Columbia Business School MBA Essay Topic Analysis 2010-2011
After sticking with the same three essays for the past two years, this year Columbia has made a significant change. Although the first essay on career goals remains the same, Columbia has reduced the amount of essays to two and has adopted a new second essay topic that focuses on applicants’ personalities. With one question on work goals and the other on personal interests, this set of topics suggests a dual focus on one’s professional and personal interests, experiences, and plans.
Essay 1: What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit)
This prompt falls in line with the standard Career Goals Essay, and thus the general advice we’ve offered in the past on how to tackle this sort of question applies here. In addition, because people applying to Columbia are often also considering first-tier schools like Wharton, Chicago, and NYU, it’s especially important for you to convince the Columbia adcom of your interest in the program by packing your essay full of school-specific details about classes and clubs. Taking the time to learn about the school’s curriculum, special programs and extracurricular activities – whether through a visit to campus, conversations with members of the community– will pay dividends here.
Essay 2: Please tell us about yourself and your personal interests. The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have achieved professionally. (Recommended 500 word limit)
New to the Columbia application, the second part of this prompt may look familiar to people who have looked at past essay questions from the Duke Fuqua MBA application. This prompt offers applicants the opportunity to demonstrate the well-rounded nature of their candidacy. Because Columbia explicitly states that they do not want to hear about professional achievements in this essay, applicants should instead chronicle other passions, showing how these have led to extracurricular and academic accomplishments. Regardless of how you chose to approach writing this essay, the most important thing is to demonstrate the unique aspects of your candidacy, as well as illustrate how you would make a valuable addition to the Columbia community, such as providing your classmates with a unique point of view, becoming the leader of a student club, or forming your own extracurricular activity.
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