Another specific element of the Columbia MBA program that the school has hinted at highlighting in the fit essay is the learning clusters. Each person joining the MBA program is assigned to 65-70 people clusters that are further divided into 5-6 learning teams.
Columbia MBA's Diversity Advantage: The latest Columbia MBA Class had 41% women, 48% international citizens, and 40% minority applicants – a unique combination that is rare in other top MBA programs. Most top schools meet the women representation or the minority representation but rarely does a top US school satisfy the 40%+ distribution in women, international, and minority applicants.
From the 1200+ admitted students, the school carefully creates 7-8 clusters by considering the diversity in experience, skills, ideas, background, culture, nationality, and life experiences.
Diversity of Ideas and Consensus Building: In addition to the diverse ideas built around the class, candidates build lifelong friendships and network for future businesses with the learning clusters. Although initially it is an adjustment to find one’s ideas challenged, Columbia MBA students have consistently rated the clusters and learning teams as crucial in developing their negotiation, communication, and presentation skills.
New Vocabulary: A big value from the learning teams is the exposure to a different function – their vocabulary. This exposure helps students connect the dots and gain perspectives they otherwise would not have gained if the team was from the same function or industry. Some processes and approaches from other industries or functions also help candidates redefine the problem statement or the processes.
Peer to Peer Learning (Clusters): For instance, in the Technology industry, the goal of the project manager is to quickly pivot to a bottom-up approach after an overview of the problem statement. The implementation is more important than thinking too deeply about the business. Whereas, this approach would be disastrous in Consulting, where the top-down analysis and hypothesis creation is essential for offering a meaningful solution.
Skills: The bottom-up approach comes to the picture only when the hypothesis from the top-down approach is clearly defined. The presentation is an even more important part of the consulting solution. The lesson of presenting slides without overwhelming the client with information is a skill that a Technologist might not have.
For a candidate from the technology industry, interaction with a consultant would educate the person on two new skills – top-down problem solving and presentation.
Depth: The Technologist might have experience in integrating processes and technologies. This experience in implementation, or bottom-up problem solving might be new for a consultant. Since technology is ubiquitous in all interactions some of the challenges of implementing a solution might be the biggest takeaway for the Consultant.
This amalgamation of ideas from different functions is what makes Clusters and Learning teams unique at Columbia Business School. The school wants to know whether you had a similar experience – professionally or while offering solutions as a volunteer. Even extra-curricular engagement in a multi-cultural environment or problems that are multifunctional will demonstrate that you identify the value the Columbia MBA team is highlighting for the fit essay.
Learn how to mention the Cluster and Learning teams with F1GMAT’s Columbia MBA Essay Guide
