Columbia Business School

I had pretty much made up my mind to attend NYU's Stern School of Business in the fall when I received an invitation to interview with my first choice school: Columbia Business School. I have spent the past 6 months or so obsessing over the Value Investing Program at Columbia and was very excited.

I had applied to seven MBA programs and until Sunday had been admitted to five and rejected from one. During the process of applying I stumbled upon the Value Investing Program at Columbia. At the same time, my passion for the discipline of Value Investing began to grow. Throughout the application process I became more and more focused on getting into my #1 choice. As interview invites arrived, acceptance calls were received and scholarship awards were made, the only school I heard nothing from was Columbia.

I spoke with current students as well as alumni. I visited campus for the day (and talked a CBS student into sneaking me into Professor Greenwald’s Value Investing class), I attended the Columbia Investment Management Association conference and I sent an e-mail to admissions re-confirming the Columbia was my first choice. In the middle of April I had still heard nothing and began to realize Columbia was a long shot at that point. With their rolling admissions process, most of the seats were probably filled. I had been accepted into 4 top 20 schools, so I certainly couldn’t be upset. I began to feel comfortable with the fact that with a little extra work on my own, I would be able to have as good an experience whichever MBA program I chose as I would have had at Columbia.

Then the invite to interview arrived. I had been to 6 other interviews over the past 2 ½ months. In hindsight it was a blessing that Columbia was my last. I was very comfortable with my story, I knew exactly why I wanted to pursue an MBA and more importantly, I could articulate it. In addition, I had spent so long obsessing about Columbia and I had that story down cold as well. When I attended the welcome weekends of other schools I found myself convincing other students that Columbia had the best program if you wanted to learn valuation… and I hadn’t even been invited to interview yet! I arrived at my interview on Friday morning (4/28/06) and clearly explained why Columbia was my #1 choice. I knew that the options I already had were amazing, but for my specific career goals, no other school in the world compared to Columbia Business School. My interviewer told me that I had a very compelling story and that I should hear from admissions shortly.

Well “shortly” it was! The following Monday (5/1) I received a call from Linda Meehan, Dean of Admissions. She called my office just after lunch time. As soon as she said her name my hand started shaking. She started with small talk and I wanted to shout “AM I IN OR NOT?!” When she gave me the good news, I said “YESSSsssss”. She must have been in a room with other committee members because she relayed my response to the others.

So that is my story. If you have questions about applying to B-school, GMATs, Essays, Recommendations, strategies, please feel free to e-mail me. I’ve been through it all and I finally relax for the next few months as I prepare for the fall. I cannot wait to be a first year MBA student at the only Ivy League Business School in New York City and the school with the best Investment Management program in the world.