Through your resume and recommendations, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next 3-5 years and what, in your imagination, would be your long-term dream job? (500 words)
As a top MBA program globally, Columbia Business School seeks to admit the best of the best students from across the world. The CBS admissions team wants to ensure that their MBA students are fully clear about their career plans after their MBA and why they really need a CBS MBA education to achieve the same.
For this MBA essay, you are required to be realistic, visionary, and focused while detailing your post-CBS long-term and short-term career goals. You must exhibit a passion for the industry and the functional role of your choice and demonstrate, perhaps with short, relevant examples, that you have the vision, skill set, and determination to make it happen. While the short-term goals ideally should be more "practical", a greater vision and impact in the longer-term goal would impress the admissions team and also help you differentiate from your competition.
One confusion students often face is about the goals in 3-5 years period. Kindly note that CBS has a separate question about your immediate goal after your MBA where just in a few words you have to describe your preferred role. So, in this MBA essay, the Columbia admissions team wants to know your plans 3-5 years after you complete your MBA. They want to understand how much thought you have put into planning and visualizing your career path after your CBS MBA.
One common approach to structure a goal essay is to talk about your background and then build on your career vision. However, as rightly pointed out by CBS, they can refer to most of the information about your background in other parts of your application. So avoid repeating all of it here - and keep this MBA essay entirely about your career vision.
We believe Columbia Business School is a special place. CBS proudly fosters a collaborative learning environment through curricular experiences like our clusters and learning teams, co-curricular initiatives like the Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership, which aims to equip students with the skills and strategies necessary to lead in an inclusive and ethical manner, and career mentorship opportunities like our Executives-in-Residence program.
Why do you feel Columbia Business School is a good fit for you academically, culturally, and professionally? (300 words)
Until 2021, CBS used to ask - "Why do you feel Columbia Business School is a good fit for you?". From 2022 onwards they have made the question very specific and focussed on 3 main key aspects. Each part of the question has to be dealt with research and intelligence.
Since this question is an extension of the previous MBA essay about career goals, first think about, how will Columbia's program help you achieve your goals. Which of Columbia's strengths and resources are critical to your success? Please go beyond cutting/pasting info gleaned from the CBS website, and personalize your answer as much as possible.
Be specific while linking your career goals with Columbia's MBA program, courses, faculty, special programs, internship opportunities, rich diversity, global exposure, and a lot else that CBS offers.
To research the CBS MBA, use both online and offline modes. Thoroughly review the business school's website and social media pages, speak with current students and alumni, and attend online events, MBA fairs, and coffee chats - to learn as much as possible about the business school. Only then you will uncover unique aspects of the program, curriculum, recruitment resources, and global opportunities that will help your essay stand out from other applicants.
The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) is a co-curricular program designed to provide students with the skills and strategies needed to develop as inclusive leaders. Through various resources and programming, the goal is for students to explore and reflect during their educational journey on the following five inclusive leadership skills: Mitigating Bias and Prejudice; Managing Intercultural Dialogue; Addressing Systemic Inequity; Understanding Identity and Perspective Taking; and Creating an Inclusive Environment.
Describe a time or situation when you had the need to utilize one of more of these five skills, and tell us the actions you took and the outcome. (250 words)
CBS brings back the focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. All business schools seek MBA candidate who not only promote good values in their comuunities but also have skills and take actionable steps to make it happen.
This question has two parts - giving an example and connecting it to one of the five skills. Each part of the question has to be dealt with research and intelligence.
Be specific while describing the situation - show the context, the challenges and what actions you took and how you were able to create a positive change and build an inclusive environment.
Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? (Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history. (Maximum 500 words)
You can utilize this space if you have to address a possible weakness in your application OR if you want to highlight your strengths that you could not effectively capture in other essays, resume and other parts of application.
Do not submit a Columbia optional essay as an addendum to any of your essays. Do not submit your optional essay because you feel that the quality of your earlier essays is improvable – in that case simply redouble your efforts in those essays and leave the optional essay alone.
Some of the possible weaknesses that you can address: lack of recommendation letter from current direct supervisor, low GPA, GMAT scores, any gaps in your resume or any other factor which you think needs to be explained or else might be construed against you. Comment on your shortcomings with intelligence, perspective and credibility: giving vague excuses or blaming others for your failures will be counter-productive. Explain the issues clearly and maintain greater focus on the corrective actions taken.
Feel free to use this this essay to highlight exceptional aspects of your candidature that could not be accommodated in the other Columbia essays. Since this essay does not have to be limited to a single theme or event, disparate yet impressive info points can be quoted
Note that you will be also judged on how you manage the freedom to utilize this optional space, so at times not writing this essay might be the best thing you can for your application!
Columbia MBA application requires you to submit a one-page resume along with details about your employment and academics. The typical MBA resume format consists of employment, education, and extracurricular details. MBA resume tips
First-time applicants require one recommendation. Reapplicants are required to submit one new recommendation.
As per Columbia MBA admissions team, if you have been working full-time for at least six months, your recommendation should ideally be from your current supervisor. If you are unable to secure a recommendation from your direct supervisor, please submit a statement of explanation in the Employment section of your application.
Beyond your direct supervisor, other recommender options include: a former direct supervisor or another professional associate, senior to you, who can share their insights on your candidacy.
If you have worked full-time for fewer than six months, your recommendation should be from a person who can comment on your managerial abilities. You may ask a summer employer or another person whom you feel can objectively assess your professional promise.
Like many top business schools in the US, Columbia MBA letter of recommendation questions taken from the GMAC MBA letter of recommendation template.
Applications are not considered complete until all required information is submitted; this includes your recommendation. MBA LOR tips
As is the policy with most top business schools, Columbia MBA interviews are conducted only by invitation. Students typically would recieve an invite within 6 weeks after submitting their MBA applications.
Interviews are usually conducted by alumni in or near your hometown. If one is not available, you will be invited to interview via telephone or video conference either with an admissions officer or with a current student.
Please be aware that your interviewer will not be familiar with the details of your application except your professional resume, if you choose to provide one.
Within a week following the interview, your interviewer should submit a report to the Admissions Office. Once the report is received, you will receive confirmation by e-mail and on your applicant status page. MBA interview tips
