Columbia MBA and Scholarships

I am strongly considering applying early decision to Columbia's MBA program this summer. Does anyone have any knowledge about their scholarship support for ED applicants? I've heard a mixed opinion on this issue so far.

I am in love with the program and am only hesitant about the cost (about 200k all in). If it were a bit cheaper I wouldn't even think twice about it.
Currently I am a military officer with a 3.6 UG GPA and 710 GMAT. I won't have the GI bill available to me so I'm obviously concerned about program cost. I hope to break into equity research post-MBA.

 

it'll give you more chances for "Admit", but I think CBS has been muted about scholarship and cost issues for ED admits..... I researched some about your question a few days ago, just didn't see any relevant info around the block

Logically though, since you must sign the paper if you're admitted, there is no point to offer you much scholarship---they usually send scholarships to lure people who are also admitted to other M7 schools. CBS ED is designed to be a trade anyways, (CBS give you admit, you matriculate to raise CBS yield rate)

It may be helpful to give the Financial Aid a call, ask some past ED admits.

 

Columbia is the cheapest of top schools when it comes to scholarships in general. Despite what people seem to think, early decision applicants often get scholarships. They range from as little as $10k/year to $40k/year that I know of. There are lots of military vets at Columbia and very few actually have GI Bill eligibility so it can be done.

 

do you know how they decide that? and I assume that... if you have the admit offer, you cant renege based on anything, right?

I mean, I'm be interested to apply ED in a few years, But it'd be less helpful if I see an admit letter but then have to cut an unknown size of big check to CBS.....

 

They don't really say how they decide on scholarships other than they are "merit based" which honestly just means completely up to the discretion of the school. You're right that once you're admitted you can't renege, well technically you can but you forfeit the $7.000 deposit, and not getting a big enough scholarship won't be a valid reason to renege. Some people found out they got a scholarship at the same time they got the phone call saying they were admitted in November, others didn't find out until January or February after the fellowship deadline passed.

 
MilitaryToFinance:

Columbia is the cheapest of top schools when it comes to scholarships in general. Despite what people seem to think, early decision applicants often get scholarships. They range from as little as $10k/year to $40k/year that I know of. There are lots of military vets at Columbia and very few actually have GI Bill eligibility so it can be done.

Nice- how does the school know who will be GI eligible and who won't?

 
opsdude1:

Of the Top 10 schools, Columbia has the worst financial aid (it has poor endowment) and highest cost...If money is an issue, Columbia is the worst choice (all else being equal).

Not sure what info you're looking at, but it looks like Columbia gives 46% of admits an average grant of $20.5k. That's pretty close to Kellogg (35%, $22.8k) and MIT (35%, $28.2k) just to name a couple. http://poetsandquants.com/2014/11/20/mba-scholarships-at-top-business-s…

As far as total cost of the MBA, it doesn't seem like there's a material difference there:

School Total Cost Tuition NYU $203,876 $121,488 Stanford $202,870 $123,750 Wharton $195,084 $136,420 Columbia $192,936 $126,296 MIT $192,028 $127,500 Harvard $190,200 $117,750 Chicago $189,866 $123,040

 

I respectfully disagree with you inference.

Your data is an average of 20.5k for 46% admits. It may be well pushed up by NON ED offers to students with enough caliber for H/s/w. It doesn't mean CBS is generous with scholarships. And we don't know if similar schools offer more or less in aid.

If you have an scholarship avg for ED students or all matriculated students, it would serve as a better indicator, since ED are required to attend.

 
Best Response
consultant798:
opsdude1 wrote:
Of the Top 10 schools, Columbia has the worst financial aid (it has poor endowment) and highest cost...If money is an issue, Columbia is the worst choice (all else being equal).

Not sure what info you're looking at, but it looks like Columbia gives 46% of admits an average grant of $20.5k. That's pretty close to Kellogg (35%, $22.8k) and MIT (35%, $28.2k) just to name a couple.
http://poetsandquants.com/2014/11/20/mba-scholarsh...

As far as total cost of the MBA, it doesn't seem like there's a material difference there:

School Total Cost Tuition
NYU $203,876 $121,488
Stanford $202,870 $123,750
Wharton $195,084 $136,420
Columbia $192,936 $126,296
MIT $192,028 $127,500
Harvard $190,200 $117,750
Chicago $189,866 $123,040

The owner of P&Q often has trouble with math, the last two columns are inaccurate (which should be obvious when you look at the Total Scholarship and % of Gross Tuition columns.) "% of Gross Tuition" is the column you want to look at.

 

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