Columbia Business School has, as they do every year, modified their MBA application essay set for 2024 admission to the January term Class of 2025 and the August term Class of 2026. This year they have removed their song/book/movie question (see my post from last year if you are interested in this for some reason) and gone back to using their DEI question (Previously used in 2021. See here if you like history).
Along with HBS, Stanford, and INSEAD, I think CBS is one of the best first applications to work on. In the case of CBS, Essay 1 requires more of a focus on goals than any other school, so doing it gives applicants all the content they need for any school's goals essays. Also Essay 3, provides a perfect length for explaining why you want to attend a specific MBA program. Make that argument right for CBS and it will help you with other schools that require similar essay content.
Columbia Business School has, as they do every year, modified their MBA application essay set for 2024 admission to the January term Class of 2025 and the August term Class of 2026. This year they have removed their song/book/movie question (see my post from last year if you are interested in this for some reason) and gone back to using their DEI question (Previously used in 2021. See here if you like history).
Along with HBS, Stanford, and INSEAD, I think CBS is one of the best first applications to work on. In the case of CBS, Essay 1 requires more of a focus on goals than any other school, so doing it gives applicants all the content they need for any school's goals essays. Also Essay 3, provides a perfect length for explaining why you want to attend a specific MBA program. Make that argument right for CBS and it will help you with other schools that require similar essay content.
CBS has gotten rid of the Early Decision and Rolling Admissions processes that they have long been know for. This is a major change that simply means CBS is acting like other MBA programs. It now has three rounds. While applying R1 might be advantageous, it is a normal level of that advantage and not necessarily the same as the perceived advantage during the Early Decision Years.
August 2024 Entry Application Deadlines
The August 2024 application will be available in mid-July.
| Round | Application Deadline | Interview Decisions Released | Final Decisions Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | September 13, 2023 | Mid-October | Mid-December |
| Round 2 | January 5, 2024 | Early-to-mid February | Late March |
| Round 3 | April 3, 2024 | Mid-to-late April | Early May |
Given Columbia's overall rank as well as the unique nature of January (J-Term. Deadline: 9/13/2022), it has been very common for me to work with clients who apply only to that school. In this sense, the only school with a similar level of sole school focus is INSEAD. Columbia is also one of the most reapplicant friendly schools both in terms of the reapplication process for those who reapply within one year of their initial application and in terms of acceptance rates.
You can find testimonials from my clients admitted for Columbia Business School here. Since 2007, when I established my own consultancy (I have been an MBA admissions consultant since 2001), I have been fortunate to work with 85 clients admitted to Columbia Business School for ED, RD, J-Term, and Deferred Admission.
For my post on re-application to Columbia, see here. For my analysis of recommendations , please see here. For my analysis of Columbia Business School application interviews, please see here.
The Unique Admissions Process at Columbia Business School
Before discussing the essays, I have provided a discussion on the complicated CBS application process itself. If you already understand it, you can skip ahead to the essay section.
The admissions process at Columbia Business is so unique, that before discussing the essays for 2024 entry, I will discuss who J-Term (January Entry) is for and differences between Early Decision and Regular Decision for August Entry.
Rolling Admission
The first thing to keep in mind about admission to both J-Term and August Term (ED and RD) is that Columbia uses a rolling admissions system unlike the fixed deadline system used by most other schools. While there are final deadlines, since applicants' files are reviewed and decisions are being made as they apply (hence the rolling nature of the process), by the time that that the final deadlines for August Term have arrived most seats are already filled. Rolling admissions works just like buying assigned seats for an airplane, movie, concert, etc. When they are gone, they are gone. Columbia's rolling admissions system is a differentiator from other top US MBA programs because only Columbia uses this system. Rolling admissions is commonly used by EMBA programs worldwide.
J-Term
Here are some common issues that arise when considering J-term:
Is J-term easier to get into than August entry? I have always thought so. The lack of Merit Fellowships, an internship, and the nature of who the program is designed for, clearly indicate that it is going to attract fewer applicants, so my assumption is that it is surely easier. Happy to proven wrong if CBS admissions provides data showing otherwise (They don't). All I know for sure is that relatively late application to J-term has not prevented my clients from being admitted. Late application to RD is a real problem simply from a seat availability perspective. In one way, J-term is clearly easier: Unlike an August entry RD and (and to a lesser extent ED) applicant, someone applying to Columbia J-term can really be assumed to prefer Columbia over all alternatives. This can make interviews a bit easier in the sense that August entry Columbia alumni interviewers are notorious for being particularly aggressive at determining whether the interviewee's first choice is really Columbia. Since J-term has no real US rival, this topic can be easily dispensed with in an interview.
