Columbia - Rejected - 10-17-2022 | Clear Admit LiveWire

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October 17, 2022 9:36am ET

Rejected at Columbia

Round: Early Decision

Received via portal October 17, 2022

GPA: 3.96

GMAT: 740

Program Type: Traditional Two-Year

Target Career: Finance

Application Location: South Africa

Note:

MBB Consultant, born and raised in JHB South Africa

August Entry

Applied 08/ 30, Interview invite 09/21, interview 09/29, Feedback submitted 09/30, rejected 10/17

Had a very strange interview and the interviewer asked very targeted questions about my proposed long-term career goals (industry trends, my potential solutions to solving industry problems, etc), all of which I felt I answered adequately, but c'est la vie.

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Show Comments (6) Last: October 24, 2022

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1310 Sorry to hear this! On the surface, this is surprising (great GMAT, under-represented geography). Care to share any further details about your candidacy/why your goals may have raised an eyebrow with the interviewer?
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brendallan Likes Earned: 19 Hey Graham, OP here - my LT is to start a PE fund in Africa, focused on growing African businesses to a level of international competitiveness. ST goal is to get transaction experience as an M&A associate in IB in the US, before getting investment experience in a PE fund after about 5 years in IB. Felt like the roadmap was pretty clear, but the questions were more related to solving actual industry problems - "You know that PE is a mess in Africa, how would you fix it?" "Company X, Y and Z have been unable to be successful in Africa so why would you be successful?" (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1696 Interesting. Fingers crossed for other top programs. I’d think there’s a lot to like about your profile and goals. Are you interviewing at other programs in Round 1? (0)

brendallan Likes Earned: 19 Hey Alex - nothing round 1, was all in on CBS (flew to NYC in June to do a campus visit and worked quite closely with Partners at my firm who are Alum). RD 2 looking at Wharton and Stern, not sure I will be competitive elsewhere given that, although from South Africa, I am not in a URM category. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1696 Round 2 should be fine for a profile from South Africa, so you should apply wherever you would have applied if it were round 1. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1696 More details on this situation in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2022/10/wire-taps-258/ (0)

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