Columbia Business School

COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL

AnnualReport 2010 COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL

01 A B O U T C O L U M B I A

About Columbia Business SchoolColumbia Business School is one of the world’s elite business schools, notable for its access to elite speakers and career resources as well as its long tradition of excellence in finance. Columbia has become increasingly focused on global perspective in recent years, featur-ing a growing population of international students as well as impressive reach with regard to foreign programs. Furthermore, Columbia Business School has undergone a sea change of sorts in recent years, as a new dean has led efforts to overhaul the curriculum and make both the MBA experience and the Columbia community more diverse and dynamic.

To fully understand Columbia Business School, one must understand Columbia University, as the philosophy, history, and resources of the greater university often impact the MBA experience in a way that exceeds many other elite business schools.

Columbia University Programs

Columbia University is one of the oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learn-ing in the United States. Columbia College was founded by royal charter from George II of England in 1754, when New York was still an English colony, and has hosted many generations of inquisitive minds who have in turn gone on to great prominence. Notable Columbia College alumni make up a diverse group, including Alexander Hamilton, James Cagney, Art Garfunkel, Lou Gehrig, Alicia Keys, George Stephanopoulos, and New York Governor David Paterson. More prominent than any of them is President Barack Obama, who transferred from Occidental College, and graduated in 1983.

The university’s location at the north end of Manhattan has ensured an ongoing connec-tion to American arts and letters, medicine, law, science, business and, for that matter, almost any field of endeavor worth listing. Columbia’s 25 libraries comprise more than 10 million printed volumes, 6.3 million microforms, 28 million manuscripts and more than 600,000 rare books --- to say nothing of the school’s extensive electronic resources.

Columbia’s annual budget of nearly $3 billion supports 3,573 faculty members and 24,923 students. Virtually anywhere else, Columbia University would be the driving force of the local economy. The institution seems merely “large” because Manhattan and New York City are so vast.

Columbia Business School

As a result of the university’s size, versatility, and history, when Columbia Business School (CBS) takes an interdisciplinary approach, it does so with a breadth of complementary educational assets that ranks among the world’s best. The Business School capitalizes on this by emphasizing “big picture” frameworks that go beyond mere technical expertise. The MBA Program is carefully designed to instill both the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the fast-moving, competitive world of business. Columbia Business School’s reputation as a “finance-heavy” school is not unearned, and would likely be justified by fo-cusing on the 20th century history of the school. That said, for quite some time, the school has spent considerable effort on broadening its base of recognized excellence, and these efforts have only accelerated under current Dean Glenn Hubbard.

Dean Hubbard, an economist of long-standing prominence, began his tenure in 2004, and he has managed to correct what earlier generations of students might have called “under-management” of the school’s brand. Dean Hubbard is a low-key but extremely articulate and persuasive personality, who has put his stamp on the institution. His efforts across a wide range of fronts have directly helped to refute the “finance-heavy” reputation. He has instituted changes to the curriculum, tended to the student experience, and has worked hard to extend the reach of the school’s bond with its alumni. It’s not an exaggera-tion to say that over the past five years the school has in fact overcome the rather limiting legacy of an exclusive focus on finance.

The following schools comprise Columbia University:

• Architecture

• School of the Arts

• Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

• Graduate School of Business

• Columbia College

• Continuing Education

• Dental Medicine

• Fu Foundation/Engineering Applied Science

• General Studies

• International & Public Affairs

• Journalism

• Law

• Nursing

• Physicians & Surgeons

• Public Health

• Social Work

Affiliates:

• Barnard College

• Teachers College

• Jewish Theological Seminary

• Union Theological Seminary.

“Columbia Business School’s reputation as a ‘finance-heavy’ school is not unearned, and would likely be justified by focusing on the 20th century history of the school.”


02 A B O U T C O L U M B I A

The Dean’s formulation of the School’s positioning is eloquent in its simplicity. His aim is to ensure that

“Columbia Business School surpasses every other in its ability to bridge relevant academic research with real world business practice.”

The Columbia Business School Approach

Under Dean Hubbard’s leadership, Columbia Business School has clearly defined elements that make up its current approach:

Building a Bridge. Columbia Business School’s aim in recent years is to create “whole” business thinkers who “connect the dots” and understand the importance of big-ger picture frameworks such as globalization and the complexity of social (i.e. non-finan-cial) metrics for evaluating business’ impact on the world around them. Dean Hubbard has even mused in public about being surprised that a Columbia-trained mortgage trader at the top of his game couldn’t “connect the dots” about too much systemic leverage. Bridg-ing theory and practice has become a touchstone of the educational process and has been an explicit essay question for the past two years.

Range of Expertise. Dean Hubbard’s efforts at diversifying the school’s thought leadership have paid off. Columbia is now recognized as being in the very top tier for leadership studies (along with Harvard), entrepreneurship (along with Stanford), real es-tate, media, and social enterprise (CBS jumped out to an early lead in this new field), and it has competitive offerings in other key areas such as operations, international business, marketing, human capital management, and healthcare. The presence on the faculty of media darlings such as Milstein Real Estate Professor (and now Vice Dean) Chris Mayer, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, and International Development guru Jagdish Bagwati have served to elevate the school’s profile in other areas beyond finance.

Global Reach. “Global perspective” has become the mantra at countless business schools – often deployed to help the program seem current and on the cutting edge of the latest trends in an MBA education. At Columbia, “global perspective” is not just cheap rhetoric. In fact, the term is probably better termed “global reach” and is the deliberate re-sults of decades’ worth of (often-expensive) investments. A closer inspection of Columbia’s efforts leaves even the biggest skeptic impressed by the sheer scale of the school’s glob-al undertakings. How many other schools have gala fundraisers in London? How many schools organize a Pan-Asian reunion in Hong Kong only to have to turn away hundreds of alumni because the 500 person cap has been reached? In any given week between the Dean’s Office, Admissions, and the External Relations team, Columbia has staff trotting around the globe tending to the school’s relationships with alumni, business and govern-ment leaders, and prospective students.

The school’s global philosophy is also evident in the classroom: 22% of the overall univer-sity’s student enrollment is from abroad. Columbia Business School is even more interna-tional in its composition: 43% of students are from abroad, and since 2006, the volume of international applications has surpassed that of domestic applications. Though it is not an admissions requirement, applicants demonstrating either experience abroad or functional ability in a language besides English hold a distinct advantage, and Uris Hall can at times seem like a modern day Tower of Babel.

