Columbia Business School’s deferred admission MBA offers successful candidates the chance to secure a place in this top-ranking program before graduating from their previous education. Once admitted, students can then explore their professional interests for two to five years before matriculating, benefitting from access to CBS’s network and resources throughout.
What Is Columbia’s Deferred Enrollment Program?
Columbia’s deferred enrollment MBA allows students to secure their spot on this prestigious program before having gained any work experience. Successful candidates will then work for two to five years after graduating from their previous degree and before matriculating at Columbia.
The program is selective and highly competitive—no surprise considering the enormous benefits that it offers students. Those who are successful can use the two to five years of pre-MBA work to explore the professional opportunities that truly interest and challenge them, safe in the knowledge that their spot on Columbia’s MBA is secure.
With competition high, this is a suitable opportunity for students who have strong academic backgrounds, clarity on how an MBA will help them achieve their goals, and demonstrable leadership potential.
Who Is Eligible for Columbia’s Deferred Enrollment MBA?
Columbia’s deferred enrollment MBA is open to students who:
- Are graduating in the current academic year from a bachelor’s degree program;
- Are currently in a graduate degree program, which they began directly after completing their undergraduate degree.
Students who are enrolled in law school, medical school, or PhD programs are not eligible to apply to Columbia’s MBA program via the deferred route.
Applicants must not have full-time work experience. Columbia welcomes applicants from all academic backgrounds.
What Does Columbia Business School Look for in Deferred Enrollment Applicants?
Similarly to its regular MBA program, Columbia is looking for students who share, and can contribute to, its values and culture. This means demonstrating a passion for business and a knack for innovation. Students on Columbia’s deferred MBA are united by their academic achievement, their leadership, and their ability to work in teams.
Application Process for Columbia’s Deferred Enrollment MBA
Admissions at Columbia Business School are looking for outstanding candidates. To select them, they scrutinize with great detail the academic history, admission scores, and essays that students submit.
The application Columbia’s deferred MBA program consists of the following components.
Your GMAT and GRE Scores
Since applicants lack professional work experience, admissions for Columbia’s deferred MBA lean heavily on the data that is available—making GMAT and GRE scores more important than ever.
When you apply via the deferred track, admissions will compare your scores with those of the current MBA cohort, even though you will matriculate several years later. This means you need to be matching or exceeding the averages of CBS’s current MBA class.
To put this into context, Columbia’s Class of 2026 had an average GMAT score of 732, an average GRE Verbal of 162, and an average GRE Quantitative of 162.
To ensure you get the best score possible, begin preparations for the GMAT or GRE well in advance of the application deadline. You should leave time to take the admissions test twice, since scores can improve with repetition. This means taking the test at least six months before the deadline, and beginning to prepare around a year before.
Academic Performance
Columbia’s has high standards for the academic performance of all incoming students; nowhere is this more true than in its deferred MBA program. CBS will evaluate degree transcripts and student coursework, looking for examples of intellectual rigor, challenging topics, and high scope and breadth.
Admissions will compare your GPA against that of Columbia’s current MBA class. On average, incoming students have a GPA of 3.6.
Your Resume: Highlighting Your Work Experience
If you’re applying to the Columbia deferred MBA program, you will not have official, full-time work experience. What you should have, however, is many examples of occasions on which you have demonstrated the skills that you will go on to use in your future employment: leadership, teamwork, creative thinking, and resilience (to name just a few).
You can demonstrate these skills through internships that you have taken, extracurriculars you have been involved in, and student clubs that you have joined. Your resume is the place to show off the successes you’ve had and to detail the skills you’ve developed.
Essays
If you’re applying for deferred enrollment at Columbia, your MBA application essays will differ slightly from those in the traditional admissions process. Below, you can find the essay questions shared with the most recent application cohort.
Throughout your essays, ensure that you link everything back to your career goals. Share details on what these are, how the MBA will help you achieve them, and the skills you have already developed to advance your progress. Discuss the benefits of a New York-based MBA, too, since this a core facet of the CBS experience.
Short Answer Question
First, applicants are asked to answer one short answer question:
What are your professional plans after you complete your undergraduate or current master’s degree? (50 characters maximum)
Essays
Next, students are asked to complete two longer essays.
