Columbia MBA Recommendation Questions

Columbia Business School’s early decision and regular decision online applications are live, meaning that the Columbia MBA recommendation questions are now available.

Columbia requires one recommendation, ideally from your current supervisor. If that’s not possible, they ask you to submit a statement of explanation in the Employment section of your application, and choose from other suggested recommender options: a former direct supervisor or another professional associate, senior to you, who can share their insights on your candidacy. Reapplicants are required to submit one new recommendation.

Columbia’s recommendation is rather streamlined compared to that of other leading MBA programs. The recommendation form requests that recommenders indicate whether they have an MBA, requires an upload of a business card or another form of proof of employment, such as a screenshot of a profile on an internal company website, or link to profile on public company website, etc., and asks that they address two prompts in the course of a recommendation of no more than 1,000 words that should be on professional letterhead. There are no additional questions asking the recommender to rate the applicant on a list of skills or qualities.

Recommenders are advised in the email sent by Columbia of the guidelines for submission, which now include a note that while the use of generative AI tools for idea generation and/or to edit a person’s work is permitted by the school, using these tools to generate a complete letter violates the Honor Code.

2025-2026 Columbia MBA Recommendation Questions

Please consider the following guidelines when writing your recommendation:

• How do the candidate’s performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples.
• Describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant’s response.

Limit your recommendation to 1000 words. Please submit your recommendation as a PDF or Word document on letterhead, if possible.

Of note, these questions track closely with—but are not identical to—the questions in the GMAC Common Letter of Recommendation. Check out our analysis of the GMAC Common LoR prompts for strategic insight that your recommenders should keep in mind as they compose their responses.