Program Alternatives to J-term: There are no US alternatives to J-term worth mentioning if someone wants a January 2024 start. Cornell Tech, Kellogg and NYU Stern (Tech and Fashion & Luxury) offer one year MBAs, but none start their programs in January, Cornell Tech and NYU are specialized degrees, and Kellogg is an accelerated program in terms of the number of courses taken. Only J-term makes it possible to do two years of courses on such an expedited basis. In addition, the Kellogg program is extremely restrictive, since one has to have taken many core business courses or come from a consulting firm that has established a relationship to apply to it. There are a number of European programs with a January starts but really only INSEAD could be said to be at a similar rank, at least as perceived by my clients. I have had clients who apply to J-term and INSEAD and, less often, IMD, as both have January entry. Still J-term is an incredibly different program in terms of length and content from either of these top non-US programs. LBS, which does not have a January start, would also be another alternative to CBS in the sense that it can be completed on an accelerated basis, but it has no January start. There are many other programs in the Europe that can be completed in around 16 months or less.
Can an August entry applicant reapply to J-term? Yes! You could be rejected from ED or RD for 2023 entry and reapply for J-term 2024 entry. If you entered in J-term 2024, you would graduate in the Class of 2025with those who entered in ED/RD 2023. I have worked with a number of reapplicants who were admitted to J-term after being dinged from the August entry for the same graduating class. In that situation, the key issues for the reapplicant essay are explaining why J-term is now a better choice and you are a better candidate.
ED Versus RD
Applying for Early Decision (ED) is ideal for anyone who considers Columbia to be their first choice and is ready by the application deadline. Columbia takes ED very seriously, so I suggest you do as well. CBS ED really is unique among M7 (Booth, CBS, HBS, Kellogg, MIT, Stanford and Wharton) MBA programs and the decision to commit to it should not be taken lightly. Every year many applicants to Columbia Business School have to deeply consider whether to apply to the ED or RD round. First, keep the official statement from Columbia regarding ED in mind:
- Candidates have decided that Columbia is their first choice and must sign the following statement of commitment within their applications: I am committed to attending Columbia Business School and will withdraw all applications and decline all offers from other schools upon admission to Columbia Business School.
- Applicants must submit a nonrefundable $6,000 tuition deposit within two weeks of admission.
In my experience, there are two types of applicants for ED. The first are people who really consider Columbia as their first choice and sometimes make or hope to make no other applications. For this type of applicant, choosing ED is easy. The second type of applicant likes Columbia, but it is not necessarily their first choice and they treat it like an insurance policy. This type of applicant applies to ED because it is perceived as easier to get admitted to than to Regular Decision (RD). This type of applicant treats the $6000 deposit as an insurance policy in the event that they are not admitted to HBS, Stanford, and/or Wharton (I don't know of any cases of applicants forfeiting $6000 to go to other top programs, but I suppose someone has done it). If they do get into HBS, Stanford, or Wharton and break their commitment to Columbia, they lose $6000. Can Columbia do anything aside from keeping the money? No. For those who have no problem breaking oaths and losing $6000, treating ED as possible insurance is a rational decision through clearly not an ethical one. As an admissions consultant, my sole concern is helping my clients reach their admissions objectives, so I don't pass judgment one way or another on this issue.
Merit Fellowships: If you are admitted to ED, you will not find out whether you get a merit scholarship until February-April (this is based on past practice and not stated on their website), but RD admits find out by the time their first deposit is due. Hence ED admits will be paying a deposit without knowing whether CBS will provide any financial support for around 3-7 months. .For example, in 2022, I had ten clients admitted to ED and they were not notified about funding until late March in a few cases, but mostly not until April. In 2023, at least one of my ED admits was notified of their funding in February. Meanwhile clients admitted during RD received their merit scholarship details when they were admitted
Timing an ED application. I don't consider there to be a really significant difference between an early application in ED and an application right before the deadline. The real difference are between ED and RD and within RD itself.
