To continue with the questions posed by a Brave Supplicant through our Plea for Free Help! online question-submission system:
I accordingly [after getting rejected initially] decided to dig deeper into some of the other schools especially ones that offer ED/EA to give me better odds, which leads me to my second question…. Columbia. Even before I read all the Snark CBS bashing articles, I’ve had this instinct that I may not fit in at CBS (I’n not very comfortable with cockiness and arrogance). I spoke to an alum and he thought the claims of cut-throat competition were greatly exaggerated. I think that the NYC + Ivy advantage do make it a good option for my immediate goals but a scenario where I don’t enjoy my 2 years and $200,000 investment makes me worry. What is your objective view on the CBS culture?
In case you missed the first one, you can read it here, though it’s not quite related to this query.
In response to today’s question, we hafta ask… What “Snark CBS bashing articles”?
Yes, a couple years ago we called Columbia admissions to the carpet for some seriously applicant-unfriendly policies. This was in response to a dramatic drop in apps that they suffered awhile back. At the time, we also mused about leadership and some perceived possible arrogance at the top of the food chain there as documented in the film Inside Job.
But cockiness and arrogance among the students? Where have we talked about that?
Students are (largely) who make up the culture at a business school. Sure, the school administration has a BIG impact on this, based on its policies and its marketing and where it puts the emphasis. A school like Haas which trumpets CULTURE! far and wide in its brand identity is going to be a different place than some other school that doesn’t put a focus there. This is primarily because (duh) the people attracted to these different schools are going to be different, based on the marketing and the public personas projected by each.
And guess what? Columbia really impressed us in how it reacted to (what we assume was seen as a crisis in) the drop in applications those few years ago. They even apparently were reading this little blahg and we were flattered that they reacted to a criticism that we posted and fixed it.
OK fine, we have in fact mentioned some potential issues among the Columbia student body in regards to cockiness, or lack of etiquette – but again, those posts are DATED. Did this BSer dig through the entire backlist of 100+ posts to find them?
Oh wait. “100+ posts” you say?
If we didn’t like Columbia, why would we have put so much time into writing about them so much?
For the record, we do like Columbia Business School. They fell out of favor with us ever-so-slightly based on the aforementioned admissions practices, but the admissions team has really upped its game and we think they’re back on top again (or should be/will be). There’s some other schools (which we won’t name by name right now) which are more on our sh*t list than Columbia is at the moment.
A key reason why we’ve been so critical of Columbia is because they’re so good. When you’re at the top of the totem pole, then you’re going to get more scrutiny. You have standards to maintain.
Another reason why we’ve been so verbose on all things Columbia is because their admissions policies are so very different from any other school. They deserve more of a discussion here on the blahg because we need to educate all you Brave Supplicants who are thinking about applying there.
Yet another reason why we’ve specifically done so many Columbia essay critiques here is because their admissions season opens earlier than almost any other school – and because of their rolling admissions, people are motivated to get started earlier. Thus, we get more Columbia essays submitted for the freebie review than we do for other schools.
And a final reason why we love Columbia is because so many of you love Columbia. We know more students at Columbia than probably anywhere; we’ve had lots of success in helping qualified and high-quality candidates get into Columbia Business School, and success begets success. CBS students who benefited from some snark in their process are likely to tell their friends interested in CBS to hit us up for some snark, and lo and behold, we end up with lots of Columbia interest, and content, here on the blahg.
In fact, we know that some of you Columbia students are lurking around these parts. If any of you wants to pipe up and offer some commentary in response to this question, we know that many would appreciate it. Or send us an email with your rebuttal (you know how to reach us 😉 ).
SnarkOut.
Tell us what you think.