Insider Intel for Columbia Business School Applicants
Is Columbia Business School on your shortlist of target MBA programs? Then, you won’t want to miss this conversation with a CBS insider. Today, we’re sharing a Q&A with SBC admissions consultant Ally, who brings six years of admissions experience to the team—most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia.
During her time at Columbia, Ally reviewed applications, planned recruitment events, and interviewed candidates for the full-time and Executive MBA programs. Ally also managed the class visit program at Columbia and worked to ensure prospective students had a meaningful, engaging, and fun experience.
These events allowed her to observe an abundance of prospective CBS students. More importantly, she knows what Columbia applicants need to get admitted into this prestigious full-time MBA program.
We’ve asked Ally what advice she would offer to Columbia Business School applicants in particular. Here’s what she had to say.
What are the most common reasons why MBA applicants apply to CBS?
Columbia Business School applicants are drawn to the location and the opportunity to successfully pursue any career you could imagine (what can’t you do in NYC?!), its tight-knit community and super involved student life, and the amazing faculty and opportunity to learn from some incredible industry leaders.
Share with us the top three reasons why you loved the CBS MBA program.
The top three reasons why I loved the CBS MBA program so much are because of the students. They are amazing, so involved, and eager to connect with prospective students, which made my job easier!
I also worked closely with the Columbia Women in Business Club, which is one of the largest clubs on campus. Seeing so many great women accomplish such cool things was terrific.
Plus, the faculty is so excellent and approachable. I managed our class visit program, which presented a great opportunity to work closely with some of our faculty members. When I left my job at CBS to pursue another opportunity, I was most sad that I wouldn’t get to work with the faculty members anymore!
Another reason is the location. It’s an excellent place for students to work together and enjoy all that’s happening in their surroundings, both professionally and socially.
What are the key aspects Columbia Business School applicants should know?
A key aspect of the program is becoming involved on campus and immersing yourself in the CBS community. The students work wonderfully together; it’s not the cutthroat place that some imagine when they think of an NYC school.
It’s also important to know that it’s interesting academically. You can take whatever electives you want—and out of about 400, more than any of our peer schools, there are certainly plenty of options that you will want to take.
Something that applicants may not know is how well CBS connects students with the surrounding city (and the world). There are various immersion programs students can take as electives that allow them to spend time in class with their classmates and professors and time off-site doing corporate visits around the city (and globally).
What application advice do you have for applicants to CBS’s MBA program?
My best advice is just to be yourself! The CBS admissions committee wants to get to know YOU, not someone you think the AdCom wants to see. Be as specific as possible in your application and show that you’ve taken time to get to know the program. Don’t just list some basic website-level knowledge.
Review your essays and make sure you are actually answering the questions asked! My favorite applications were always the ones with great essays where it was clear that the applicant was really being their authentic self.
What advice do you have for CBS students to make the most of the experience?
Take advantage of everything there is to take advantage of! It’s two years of being able to focus entirely on the program—academics, growing your network, getting involved in clubs, and enjoying NYC. Do it all, but don’t burn yourself out! You know yourself best and know what you have the capacity for. Be mindful of this, but also don’t be afraid to try new things.
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Thanks so much, Ally, for sharing your CBS insights with our blog readers! Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with a complete panel of former Admissions Officers. If you want to learn more about working with us, you can request a free analysis of your candidacy here. We look forward to meeting you!
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford.  Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year.  Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×
Dana
Dana served as Assistant Director of Admissions at Columbia Business School for the Full-Time MBA program and has over 10 years of experience working in higher education. Known as a scrupulous file reader, Dana reviewed countless applications and assisted in rendering final decisions for the Admissions Committee at CBS. While leading information sessions at Columbia and on the road, Dana met and advised myriad applicants� ...
×Holly
Holly worked as a member of the NYU Stern MBA Admissions team for seven years and holds an MBA from NYU Stern. In her tenure as Director of NYU MBA Admissions, Holly worked closely with admissions teams from Columbia, Michigan Ross, UVA Darden, Cornell Johnson, Berkeley Haas, Yale SOM, and Duke Fuqua on recruiting events domestically and internationally. On the NYU Stern admissions committee, Holly conducted interviews, planned and hosted events, and trained staff on reading and interviewi ...
×Mark
Mark has been working in global higher education for nearly ten years, focusing on MBA Admissions at European programs including Oxford Said Business School and London Business School (LBS). At the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, Mark was the Associate Director of MBA Recruitment, leading the recruitment of all applicants to the Oxford MBA and 1+1 MBA programs. In this role, Mark advised countless MBA applic ...
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