Welp, it’s officially Fall, or Autumn, or whatever you call the Pumpkin Spice season.
We’ve made it through a Lockdown Spring, a Just-Wear-Your-Mask-Please Summer*, and now we’re teetering into Apparently-It’s-Not-Going-Away Fall, which also means we’re firmly in MBA Admissions Interview Season.
Since many of you have many of your apps already submitted, that also coincides with the Too-Much-Time-On-Your-Hands Phase of the MBA application process, which tends to predictably be followed by the Oh-Crap-How-Come-I-Haven’t-Been-Invited-Yet Stage. Particularly at Columbia Business School, but also relevant to other schools that don’t have a one-and-done process for issuing interview invitations such as Harvard does/is expected to do.
We’ve talked about timing of interview invites before — and oh heck. You know we’ve been in this biz a long time when welink to a post from 2012. Sheesh. That previous post is still accurate, except for the line about how everyone who gets the invite is in a good spot; that’s still mostly true but it’s less true this season when we expect many many many people to move forward to the interview, and it won’t signal quite the same level of strength as it has done before.
So yeah, anyway. We got a follow-up question recently from someone who’d gotten snarky support through an App Accelerator who was worried that they’d been invited to interview at Columbia.
Yes, worried.
Because even though they were excited, they also didn’t think it came fast enough.
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Are you now starting to feel worried that all this work you’ve put in will come to naught? That you’ll end up empty-handed in December?
Pro Tip: Worry about December when it comes!
Today is the first day of Autumn, and we recommend some socially-distanced fresh air and sunshine.
In terms of MBA admissions, the main advice we can offer is to be thinking about other apps to put in the hopper.
At Columbia, if you too are experiencing the good fortune of landing the interview, the decision often will come quickly after the interview. However, that may not mean that your process is over so keep applying until you’ve landed the admit — thoughtfully, with strategic apps tailored to specific schools that are chosen for fit.
There is likely still going to be some nail-biting and anxiety. Understandable. Try not to spend too much time in those applicant forums though. They’re not necessarily the best place to find relief of such symptoms! If you want a few more details on how schools make interview invite decisions (and how they don’t), that long-ago 2012 post still is accurate!
*We hope you’re still please wearing your mask.
Tell us what you think.