Columbia Conference Offers Sneak Peek at Future of Fintech
Columbia Business School announced its Frontiers of Digital Finance conference, sponsored by Deloitte, Microsoft and Goldman Sachs, and organized in part by Columbia’s FinTech Club.
CBS Prof Determines Busyness a Marker of High Status for Americans
Columbia Business School (CBS) recently published an article about a new Journal of Consumer Research study from CBS Professor Silvia Bellezza that finds Americans “increasingly perceive busy and overworked people as having high status.”
Top Scholarships at Columbia Business School
Earning an MBA from Columbia Business School (CBS) is an incredible opportunity. It is no secret that CBS offers an enviable education, but it is also located in the heart of New York City, where MBA students will be surrounded by opportunities and industry giants. Of course, being in the fastest-paced, most populous city in the United States comes at a price. Literally. New York is listed as number one on Investopedia’s Top 10 Most Expensive Cities in the U.S. Luckily, CBS offers a wealth of scholarships to make grad school in the city more manageable.
Merit-Based Scholarships
Merit-based scholarships are an excellent option for motivated students with impressive undergraduate GPAs and work experience. Also, if students do not receive a fellowship in their first year, they will have another opportunity in their second year.
• Forté Foundation Scholarship: The Forté Foundation offers scholarships to outstanding women through their Forte Fellows program. The fellowship exists to encourage larger numbers of women to pursue an MBA education. There is no application information required from students at CBS, as nominees are selected by the school’s director of admissions. Forté Fellows receive multiple benefits, including participation in the MBA Women Leadership and Financial Services FAST Track Conferences. Students in the program are also included in the Forté Fellow resume book, which is distributed to Forté Sponsor companies like J.P. Morgan and IBM Global Business Services.
• Toigo Fellowship: CBS is one of the Robert Toigo Foundation’s featured MBA programs. The Toigo Foundation’s mission is to encourage diversity in finance, so this fellowship is available to under-represented groups. Driven minority students will be eligible for consideration. Fellows attend a weekend summer session to prepare them for business school. During this session, students are assigned mentors to guide them throughout school and their careers.
• Columbia Fellows Program: Columbia Fellows is available only for the first year of the program. The scholarship includes a partial- or full-tuition award for applicants who have shown the creativity and initiative to be true leaders in business.
• Board of Overseers China & India Fellowships: This fellowship is available to students from China and India. Scholarships are awarded by the Board of Overseers, which is comprised of industry giants across a variety of fields.
• Meyer Feldberg Distinguished Fellowship Program: This fellowship is extremely competitive and is granted to students who have shown outstanding leadership skills and academic initiative. Students applying must demonstrate an impressive track record in areas like entrepreneurship and social ventures. Fellows are given full tuition and lifelong membership in the prestigious network of award recipients and donors.
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• R.C. Kopf Fellowships: The R.C. Kopf Fellowship is granted to students with an interest in international business. Italian, French, British and U.S. citizens can all earn the Kopf Fellowship. Applicants should be accomplished in academia, but also exhibit personal and professional behavior that makes them an asset to the community.
• Gerardo Werthein Scholarship: This scholarship is specifically for MBA students who have lived or studied in Argentina and who are interested in returning to work in Argentina. The scholarship is granted based on financial need.
• Ela Lemelbaum Scholarship: Israeli students are eligible to receive the Ela Lemelbaum Scholarship, which provides tuition support options for both first and second years of study. Preference goes to students who have studied at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. This scholarship is renewable during the second year.
Other Scholarship Opportunities
CBS also offers a variety of need-based scholarships to students, which may yield tuition support ranging from $7,500 to $30,000. Need-based scholarships are based on every aspect of a student’s assets. About 50 perfect of applicants are granted need-based awards. These scholarships are automatically renewed during a student’s second year. There is a rigorous four-part application process. Students may also seek out and apply for external scholarships.
Columbia Student Startup Slated to Shape Future of Elderly Caregiving
Columbia Business School recently highlighted I-Care, a new student startup focused on elderly caregiving that took first place at the most recent Global Public Policy Network Conference in Paris; “an alliance of seven global public-policy schools that provides a platform for institutional partnership, research collaboration and student exchange.”
Which Graduate Business School Students Have The Highest GMAT Scores?
Along with required work experience and undergraduate prerequisites, prospective MBA students also look at the average scores on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) for a certain school they are interested in applying to.
According the Graduate Management Admission Council, the exam is used as part of the admissions process for more than 6,100 graduate programs around the world. A GMAC study found that 261,248 GMAT exams were taken by prospective MBA students during the 2016 test year. The report also shows that less than 30 percent of scores were 650 or higher. The GMAT has a maximum score of 800. Continue reading…
Anxiety Persists for MBAs Despite Court Rebuke of Immigration Ban
Last week, a three-member panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit refused the Trump administration’s call to reinstate a ban barring the entry of all refugees and visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries into the United States. Although the case could still advance to the Supreme Court, yesterday’s ruling means that, for now, the executive order signed by President Donald Trump two weeks ago remains unenforceable.
