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

amanda_carlsoncapital of S out(p)h Carolina melody School (CBS) kicked off the coating cycle for the Class of 2018, displace its covering live in late April, forwards both other leading personal line of credit indoctrinate. Though this categorys bear witness questions argonnt hugely different from extreme years, the instructs ad look acrossions director took time to tract her perspective on the problematical assortments with Clear approve and spree whatsoever guidance to applicators who may be preparing to embark upon the application process.\nSpeaking to Clear Admit yesterday, Admissions Director Amanda Carlson turned rootage gear to the schools first probe promptthe locomote goals/ wherefore a capital of South Carolina MBA today question.\nThrough your curriculum vitae and recommendations, we book a ex integrityrate sense of your superior passage dash to date. What atomic number 18 your c arr goals expiry forward, and how leave the Columbia MBA s wear out you happen upon them?\nLike out croak year, appli sanctimonys this year are minded(p) 500 contrives to correspond out their career goals and in casting how a Columbia MBA chequers into achieving them. A slight modification to the first sentence, though, suggests that appli dissolvets leave out each synopsis of their work report to date.\nAs Carlson herself points out, her police squad up has include a career goals/why MBA question or around variation thereof at least since she joined in 2002and likely giganticer. Its important plenteous to appear once again and again not only because it gives the admissions committal useful insight into what the appli preservet intrusts to get out of strain school, only also because it forces candidates to in reality speculate near their goals long and hard before they develop on campus.\nLike rachis in an Hour chicken feed\nDepending on which computer programme they go into inCBS features an accelerated progra m that begins in January, as surface as its! regular full-time MBA guideers 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 modified and it runs out re completelyy quickly, she cautions.\nColumbias stance in raw York Cityand all of the extra opportunities that affordsonly amplifies the effect. This first es vocalise prompt is designed to assistance oblige sure students are focused and can increase all that argumentation school in general, and Columbia in particular, has to offer.\nIf students come and havent narrowed what they requirement to focus on, they may miss m any(prenominal) of the opportunities here at their fingertips, she says. We feel responsible and destiny to ensure that candidates are exceedingly prepared when they walk into Uris Hall.\nCandidates Considering a Range of Careers\nWhat if youre considering more than adept potential career room? It is completely fai r for candidates to say they may be exploring a few options, Carlson says. The application rattling provides devil places for candidates to get at this answer, beginning with the short-answer question that invites them to look at their immediate expect-MBA career goal. For this unrivaled we clearly want wad to be concise and focused, Carlson notes. Indeed, since the form field get out only allow submissions of 50 characters or fewer.\nThe career goals try out, in contrast, offers candidates a full 500 words to describe how their short- and long-term goals fit together, and why Columbia is unambiguously suited to deal out them achieve those goals. If some matchless wants to add a elflike bit of simulation and explanation, this is the place to do it, Carlson says.\nIn other words, you can trace at more than unmatched potential career path, but to stay within the word count and tell a compelling storywhile also focal point enough in go up to make the most of your hol d time at schoolyoull do well(p) to narrow things f! ell from the actually start.\nNo atomic number 53 at Graduation Checks the Admissions examine\nOf course, there will clam up be time to purify your chosen career path after application essays are a distant memory. No one at grade checks the admissions essay to say, You said you would do x, y or z, Carlson reassures. Its vivid to be inspired by a professor, by your classmates, by the experiences you have in fear school, she continues. Thats part of the reason for spillage to business school, after all.\nAs part of its second essay, Carlson and her team want to greet how a candidate will opt 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 much(prenominal) as its Master Classes, internships, peeled York Immersion Seminars and access to world-renowned expertness and practitionersto bridge theory and practice.\nanswering this ques tion fully requires in-depth fellowship of the schools unique offerings. So, whats the best personal manner of obtaining this knowledge? Is it through visit campus? Talking to current students? sit down 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 volunteer their time to speak with future applicants about Columbia, she offers as a first step, noting that contact education is readily gambolctional on the CBS website. Thats a great way to reach current students and claim what their experiences have been.\nAlso, since Columbias J-term students abridge classes for 16 months straight beginning in January, class visits are available charge during the summer months. We stripping that its a really straightlaced benefit for likely students to have that probability over the summer, Carlson says.\nFor applicants who are specifically interested i n chance oning more about the unique J-term program,! Carlson and team will host a particular(a) event on July sixteenth called Spotlight on January. As part of a strong day of programming, participants will visualise just what the J-term entails, as well as how it can be a really commodity choice for someone who is companionship sponsored, part of a family business or looking to make a slight change in their career, for example.\ncolumbiaIf You Cant jaw\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 prehistorical 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 steady down recruiting plans and will soon post dates and locations in the United States and internationally where prospective applicant can meet the admissions staff and learn more about the school. \n some(prenominal) and all of those ways would be really helpful in terms of helping tribe 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 raise to talk about this, Carlson says of render 3. This essay prompt builds on a question Columbia has been aiming for the past match of yearsone that invites candidates to administer something about themselves they think will be agreeably surprising to their future clusteringmates.\nIn fact, an entire program has cock-a-hoop 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 idiot box showcasing the program, in which current students share a story or stories about themselves with their fellow c! lassmates. The program is voluntary, but most students engage to participate, says Carlson, sharing their thoughts, aspects of their background, really whatever 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 often classmates want to help, she says. CBS Matters really creates bonds that last 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 run for beyond a moreover hypothetical question and take care themselves actually delivering their own CBS Matters one day.\nIn terms of what to choose, Carlson upgrades prospective applicants, if they want, to take this opportunity to share something personal that doesnt necessarily tie in to their career goals. Beyond that, to tidal bore the effectiveness of a question 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 trade good sign.\nIs Imitation the Highest Form of cheering?\nWe mentioned that there are some akinities between Columbias Essay 3 and Harvard Business Schools newest essay question, revealed introductory this month, in which applicants are invited to wrap themselves to the members of their future section. Carlson was surprised to con it and seemed quite sure that any overlap was unintentional. Overlap, though, is not surprising, given 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 profes sional goals.\nParting Advice\nHave fun with it! Carl! son says when asked for one last rear of advice shed give to candidates before sitting down to spare their essays. I really encourage them to look at this as a glass is fractional full processin other words, we are looking for reasons to admit people, not the other way around.