Short Answer Question What is your post-MBA professional goal? (200 characters maximum)
Essay Questions Considering your post-MBA and long term professional goals, why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? Additionally, why is Columbia Business School a good fit for you? (750 words maximum)
This is my post-MBA (immediate) goal. I want this goal because of <this reason> (passion, interest, etc). Looking at my background you should be able to see that I've either tried other things that led me to believe this makes sense, or that I've been preparing myself for this goal all along.
Essay Question My post-MBA goal is <this>, and my long term goal is <this>. After examining myself, my strengths are as follows, and my weaknesses are as follows. This is the right time for me to go to business school, because I have built up a core skill-set of strengths, and my weaknesses now need to be further improved by sets of knowledge best picked up at business school. These sets of knowledge and skills are <as follows>. These will be relevant to both my post-MBA job, as well as my long-term goal <in the following ways>.
CBS is the best place for me to pick up <this specific knowledge>, because it is extremely strong in <this specific knowledge>. Other aspects that may help my career include: <clubs>, <location>. These, logically, will help me in my chosen career choice because <of why>. On a personal note, <size of class> is a good fit with who I am and the type of programme I enjoy. <Flexibility of programme> is another trait that might be useful to me if my post-MBA goals and my long-term goal is very diverse, and requires a broad set of different skills.