The following Columbia Business School MBA interview questions & report were submitted to Clear Admit by a Round 2 applicant. Good luck to them!
It seems to me that CBS interviews, at least from the information on this website, are pretty spot-on in relation to questions asked.
Interview lasted an hour. Generally a casual atmosphere, although interviewer came off as stoic in certain situations, and probed my CV heavily – I was expecting this since I’m a non-traditional applicant.
Interviewer submitted his report within a few hours of the interview.
At the end of the interview he spent about 20 mins talking about his time at Columbia. I spoke about his win on CBS Marketing Case competition so I think he was impressed that I did my homework on him (told him it was fourth or fifth page on Google – he was surprised I knew this about him).
At the very end he said to keep him updated on my Columbia application status. He also gave me advice as to what I should do as a student at Columbia. And he said he’ll put me in touch with his VC friend for advice on my med tech start-up.
Questions
Questions asked, in no particular order:
1. Walk me through your resume
2. Why business school
3. Why Columbia
4. Plan B if you don’t get in
5. Heavy probing on CV
6. How would you juggle your start-up and the MBA at the same time? (I recently co-founded a med tech start-up).
Now we’ll see how it goes! Good luck to everyone.
Clear Admit Resources
Preparing for your Columbia Business School admissions interview? Check out Clear Admit’s other resources:
- Clear Admit Columbia Business School Interview Guide: Strategic tips for approaching CBS’s interview questions, and more.
- Interview Archive: More firsthand accounts from CBS applicants themselves
- Understanding the MBA Admissions Interview: Blind Interviews vs. Non-blind Interviews
- Podcast Episode 23: 5 Most Common MBA Interview Questions You Need to Ace