In addition to the philosophy and the statistics, there are the opportunities to engage in in-ternational study. In 1991, Jerome Chazen (MBA’50) gave $10 million to found the Institute of International Business at Columbia Business School that now bears his name. For more on the Chazen Institute, see below.

“Bridging theory and practice has become the touchstone of the educational process and has been an explicit essay question for the past two years.”

“A closer inspection of Columbia’s efforts leaves even the biggest skeptic impressed by the sheer scale of the school’s global undertakings.”

“Since 2006, the volume of international applications has surpassed that of domestic applications.”


03 A D M I S S I O N S A T C O L U M B I A

Admissions at ColumbiaJanuary Term

Notable among its peers, Columbia Business School also offers a January program that runs for 16 months. So-called “J-Termers” commence their studies in January of the first year and forgo the summer internship to spend the summer “catching up” to the regular MBAs, whom they join for the second fall recruiting season and subse-quent spring graduation.

For students seeking to polish their skill sets in the same industry, this compacted schedule lowers the opportunity cost of lost salary and is ideal for:

• Entrepreneurs

• Students who work (or will work) in the family business

• Students returning to their current employer

• Company-sponsored MBA students

• Candidates who possess a strong professional network in the industry of their choice

Early Decision

The Early Decision option is ideal for candidates who have completed their research about MBA programs and have decided that Columbia is the school they wish to at-tend. Early Decision applications are reviewed before Regular Decision applications, and this process tends to serve as a nice win-win for both the school and the (well qualified) applicant: It makes the yield management process easier for Columbia, and gives the applicant the comfort of knowing that he or she will attend Columbia early in the process.

Early Decision candidates must sign the following Statement of Commitment:

“As an Early Decision candidate to Columbia Business School, I am committed to attending Columbia Business School and will withdraw all applications and decline all offers from other schools upon admis-sion to Columbia Business School.”

Early Decision candidates who are offered admission have up to two weeks to sub-mit their nonrefundable $6,000 deposit. If such a level of commitment is problemat-ic, the applicant is urged to pursue admission through the regular deadline. Though the occasional opportunist does, in fact, renege on this offer – the admissions office’s attitude is summed up by: “We’ll let some other institution handle someone who so casually breaks their word and pledge.”

Deadlines

Columbia takes a unique approach to the MBA application process, eschewing the traditional “rounds” process in favor of rolling admissions, and instead putting in place several deadlines specific to certain audiences.

2011 January Term:

• October 6, 2010

September 2011 Early Decision

• October 6, 2010

Merit fellowship consideration:

• January 5, 2011

Regular decision:

• April 13, 2011



Application Essay Topics

Columbia typically requires three standard essay questions and then allows each candidate to offer up an optional fourth essay.

For the Fall 2009 intake, Columbia dramatically shifted from past questions focusing on entrepreneurial spirit and passions, instead focusing on the idea of building a bridge from theory to practice. The questions for 2009-2010 are as follows:

1 What are your short-term and long-term professional goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (750 words)

2 Please tell us about yourself and your personal interests. The goal of this essay is to get a sense of who you are, rather than what you have achieved professionally. (500 words)

3 (Optional) Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? (Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history.)

Veritas Prep clients working on their Columbia applications will receive expert guid-ance on each of these essay questions. Head Consultants help clients understand how to highlight strengths and weaknesses as well as unique elements within the confines of the question, while also addressing each of the key business school ad-missions themes. Furthermore, Columbia Specialists will help clients decide whether to make use of the optional essay and will ensure that all essay responses are in keep-ing with what Columbia is looking for in its applicants and that the program high-lights included in this guide are used as appropriate reference points and examples.

Admissions Criteria

Columbia Business School looks for intellectually driven people from diverse educa-tional, economic, social, cultural, and geographic backgrounds. Columbia students share a record of achievement, demonstration of strong leadership skills, and the ability to work in teams. Superior communication and documenting skills are as-sumed and essential, and the environment and coursework favor those who are at least proficient in a language beyond English.

Columbia relies upon alumni interviews for the overwhelming majority of its appli-cants. Last year’s process included 2,300 interviews, with alumni clubs from around the world coordinating the efforts. From the applicant’s perspective, this arrange-ment is not without issue: Managing quality control and consistency of experience can be challenging with this arrangement. Still, Admissions Dean Meehan insists that Columbia alumni have a good ear and eye for the culture and “fit,” and it is hard to argue with the school’s track record of success.

Admissions Statistics

In keeping with its status as one of the world’s biggest business schools, Columbia sees a large number of applications come in the door each year and, as noted in this report, has been seeing just as many – if not more – international applications as those from do-mestic students in recent years. Columbia’s sparkling 79% yield rate keeps the accep-tance rate suppressed to a microscopic 15%.

Total Applicants ................................. 5,999

Percent Admitted ................................15%

Percent Yield ...........................................79%

Percent Interviewed ..........................42%

Average GMAT ........................................709

20th/80th Percentile GMAT Range ..................................................660-760

Average GPA ..............................................3.4



Visiting Columbia

One of the best ways for candidates to truly understand if Columbia is a proper fit is to visit the campus and get a feel for the academic environment, student life, and overall campus culture. Additionally, visiting the school offers the opportunity for face-to-face contact with current students, professors, and admission representa-tives. To these ends, the Admissions Office has set up an array of options to meet applicants’ varying needs.

Information Sessions. Information sessions provide prospective students the opportunity to learn more about Columbia Business School’s competitive strengths and the application process, as well as to ask questions of admissions of-ficers and current students. No advance registration is required, and many applicants often combine attending one of these sessions with meeting a student for a conver-sation over a meal or coffee and/or a class visit.

Class Visit. Class visits are an excellent way to see Columbia’s curriculum in ac-tion. Applicants can use an online registration system to attend a specific class in a subject that interests them, and are encouraged to sign up early, as capacity for the specific class option is fixed. The Admissions Office also operates a host program – for those with the time to spend – that allows the applicant to trail a student for a good portion of the day. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the culture and to get a personalized perspective on the school.

External Sessions. Of course, the Admissions office recognizes that not all applicants can visit campus easily. Each fall, admissions officers team up with CBS alumni around the world to conduct external information sessions in which applica-tion mechanics and – more importantly – the Columbia program and culture are conveyed as convincingly as possible. Fall of 2008 saw the tour reaching 70 cities – and the inclusion of both the Middle East and Africa helps to reinforce the school’s global scale.

