Poets&Quants’ MBA Program Of The Year: Columbia Business School

A HALF DOZEN NEW AI-FOCUSED COURSES THIS SEMESTER ALONE

Tetlock adds: “We’re launching six new AI-focused courses this semester alone. We now have about a dozen overall — and roughly half the courses across the school have significant AI components. That number keeps rising.”

One of those courses, dubbed “Prompt to Product,” is a hands-on course in students use prompt engineering to develop and launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Taught by a former product manager at Google, the course challenges students to tackle a real-world problem, such as helping MBA students find employment opportunities outside of traditional recruiting industries, and transform product requirements into a working prototype using AI-powered tools. The goal is to learn prompt engineering, AI-assisted development, and how to use customer feedback to refine a product, culminating in a formal recommendation on whether to scale the product. 

CBS is also using AI to transform its own operations. “Every year, what you taught last year may be stale,” Maglaras says. “On climate, for example, a three-year-old course can already be obsolete. AI changes even faster.”

MOST POPULAR ELECTIVE AT COLUMBIA: THE BUSINESS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

If AI is the first pillar of Columbia’s future-oriented strategy, climate is the second. “When our students come in, they’re thinking in 20-to-30-year arcs,” Maglaras says. “Addressing the climate challenge is central in their minds.”

Student demand is huge: The Business of Climate Change is the most popular elective at CBS, taken by 500 MBA students a year. Climate Finance is another top draw, and courses in climate risk, technology, and energy systems are filling faster than ever. Tetlock says CBS now has “about half a dozen courses and an entire curriculum pathway devoted to climate.”

“A lot of students take many of these courses, both to understand business models, strategies and financing change in that space but also to understand energy technologies,” adds Maglaras. “Over time, this is going to be a very significant driver of impact. Together with some of my colleagues, we brought in a bunch of peer business schools and launched the open climate curriculum initiative where we share cases and syllabi trying to accelerate the work and share it. We have done quite a bit of work in that space and have been a catalyst to bring other people along.”

The school has not only built its own offerings but has become a catalyst for global collaboration through the Open Climate Curriculum Initiative, which debuted at COP and now brings peer schools together to share cases, syllabi, and teaching innovations.

“Climate is a business problem,” Tetlock says. “And we are well positioned as a school to contribute to that debate.”

COLUMBIA’S NEW YORK ADVANTAGE 

One of the surprises of becoming dean, Maglaras says, was realizing the power of integrating CBS more deeply with the rest of Columbia University. “The surprising thing to me was not anticipating the full benefit of deeply integrating with the rest of the university,” he says. “We created dual-degree programs with engineering, launched the Climate School, built an MS in Climate Finance, and expanded experiential courses with the medical school, particularly in hospitals, biotech, and pharma.”

New York amplifies everything. “We bring incredible leaders into the classroom all the time,” Maglaras says. “Ben Horowitz, senior leaders from Intel — we have access to talent across every industry.”

It is a major attraction for students. “No matter how broad your industry or how niche your focus, there are people, jobs, communities, and resources available in abundance in a way that you just won’t find anywhere else,” says Alyssa Daniel, who will graduate with her MBA from Columbia next year.

She’s not alone. Josue Silva, a classmate, believes New York offers “a unique ‘two-for-one’ experience: an MBA education paired with immersion in a vibrant city. As someone who moved to New York specifically for Columbia, I was struck by the broad range of opportunities available and the palpable energy this city emanates. If you want to visit a firm, a quick subway ride can get you to their headquarters in 20 minutes. If you want to attract a speaker, inviting them to New York is an easy draw. On the social side, because the size of the class is so big, And you’re immersed in this huge and unique city, there is a flavor for everyone. You can truly find your people.”

UPBEAT ABOUT MBA JOB PROSPECTS

Location extends to adjunct hiring as well. “We’re much more deliberate now,” Maglaras explains. “Pairing adjuncts with full-time faculty, building curricular pathways, and tapping practitioners who are leaders in their fields.”

The dean believes that the school’s location also provides curricular opportunities to bring faculty experts from other schools at Columbia into business school classrooms, including roboticists or vision experts in a breakthrough technologies course and battery experts in climate tech courses. It also provides the opportunity to mix business school students with students from other Columbia’s other schools in engineering, medicine and climate for experiential projects courses.

As for the near-term job prospects for MBA grads, Maglaras is upbeat about employment. “This year is looking better than last year in terms of jobs and internships,” he says. “We’re very focused. We have an incredible new leader in career services, and we’re building relationships with more global employers.”

CBS’ position in New York remains a powerful draw for finance, consulting, media, technology, and increasingly, climate-tech roles.

‘OUR AIM IS TO LEAD THE WAY’

Maglaras puts it this way: “Ultimately we have been doing well. You see it in the numbers. You see it in student interest. You see it in careers. We are trying to stay ahead of the curve — which is hard, because the curve is moving fast these days. The next decade will see more change in business educations than most decades past, and our aim is to lead the way.”

Tetlock agrees. “It’s AI, it’s climate, it’s entrepreneurship, it’s industry transformation — and our job is designing curriculum that keeps pace with all of it. Students are hungry, and we want to meet them where the world is going.”

That is precisely why, in a year defined by uncertainty, technological acceleration, and shifting expectations, Columbia Business School stands apart.

It isn’t reacting to the future. It’s building it.

LAST YEAR’S WINNER: JOHNS HOPKINS CAREY BUSINESS SCHOOL 

POETS&QUANTS 2025 HONORS

DEAN OF THE YEAR: RICE BUSINESS’ PETER RODRIGUEZ

BUSINESS SCHOOL OF THE YEAR: ESCP BUSINESS SCHOOL

MBA PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR MBA ADMISSIONS: DUKE FUQUA’S SHARI HUBERT

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN BUSINESS SCHOOL BRANDING: ILLINOIS GIES’ JAN SLATER

MBA PROFESSOR OF THE YEAR: MICHIGAN ROSS’ ANDY HOFFMAN

205 BEST IN CLASS AWARDS FOR TEACHING QUALITY, CAREER SERVICES & MORE  

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