International Orientation
Orientation started early for us international students. We were introduced to foreign concepts like ‘The American Classroom’ and ‘Dating in New York’ (sadly promised on our itinerary but not taught in class). It was mostly a great opportunity to meet other students from all over the world. Unsurprisingly China and India represented the biggest student groups followed by South Korea and perhaps more surprisingly Spain, Israel and Nigeria. There’s a grand total of 5 students from the Middle East. I am the only one who is truly non-American though – the others were either born here or have spent years living here. There’s a few students who grew up in Dubai and others who worked there before CBS (I have been feeling especially proud of our little city-state that no-one had even heard of a decade ago over the last couple of weeks). Truth be told Columbia (and perhaps the same is true of other US schools) defines an ‘International Student’ pretty loosely. How international is a 2nd or 3rd generation US citizen who has lived here all their lives but happens to have a dual citizenship? So although the published numbers indicate 30-40% international students at CBS, the school certainly feels a lot more American than that.
Internationalism or Americanization?
For all the claims of embracing internationalism, it soon becomes very apparent that these two years at Business School will very much be a case of Americanizing the international students rather than some kind of symbiotic two-way synthesis. I think this is a good thing, being a fan of most things American, and surely it’s a big part of why we non-Americans are here for graduate school rather than back home or in Europe / Asia etc.
The real introduction to America began the following week at Orientation proper. On what felt like my second first day at school, the 600 or so incoming students were welcomed by Dean Glenn Hubbard – a bonafide celebrity in the MBA world – with the first of many pep talks at once informing us of our greatness (a recurrent theme during orientation) while humbling us with the achievements of our fellow students; among us we were told were a three-time grammy award winning music producer, a former CIA agent, someone who launched an organic farm in China and a published author.
That being said banking, finance and consulting dominate CBS (both in terms of where students are coming from and hoping to go). But the school is big enough for plenty of diversity to remain.

Orientation Week at CBS is designed to do a few things: Teach incoming students how the business school works (how to choose electives, join clubs, where to get help, buy lunch, what are clusters, learning teams etc, that sort of thing); Introduce us to the Columbia culture and honor code – this is a very big part of CBS and was done primarily via the Peer Advisors – an awesome set of second year students that give up a week of their summer holidays to welcome new students; Career Prep – the focus on prepping students for the job hunt starts immediately and hasn’t let off since, again I was surprised by the intensity of this part of school (Orientation week was actually sponsored by BNP Paribas, BCG, Goldman Sachs & Co and UBS); Bonding – finally there’s a huge emphasis at CBS on building community which meant non-stop socializing / partying and countless games of flipcup and beer pong – two games I didn’t event know existed a month ago.
All four objectives were met and some.

I was one of the few incoming Class of 2011 CBS students that survived Orientation Week without getting ill (achieved by being the first one home from most of the nightly parties that often raged on til the mornings I was told), getting through the first week of classes (Managerial Statistics and Accounting mainly) sat next to 60 coughing and sneezing classmates was the far greater challenge.

The excitement of starting school, meeting so many awesome new people and the craziness of orientation was soon replaced with the more menial concerns of assignments and the anxieties of recruiting in what is still a bleak economy, but nothing can avert the inner smile I have every morning as I walk past the beautiful Low Memorial and Butler campus libraries on my way to classes.
It’s obvious I am about to experience two of the best years of what has been an already ridiculously privileged life.

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