Contact Information.

Office of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid

Uris Hall – 3022 Broadway

New York, NY 10027

Phone: (212) 854-1961


06 F I N A N C I A L A S S I S T A N C E A T C O L U M B I A

Financial Assistance at ColumbiaTuition

The estimated budget for the first year of attendance is $75,589. For the second year, it drops ever so slightly to $74,614. So it is with good reason that the Financial Aid Office’s site says, with no doubt calculated understatement:

“Attending Columbia Business School represents a major investment. Although an MBA is an investment in one’s future with a superb cost-benefit ratio, it is an investment that must be planned for carefully.”

Financial Assistance Options

Established institutions such as Columbia tend to benefit from the generosity of foundations and corporate and individual donors, who provide various funds that help students with tuition. Requirements for a fellowship vary widely, including aca-demic excellence, geographic and ethnic diversity, work experience, and community involvement. Scholarships, by contrast, are primarily need-based. Fortunately for ap-plicants with well-documented need, Columbia is exceptionally well endowed in this regard as well.

Federal and Private Loans.As with most graduate programs, Columbia makes available a series of loan programs that make up the bulk of each student’s financial assistance: Follow this link to the loan section of the website.

Federal Stafford Loan – Available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The maximum dollar amount is $20,500 and the subsidized amount can be up to $8,500, depending on financial need. Students should file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and wait for further instructions at the admitted student website once they have been admitted.

Federal Perkins Loan – An interest-free loan while in school, it is a smaller loan program available to qualified students who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

Federal Graduate PLUS Loans – This loan can cover cost of attendance after other assistance has been calculated, provided the student qualifies and is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

International Loan Options – There are several private loan programs available to both US citizens and non-citizens. The rates charged by these programs vary with the student’s credit history. Please be advised that International students are only eligible for private loans with a US-based co-signer.

Outside Funding Options – Information on third party funders is maintained at this link. These various third-party funders have specific mission-driven policies that you should consider carefully before applying.

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/mba/learnmore/tuition/loans

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/mba/learnmore/tuition/outsideawards


07 C O L U M B I A S T U D E N T S

Columbia StudentsColumbia ranks as one of the largest business schools in the world, with a typical class size of 717 students. As noted throughout this report, the international popula-tion is significant, as the percentage of students who come from abroad continues to creep up toward half the class. Among the domestic population, Columbia boasts modest diversity, with female and minority populations that are slightly smaller than at many other elite business schools.

Student Organizations

Columbia boasts over 100 student organizations, covering the gamut of personal and professional interests, and the Office of MBA Student Life is dedicated to supporting this array of options. Each of the major disciplines at the school has a club that is meant to help extend the educational experience beyond “mere” class time. Furthermore, the Career Management Office has resources that the clubs can rely upon.

The result is a wide array of outlets (to say nothing of lots of “leadership” roles to put on a resume) that students can use to extend their knowledge and influence in areas either of direct professional relevance or merely the personally interesting.

The most organized of the clubs charge dues (some, in finance, north of $100 per year) and organize industry networking dinners and multi-day conferences. And the resume books that are assembled of members’ resumes are an effective career launch tool for many.

The school’s location in New York City ensures that lively and diverse speakers are brought to campus – and the number of weekly events is said, on occasion, to top 100. Between club-alumni efforts and the school’s academic drawing power in general, recent prominent speakers include:

• Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Fed

• Leonel Fernandez Reyna, President of the Dominican Republic

• Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase)

• Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric

• J. Christopher Flowers of J.C. Flowers & Co

• George Fisher of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

• Robert Pittman (formerly of AOL) currently Principal of Pilot Group

• Vikram Pandit (PhD’86), CEO of Citigroup

• Jerry Spayer of Tishman Spayer

• Joel Klein, Education Chancellor of New York City

• Richard Parsons, CEO of Time Warner

• Patrick Cescau, CEO of Unilever

• Seth Godin, branding guru and author of Tribes and Purple Cow

Student Stats

Class Size ...........................................................717Percent Male ................................................ 68%Percent Female .......................................... 32%Percent Minority ......................................... 26%Percent International ............................. 43%Average Age .....................................................28

Average Work Experience .... 54 months

20th/80th Percentile Age Range: .... 25-3120th/80th Percentile Work Experience: .............................3-7 years

Geographic Representation

North America ............................................. 61%Asia ..................................................................... 14%Western Europe .......................................... 11%Latin America ..................................................6%Central Asia .......................................................4%Middle East .......................................................2%Africa .....................................................................1%Oceania ...............................................................1%

Some of the most prominent Columbia clubs are:

• Investment Banking Club• Columbia Finance Organization• Columbia Investment Management

Association• Columbia Women in Business• Energy Club• Equity Research Club• Healthcare industry Association• Hospitality & Travel Association• International Development Club• Marketing Association of Columbia• Management Consulting

Association• Media Management Association• Private Equity &

Venture Capital Club• Real Estate Association• Social Enterprise Club


08 C O L U M B I A A C A D E M I C S

Columbia AcademicsThe core of the Columbia experience is the stellar academics – classroom experiences led by leading luminaries who also happen to be great teachers. The classroom experi-ence ranges from two extremes, but also occupies the middle ground between them. On the one end of the spectrum is the large auditorium packed to the rafters for a star like Bruce Greenwald (value investing) or Nobel-winner Joseph Stiglitz (globalization). One demonstrable effect is that the size of these classes (and their reputations) means that most Columbia grads share them as a common point of reference. On the other end of the scale is the small seminar with eight or 10 participants, all of whom are on a strictly first name basis with the professor. In these types of classes, the professor often brings in experienced professionals to supplement the learning with real-world insights and unex-pected twists. The wise student will be sure to sample both these modes of learning, and also the courses that occupy a middle-ground between the two.

The Columbia experience also balances a mixture of traditional lecture/self-reading/homework with group (or entire class) projects, and also experiential learning (most notably in the Master Class, which is covered in greater detail below).

The First Year: The Flexible Core

The Columbia teaching philosophy stipulates that all introspective managers (and hence all Columbia MBAs) must be minimally fluent in the core foundations of business and structured quantitative thought.

These functional domains are deemed so central that there is absolutely no flexibility in one’s first term (except to the extent that a student can make a case that his/her profes-sional experience allows for “placing out” of a core requirement). To begin to savor the smorgasbord of academic offerings, the student must wait until the second semester, where two electives may be scheduled.

