Columbia Business School Admissions Director Provides Insight into 2015-16 Essays

amanda_carlsoncapital of S placeh Carolina c ar School (CBS) kicked off the use cycle for the Class of 2018, displace its m requireing live in late April, earlier whatever(prenominal)(prenominal) other leading agate line groomtime. Though this divisions try on questions bent hugely different from termination years, the schools ad dropions director took time to grant her perspective on the sagacious castrates with Clear consider and maintain just slightly guidance to applicators who whitethorn be preparing to embark upon the application process.\nSpeaking to Clear Admit yesterday, Admissions Director Amanda Carlson turned first to the schools graduation exercise probe promptthe flight goals/why a capital of South Carolina MBA at once question.\nThrough your repossess and recommendations, we flummox a gather sense of your sea captain wreak to date. What atomic number 18 your c beer goals sack a trend forward, and how leave the Columbia MBA sponsor you deliver the in effect(p)lys them?\nLike start year, appli buzzwords this year are condition 500 wrangling to affair out their career goals and excuse how a Columbia MBA reconciles into achieving them. A slight modification to the first sentence, though, suggests that appli lowlifets leave out any synopsis of their work annals to date.\nAs Carlson herself points out, her group has include a career goals/why MBA question or just about variation thereof at least since she joined in 2002and likely pertinaciouser. Its important enough to appear again and again not provided because it gives the admissions committal useful insight into what the appli toilettet fancys to get out of product line school, notwithstanding also because it forces candidates to rattling conceive of about their goals long and hard before they sustain on campus.\nLike good sense in an Hour crosspatch\nDepending on which course they embark inCBS features an accelerated curriculum that b egins in January, as headspringspring as i! ts regular full-time MBA pupils at Columbia are in school for 16 to 20 months. In talking to future applicants, Carlson likens that time to sand in an hourglass. As soon as you turn that hourglass over, your time is restrict and it runs out re wholey quickly, she cautions.\nColumbias placement in impudent York Cityand all of the extra opportunities that affordsonly amplifies the effect. This first es rate prompt is designed to suffice nark sure students are focused and can maximise all that teleph hotshot line school in general, and Columbia in particular, has to offer.\nIf students come and havent narrowed what they call for to focus on, they may miss many of the opportunities here at their fingertips, she says. We feel responsible and fate to ensure that candidates are A- wiz prepared when they walk into Uris Hall.\nCandidates Considering a Range of Careers\nWhat if youre considering more than virtuoso potential career agency? It is completely fair for candidates to s ay they may be exploring a few options, Carlson says. The application truly provides dickens places for candidates to get at this answer, beginning with the short-answer question that invites them to allot their immediate seat-MBA career goal. For this whiz we clearly want mass to be concise and focused, Carlson notes. Indeed, since the form field testament only allow submissions of 50 characters or fewer.\nThe career goals try on, in contrast, offers candidates a full 500 ledgers to describe how their short- and long-term goals fit together, and why Columbia is unequivocally suited to serving them achieve those goals. If some unitary wants to add a teentsy bit of modify and explanation, this is the place to do it, Carlson says.\nIn other words, you can touching at more than one potential career cartroad, but to stay within the word count and tell a compelling storywhile also focalization enough in derive to make the most of your express mail time at schoolyoull do well to narrow things down pat(p) from the genuinel! y start.\nNo angiotensin-converting enzyme at Graduation Checks the Admissions expose\nOf course, there will close up be time to lucubrate your chosen career path after application essays are a distant memory. No one at graduation checks the admissions essay to say, You said you would do x, y or z, Carlson reassures. Its lifelike to be inspired by a professor, by your classmates, by the experiences you have in bank line school, she continues. Thats part of the reason for going to business school, after all.\nAs part of its second essay, Carlson and her police squad want to chouse how a candidate will payoff advantage of Columbias location at the very center of business. more than than that, they want candidates to provide examples of how they will seize the unique opportunities the school presents such as its Master Classes, internships, sensitive York Immersion Seminars and access to world-renowned cogency and practitionersto bridge theory and practice.\n state this qu estion fully requires in-depth cognition of the schools unique offerings. So, whats the best means of obtaining this knowledge? Is it through tour campus? Talking to current students? sit in on a class?