I do recommend applying before the January Merit Fellowship deadline for RD. While you can consider the Merit deadline to be kind of a "Round Two Deadline," I recommend you apply as soon as you are ready to do so. That said, RD takes applications until April, so applications are still viable for some applicants until quite late in the admissions cycle. In general, applying late in RD is best for those with highly unusual backgrounds, stellar backgrounds, and no need for merit scholarships (For example, those sponsored by their companies) and/or a love of gambling. In other words, if you are not exceptional, applying late in RD to Columbia is a very high-risk activity.
How to leverage RD to your advantage when applying to other MBA programs in the First Round. If you are applying in the first round, an ideal time to apply to Columbia is after you have completed all the applications that were due in September. Assuming you are relatively freed up while you are waiting for your R1 invites, apply to Columbia. This means you will be considered early in RD and that is an advantage because there will be more seats available.
How to leverage RD to your advantage when applying to other MBA programs in the Second Round. Since most R2 applications are due in January, applying to Columbia in November or December will still give you a relative advantage over those applicants that apply right before the Merit Deadline. Again, the earlier, the better your chance for an available seat.
The Essay Questions and the Immediate Post-MBA Goals Statement
The questions are taken from the website.
Immediate Post-MBA Goals Statement:
What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 characters maximum)
Examples of possible responses:
“Work in business development for a media company.”
“Join a strategy consulting firm.”
“Launch a data-management start-up.”
Remember this is 50 characters, not words! This would be about 5-10 words. The question itself, fortunately, includes the above examples to make it clear what Columbia is looking for here. Given the length, you can't possibly expect to explain what you want to do short-term. That is what Essay 1 is for. In fact, it is best to simply write this little statement after you have a good working version of Essay 1. CBS is looking for a short, but a very clear statement of what you intend to do after your MBA. If you have difficulty explaining your immediate post-MBA plans in the space given, I think that is likely an indication that your plans are too complex, vague, or otherwise not well thought out. What you state here should be backed up by what you discuss in Essay 1 and 2 (or the reapplicant essay for reapplicants).
If you can be clever or catchy in formulating this response that is fine, but it is a completely secondary consideration to simply stating something that is very clear and that is completely consistent with what you write in Essay 1 and 2. Being clever is not critical here, being clear is.
Essay #1:
Through your resume and recommendation, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next three to five years and what is your long-term dream job? (500 words)
Since I have found it necessary to make this clear to clients: THIS ESSAY IS COMPLETELY FUTURE FOCUSED. That is why they say they "have a clear sense of your professional path to date." Any statements you make about your past experience should be analytical rather than descriptive and for the sole purpose of explaining what you want to do in the future and why. Discuss your past to help establish your motivation for your goals. If they wanted a detailed past history, they would not have worded the question the way they do.
A bad CBS Essay 1 will typically consist of extended discussion of past experience, lack of explanation of post-MBA goals, and inability to distinguish between long-term goals as typically required by other schools and a long-term dream job. Here is what you can do to avoid that:
If you are having problems clearly articulating your goals either in Essay 1 or in the 50 character statement, I think Gap, SWOT, and ROI analysis are great ways for understanding what your goals are, why you want a degree, and how you will use it. The following table will help you with both Essay 1 and Essay 3.
The following image may not work for all browsers. If so, see here.
(A Google Docs version of this matrix can be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WobczFFLHBzQRxUeuwBRNmGQ3q-RKP_94iGHuLlXXEs/edit?usp=sharing)
Next, analyze your present strengths and weaknesses for succeeding in your present career. In particular, some of your greatest strengths may have been demonstrated outside of work, so make sure you are accounting for them.
Strengths: What are you good at? Where do you add value? What are you praised for? What are you proud of?
Weakness: What are you bad at? What are you criticized for? What do you try to avoid due to your own limitations? What do you fear?
Next, analyze your situation in right now. What opportunities exist for your growth and success? What threats could limit your career growth?