Essay 1
Applying to a deferred enrollment program suggests that your aspirations in the next 2-5 years will include an MBA. Why do you feel you need an MBA to achieve your long-term career goals and why would you like to pursue your MBA at Columbia Business School? (300 words)
Essay 2
Contributing to the community is an important part of the CBS experience. Discuss one experience or situation in your undergraduate or graduate career where you feel you contributed to your community and what you learned from the experience. (250 words)
Finally, students are offered the chance to complete an optional essay:
If you wish to provide further information or additional context around your application to the Admissions Committee, please upload a brief explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or personal history. This does not need to be a formal essay. You may submit bullet points. (Maximum 500 Words)
Letters of Recommendation
Columbia Business School requires just one letter of recommendation from applicants to its deferred enrollment MBA program. This letter must be from a professor, mentor, internship supervisor, or employer, and CBS recommends that it does not exceed 1,000 words.
Columbia provides a question to its recommenders, asking that they share “how the applicant will contribute to the Columbia Business School classroom and community.” This gives your chosen recommender an opportunity to highlight your leadership skills, intellectual curiosity, and initiative. Ensure that you select someone who knows you well enough to do so, and can provide examples of your past successes.
How Can You Strengthen Your Columbia Deferred MBA Application?
Improving your chance of success when applying to Columbia’s MBA via deferred enrollment is all about strengthening your application. Each of the elements listed above are opportunities to convince admissions of your ambition, your intellectual curiosity, your leadership potential, and your suitability for the program. Take advantage of these opportunities in full.
To do so, we recommend that you start early. This doesn’t just mean starting your application pack in advance: it means seizing opportunities to build leadership experience or prove your initiative from an early stage. Extracurricular clubs and projects can be a great way to do this, accessible from early-on in your undergraduate degree and offering multi-year involvement.
You should also look to network with current deferred enrollment students or alumni at CBS. Hear their stories, learn from them, and mention in your application that you’ve taken this extra step.
And, finally, you should prepare well for the admissions interview. Build a narrative that reflects your journey and your goals, and learn storytelling techniques to deliver it in a compelling way. Participate in mock interviews where possible and practice giving structured responses to questions.
Is Columbia’s Deferred Enrollment MBA Right for You?
Columbia’s deferred enrollment MBA offers many opportunities—but there are some drawbacks to it as well. To help you understand whether this might be a program well suited to you, we have outlined some advantages and disadvantages of applying to the program.
Advantages:
- Freedom: Colombia takes great pride in the freedom its deferred enrollment program offers successful students. Those who are admitted to the program have two to four years before matriculation in which they can take full advantage of the working environment, seizing the opportunities that are presented to them and following their interests. Without the pressure to select work that may influence an MBA application, students are able to “learn what they love.”
- Location: with its vantage point from the center of New York, students at Columbia have access to one of the most exciting cities in the world—and its business leaders.
- Focus: Columbia’s strong ties to the finance and consulting industries make it a great choice for students headed that way.
- Flexibility: Admits via Columbia’s deferred enrollment can work for up to five years before beginning their MBA—an extra year than those on Harvard Business School’s 2+2 program, or on Pennsylvania Wharton’s Moelis Advance Access MBA.
- Options: a spot on the CBS MBA is a fantastic opportunity. But you don’t have to take it—applying now and getting a space means you have a place secured, but can pivot away later if you need to.
Disadvantages:
- Competition: there’s only one major disadvantage to the CBS program—and that’s competition. The deferred MBA is highly selective, and chances of success are low. Without work experience to show off, you’ll need to work even harder than usual to create a standout application, and the effort might not pay off.
What Happens After Admission?
After securing a spot on Columbia’s MBA via deferred enrollment, you’ll need to work for two to five years. Columbia emphasizes that you can use this time to “explore what drives you,” so take advantage of it!
Since you have a place secured on a CBS program, you’ll be part of the Columbia community during this time. This grants you access to MBA and career-focused conferences, events, and resources.
To start the program, send a letter of intent to CBS. Once done, you will have access to applications to scholarships. At this stage, CBS will consider you for merit-based fellowships.
Keen to give Columbia’s deferred enrollment MBA program a shot? You can read more details on their program page. Remember to start your application early, reach out to current students, and show off your leadership potential.
Feature photo by Ajay Suresh, licensed under CC BY 2.0
