and how it has influenced who you are today. This essay should have a personal rather than a professional focus. (Maximum 500 words)
Optional Essay An optional fourth essay will allow you to discuss any issues that do not fall within the purview of the required essays.
Recommendations All applications require two recommendations. If you have been working full-time for at least six months, one recommendation should be from your current supervisor. The second recommendation should be from either a former direct supervisor or from another professional associate, senior to you, who can add personal insight into your candidacy.
Recommendation questions include:
What is your relationship to and how long have you known the applicant? Is he or she still employed by your organization?
Please list three to five adjectives describing the applicant’s strengths.
Please compare the applicant’s performance to that of his or her peers.
What does the applicant do best?
If you were giving feedback to the applicant regarding his or her professional performance and personal effectiveness, in what areas would you suggest he or she work to improve?
How does the applicant accept constructive criticism or handle conflicts?
How effective are the applicant’s interpersonal skills in the workplace?
Please rate the applicant’s individual vs. team orientation (1 = most effective as an individual contributor; 5 = focused exclusively on the team)
Please elaborate on your rating:
Please give an example of how the applicant has demonstrated leadership.
Is there anything else you feel we should know?
Class Profile - Class entering 2011 (January and August) Applications Received -6669 Applicants Accepted -1062 Acceptance Rate - 16% Class Size - 751, divided into 11 clusters January Entry Class Size - 203, divided into 3 clusters August Entry Class Size - 548, divided into 8 clusters GMAT Scores (average) - 716 GMAT Scores (middle 80%) - 680–760 Undergraduate GPA (average) -3.5 Undergraduate GPA (middle 80%) - 3.1–3.8 Work Experience (average) - 5 years At Least One Year of Work Experience - 100%
35% Social Sciences, 29% Business, 12% Engineering, 5% Sciences, 3% Technology, 1% Arts, 15% Other
Re-Applicant Checklist (if applied last academic year)
Submit a new application fee (US$250).
Update the “Personal,” “Family,” “Employment,” “Education,” and “Extracurricular Activities” sections of the online application.
Update the “How Will You Finance Your MBA?” section of the online application.
Submit transcripts of any additional courses taken since your previous application.
Submit one new, two-part essay: A. How have you enhanced your candidacy since your previous application? Please detail your progress since you last applied, and address how you plan to achieve your post-MBA and long-term professional goals. (Maximum of 500 words) B. Please view this video, entitled Community at Columbia. Diverse, tight-knit clusters and carefully selected learning teams are defining features of the first year at Columbia Business School. Along with more than100 student organizations and countless events each semester, the cluster system helps to create a supportive and devoted lifelong community. Describe why you are interested in becoming a part of the Columbia community. (Maximum 250 words)
Submit one new recommendation letter, preferably from your current employer, but if not, another colleague in a supervisory role or a client will suffice.
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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20 Mar 2013, 12:37
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Kudos
Wow I'm excited to say I got admitted off the waitlist!!! I was beginning to think that I would have to wait until summer to get an answer. To all the other waitlisters out there, keep your chins up!
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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01 Nov 2012, 16:24
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Just got the phone call from Amanda Carlson! I'm in! She took me totally off guard by calling at 7:15 PM (EST) - we're in the midst of hurricane devastation here on the East Coast so I was thinking it was the power company...great surprise!
My profile: White male 26 years old USA 740 (97% verbal, 73% quant --> shows that 80/80 is certainly not a requirement) 4 years of WE in engineering Intended concentration: Real Estate
My timeline: Applied ED 9/17 Interview invite 10/1 Interview/feedback submitted 10/13 Admitted 11/1 (longer delay than many posters here have been reporting)
Some advice (application preparation aside) for those of you who have not yet finished you application or who have not yet received a decision:
If you can, make a very pronounced effort to visit campus! I attended an MBA information session and the Real Estate Spotlight event. I'm not sure if everyone's aware of this, but the Admissions Office maintains an open-door environment, even on weekends. I stopped in on a Saturday with my story and some pointed questions ready, and I ended up having a very relaxed but very productive 20-minute conversation with one of the primary adcoms. I gambled on this, but I knew that if the meeting went well it would pay dividends. Sure enough, during my phone call Amanda told me that this informal meeting really made an impression with the adcom member I spoke to. She mentioned some other details (date of my wedding, etc.) that made it clear that the adcom had taken notes as soon as I left the Admissions Office that day (I exchanged business cards when I left).