Remember that Dean Hubbard wants Columbia MBAs to “be able to connect the dots”. Furthermore, CBS prides itself on staying close to the market and in responding to changing needs. As a result, in 2008 –pre-dating the financial crisis-- the new flexible core was launched, and its primary innovation was to compress some of the core foun-dation domains (listed above) into half-term courses for first-year students, and to then offer students some limited choice in seeing how those foundational domains play out in practice. The net effect is that those key business domains are presented in applied settings with slightly different emphases.

For example, economics is touched upon in Managerial Economics, Global Economic Environment and GEE II: Business Cycles and Financial Markets. Similarly, strategy as a domain is central to Strategy Formulation, Game Theory & Business and Strategy, Structure & Incentives. The foundations of leadership from Leadership Development are expanded upon in Organizational Change, Power & Influence, Social Networks & Social Capital and/or Performance Measurement. So today’s Columbia Business School student is able to cover all the bases that the collective wisdom of Columbia’s history has deemed too critical to miss, with a framework that offers students some choice, and some pre-positioning for the two full-term electives that are permitted in the second term of the first year.

The school’s page explaining the flexible core is at this link, and this page contains sche-matic diagrams that convey quite clearly both the structure of the first two terms, and how, where and when the student gets to choose.

Another Columbia innovation – one that the school likes to tout as being unique – is the Individual, Business & Society Curriculum (IBS). IBS is managed by Columbia’s San-ford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership & Ethics, and the curriculum, which is integrated thoroughly into both the MBA and EMBA experience, proceeds from the premise that businesses operate in social contexts. The IBS curriculum realizes that

The Core Foundations at Columbia are:

• Corporate Finance

• Financial Accounting

• Economics

• Marketing

• Operations

• Strategy

• Leadership

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/mba/academics/curriculum/corecurriculum



The PSI includes an assessment center which helps students and alumni gain insight into their leadership styles, ability to detect others’ emotions, and work-style preferences in team contexts. Topics include:

• Leadership: Personality Patterns• Leadership Styles Inventory• Spot the Fake Smile• Cognitive Style• Culture in the Workplace• Empathy Assessment• Perceived Decoding Ability

“In a Master Class, students are given access to real-life managers’ information and are asked to develop their own responses to the challenges faced – which are then compared to what the firms themselves developed in order to look for solutions, information gaps, or other fresh interpretations.”

Recent projects are testament to the intellectual boldness of the Master Class program:

• Advertising, Branding & Creativity• Creation of a Retail Enterprise• Education Leadership Consulting• New Product Development• Retailing Strategy & Operations• High Potential Entrepreneurship• Real Estate Investment

& Entrepreneurship• The Marketing of a Nation: Israel

earnings per share is not the sole metric for a business’ success, and furthermore, that devising alternate metrics is both critical and yet beset by problems of standardiza-tion in definitions. Still, the aspiring leader is made stronger by grappling with cases and readings that address these issues head on, and the IBS curriculum ensures that Columbia graduates will have done so in virtually every course of the core, and in many of the electives as well.

The Program for Social Intelligence (PSI) is Columbia’s answer to Harvard’s long-held ownership of the top slot in leadership studies. PSI is a collection of courses and extra-curricular activities designed to enhance students’ abilities as leaders throughout their careers. Many a Columbia MBA has looked back, with the wisdom borne of real-world experience, on the dreaded Human Behavior in Organizations core course and realized how the insights in that course contributed to their overall career success.

PSI brings together multidisciplinary techniques and frameworks for managing individuals, teams, organizations and networks in dynamic, global contexts. PSI activities are grounded in a proven blend of empirical assessment, experiential learning and executive coaching. The PSI is woven into both the MBA and the EMBA experience. This combination helps students sharpen their self-awareness, judgment, and decision-making, while expanding their abilities to solve problems. The program is explicitly woven into both the flexible core (Leadership, Creating Effective Organizations) and also into elective courses (Managerial Negotiations, High Performance Leadership, Top Management Process).

The Second Year: Electives & The Master Class

The second year of the Columbia Business School experience is composed entirely of electives. Students take at least 11 electives in their Columbia career, and may also chose from over 200 elective courses at other schools within Columbia University. Students are given an endowment of bidding points for bidding for the electives they wish to secure entry to (when enrollment in said elective is capped).

Master Class. Columbia’s new Master Class series reflects a belief that knowl-edge is only the start and that educational value is created by “doing.” The Master Class is one of Dean Hubbard’s signature projects, which certainly plays to the school’s location in the midst of New York. For 12 weeks in a Master Class, small groups of students partner with senior teams (and a requisite high-level sponsor) in participat-ing firms such as Pequot Capital, Pepsi, Home Depot, Paul Weiss, Chanel, and Hermes. The program also has a strong entrepreneurial tranche that helps small non-profit and commercial organizations which, by definition, candidates are not likely to have heard of – including a dedicated Entrepreneurship in Africa component.

In a Master Class, students are given access to real-life managers’ information and are asked to develop their own responses to the challenges faced – which are then com-pared to what the firms themselves developed in order to look for solutions, informa-tion gaps, or other fresh interpretations. The gap between theory and practice can actually be quite large, and it’s a gap that the students learn to appreciate. Companies, too, benefit from a fresh set of extremely intelligent eyes looking at the problem.



Columbia Faculty

Columbia faculty members conduct research into virtually every business domain and region one might be able to conceive of. Among the faculty (over 170 profes-sors, sourced from every major region of the world), the Executives in Residence, and the Master Class program, Columbia students are assured of being able to bridge the gap between world class theory and world class experience.

These divisions are best thought of a function of administrative ease rather than being indicative of any overly parochial interpretative frameworks. By mixing and matching the various divisions, the school offers the following MBA Areas of Study:

• Accounting• Decision, Risk & Operations • Entrepreneurship • Finance & Economics • Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Management • Human Resources Management• International Business • Management/Leadership• Marketing• Media• Private Equity• Real Estate• Social Enterprise• Value Investing

Furthermore, individual courses are often “tagged” with “interest tracks” at an even greater level of specificity.

Every top-tier business school has its list of star faculty whom the students adore. The Columbia faculty is populated with many prominent business leaders, researchers, and teachers. Among Columbia students, there are a handful of professors who are considered a “must” to have for a class, due to their reputation both as educators and as experts. This list isn’t merely a collection of famous names, but rather the instruc-tors that Columbia students deem to be essential for the full experience.

