Columbia MBA Essays
Columbia MBA Essays 2011 - 2012
Applicants must complete one short-answer question and three essays.
Short-Answer Question
What is your post-MBA professional goal? (200 characters maximum)
Essay Questions
1. Considering your post-MBA and long term professional goals, why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? Additionally, why is Columbia Business School a good fit for you? (750 words maximum)
2. Describe a life experience that has shaped you. The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have achieved professionally. (500 words maximum)
Essay Questions (Cont.)
3. For the third essay, please choose
one of the following three options:
Option A: The annual A. Lorne Weil Outrageous Business Plan Competition is a student initiative managed and run by the Columbia Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO). The competition encourages Columbia MBA students to explore creative, entrepreneurial ideas that are sufficiently ambitious in scope and scale to be considered âoutrageous.â Students explore these ideas while learning firsthand what goes into the development and presentation of a solid business proposal.
Develop your own outrageous business idea. In essay form, compose your elevator pitch. (250 words maximum)
Option B: Columbia deeply values its vibrant student community, the building of which begins at orientation when admitted students are assigned to clusters of 65 to 70 fellow students who take most of the first-year core classes together. During the first weeks of school, each cluster selects a cluster chair. Further strengthening the student community are the more than 100 active student organizations at Columbia Business School, ranging from cultural to professional to community serviceâoriented. Leadership positions within clusters and clubs offer hands-on management and networking opportunities for students as they interact with fellow students, administrators, faculty members, alumni, and practitioners.
You are running for either cluster chair or a club leadership position of your choosing. Compose your campaign speech. (250 words maximum)
Option C: Founded nearly three decades ago, the Executives in Residence Program at Columbia Business School integrates senior executives into the life of the School. Current executives in residence include more than a dozen experts in areas ranging from media and investment banking to private equity and management. A hallmark of the program is one-on-one counseling sessions in which executives advise students about their prospective career choices.
Select one of the current executives in residence with whom you would like to meet during your time at Columbia. Explain your selection and tell us how you would best utilize your half hour one-on-one session. (250 words maximum)
Optional Essay
An optional fourth essay will allow you to discuss any issues that do not fall within the purview of the required essays.
Knight-Bagehot Fellows
Rather than answer the first essay question above, current Knight-Bagehot Fellows applying to Columbia Business School should use the space allocated to the first essay to complete the Wiegers Fellowship application essay.
Wiegers Fellowship Essay Question
What are your career goals? How has the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship affected these goals? How will an MBA help you achieve these goals? (750 words maximum)
Columbia MBA Links
Columbia MBA Essay Questions!
The essay
questions that appear on this page are for candidates
who plan to apply during the fall of 2011 or the winter
of 2012 and start classes in the fall of 2012.
To return to a list of the essay questions from all schools, click the link below.
Columbia MBA Application Deadlines
Columbia has three
application deadlines:
The deadlines below are for the full-time MBA
program.
- Round
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Deadline
- October 5, 2011*
- January 4, 2012**
- April 11, 2012