To those of you still waiting: keep hope alive! I'll be happy to give more advice or answer more questions!
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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06 Mar 2013, 14:19
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Accepted!
Submitted 12/29, Interview Invite 1/23, Interview 2/13 (took awhile to schedule), Interview Feedback Submitted 2/22, Accepted! 3/4 (got a call and then a few emails)
Congrats to other admits, and good luck to those waiting!
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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14 Feb 2013, 11:09
5
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Just got the call for a Fellowship award! I guess that answers the question about Early Decision applicants. I honestly thought there was no way they would bother giving money to ED admits because we are already committed to the school. Glad I was mistaken.
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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07 Mar 2013, 12:53
5
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Accepted! Yay! So pleased.
Here's my timeline:
1/9: Applied minutes before the deadline; 2/18: Received interview invitation; 2/26: Interviewed (a very informal and enjoyable 1.5 hour conversation at a coffee shop; the only "interview questions" I was really asked were to walk through my resume, "Why Columbia?," to discuss my future goals (specifically and generally), and to describe a few times when I'd faced "adversity" in my life); 2/27: Feedback submitted; and 3/7: Accepted (via telephone call from "Unknown," followed by an email a few minutes later; I was told that my online status would be updated later today with "next steps").
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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25 Jul 2012, 07:07
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DING with interview! international j-term reapplicant here. and i didn't even get a courtesy e-mail notifying me of the decision; i had to log in to my account to find the decision update, so be sure to check your app status regularly.
application process debrief and thoughts for what it's worth:
- at the time of submission (early july), there wasn't an application preview option before submission and i inadvertently clicked submit thinking that there would surely be a proof preview option before paying the application fee. there wasn't. but fortunately a frantic call to the adcom was all it took to have them reset my application to “not submitted”, giving me the opportunity to proof check before submitting.
- nevertheless, after submission and once the preview option became available a few days later, my application still looked crummy. text in certain sections was truncated, test scores for V/AWA sections were reversed, resume was missing etc. boggles the mind how a supposed top tier school cannot work out the bugs in their app system before releasing the app - unnecessary cause for apprehension to already stressed out applicants!
- as bad as it looked, i still received an interview invite within 1 day of submission. goes to show how fast adcom can move if they really want!
- before i freak people out, the quick processing was only because i requested an expedited review at the time of submission. i told them that i was considering some fall options as well and therefore need a decision in 3 weeks.
- surprisingly, they were very accommodating and in the interest of time even offered to do a skype interview with adcom instead of the usual alumni interview.
- i did the skype interview with one of the junior assistant directors 1 week later. the guy seemed decent enough but the video was turned off on the his end, so it was a bit awkward in the sense that i was staring at a blank screen unable to gauge his expressions/reactions.
- interesting interview - it was not blind like the traditional alumni interview (he had already read my app and had it in front of him) and i didn't get most of the standard CBS interview questions that you find on the clear admit website (you know those pesky "tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership/integrity" type bs questions). instead he asked me to walk him through my resume and then seemed to delve deeper into whatever areas of my application he felt needed more clarity.
some examples: i see that comp at your old firm was flat, so did you leave because you felt that you couldn't advance (clearly they use the compensation/bonus numbers as an indicator of your performance/advancement in a role); if you had the option to advance in pe, why did you leave to join your family business; a whole slew of questions about the family business - sales, number of employees, regional operations, managerial dynamics, etc.; a whole slew of questions about my post-MBA plans for the business - it doesn't appear that you have much managerial experience to date, so how do you think you'd be able to achieve your goals to manage what you project to be a growing and much larger organization in the future; it seems that you struggled in certain semesters in college (i had a gpa towards the low end of their admitted candidate range) so how do you expect to manage your priorities at CBS; how do you expect to contribute to CBS.