Bruce GreenwaldRobert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management.

Among Columbia’s luminaries, few professors have reached the rock star or guru lev-el of Finance Professor Bruce Greenwald. In addition to being the leading authority on value investing -- or, as the New York Times put it, “the guru to the wall street gu-rus” – Professor Greenwald is an expert on productivity and information economics. The titles of his classes suggest the range of his interests: Value Investing; Economics of Strategic Behavior; and Globalization & Markets & the Changing Economic Land-scape. Not only is he well versed on multiple subjects, but he’s also a great teacher in the Socratic method –students who are unprepared for class should be on high alert. Year in and year out, Professor Greenwald’s classes are significantly oversubscribed, but about 650 students annually find a way into at least one of them. Professor Gre-enwald is by far the one professor that alumni clubs beg to have sent to them, goos-ing an event’s attendance significantly by his presence.

Administratively, the faculty is grouped into five major divisions:

1. Accounting2. Decision, Risk & Operations3. Finance & Economics4. Management5. Marketing

For the academic year ending in 2009, the following “tracks” or “themes” were in use as tags - helping to map course offerings and research areas.

• Banking• Business Economics• Business law• Decision & Risk Analysis• Leadership• (General) Management• Markets• Operations Management• Organizations• Performance• Retailing• Taxes

“In addition to being the leading authority on value investing -- or, as the New York Times put it, ‘the guru to the wall street gurus’ – Professor Greenwald is an expert on productivity and information economics. “



“Professor Feiner possesses a fearless ability to delve into disastrous, painful situations precisely because such negative object lessons can teach so much about how to manage people effectively.”

“Having started several successful companies himself, Professor Low now devotes himself to studying the context in which entrepreneurship occurs.”

Michael FeinerProfessor

Professor Michael Feiner, whose area of expertise is leadership and organizational be-havior, is someone who embodies Columbia’s emphasis on practice. Professor Feiner was a Columbia MBA who rose to become the top HR executive of PepsiCo, before being lured to Columbia to captivate students with his insightful blend of theory and practice. Professor Feiner possesses a fearless ability to delve into disastrous, painful situations precisely because such negative object lessons can teach so much about how to manage people effectively. His book, The Feiner Points of Leadership, is a must-read on campus, as well as among alumni of the program.

Laura ResnikoffSenior Lecturer

Professor Resnikoff has a reputation for no-nonsense, focused courses that give stu-dents incredible access to leading players in the private equity field. Professor Resnikoff takes these relationships seriously and instills that ethic in her students: if a class mem-ber is so much as a few seconds late to the appointed gathering time in the building lobby of a private equity firm, that student is out of luck, and might as well head back to campus. Those students who manage to make it on time are star-struck by the peo-ple they meet, and the ease with which student ideas are evaluated by experienced players in the field – some of those ideas being nicely validated; others quite summar-ily shot down. Though not for the faint of heart, it is a situation many students clearly value, for competition to get into her classes is tough. She led the inaugural Master Class in Private Equity and often teaches Turnaround Management.

Murray LowAssociate Professor of Management and the Director of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center

Professor Low stands as one of the school’s most adored teachers. Having started sev-eral successful companies himself, Professor Low now devotes himself to studying the context in which entrepreneurship occurs – searching for causal links and debunking supposedly common sense links. He has helped to increase the schools’ reputation for turning out entrepreneurs who graduate both with viable business plans and funding, and who in turn circle back to help stoke the cauldron of creativity and process man-agement back on campus.

Gita JoharMeyer Feldberg Professor of Business

Professor Johar proves that not all beloved Columbia professors teach finance. She teaches courses on consumer psychology and cognition, and how these can be fac-tored into marketing, branding, and advertising activities. Her seminars can entail highly specific “field trips,” such as a trek to the Calvin Klein store on Madison Avenue to look for subtle design clues and consistencies than enable Calvin Klein to charge 10 to 20 times the price of a utilitarian garment. Recent course titles include Advertising and Branding, Global Marketing Consulting for Social Enterprise, Research Methods, and Consumer Behavior, and her youthful, low-key style is a large factor in her increasing popularity on campus.

Laurie Simon HodrickA. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics

Professor Simon Hodrick has a distinguished career bridging theory and practice. Se-lected as “One of Forty Under Forty” by Crain’s Chicago (while she was a professor at Kellogg), Columbia lured her to New York both for her many prestigious fellowships and for her approachable, if demanding, teaching style. She has been awarded the Co-lumbia University President’s Medal for outstanding teaching, and students rave that what they learned about corporate finance and the market for corporate control from her has proved valuable over the course of their careers.



Grading

Columbia students are a talented lot, but graduate school grading can still come as a bit of shock to people with fond memories of being praised throughout college. Instead of using the A-F scale, Columbia uses the pass system, although there are different shades of passing, with the net result being similar to that of an A-F grading system:

H Honors (10 points)

HP High Pass (7 points)

P Pass (4 points)

LP Low Pass (1 point)

F Fail (0 points)

IN Incomplete

A non-binding curve has been adopted by the faculty, with a recommended out-come of 20-25% H, 50-60%HP, 20-25% P, LP & F combined. Students in the second, third and fourth terms will have Dean’s Honor List recorded on their transcripts if their point average is greater than 8.5.

The Cluster System

Even for people as talented as Columbia students tend to be, the experience of be-ing dropped into the midst of a class of over 700 students in an overly stimulating business school environment could prove potentially intimidating. Therefore, Co-lumbia uses a cluster system to make the introduction to that environment more manageable. The class is divided into 11 clusters of about 65 students each. The Ad-missions Office composes the clusters to be a mix of backgrounds, interests, goals, and nationalities. The clusters provide the student with a more manageable commu-nity, and relationships formed here often last a lifetime. Clusters are also assigned stu-dent mentors from the class above to help navigate processes and protocols, fielding questions about the reputation of certain programs or professors, and to generally offer insights into both the job search and balancing the program with one’s sense of self and life.

Course Enrollment

Students use the Business Online Selection System (BOSS) to bid for courses. During bidding rounds, a student can bid, change the bid, or drop the bid – as many times as needed. Once the round closes, the final set of bids is processes, and the student’s point endowment is modified accordingly. The process is similar to that of many top business schools that use some form of bidding or point allocation to determine spots in the most popular courses.