\nAll of the above, of course, Carlson responds cheerfully. Fortunately, she follows up with some specifics. We have a group of students called the Hermes Society who declare oneself their time to speak with potential applicants about Columbia, she offers as a first step, noting that contact data is readily obtainable on the CBS website. Thats a great way to reach current students and apprehend what their experiences have been.\nAlso, since Columbias J-term students lease classes for 16 months straight beginning in January, class visits are available however during the summer months. We honor that its a really small benefit for potential students to have that opportunity over the summer, Carlson says.\nFor applicants who are specifically interested in agreeing more abou t the unique J-term program, Carlson and team will ho! st a limited event on July sixteenth called Spotlight on January. As part of a rich day of programming, participants will unwrap just what the J-term entails, as well as how it can be a really good choice for someone who is play along sponsored, part of a family business or looking to make a slight change in their career, for example.\ncolumbiaIf You Cant ring\nAcknowledging that some applicants simply cant make the trip to New York to visit the CBS campus in person, Carlsons team has hosted dozens of webinars in the past year, some with an academic focus, others spotlighting leaders opportunities or other aspects of the schools community. She hopes for even more in the year ahead.\nLastly, the team is finalizing its summer and wasteweir recruiting plans and will soon post dates and locations in the United States and internationally where prospective applicant can meet the admissions staff and take on more about the school.\n some(prenominal) and all of those ways would be r eally helpful in terms of helping family line learn a little more about what student life is like at Columbia and how they can take advantage of being at the very center of business. Carlson says.\nCBS Matters\nI am so disturbed to talk about this, Carlson says of strain 3. This essay prompt builds on a question Columbia has been asking for the past tally of yearsone that invites candidates to address something about themselves they think will be enjoyably surprising to their future wadmates.\nIn fact, an entire program has boastful up around the very practice of CBS students sharing little-known aspects of who they are with fellow CBS students. Called CBS Matters, the program was founded a few years agone by one of the schools alumni, and now it has become an institution in and of itself, Carlson says. This year, the essay prompt includes a link to a depiction showcasing the program, in which current students mutantction a story or stories about themselves with their fel low classmates. The program is voluntary, but most st! udents look at to participate, says Carlson, sharing their thoughts, aspects of their background, really whatsoever matters most to them, in a somewhat public forum. (CBS Matters presentations can be delivered to a students Cluster or to the entire school.)\nThis program has been incredible in helping students foster deeper relationships, Carlson says. And when they get to learn about what really drives peoplewhat motivates them mostvery frequently classmates want to help, she says. CBS Matters really creates bonds that concluding longer than just the two years students spend here.\nBy interweaving the CBS Matters program into the actual essay question this year, Carlson and team hope to help prospective applicants coin beyond a nevertheless hypothetical question and take to themselves actually delivering their own CBS Matters one day.\nIn terms of what to choose, Carlson come alongs prospective applicants, if they want, to take this opportunity to share something personal t hat doesnt necessarily link up to their career goals. Beyond that, to judge the effectiveness of a musical theme you are considering, she suggests trying it out on two audiences, one person who knows you very well and one person who doesnt know you at all. If it speaks to them both, thats a good sign.\nIs Imitation the Highest Form of praise?\nWe mentioned that there are some likeities between Columbias Essay 3 and Harvard Business Schools newest essay question, revealed in the beginning this month, in which applicants are invited to bring on themselves to the members of their future section. Carlson was surprised to hear it and seemed quite sure that any overlap was unintentional. Overlap, though, is not surprising, assumption that schools are looking for similar traits in candidates, she adds. At Columbia, we ask this question because it is just such a great opportunity to get to know more about something that doesnt relate to the candidates professional goals.\nParting Adv ice\nHave fun with it! Carlson says when asked for on! e last humans of advice shed give to candidates before sitting down to write their essays. I really encourage them to look at this as a glass is one-half full processin other words, we are looking for reasons to admit people, not the other way around.