Insights from Columbia Admission Event @ Hyderabad

Hi All,

I am just back from an admission event of Columbia Business School held in Trident, Hyderabad. Due to heavy rains, the crowd was not as huge as expected, but we still had around 25 attendees.
Here are some insights from the event.

1. Ad-com member Nicole Wesolowski opened the meeting by introducing the alums. One of the alum was part of J term batch and the other had attended advanced exec mba. Both of them shared about their favourite electives and professors.
2. The main emphasis was on "leveraging the New York" benefit. In fact one of the essay specifically asks us to describe how would be leverage being in the centre of business. It is worth investing time to explore the industries and companies where you would like to work in future and mention those names in the essay.
3. If you have a favourite business person whom you would like to hear as a guest speaker, you can mention that too in the essay. Also include the courses and events that you are particularly looking forward to attend.
4. For entrepreneurs, a recommendation from clients is preferred instead of those from the co-founders.
5. An interesting aspect about application is that you can retake GMAT within 21 days after submitting the application . But you would need to fill the test date while submitting.
6. A lot of questions revolved around recommendations. Strictly no recommendations to be taken by family members, even if you are into family business. A supervisor is the best choice for recommendation. Professors are also not considered to be suited for writing recommendations, since they can only vouch for the academic capabilities not on the business aspect.
7. J-term course is more suited for people who are not considering major change in their functions, for e.g.: if you want to continue family business post mba or join similar firm as you were employed earlier. If you are changing careers, then aug term is better, since you get one full term for summer internship that allows extra time to learn about the new industry.

Hope these insights have been helpful..

Good luck to all the applicants.