Academic Calendar

Fall 2009August

24 Orientation for newly enrolled students

31 First week of classes for newly enrolled students

September

8 Fall term add/drop period commences

October

23–27 Exam period for Half Term classes

28 Classes resume; first day of 2nd Half Term Classes

November

25–29 Thanksgiving RecessDecember

14–23 Exam period for Fall Term classes

24 – Jan. 20 Intersession Break

Spring 2010 Term

January

3 – 8 Orientation for “J-Termers”

20 First Day of ClassMarch

3 -5 Exam period for Half Term classes

8 – 12 Spring Break

15 Full Term classes resume; first day of 2nd Half Term classes

April

22 Last day of classes

26 – May 5 Exam period for Full Term classes



Dual degrees are offered with the following schools:

• Architecture: MBA and MS in Urban Planning

• Dental and Oral Surgery: MBA and DDS

• Engineering and Applied Science: MBA and MS

• International and Public Affairs: MBA and MIA

• Journalism: MBA and MS

• Law: MBA and JD

• Nursing: MBA and MS in Nursing

• Physicians and Surgeons: MBA and MD

• Public Health: MBA and MPH

• Social Work: MBA and MS in Social Work

In practice, the JD/MBA, MBA/MIA and MD/MBA are the most commonly pursued joint degrees.

Columbia Research Centers and Joint Degree Programs

Research Centers. One of the advantages of a business school as old as CBS is the various endowed, interdisciplinary research institutes that receive generous funding over the years. Columbia is no exception in this regard, and has more than its fair share. The past 80 years has been kind to Columbia Business School, and so there’s an impressive array of such research institutes:

• Arthur J. Samberg Institute for Teaching Excellence

• Behavioral Research Lab

• The Center for Excellence in Accounting and Security Analysis

• The Center on Global Brand Leadership

• The Center on Japanese Economy and Business

• The Columbia Center for Excellence in E-Business

• The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information

• The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center

• The Financial Markets Lab

• The Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing

• The Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business

• The Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate

• The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics

• The Deming Center for Quality, Productivity and Competitiveness

Joint Degree Programs. Columbia offers 10 dual degree programs. Appli-cants must apply to both schools and be accepted independently at each, though the application to the second school need not be concurrent with the first. For ex-ample, an applicant may apply in the Fall of 2009 for the Fall 2010 MBA & JD.

Columbia Business Plan Competitions

Columbia, like most prestigious business schools, offers several business plan com-petitions. Among the most popular are:

The A. Lorne Weil Outrageous Business Plan Competition. 32 teams of students are required to perform a two-minute pitch before executives from RRE Ventures, Call Street, Tango Media, and Millennium Technology Ventures, and then the finalists are asked to expand upon their pitch if selected. The whole event is “live,” and “outrageous” requires that the idea be sufficiently ambitions in scope and scale. $14,000 in combined prize money is at stake for the top three finishers.

The Sheldon Seevak Real Estate Business Plan Competition. Under the auspices of the Milstein Center on Real Estate, this competition honors the founder of Goldman Sach’s real estate practice, and offers $10,000 in prizes.



International Programs

Since its founding, over 2,500 MBAs have taken advantage of funding provided by the Chazen Institute in order to study foreign languages (Arabic, Business English, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish) with a distinct emphasis on applied business contexts. The program offers two hours of intensive immersion in classes no larger than nine students each. Similarly, the Chazen Insti-tute offers Columbia students the chance to spend their third semester at a part-ner school abroad, and to receive full credit for that study towards the Columbia MBA. Partner schools are located in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK – and even Berkeley, California.

Finally – and perhaps most memorably – are Chazen Institute study trips abroad. During these 7-10 day trips, groups of 20-40 students and a sponsoring faculty mem-ber meet with business leader, government officials and alumni while also visiting businesses, factories and cultural offerings. Trips often have a specific theme as well. Destinations over the past two years include: Bulgaria/Romania, China, Dubai/Doha, Japan, Mexico (Real Estate), South Korea, India (Social Enterprise), Italy, Southeast Asia, Egypt/Israel, Argentina (Social Enterprise), and South Africa (Real Estate).

Second year students can take their interests and run further with them (to say noth-ing of laying the groundwork for developing a formal reputation in regional special-ization) by applying to become Chazen Society Fellows, who undertake research and publish their findings in the Chazen Web Journal of International Business. Recent student articles include:

• Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Ethics

• Lessons from the Japanese Bubble for the US

• Green Revolution/ Mobilizing Africa’s Agricultural Resources

• Navigating the Wind and Solar Markets: International Perspectives on Industry Economics, Financing and Policy

• The Impact of the Financial Crisis on China

• Branding in China: The Challenge of Selling Starbucks Coffee in a Tea-Drinking Nation and Other Lessons

International Business

“International Business” is a formal study area at Columbia, and this sample of Spring 2009 course offerings hints both at the breadth of scholarship and practical focus:

• International Banking: Value & Risk

• International Financial Management

• Emerging Media

• Investing in China

• Global Real Estate Investment

• Global Marketing

• The International Media Business

• Growth & Sustainability in Brazil

http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/chazen/journal


15 C O L U M B I A C A M P U S

Columbia Business School CampusWhile students and alumni benefit from (and generally enjoy) living in New York City, it is worth noting that New York can be a seductive and slightly distracting force, a simultaneous pro and con that more secluded schools like Tuck rarely con-tend with. There is one other drawback of a location in New York: the cost of real estate and the lack of easy expansion. The school’s primary presence on campus, Uris Hall, is a rather ugly testimony to this fact. Not even the most committed Co-lumbia booster would try to put lipstick on the pig that is Uris Hall. Though the building’s exterior was renovated in the mid 1990s, it still looks the uninspired box from the 1950s that it is, even if the large auditoriums for lectures have been up-dated to state-of-the art. The cluster of classrooms on the upper floors, however, has proved more intractable, which is why in 2002 Warren Hall, with its more spa-cious rooms, was transferred to the Business School in an attempt to provide some extra room to the Business School community.

