Columbia Business School

-I truly think that my experience in EMBA will be have a greater influence on my professional and personal life than any other educational experience I've had. It has already directly led to a huge promotion at work as well as acceptance to an Ed.D. program that I will start next semester. This is my second master's at an Ivy League school, and there is no comparison. The services, professors and students were of such a high caliber that it exceeded even my wildest ideas of what I would get out of the program.

-The day-to-day experiences were quite good. Included in the EMBA tuition are snacks in between classes and during breaks. When a class was held outside the EMBA building, these snacks were not necessarily available or the choice was not as good. The program could look to improve their food service when EMBA students are outside of the EMBA building. Also, the food at lunch got old. The program could look to find better and more diverse food sources.

-Columbia did a great job of (literally) catering to student needs. Quality food (breakfast, lunch, snacks) was provided in unlimited supply. Lockers and storage were provided as well. CBS attempted to create a "community" feel by hosting various networking events and class activities. Perhaps there could have been more variety to some of these events, but I give them credit for trying (museum events, plus one events, etc.).

-I can't stress enough the accessibility and the knowledge of the professors. I also have to say that my fellow classmates significantly added to the value of this degree. Not only did they add to my professional network and help out academically, but they also became genuine friends.

-With such an enriched class due to the high caliber classmates, I would like more formal interactions with the affiliate global EMBA programs, full-time MBA students, and EMBA NY classes. There is such a rich class of students and faculty to network with, and EMBA program administrators should make that easy for interested students.

-What amazed me was the amount of activity out of the classroom. I spent a lot of time at school events, networking socials, and dinners. Besides the classroom experience, I believe the social interaction adds a lot of value to the overall MBA experience - and I am convinced Columbia offers one of the best environments to network with smart industry professionals.

-It would have been nice to be able to opt out of core courses in which a student is already an experienced expert. For example, my core learning team had two CPAs. Why did they have to sit through a few accounting courses in the first year? They were clearly aware of the basics.

-I think shorter but more frequent sessions would have helped significantly. The sessions are typically 3 hours - sometimes 4 hours, were tough on our attention span. And given the amount of materials we have to go through in each session it becomes difficult to prepare for the lectures. I thought that taking 4 classes a term was 1 too many. I think that extending the EMBA program to 6 terms and reducing the course load in each term or most terms would have been preferable. It was hard to really dive deeply into all four classes.

-I had been accepted to multiple programs and debated which to attend. In the end, Columbia did not disappoint. The school is very strong in finance and accounting and has an especially strong value investing platform. The variety of electives was great. The school offers access to all other Columbia schools (law, SIPA, etc.), but even the variety of management and entrepreneurship classes (on top of finance/accounting and marketing) was strong. Being located in NYC was valuable since it draws a strong group of adjunct professors.

-While there was never any "busy work" assigned, coursework could have been more relevant to current issues in the marketplace (i.e., cases were often old). That is not to say the learning experience was compromised (we learned the same concepts); however, more recent cases may have been more engaging.

-I was 100 percent satisfied with the program. It was a tremendous amount of work but I appreciate the degree even more going through such a rigorous program and the bonds with my classmates as a result is even tighter. The Columbia EMBA program is a legit MBA and it takes a lot of sacrifice for two years with workload, work, and family lifestyle but it is one of the best experiences of my life. The school, curriculum, and professors were amazing.

-One of the most important aspects of the Columbia MBA, for me, is the ability to audit any class in the future. I fully intend to return for a block-week class, and I would like to do this every year or perhaps every two-years. I find this to be of tremendous value, as there are many excellent block-week classes that I have an interest in but was not able to take during the program.