2 Overlooked Factors That Helped Me Get into Columbia’s MBA

Updated 2026/10/16

“Understand these two concepts and you can stand out in your applications and beat the odds!”

When younger students ask me about applying abroad, or post on Dcard’s study-abroad board asking where they stand, I keep seeing the same question: “My GPA is x, I have x internships, and my IELTS score is x. Which schools can I get into?”

Today I want to talk about two “invisible” concepts that matter in study-abroad applications but are often overlooked: Track Record and Pool. They apply to MBA applications, and also to undergraduate and master’s applications!

What Is a Track Record (your school’s admission history)?

Track Record has to do with the university an applicant comes from. I like to call it your school’s “alumni admission record.”

Many people only share their GPA when they ask about their chances (in Chinese), and leave out something important: the university they graduated from. Why do admissions committees reviewing thousands of applications care where you went to school? Because they trust the quality of graduates from top schools and know how those schools grade. More importantly, from how previously admitted students performed, they understand what kind of students that university sends them.

For example, say graduates of School A who come to Harvard for a master’s generally get good grades and can handle Harvard’s tougher courses (they don’t drop out partway and cost the school tuition and investment). Then in future admissions, Harvard will trust School A graduates. Take a School A graduate and a School B graduate, both with a 3.8 GPA and similar profiles otherwise. If Harvard has admitted many School A students in the past and almost none from School B, the School A graduate has a better chance of getting in.

This is also why it’s easier for US undergraduates to get into US master’s programs and for UK undergraduates to get into UK master’s programs. Admissions officers are familiar with, trust, and even prefer graduates from the same education system.

How Do I Use Track Record in My Applications?

An important step is finding out how many students from your school get into the school you want each year! Besides asking alumni you know, your department office or the registrar, you can go to the LinkedIn page of the school you want to apply to → Alumni, search for your own school’s name, and see whether any graduates went there. (If so, you can even network with them to learn about the program and how they applied.)

If your school sends dozens of students there every year, you’re from a Feeder School. You don’t need to worry about where you studied, and it may even help your application. If your school (a Non-feeder School) hasn’t had a single graduate admitted to a certain school for years, you may want to treat that target as a Dream School.

I’ve compiled several hundred admission results. You can apply the Track Record idea to them and get a better sense of where each school sits for you. Click here 👉🏻 for the most complete list of master’s and PhD admission results!

What Is a Pool?

In MBA admissions, the idea of a “Pool” matters a lot, because MBA programs care about building a diverse class. Unlike other master’s programs, an MBA is usually a way to make a career change of some kind (switching industries, moving to a new location, a Role Pivot and so on). So MBA programs put a lot of weight on class discussion and classmates learning from each other, seeing different industries through other people’s eyes. The admissions officer’s job is to build a Cohort that is diverse in nationality, education, gender and work background (industry, region, responsibilities).

Each of these dimensions (gender, nationality and so on) can be called a Pool. For example, I would be placed in the Pools for men, Taiwanese, college graduates and entrepreneurs, and admissions officers pick the strongest applicants from each Pool.

How I Used These Two Factors to Beat the Odds

I’ve introduced the Deferred MBA before. Because of how it works (you’re admitted early and work for 2 to 5 years before enrolling), industries and undergraduate majors that count as Non-feeder for a regular MBA turn into an advantage!

For the Deferred MBA, admissions officers actually prefer applicants who studied STEM or who plan to go into startups or niche industries. They think these people are less likely to apply for an MBA three to five years later, so if a strong applicant like that shows up now, they’d rather secure them now and add diversity to the class. (Of course this isn’t the only factor. MBA applications also look at your career plan and more, which I’ll cover another time.)

In terms of Pool: I studied business in college, but I had two years of startup experience during university, so I stood out more among other business-school applicants to the Deferred MBA. Also, as far as I know, few Taiwanese had applied to the Deferred MBA before, so even fewer people were competing in my Pool!

In terms of Track Record: I didn’t go to college in the US, but several students from my university are admitted to Columbia master’s programs every year (though not the MBA), so I wasn’t at a particular disadvantage. However, basically no alumni had been admitted to GSB, HBS, Wharton, MIT Sloan and the like, so I put those MBAs on my dream list and gave them lower priority when preparing.

Final Thoughts

Many schools (especially MBA programs) put a lot of emphasis on being “well-rounded,” so the two factors I covered today don’t decide any admission on their own! But when you assess your chances or choose which schools to apply to, you can take them into account. I’ll write another post later about how much each factor matters in study-abroad applications.

When you apply, go in with a “Maximum Effort = 0 Regrets” mindset, prepare as thoroughly as you can, and then wait for the good news!