I was accepted to the Columbia Business School today (May 7 2008) and I am thrilled.

I figured I’d kick-start this blog with the good news. The plan here is to share my MBA experience as well as random bits + pieces on the worlds of media, tech and culture.

MBA blogs have been super useful for me throughout the application process and I will hopefully be able to bring the Middle Eastern perspective to things as well (I am an Egyptian who has lived in Dubai for most of my life).

I applied to Columbia on March 3rd (4th round deadline) and was invited to interview with an alum in Dubai around mid-April. I have also applied to Haas, Stern, Chicago, LBS and Yale (all 4th round applications submitted on or near the respective deadlines). I was invited to interview with Chicago mid-April as well and did so with an alum in Dubai. I haven’t heard back from any of the other schools yet.

I’m looking to transition into the Media / New Media industry post-MBA which explains (most) of my school choices.

The alum interviews were great. Basically informal chats that both lasted around an hour and were really just genuine discussions about my candidacy and the schools and programs. I had done a ton of prep beforehand including reaching out to as many alumns in Dubai as possible and current students (particularly those involved in the various and generally super-active media associations) which was good but probably unnecessary to get through the interviews themselves.