- The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) is a co-curricular program designed to ensure that every CBS student develops the skills to become an ethical and inclusive leader. Through PPIL, students attend programming focused on five essential diversity, equity, and inclusion skills: Creating an Inclusive Environment, Mitigating Bias and Prejudice, Managing Intercultural Dialogue, Addressing Systemic Inequity, and Understanding Identity and Perspective Taking.Tell us about a time when you were challenged around one of these five skills. Describe the situation, the actions you took, and the outcome. (250 words)
This essay question was used for 2021 entry, dropped for 2022 entry, and is now back. What is nice about this question is that can be used for a wide variety of answers in a personal, academic, professional, or extracurricular content. The actual question itself is behavioral and really fits the STAR (Situation, Task, Action(s), Result) approach to such questions. While CBS does not mention the task (your role), I think it is important that you keep that in mind. A good answer will efficiently explain the situation (and given the length of the essay, cannot be context heavy), explain your role in the situation, explain what you did, and clearly state the result. The word breakdown might be: Situation/Task (~50 words), Action(s) ~150 words consisting of 1-3 actions, Outcome (~50 words).
A challenge is any situation which is not easy. You may have succeeded, partially succeeded, or failed at the challenge. That said, I think it is easier to write about successfully overcoming a challenge rather than discussing a failure because such an answer requires discussing what you learned and given the overall essay length, this might prove difficult. It might also prove risky to write about failure here if you come across as not fully upholding the values implied by this essay question.
Let's consider the various thematic options here and how they might be used. Of course, there are certainly more ways of doing this effectively than will be able to elaborate on here.
For details about the Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL), see https://groups.gsb.columbia.edu/ppil/home/. PPIL is a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) initiative that just had its soft launch in spring 2021 and has subsequently been developed.
The specific language of DEI as well as five categories for possible answers may not be familiar to some applicants, especially those coming for countries, without such practices. Hence I will define/explain the categories and suggest possible ways of writing on them. Unfortunately CBS still has yet to define these categories and the PPIL does not include definitions/explanations either and since these terms are subject to rather different interpretation, I will simply provide my own, which are by no means comprehensive. Should CBS explain these terms then I will alter this post accordingly. Since the launch in 2021 they still have yet to do that, which I consider to be extremely unhelpful and not inclusive, especially for those coming from outside of the United States.
One major PPUL site update since 2021 has been Program Insights, which I recommend reviewing as it might help with brainstorming essay topics.
Creating an Inclusive Environment
Definition: Based on a definition of an inclusive workplace found here, I define an inclusive environment as follows: An environment that makes every person feel valued while also acknowledging their differences and how these differences contribute to a group/team/organization’s culture and outcomes.
Hence an effective answer would highlight the way(s) in which you made (or attempted to make) a professional/academic/extracurricular/personal environment open to and benefitting from person(s)/perspective(s)/group(s) that had not previously been valued.
I will give a personal example, during my first year of college (1986), I joined a student quarterly with a mostly male staff. Soon thereafter, as co-editor, I helped introduce a women's section to the paper in order to get women involved in the newspaper, to get their perspectives effectively included, and to increase our staff. We benefited from a greatly expanded team, went on to win Columbia student journalism awards, and my eventual replacement as editor -in-chief was a woman. The biggest challenges involved overcoming the perspectives of older staff members who did not understand why there needed to be a women's section and to convince female students that we were earnest in our objectives to include and empower them.
Mitigating Bias
Explanation: To mitigate bias ( defined as "inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair"), is to alleviate, lessen, or weaken a prejudice. Note that mitigating might not actually eliminate a bias outright but would attempt to reduce its impact. In addition to attempting to control for overt bias (such as an open prejudice against a specific group), another form of bias mitigation involves becoming aware of and controlling for unconscious bias, which is a common idea in the DEI field and is defined as "social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing."
A typical example of conscious bias would be the outright exclusion of a particular group from leadership roles. For example, a student club that is extremely hierarchical and does not allow junior members to take positions of responsibility. Another example would be a preference in hiring more males over females based on some kind of overtly stated rationale.
A typical example of unconscious bias would be a sexist perception such that a male who is highly vocal and opinionated is described as "a strong leader/go getter" while a women who exhibits the same behavior is described as "pushy/annoying. " The person doing the describing might not be aware they are using completely different language to describe the same behavior.
A good answer here will involve the direct confrontation and attempt to overcome a conscious or unconscious bias(es).
Communicating Across Identities
Explanation: The idea of communicating across identities could also be called cross cultural communication if cultural is defined in a very broad way as it is the following definition: "Cross cultural communication thus refers to the communication between people who have differences in any one of the following: styles of working, age, nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Cross cultural communication can also refer to the attempts that are made to exchange, negotiate and mediate cultural differences by means of language, gestures and body language."
