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.
MBA Applywire
Applying to deferred programs this year, would love to hear thoughts on my application.
675 GMAT Focus, 3.723 at Non Target Undergraduate, Finance Major. Decent extra curricular on-campus, for internship experience started college with internship at a small ABL shop, interned sophomore summer/junior school year at a large publicly traded mortgage company doing Risk, interned after junior year at a Big4 doing Risk Consulting for FSOs. Returning FT to same B4 in Deals practice.
Would love to hear thoughts. Thanks.
Orthopaedic surgeon with cross-border training/work exposure i.e. UK, HK & Pakistan
• Strong involvement in research, publications, and innovation-related work
• Interested in the intersection of clinical medicine, healthcare systems, digital health, and business
• Long-term goal is to move from being a clinician to a broader leadership role where I can help build, scale, or evaluate healthcare solutions
African female - after 7 years at an international engineering consultancy and 3 in public sector, looking to get into infrastructure finance through an infrastructure focused MBA and internship pipeline. Certified PPP practitioner but not ao much leadership experience. Hoping to join a big 4 infrastructure advisory or infrastructure fund post MBA.
Only applying to Wharton "Deferred" Program (Due to eligibility)
Demographic: Asian Male, 26
Academic Background: B.S. & M.S. in Nuclear Engineering @ Top school in S.Korea
GPA: B.S.(3.76/4.30), M.S.(3.93/4.30)
GMAT Focus: 675 (Q-96th, DI-95th, V-56th)
Pre-MBA Employer: Recieved FT Offer @ Bain (expected start: July 2026)
Post-MBA Goal:
- Short: Banking
- Long: Infrastructure PE
Internships: Internship @ BCG
Research Experience:
4 conferences and several papers under review about Nuclear Fuel Materials, Nuclear Plant Economics & EPC, Nuclear Reactor Core Design
Extracurricular Activities/Leadership:
- Led a consulting project for a nuclear energy company in S.Korea
- Honor Society, College of Engineering
- VP of the student council @ UG department
- Soccer/Baseball team(non-varsity)
Awards:
- 2 x Minister's Award (1st place in Nationwide competition in Energy Sector)
- 5~10 x Minor Awards mostly in Energy & Nuclear Engineering
Honors:
- U.S. Army Commendation Medal
- Presidential Science Scholarship(Awarded by the President of the Korea, one of 25 recipients nationwide) - Fully funded during UG
- Korea Defense Veteran's Association (KDVA) Scholarship
- Honor Society of the College of Engineering
Hi All,
Location: India YOE:2.8 yrs Industry: Software Role: Senior software developer
I have been working in a software Mnc and recently got fired. I had initially planned to apply for MBA programs for 2027 intake. But given the recent layoff I'm not sure what to do next. I didn't yet take the gmat. And confused if I should do a job hunt now or prepare for gmat, since I wanted to apply for round 1s by sep.
I definitely want to go for a good International MBA for 2027 intake.
What should I do next, follow are the choices I can think of-
1. Prepare for a good gmat score, finish it in next 2-3 months, I also have a small startup idea that I would like to in parallel experiment/try out, not sure how far it will succeed.
2. Prepare for gmat, complete in next 2-3 months then do job hunt(might or might not be able to get a job by the time I apply for round 1s)
Please suggest what is better for my mba applications.