Mission Accomplished at CBS

Experience during the program

I went to Columbia to get hired at an MBB consulting firm, and that's ultimately what happened, so I can certainly say the school met my expectations and goals. A few random thoughts about the school from a recent graduate:

FACILITIES
They suck. However, a brand new campus will be completed soon(ish), and that should solve that problem. One thing I didn't appreciate about CBS is since the school is located literally in Manhattan, it's much more difficult (and orders of magnitude more expensive) to construct new buildings, so this issue ultimately gets a pass from me.

COMMUNITY
Kellogg and Fuqua seem to have a lock on the community rep, but I think that CBS should be included in that conversation. Even with the myriad distractions in NYC (more on that below), CBS students have an incredibly strong connection to each other and the school. If I wanted to fill up every night of the week with club and social events purely with CBSers, it'd be very easy to do. The generally held viewpoint that CBS is internally extremely competitive and cutthroat is completely false.

CHOICE
This is something that I've always emphasized to prospective students: more than anything, CBS is about choice. Between academics, clubs, social events, networking, coffee chats, internships (in school and summer), mentoring, and the general distractions of NYC, there's always something to pull you in a different direction. Some of my classmates held essentially full-time jobs in Connecticut, others had three kids in Long Island, and others could always be counted on to be in Watson (the library) when not in class. Some were club kids who were constantly jet-setting, and others were at every single on campus event. The really nice aspect of this is that you could be part of one of these groups one week and another the next - the fluidity and frequency of events were strengths. After the core curriculum, academics is literally a choose-your-own-adventure, with no majors or departmental requirements to fulfill. A caveat here: if you're the type of person who needs more hand-holding and structure to your MBA experience, you may feel more lost at CBS. Those with a strong sense of self-direction and motivation tend to be more successful.

About job placement process

Of the big three placements (consulting, finance, tech), CBS excels in two of them and performs reasonably well in tech - all the big firms are on campus and seems like half my friends are going to Amazon. If you're not going into one of the bigger industries, your career search will have to be much more self-driven.

From a consulting perspective, CBS is amazing. I'm speaking from a biased perspective, as I was on the board of the Management Consulting Association and gave 100+ cases to first years, but the MCA is well-recognized as one of the best MBA consulting clubs for a reason. I was exposed to easily over a dozen top consulting firms with minimal effort on my own part, and formed solid relationships with recruiters and alumni at virtually all of them. Second year students actively help prep and recruit first years, and the recruiting atmosphere is collegiate and encouraging without being overly competitive.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (4.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Student body, diversity
Location
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Marketing
Investment Banking

Can be improved:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Facilities
Admissions Team