The challenges of communication include fundamental differences in assumptions based on identify differences, use of language (Two people using the same language can easily miscommunicate if they don't share or understand each other's definitions), and misinterpretation based on making assumptions about a behavior that has a different meaning than the observer understands.
An effective answer here will involve enabling (or attempting the enabling of) communication across identities. Examples might include actions involving negotiating, facilitating, and directly communicating with someone whose identity is very different from your own.
Addressing Systemic Inequality
Systemic inequality is also know as structural inequality. I will use a definition of the latter provided by the United Nations:
An effective answer here would attempting to overcome organizational discrimination that is systemic against a particular group or groups that is practiced as a matter of outright policy. It could be everything from discriminating against the hiring of LGBT employees to seniority based discrimination that prevents junior players in a sports club from being starting players.
Managing Difficult Conversations
In this case, I could find a PPIL workshop on this topic:
"All students are welcome to participate in this interactive workshop designed to help you navigate difficult conversations which we all face in our personal and professional lives. The session with walk you through an easy framework which will help you understand the competing demands between intention versus impact, set psychological safety standards for all participants, and empower you to feel comfortable with your communication skills to achieve a mutually beneficial positive outcome."
I highly recommend taking a look at this short article, 7 Tips for Difficult Conversationsfrom Harvard Business Review. Examples of such conversations mentioned in that article:
"I have to tell one of my long-standing suppliers that we’re cutting back orders 50%. We’re their biggest client — and I know it will be devastating.
The new hire worked all night on the presentation, but there were big mistakes in it, and I’ve got to tell her before she makes them again.
There’s no way we’re going to meet the deadline for producing the report our boss promised the Board — we just don’t have the data yet. Someone has to talk to him before this whole situation blows up."
The article goes on to describe some tips for handling such conversations. Whether the difficult conversation you managed fits into the examples above or was resolved in the manner described in that article, a good answer here will involve explaining why a conversation was hard to have, how you had the conversation, and what the outcome was.
ESSAY 3: WHY CBS?
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, an extremely active co-curricular and student life environment, 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? Please be specific. (250 words)
Keep in mind that this question is focused on why Columbia Business School is the right MBA program for you. That is to say what does its curriculum, community, and network offer you that will help you reach the professional objectives you have mentioned in Essay 1? And beyond, professional objectives who does CBS fit you as a person from an academic and cultural perspective. For a more general discussion about the whole issue of academic fit, see here. If you are unclear about why you need from an MBA program, see the GAP, SWOT, and ROI table above.
Balance and integrate Goals and Why Columbia?
A good version of Essay 3 will connect goals with Columbia. If you use the GAP/SWOT table above, Step 3 relates directly to the content of this essay. That is to say, the objective is not merely to explain why Columbia fits you, but why it aligns with the goals discussed in Essay 1. Your objective is to write an essay that shows Columbia why it is the best possible place for you to achieve your career goals. If your goals are not showing themselves to be particularly well supported by Columbia, you may need to either change your goals or decide to apply elsewhere.
Beyond Goals
Beyond direct goals reasons for why Columbia is right for you, consider what aspects of its curriculum or community support your personal and professional interests. This might be a club or activity that you want to engage in. For more about CBS clubs, see here.
While in recent years, the school emphasized its New York City location in Essay 3 it no longer does. You need only discuss that if it is especially useful for making the best possible argument for why CBS fits you. In general, such arguments are often dumb cliches and since they are not what the question is focused, don't waste words on the topic.
Optional Essay:
Is there any further information that you wish to provide the Admissions Committee? If so, use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history. This does not need to be a formal essay. You may submit bullet points. (Maximum 500 Words)
1. If they did not ask it, do they really need to know it?
2. Will the topic I want to discuss significantly improve my overall essay set?
3. Is the topic one that would not be covered from looking at other parts of my application?
4. Is the essay likely to be read as being a specific answer for Columbia and not an obvious essay for another school?
If you can answer "Yes!" to all four questions, it might be a good topic to write about.
Columbia Loves to Be Loved
One thing that is consistent about Columbia Business School is that they want to know that their school is your first choice. If you have an alumni interview you can be expected to be asked about that very directly. See here for my advice on Columbia interviews. Best of luck for gaining admission to the Columbia Business School Class of 2025 or 2026!