Fortunately, the University has a plan, and the business school is central to that plan: the Manhattanville Campus, a 17 acre site between 129th and 133rd streets, with 6.8 million square feet of space in the master project plan. Though the reces-sion has lengthened the overall project timeline, the first phases are still on target for a 2012 opening. The business school will be the anchor to the project, even if the Neuroscience building will be the first to open.

http://neighbors.columbia.edu/pages/manplanning/


16 P R O F E S S I O N A L R E C R U I T M E N T A T C O L U M B I A

Professional Recruitment at ColumbiaLike all top-tier business schools, Columbia puts muscle and resources behind do-ing its utmost to ensure that students who graduate find rewarding jobs. The Career Management Center (CMC) partners with students to assist them with every phase of their career development, from internship and job searches to lifelong career progress. The center makes a concerted effort to teach students lifelong career management skills.

Resume Books & Club Resume Books. The career services office makes available to companies resumé books, which are compilations of the resumés of first and second year students. Furthermore, the more substantive of the student clubs compile their own resume books to circulate the talent to more industry-specific potential purchasers.

CMC Individual Offerings. At the individual level, from the first week of orientation, CMC has a series of structured offerings that help students begin to tackle and to refine for themselves the career search. The CMC professionals and their knowledge of recruiters and the alumni base will help the student formulate a strategy and tailor a plan that benefits from institutional wisdom. Such offerings include:

• Four-session non-credit course for first-year students• Individual advising sessions, set up on request• Workshops and Clinics• Mock interviews and presentation/public

speaking management

Career Management Library. The CMC maintains a physical library (9am-7pm) of over 900 volumes of job-search related books that students can use while on campus. The library also maintains industry job binders with relevant job post-ings, Wetfeet guides, and 40 periodicals. The Virtual Career resource Center is a por-tal for online tools that assist both current students and mid-career professionals.

The On-Campus Recruiting Process. On-campus interviews begin on Wednesday October 21, 2009 for financial firms, and Friday October 23, 2009 for all other firms. Recruiting corporations submit applications to Columbia’s COIN system after September 21, 2009, and CMC works with recruiting companies to ensure that students’ schedules are not over-booked. CMC will also go to bat for students to ensure that students do not miss academic commitments for an off-campus inter-view, and maintains strict blackout periods that coincide with school holidays and exam periods.

In the fall, offers may be extended after the close of business on October 27, 2009 and offers must remain open for four full weeks. Furthermore, the fundamental terms of such an offer must remain unchanged until that expiration date. In the spring, offers after February 1, 2010 must remain open for two full weeks, with the same stipulation. Offers made to summer interns must remain open until Novem-ber 6, 2009 or four weeks from the offer date – whichever is later.

Executives in Residence (EIR)

Though formally distinct from the CMC, the Ex-ecutives in Residence program is another key job-related resource available to Columbia stu-dents. The EIR was founded almost 30 years ago, and is designed to give students access to expe-rienced leaders in key fields such as consulting, investment banking, private equity, real estate, broadcasting, and pharmaceuticals. EIR execu-tives conduct brown-bag lunches with students in groups of 10-to-12, and will also assist in set-ting up interviews with target firms.

Alumni Career Services

Of late, and partially in response to the challeng-ing economy of the past year, the school has beefed-up its offerings in supporting mid-career alumni – and, not coincidentally, in the process, has earned some alumni gratitude and strength-ened those bonds to the school in the process. Not least of these offerings include:

• A Career Assessment Tool

• The Virtual Career resource Center

• Global Workplace, an online career management platform for those seeking a job abroad

• MBA-Direct, a portal for mid-career MBAs

• Videos of Presentations and CMC Workshops


17 P R O F E S S I O N A L R E C R U I T M E N T A T C O L U M B I A

Employment Statistics

Columbia has certainly been in the midst of a revolution of sorts, as it expands its curriculum and moves into new areas of emphasis. Not only that, but the school will be the first to tell you that it is far more than “just a finance school.” That said, the recent graduating classes still find the bulk of their jobs in the finance sector.

Function

Marketing & Sales 8%

Finance55%

Management 2%

Human Resources 0.5%

Information Systems 0.5%

Consulting 22%

Other 11%

Operations 1%

Industry

Other 4%

Real Estate 4%

Technology 6%

Consulting 21%

Entertainment/Media 4%

Consumer Products 5%Biotech/Pharm 4%

Energy 1% Non-Profit 1%Manufacturing 1%

Government 1%

FinancialServices56%

Location

Asia 7%

Western Europe 7%

Latin America 2%

Middle East 2%

North America82%

Source of Job Offers

School-facilitated activities: ..........71%

Graduate-facilitated activities: ....... 4%

No information provided by graduate: ............................................25%

Major Employers

Major companies across the globe recruit Co-lumbia graduates and many of the most com-mon employers are similar to those that recruit at other top business schools. The following were among the most common employers for graduates from the class of 2008:

McKinsey & Company ..........................49

Goldman Sachs Group .........................25

Lehman Bros. ..............................................21

Citigroup Inc. ..............................................17

Deutsche Bank AG ..................................17

JPMorgan Chase & Co. .........................17

Credit Suisse Group ...............................16

Morgan Stanley ........................................15

American Express ....................................14

Boston Consulting Group ..................13

Merrill Lynch ...............................................12

UBS ......................................................................9

Booz Allen Hamilton .................................8

Bain & Company .........................................7

General Electric ............................................6

Salaries

Base salary for most recent graduates:

Mean ..................................................$107,450

Median .............................................$100,000

Signing bonus for most recent graduates:

Mean .....................................................$30,582

Median ................................................$30,000Other guaranteed compensation for most recent graduates:

Mean .....................................................$49,804

Median ................................................$30,000*Based on the 2008 graduating class


18 C O L U M B I A A N D V E R I T A S P R E P

Columbia and Veritas PrepVeritas Prep has a distinguished track record helping our clients gain acceptance to one of the world’s truly elite business schools. The secret to our success, as always, is in first ensuring that Columbia is a proper fit for the client, and then assisting the client in expressing that unique fit in the most articulate and impactful way possible.

Our Team

Our team of Columbia consultants includes former admission representatives, alum-ni interviewers, members of influential student groups, and, of course, accomplished professionals in a variety of fields. With multiple Columbia consultants on our admis-sion consulting team, we are able to provide customized service to clients based on background, timing, and logistics. Our Columbia consultants have career experience in a variety of industries and functions.

Each client who works with Veritas Prep on a Columbia comprehensive package will receive a customized team of consultants: a Head Consultant and a Columbia Specialist.

