Dear CDers, We are Chicago Booth students, Class of 2011. We are here to help you learn more about Chicago Booth and support you with application advices. If you have any questions about Chicago Booth, you are more than welcome to post here. We have form a small team with diverse background from banking, consulting, hedge fund and corporate and we will actively share our application experience with you.
We highly suggest that you do your homework first. You can browse the following sites to find the basics: General Information: http://www.chicagobooth.edu/fulltime/ Application Process: http://www.chicagobooth.edu/fulltime/admissions/apply.aspx Admission Blog: http://blogs.chicagobooth.edu/rosereport Chicago Booth 2010 Q&A: http://forum.chasedream.com/dispbbs.asp?boardID=13&ID=358603&page=1 Let's get started! Booth Basics: You might or might not know ‒ Famous for the largest number of Nobel Laureate among all business schools ‒ Best faculty among all business schools ‒ Better career services than most peer schools, resulting in one of the highest employment rate last year (Class of 2009) ‒ Strong upward momentum since Ted Snyder served as dean in 2001 Current Ranking of Full Time MBA Program of Chicago Booth
‒ Business Week 2008: #1 ‒ US News 2009: #5 ‒ WSJ 2007: #9 ‒ Forbes 2009: #4 ‒ EIU 2008: #3 ‒ Financial Times 2009: #11 Chicago Booth Strengths Highlight Finance Program – Booth is well-known for its finance program, with the largest and most diversified finance curriculum. Six Nobel laureates have taught in Chicago’s program since the early 1980s. In addition to a standard finance concentration, the school also offers the quantitatively rigorous Analytic Finance concentration. Around 50% of Chicago GSB graduates accepted jobs in the financial services industry. Being a Booth graduates gives you a well recognized competitive edges in term of solid finance knowledge and strong empirical skills set. Flexible Curriculum – The flexible structure of the Booth’s required curriculum sets the school apart from its peers. It is especially unique in the sense that the faculty are willing to waive your pre-requisite class, without requiring an exempt test, as long as you show good knowledge or equivalent working experience in that subject. $300 million Naming Gift - The $300 million capitals injected into Chicago Booth will bring tremendous momentum to develop and promote the school. Chicago Booth is actively strengthening many other disciplines and has more presence in global media to promote the school’s reputation. The Booth donation shows commitment to provide strong programs in disciplines beyond finance. For example, students interested in marketing may apply for a two year $50,000 Marketing Fellowship. The students interested in international business may pursue the specialized International MBA degree. Best Student Service and Cohesive Community - From admission service to career service, Chicago booth has an outstanding student-service team that is both professional and supportive. There are plenty of resources on the school websites, a very responsive community, and advisory service on every step during the admission process. It is a public consensus that Chicago Booth community encourages students to challenges each other but holds a much collaborative environment than most other schools. Class Profile - 2011 Out of the 593 Booth students in Class 2011, about 5% are from Greater China. According to the school, 19 are from mainland China (China passport holders), plus 7 from Taiwan and 2 from Hong Kong. More Chinese ethnic students from US, Canada and Australia are admitted as well. Almost 3/4 of students from Greater China have either finance (IB, IM, hedge fund) or consulting background, a little different from the profile of last year. The others are from various industries, including accounting, consumer goods, high-tech and media, etc. About 40% students from Greater China are female.
Misconception of Chicago Booth Chicago Booth is a finance school.
Chicago Booth offers one of the best finance programs in the world (peer school: only Wharton?). However, Chicago Booth is NOT a finance school. For example, Entrepreneurship concentration is one of the favorite among students. Chicago Booth is also strong in marketing, but more data-driven or behavioral-related, different from and superior to Kellogg's approach as more marketing/consumer data become available. Chicago Booth graduate are actually quite diversified in terms of industries and functions. Booth students are a bit nerdy and lack of teamwork. Totally wrong. Booth students have diverse background and colorful characteristics. Teamwork is what we focused on during the first mandatory course, LEAD. It's continuously reinforced through daily course works and activities. We have a vibrant and fun community similar to those so-called party schools (you name it) . Course load is too heavy in Booth. Chicago Booth’s curriculum is academically rigorous. However, classes are designed to challenge you by CHOICE. The faculty's goal is to inspire your passion and interest, not to fail you out of school. Grade Non-Disclosure policy gives you the possibility to scale your academic commitment in favor of Recruiting/Social (and vice versa). Booth has the most flexible curriculum among peer schools. You can leverage that to balance your course works and social activities. About the Application
The following is a good approach for a standard candidate. Booth looks for candidates who can fully take advantage of its flexible program. Therefore it looks for candidates who: 1. Knows where he/she comes from and where he/she wants to go Chicago Booth's program is packed with content (you get your tuition worth, trust me). The more you know about your strength/weakness in career development, the better you can leverage all the resources offered to you. While you will have time to figure out your passion during an MBA, the earlier you can focus on one or two paths, the better. Essay I is designed to help you with that prior to coming to business school. 2. Self-Aware Booth's program will constantly challenge the students with questions that don't have clear cut answers. Therefore, it prefers candidate who can find answer based on what works best for himself/herself. In Essay II, always highlight your thought process and the reasons for your action. Setting up the right context is important but try to minimize the amount of text devoted to describing situation because Admin cares more about your reaction and your thoughts. You might mention "with LEAD and further mentorship of second year Facilitators, you can continue to improve your awareness“(as a plug to show your interest of the school and your humble self). 3. Thoughtful/Structured Thinkers This is obvious looking at Essay III. By giving the applicant a blank four page presentation, Booth challenging the candidate's ability to produce a structured and coherent profile. It's my personal preference to have a theme that ties one's story together instead of 4 complete independent slides. Originality is nice but structure is more important. Interview - Alumni vs. School A trip to campus for interview would be nice but not necessary. Chicago Alums are the nicest based our empirical experience; they are genuinely interested in you and want to determine whether you have well-thought out reasons for MBA and reasonable post-MBA plan. You should be ready to describe your understanding of Booth's culture and the benefit of the program.
Wish you all good luck and see you in Harper Center soon!
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