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MBA application essay
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Applying for an MBA program is quite different to applying for a Ph.D. or other graduate program.  Whereas graduate school applicants can write one statement of purpose and send virtually the same document to a dozen schools, each business school has its own set of prompts, with each requiring three or four short essays on various topics. By making the application more challenging, the schools thus limit the applicant pool to those who have the dedication to write a new set of essays for each program they apply to.

Tips on the 2009 Columbia MBA application

We are seeing a lot of interest in the Columbia MBA application at the moment.  Here are some general comments that may be of help to you in preparing your essays:

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)

We are seeing a lot of applicants use this essay as an opportunity to talk about their background and career to date.  While obviously plans for the future have to make sense in terms of one's past, we recommend that applicants take the wording of the question seriously, i.e. that you make sure that you really use this section to talk about your short-term and long-term goals, and that this doesn't get lost in an account of your career to date.

Regarding the question of "How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals?" we recommend that candidates focus on very specific aspects of the curriculum at Columbia that differ from offerings at other schools.  We advise against expending too many words talking about the benefits of doing a program in New York city (this should not be the primary motivation for choosing Columbia's MBA program).

2) Master Classes are the epitome of bridging the gap between theory and practice at Columbia Business School. (View link below) Please provide an example from your own life in which practical experience taught you more than theory alone. (Recommended 500 word limit)

A successful essay for this section will generally take a theoretical model learned in college or elsewhere and show how practical experience forced the applicant to go beyond it.

3) Please provide an example of a team failure of which you've been a part. If given a second chance, what would you do differently? (Recommended 500 word limit)

This question needs to be handled carefully.  You have to write about a real failure, otherwise the answer sounds insincere (like someone who answers the question "What is your greatest failing?" with the answer "I tend to work too hard" or "I'm a perfectionist").  On the other hand, the failure cannot reflect on you in a way that would suggest you are not a suitable candidate for an MBA (i.e. the failing cannot result from timidity or a lack of confidence).  We would suggest that even though the failure in question is a team failure,  the example chosen should be one in which the applicant shares responsibility (i.e. the essay should not be about how a team leader caused a project to fail, while the applicant went along with their instructions).

We think the smartest essays are those that show a failure resulting from an excess of one's good qualities, e.g. a failure resulting from the applicant being too ambitious or aggressive.  In addition to showing how one would do things differently if given the chance to try this project again, we also recommend briefly mentioning how you bounced back from the failure.

4) (Optional) Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? (Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history.)

We recommend only submitting the optional essay if there really are things about your profile that need to be explained.  For example, a low college GPA can be put in perspective, or an unusual-looking career path can be explained.