The following Columbia MBA interview questions & report were submitted to Clear Admit by a Regular Decision Round applicant who was admitted. Congratulations to them!
I was invited to interview in late December. Unlike previous years, I was only given a single interviewer to schedule with. Given that the holiday break was about to start and the rolling-admissions nature of Columbia, I wanted to schedule it as soon as possible. My interviewer was highly responsive and we scheduled an interview 2 days later.
I received an email from an admissions member the morning of the interview asking me if I had completed the interview confirmation on their portal as the interviewer had not received confirmation or my resume yet. I was a bit flustered, double checked that I had indeed confirmed, and quickly got the issue resolved – they were having trouble on their end.
I arrived 10 minutes early to my interview held in the office of my interviewer. We had a large conference room. My interviewer was running a bit late, apologized, but was incredibly enthusiastic and positive setting a good tone for the interview. Given the time constraint, he gave me free reign right off the bat:
1. Tell me about yourself and why you want an MBA?
2. What would you do if you were unable to land the job you want?
3. How do you plan on getting involved with Columbia?
Those were really the only formal questions my interviewer asked. I gave a concise yet detailed answer to the first question. He probed a few times on specifics, but was overall impressed with the amount of research I had done, the number of people I had spoken to, and the clarity of my post-MBA goals. After the more formal questions, it turned into a discussion about life at Columbia beyond the class and how to take advantage of being in NYC. I got to hear about what he valued most from his time there, and his experience with the school.
While short (about 30 minutes), the interview felt thorough and went very well. My interviewer submitted his feedback a week later and I was accepted with Fellowship 2 weeks after that.
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