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Sample Columbia MBA Essay – Most Passionate About

a. Please tell us what you feel most passionate about in life.

Don’t think of your hobbies in isolation. Think which project will get maximum value from your skills.

Your passion for a goal or activity might have already come out with an extracurricular or your short-term goal, but if you have not covered them, this is the space for you to show that you are complete person.

Bring your unique hobby to the picture. We had an applicant with a passion for music - not as a musician but as an organizer. It was so unique and apparent in his Instagram feed that any one from the admission team would recognize that he did not create the narrative for the essay.

He organized music events for charities and hospitals. What was relevant for the Application essay was not just how he managed the logistics, which he mentioned in a 20-word introduction, but how he combined two ideas and created an impact.

Sample Columbia MBA Essay – Most Passionate About

“Music transcends culture, language, and political beliefs. As someone who had organized an event with 10,000 passionate fans to a soulful night in a small hospital reception, I witnessed the healing power of music. From a younger day, the search to find talent from the most unusual background motivated me. More than just encouraging the underdogs, creating the platform for the musicians inspired me more. Once as a teenager, I drummed up the audience by doing door-to-door promotion for the ‘Rock’ies of the Mountain’ in a suburb that didn’t particularly liked Rock Music. More than the music, I love creating a story for the band – the struggle, the perseverance, the inspiration and the theme for their music. Grandmas, who otherwise went to bed by eight, turned up ...

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F1GMAT's Columbia MBA Essay GuideShort Answer Question 1: What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (50 characters maximum)

Short Answer Question 2: How do you plan to spend the summer after the first year of the MBA? If in an internship, please include target industry(ies) and/or function(s). If you plan to work on your own venture, please indicate a focus of business. (50 characters maximum)

Essay 1: Through your resume and recommendation, we have a clear sense of your professional path to date. What are your career goals over the next three to five years and what is your long-term dream job? (500 words)

Essay 2: Please share a specific example of how you made a team more collaborative, more inclusive or fostered a greater sense of community within an organization. (250 words)

Essay 3: We believe Columbia Business School is a special place with a collaborative learning environment in which students feel a sense of belonging, agency, and partnership--academically, culturally, and professionally.

How would you co-create your optimal MBA experience at CBS? Please be specific. (250 words)

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About the Author 

Atul Jose

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

 

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

My work covers the full MBA application deliverable: career planning and profile evaluation, application essay editing, recommendation letter editing, mock interviews and interview preparation, scholarship and fellowship essay editing, and cover letter editing for funding applications. Full bio with credentials and admit history is here.

 

I am the author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, the best-selling essay guide covering M7 MBA programs. I have written and updated the guide annually since 2013, which makes the 2026 edition the thirteenth.

 

The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.

 

Contact me for school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative development, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing, or guidance documents for recommendation letters.