Join us for another edition of the Real Humans: MBA Students series to meet some new members of the Columbia Business School (CBS) MBA Class of 2023.
847 students chose to attend CBS and become part of the MBA Class of 2023. Classes began in August with 614 students and another 233 will begin their studies in January. Women make up 41 percent of the class, and international students comprise nearly half (48 percent) of students. Forty percent of students identify as US minorities. CBS reports minority representation using both federal guidelines and multi-dimensional reporting guidelines. Under federal guidelines, students who identify, for example, as Hispanic and any other race are represented as Hispanic only, and students who identify as more than one race are represented as multi-race only. Under the federal reporting guidelines, Black students make up 11 percent of the class, Hispanic students 9 percent, Asian Americans 20 percent, and multiracial students 2 percent.
During their undergraduate years, 37 percent of the latest CBS class earned degrees in business. Economics followed at 18 percent. Fifteen percent had studied engineering and 13 percent the social sciences. Seven percent pursued sciences and six percent humanities. Their average undergraduate GPA landed at 3.5.
Before matriculating at Columbia, the MBA students earned an average of five years of work experience. Ninety-nine percent of new students had at least one year of work experience. Thirty-one percent of the class came from financial services, followed by 22 percent from consulting. Twelve percent had worked in marketing/media and nine percent in the technology industry. Seven percent of students had earned experience in healthcare. Four percent or less came from the military, energy, manufacturing and other professional backgrounds.
When it came time to take the GMAT, the CBS MBA Class of 2023 averaged a score of 729. The range of scores spanned 540 to 780, and the middle 80 percent of scores ranged from 700 to 760.
Meet the students beyond the stats in the following pages, as new member of CBS dig into their admissions journeys, what they love about the program and more.