- on balance, i thought that his line of questioning was fair as it gave me an opportunity to address some of the weaker areas of my app. i just wished i had known what to expect ahead of time, so i could have prepared and articulated my responses more coherently.
- i received a final decision about 2 weeks after the interview.
- in conclusion, here's my overall sense about cbs: (i) they are really really stats focused (despite solid ib/pe work ex and a mid-700 gmat, they didn't blink at the low gpa. furthermore, a 70-point score improvement was the only material change since my previous app and this time around i made the interview cut). for applicants from well represented demographics, the stats carry far more weight than adcoms would care to disclose and while they won't guarantee you get in, low stats will definitely keep you out despite quality work experience, essays etc. so in the event that your stats are low, you are better off cranking on the gmat to get it over the 7 hurdle or taking the time to create an alternative transcript instead of wasting time polishing essays; (ii) they really want to know that you will be employable upon graduation; (iii) for j-term applicants, they want to be dead certain that you don't need the internship and want to see evidence that your goals are realistically attainable; (iv) if you have entrepreneurial goals, including family business, scale seems to matter (i would reckon revenues of $25M+ to carry some weight and get them comfortable); (v) for fall term applicants, i cannot emphasize enough how greatly you improve your odds if you apply ED as CBS uses it as an effective yield management tool.
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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22 Jan 2013, 18:45
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I got dinged today. Submitted Nov 1, interview invite on Dec 17, and interviewed on January 7th. Final review submitted on January 15th.
I'm convinced that it was because of my interview. My interviewer hated that I was on the younger side of the age range; he just didn't like me from the start and kept going back to my age which isn't even that young; it's still within the range.
My advice for anyone getting a Columbia invite, be careful on the interviewer you pick. Try go for someone older to interview you; they won't have as much of a superiority complex. Research them before you pick one. Make sure it is someone who could relate to you. I cannot stress how important this is.
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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01 Feb 2013, 12:52
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Just got the call! I can't even believe it!
Timeline in case it's helpful:
Nov 19th - Technically Submitted my portion of app Dec 28th - App finally complete after second recommendation was finally submitted (thanks recommender!) Jan 9th - Invitation to Interview Jan 18th - Interviewed Jan 30 - Had a missed call from a blocked number, suspect this may have been them Feb 1 - Got another blocked call, answered and was accepted!
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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01 Mar 2013, 14:54
4
Kudos
Seems like every time I post about not hearing from a school, I coincidentally get feedback right away... Got the good call today with $ - very excited to explore CBS. Good luck to everyone else!
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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17 Jun 2012, 06:27
3
Kudos
FYI everyone I'm a current student starting my 2nd year this fall. If anyone has questions, wants to meet up in person to chat, or would like me to look over your essays, let me know.
A good resource for admitted students is the peer advising website: https://cbspeeradvising.wordpress.com/. This may also help prospectives to get a feel for the school.
lonesoui wrote:
sdd996 wrote:
lonesoui wrote:
Count me in for ED. It's NYC! The morals are looser, and the liquor is cheaper!
You must know a different NYC than I do haha. GL with your app.
It's a quote from an F Scott Fitzgerald's poem. They used it in the new Great Gatsby trailer
Does anyone know the situation with the ED $6k deposit? Like do we get it back once we pay tuition, does it get applied to tuition, or neither?
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants
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21 Nov 2012, 06:14
3
Kudos
Everybody who applies before the January deadline is automatically considered for fellowships and merit based scholarships. You don't have to do anything else.
gmatclubot
Re: Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants [#permalink]