Head Consultant. All of our Head Consultants have experiences as admissions representatives that afford each of them a unique perspective on the applicant pool and how candidates must position themselves to express proper fit and to stand out in an increasingly competitive process. The Head Consultant will guide the client through every step of the process: from the initial Diagnostic Session to submission of the application.

Columbia Specialist. Every comprehensive package client who chooses Co-lumbia will also receive a Columbia Specialist who is either a current student or re-cent graduate of the school. This individual will ensure that essay responses are both topical and aligned thematically with the things that matter to Columbia. In addition to helping clients find specific courses, programs, clubs, and professors that match their interests, the Columbia Specialist will also comb through each question and an-swer to ensure that the response is properly aligned with the qualities that Columbia seeks in a candidate.

For more on Veritas Prep’s incredible team and the individuals who serve as our Co-lumbia consultants, please visit the Consultant Profiles page of our website.

Our Columbia Services

The Columbia Business School is always one of the most popular school selections among our clients due to its reputation as a cutting-edge research school with the largest and most prestigious footprint in New York City- to say nothing of its strong ties to Wall Street. However, the Veritas Prep approach is built upon identifying the right fit for each client, regardless of the generic qualities of the business school. Only once we have verified a proper match do we begin to build the candidate’s personal marketing platform and piece together the perfect Columbia application.

Diagnostic Session. Our Diagnostic Session – the first step in our comprehen-sive packages as well as a stand-alone service – assures that each client’s goals and prospects are properly aligned. Once we have helped ensure that the client is mak-ing sound choices with regard to each business school application, we start building a timeline and a strategy specifically tailored for a Columbia engagement.

“The secret to our success, as always, is in first ensuring that Columbia is a proper fit for the client.”

http://www.veritasprep.com/mba/consultant-profiles/

http://www.veritasprep.com/mba/enroll/comprehensive

http://www.veritasprep.com/mba/enroll/comprehensive


19 C O L U M B I A A N D V E R I T A S P R E P

Personalized MBA Game Plan. Each client’s Head Consultant will create a Personalized MBA Game Plan, a strategic approach based on the client’s professional, academic, and personal history. Those elements will become the foundation of the Columbia application story, allowing the client to demonstrate leadership, innovation, maturity, teamwork skills, analytical ability, and potential for academic excellence. A major component of the Game Plan is the identification of each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses – as well as truly unique qualities – relative to the Columbia applicant pool (this applies to nearly all of the elite business schools). This will create an application platform from which to work and will help mold and shape the strategy of how to address application components such as the resumé, essays, and letters of recommendations.

Merging Practice With Experience. The Fall 2008 Cycle surprised long-term Columbia watchers with the introduction of the Master Class essay question.

Master Classes are the epitome of bridging the gap between theory and practice at Columbia Business School. Please view the video. Please provide an example from your own life in which practical experience taught you more than theory alone.

The video that applicants are instructed to watch convincingly portrays Columbia as a place that will teach students how to succeed in the real world, and will offer access to executive at surprisingly high levels. Veritas will help an applicant to go back through their experience to see which particular configuration of productive tensions between theory and practice are most well-suited to the task at hand.

Social Intelligence & Self-Awareness. It goes without saying that all top business schools place a great deal of focus on understanding leadership. However, Columbia’s approach in the application takes the form of the negative object lesson: discuss a failure of which you have been a part. This “in your face” approach forces the applicant to not only to confront maturity levels, but also tests the applicant’s ability to develop and articulate multi-casual analyses. Success in business tends to be neither simplistic nor heroic; rather, it is the product of skills and abilities, undoubtedly, but also of timing, history and luck. Columbia expects its community-members to be able to recognize this truth, and to demonstrate it in framing a failure, one’s contributions towards that failure, and an understanding of forces that were beyond the applicant’s ability to control. This is what characterizes the Columbia leader who “connects the dots,” and what your Veritas consultants will help you accentuate.

Involvement. One risk that Columbia MBA admissions is acutely aware of is the downside of being in New York City – how easy it would be to enroll in Columbia and yet be distracted by New York. So a successful Columbia application must display that the applicant is an active, engaged community member – however that community may have been defined in the past. This past success is, for this purpose, an accurate predictor of future performance.

Balance and Perfection. Once the themes of merging theory & practice and social intelligence/self-awareness have been installed as the backbone of the Columbia application, the Veritas Prep Head Consultant and Columbia Specialist will team up to ensure that all of the questions have been properly answered, that the resumé and essay questions have been crafted with style and efficiency, and that all of the key business school themes have been addressed in a balanced way throughout the application. It’s not easy applying to one of the most popular schools in the country, but our consulting team will ensure that Veritas Prep clients give themselves the best chance of admissions success through the most accurate, engaging, and persuasive portrayal of their candidacy that they can possibly create. This is true of our approach to all schools, but particularly at Columbia, where three critical themes – practical experience, emotional quotient, and involvement – must resonate so strongly and consistently throughout the application.

“Each client’s Head Consultant will create a Personalized MBA Game Plan, a strategic approach based on the client’s professional, academic, and personal history.”

“This ‘in your face’ approach forces the applicant to not only to confront maturity levels, but also tests the applicant’s ability to develop and articulate multi-casual analyses.”

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4698876883776961370&hl=en


20 A B O U T V E R I T A S P R E P

About Veritas PrepFounded in 2002, Veritas Prep has emerged as a global leader in GMAT® educa-tion and MBA admissions consulting. The company’s business school team includes more than 300 graduates of the world’s elite MBA programs, managed from its headquarters in Malibu, California.

The Veritas Prep consulting model is built on adding value to a student’s applica-tion process by providing both mentorship and expertise. The business school admissions process has become increasingly competitive and applicants must do everything possible to showcase their value. Our consultants assist applicants in presenting their unique stories in the most professional and meaningful way pos-sible. In a sense, our consultants are translators – helping an applicant discover raw materials and information and then helping that candidate articulate a unique story in a language that admissions committees understand. More than anything, Veritas Prep gives candidates a sense of ownership and control over the process. Quality of work, attention to detail, care for the student, and integrity are the lynchpins of a successful consultation.

In addition to elite MBA admissions consulting services, Veritas Prep also offers the finest GMAT preparation available in the industry, as well as admissions consulting for law school, medical school, and graduate school services.

For comprehensive information on all of Veritas Prep’s many services, please visit our website.

“Success Favors the Prepared“

http://www.veritasprep.com/admissions_consulting/

Columbia Business School

Documents

Transcript of Columbia Business School