That’s good news for international students from the affected countries, some of whom were detained at airports attempting to return to campus from overseas travel, others of whom were forced to cancel plans to leave the United States for fear they might not be allowed back in.
States Cite Harm to Higher Education as Major Reason for Opposing Ban
In affirming that the states of Washington and Minnesota had legal standing to bring the case against the immigration ban, the appellate judges specifically cited the ban’s injurious impact on the states’ public universities.
An excerpt from the ruling:
“Specifically, the States allege that the teaching and research missions of their universities are harmed by the Executive Order’s effect on their faculty and students who are nationals of the seven affected countries. These students and faculty cannot travel for research, academic collaboration, or for personal reasons, and their families abroad cannot visit. Some have been stranded outside the country, unable to return to the universities at all. The schools cannot consider attractive student candidates and cannot hire faculty from the seven affected countries, which they have done in the past.”
Citing the new court precedent, the judges argued that schools can assert the rights of their students. “The interests of the states’ universities here are aligned with the students. The students’ educational success is ‘inextricably bound up’ in the universities’ capacity to teach them,” the ruling says. “And the universities’ reputations depend on the success of their professors’ research.”
Of course, these concerns were not limited to public universities in the states of Washington and Minnesota. Indeed, as reported here, business schools around the nation were quick to decry the executive order on precisely those grounds. In the days immediately following Trump’s January 27 executive order, deans from Harvard Business School, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, NYU Stern School of Business and Columbia Business School, among others, spoke out strongly in opposition to the immigration ban while pledging to support their own affected students.
Global Business Education Is Best Antidote to Economic Nationalism, Say Business School Deans
Earlier this week, the Global Network for Advanced Management, a group of 29 international business schools committed to advancing innovation through global exchange, issued a statement in opposition to the current rise of populism, economic nationalism and anti-globalization rhetoric, noting that the global economy is more interconnected than ever before, making global exchange and engagement more important than ever.
Excerpt from the Global Network letter:
“As deans of Global Network member schools, we recognize that the fundamental drivers of global business are not changing. Technology will continue to advance and disrupt markets and societies, and the transfer of innovations and expertise across borders will continue. We believe that countries that retrench will harm themselves and their citizens. Therefore, we redouble our commitment to collaborative learning across countries and cultures, and to gain and leverage the insights of the best and brightest throughout the world. In this way, we continue to improve educational outcomes and professional development of our students, deliver innovations that benefit business and society, and contribute to a better world.”
This letter carried the signatures of deans from Haas, HEC Paris, INSEAD, Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Yale School of Management, among many others.
In the wake of the executive order, Haas Dean Richard Lyons received a letter signed by more than 1,000 Haas MBA students requesting that he reach out to deans of other business schools to speak out jointly against the executive order. He responded early last week to the Haas community that he had done just that.
Heightened Anxiety Persists
Despite yesterday’s ruling, business schools have encouraged their international students to exercise caution with regard to planned travel outside of the United States. “The temporary restraining order, which halted the enforcement of certain provisions of President Trump’s executive order banning foreign nationals from seven countries from entering the U.S., remains in effect after a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals,” read a notice posted today on the Harvard International Office (HIO) website. “Despite this ruling, the HIO continues to advise foreign nationals from the seven restricted countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) to exercise caution and discuss any travel plans with their HIO Advisor when considering travel outside the United States.”
This is because future court rulings could reinstate the ban, in which case foreign nationals from those countries most likely would not be admitted or readmitted to the country.
Next Year’s International Enrollment at U.S. Business Schools in Question
It remains to be seen what type of impact this uncertainty may have on international enrollment at U.S. business school’s next year. As of this writing, most business schools we reached reported that, thus far, international application volume had not been impacted.
“International application volume in Round 2 was identical to last year,” says Haas Assistant Dean of the full-time MBA Program and Admissions Peter Johnson. “Since our Round 2 deadline was in early January, it was after the election and before the recent executive order. If there is any direct impact from these events, it will likely be seen in the enrollment patterns of admitted international students, in our program and in other MBA programs across the country.”
Concern about the current administration’s policies and their impact on international students has been widespread. “The uncertainty and anxiety surrounding changes in visa and immigration regulations is affecting all international students, not only those from the countries included in the recent executive order,” says Johnson. “We have had questions ranging from ‘Will this impact my chances of admission?’ to ‘Will I be able to do an internship in the U.S.?’”
Johnson confirmed that Haas has no plans to alter its admissions process and will continue to offer spaces in its class to top candidates regardless of their country of origin. “We are committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive environment, and international students and faculty are an important part of our community and the educational experience of all students,” he pledged.
HBS Managing Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Chad Losee made a similar pledge in a post to his Director’s Blog earlier this week. In it, he reaffirmed the school’s commitment to assembling a diverse class of leaders who will make a difference in the world, wherever they come from. “The recent U.S. executive order restricting travel to America for citizens from certain countries does not change this, nor are we changing our admissions policy or practices as a result,” he wrote.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
