Columbia Business School - MBA Program

MBA Program

The Columbia MBA Program is designed to prepare its students for the challenges they will face as emerging leaders in a rapidly changing business world. The admission process is highly competitive with an admission rate of 15% in 2009. The student body is highly accomplished and diverse. Students in the class that entered in 2009 come from 61 countries and speak more than 50 languages.

The revised core curriculum, launched in the fall of 2008, represents about 40% of the degree requirement. It consists of 2 full courses and 12 half-term courses including Corporate Finance, Financial Accounting, Managerial Statistics, Managerial Economics, Leadership, Operations Management, and Marketing Strategy. While the first year of the program is usually devoted to completing the requirements of the core curriculum, the second year provides students with the opportunity to choose from the more than 130 elective courses available at the School and supplement them with more than 4,000 graduate-level classes from the University's other graduate and professional schools. Among the most popular electives at Columbia Business School are the Economics of Strategic Behavior, Financial Statement Analysis and Earnings Quality, Launching New Ventures, Modern Political Economy, and the Seminar in Value Investing.

Columbia Business School has a firm grade non-disclosure policy, stating that students refrain from disclosing specific class grades, GPAs, or transcripts until they accept full-time, post graduation positions. Students enter Columbia's MBA program in two tracks. The traditional fall term is approximately 550 students, while the January term "J-Term" is approximately 200 students. Students entering in the fall are divided into eight clusters of approximately 65 students that take all first year core classes together. J-Term students are broken into three clusters. The J-Term is aimed at students who want an accelerated 18 month program who usually plan to return to their previous job, are company sponsored, and will not pursue a summer internship because they take classes during the summer.

The recently launched Columbia CaseWorks program utilizes the faculty’s research and industry experience and brings that perspective into the classroom through the development of new cases and teaching materials. Beginning in orientation and continuing through core classes and electives, students are immersed in cases that use faculty research to address real-world business issues. Columbia CaseWorks challenges students to debate corporate decision making and to develop appropriate recommendations and solutions. During their first year, students study and discuss an integrated case that focuses on a single company and is incorporated into several core courses. This encourages students to think about a company holistically, analyzing it from the perspective of various disciplines.

In 2011, the median starting base salary was $110,000, with a median $25,000 signing bonus and a median $37,000 of other guaranteed compensation. According to Forbes magazine, 90% of billionaires with MBAs who derived their fortunes from finance obtained their master's degree from one of three schools: Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, or The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.