Columbia 2013 (CBS) - Calling All Applicants

Hello guys,

I am planning to apply to CBS in the Early Decision Round, but I have a related query. Can someone please clarify if the binding agreement stops the applicant even to apply to the other US B-Schools till the results are declared (I guess it shouldn't be the case but just wanted to confirm).

Also the agreement says that the admitted candidate needs to withdraw all the other applications/admits upon receiving a final admissions results. I guess this mean that even though Columbia is the applicants first choice (as he is applying in ED), to be safe he can still go ahead and apply to other US B-schools in the first deadline (as Columbia is quite selective).

Please let me know if i am wrong in my understanding.

Thanks a lot,

You are correct in your understanding. I'm applying Early Decision to CBS this year but also applying in Round 1 to Chicago, Fuqua and Tuck. Basically what they are saying is that if I'm accepted to CBS then I should contact Chicago, Duke and Dartmouth and tell them that I am attending Columbia and they can withdraw my application. In reality you can keep the applications in and just turn down their offer if you get accepted. The main point is that you pay the $7,000 to Columbia and accept their offer of admission regardless of any other schools you may have applied to.

Thanks for the clarification mappleby

submitted in june but still not being reviewed...

ne1 have their status changed to under review?

Hi Everyone,

I have a question/situation that I need your help with. Two days ago I sent my manager the link to fill out CBS's recommendation letter. The next day I received an email from CBS saying my manager had just submitted the letter! HOLY COW! She did it in less than 24 hours! I figured I'd give her the chance to look over it and we'd sit down and talk about it. I told her I was applying to CBS and wanted to know if she could write a letter for me and she was more than happy to write one. I know it's a great recommendation letter (because my reviews have been great) but I'm not sure she has used specific examples. I waived my right to view the letter, so now I'm not sure if she answered all the questions CBS asks. I will speak to her today about it, but just wanted to ask you guys what to do in this case. Should I ask to see the letter? Should I get one more person to write a letter? I'm confused. Thanks!

its been more than a month the status havnt changed... last 2 year by this time even few interview reports were submitted or even final decision in some cases...

So I was in a similar situation last year. Great reviews at work and everything. My recommender didn't submit in one day, but she was mighty fast. It was the first one she submitted, so next day I walked into her office and thanked her. She said no sweat, it wasnt much of a problem. There's a place where they asked me to write 3-5 adjectives for you, and I wrote 3-4 adjectoves, thats it took me a min

So basically, (I think) she screwed up my recommendation a bit, as she didnt focus much on quantifying adjectives, examples etc. and made it a little too, well, to the point. Could have made CBS think she wasnt too committed to write a reco for me, meaning either I am not as good as I say I am, or I chose my recommender poorly. both negative points for me

SO whenever you meet your manager, make sure you check on how details oriented she was in her reco. Asking to see the letter may be a little too desperate OR you doubting her capabilities, which you very well might be but you dont want her to think like that about you right?

Hope this helps.

Yes! It's very strange...

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Thanks str1der!!

I spoke with my manager about the recommendation letter and she told me she put in enough examples and wrote a really nice recommendation. CBS offers an option to either answer the questions posted OR upload a letter. She thought it would be best to answer every single question. She told me she also wrote something in the optional paragraph. So I'm really relieved and I trust her to write a good letter because she is very thorough. (Now -- it's time to focus on those essays)!

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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.

the binding agreement doesn't really bind you to anything. you are free to put in round 1 apps to as many schools as you want before the CBS ED decision comes out. ethical issues aside, i would go as far as to say that you could even apply to other schools after hearing from CBS. i've heard of cases where applicants end up attending another school despite receiving an ED acceptance from CBS. i believe all you lose is the relatively hefty deposit you put down when accepted. i reckon that the unofficial CBS position on this issue of ED accepted applicants reneging on their commitment is that applicants who would do something like that are ones CBS is better off not having in the first place.

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Same for me. Submitted in mid June and still have "submitted" status.

nope, my status did not got through the motions and reflect the typical updates changes at each step of the process (under review, interview, etc.). all i saw was the final decision update. but this was likely because of my request for an expedited review.

Is it possible to submit if reccomendations are still pending?