Chicago Booth 2011 Taking Questions

cannedpineapple

More important than who he is, is what he has to say. If you find someone great who has no time to write anything beyond "This guy is fantastic" and doesn't provide examples, then that doesn't help. Having someone at a higher level write a recommendation is sometimes a good thing because he can provide a perspective that someone working with you can't. That being said, bosses/recommenders, especially when they're too high up, tend to 'miss out' on who you are as a person because they don't work closely with you.

So, again, more important than who he is, is what he has to say.

cannedpineapple

Sorry to hear that you didnt get the arranged call by the school to answer your questions. In my case last year, there are actually a second year student and some alumni reaching out to me. Maybe due to winter break, the adcom has not get the chance to arrange it yet.  Actually financing information normally comes out very late. I got info about financing in May. But you should not worry about it. You certainly would be able to get the school loan, if you worry about the rate, this year, as first year, we pay 7.95%+LIBOR.

If you want to do banking, Chicago is definitely the better place to go. With your commercial bank background, I think it's much easier for you to kick off the ground.  Regarding which course to choose, you can find resource on the school site, there are guides on which course range you should choose from to fit your concentration (IB). You can also check the resource in Investment Banking Group (a student group). Anyway, I think it's too early for you to worry about this, because once school starts, they will teach you step by step regarding course selection. But a piece of advice: I suggest you go find a i-banking pre-MBA internship with the famous firms now, even if it's non paid, as this will be very very helpful. I didn't think about this untill I found some people did it which makes them very competitive in internship hunting. With these experience, you can be more relaxed to spend time on social once you got here without recruiting worries.

Welcome to Chicago!

-- by 会员 bitte (2010/1/9 12:00:51)

How does a pre-MBA internship help? In my experience, those who are successful are successful because of who they are- outstanding individuals. Some also have the requisite work skills- but an internship is unlikely to provide enough of that for a boss to say, 'let's hire this guy now, because he's done a pre-MBA internship and can step right in.'

Rather, business school is SO stressful and SO much work, that if I were a prospective student now, I'd rest, make sure I have my priorities right, and think very clearly about all my options. These things take time- just think about how long it took you to apply and get into business school. You don't want to rush into things like that, and you don't want to be caught in business school, potentially haven't gotten your internship, and having to make a 3-day decision about your future.

There will be plenty of time to worry about recruiting later. In fact, that's all you'll be doing before long. But it might be good to stop to think about what you want out of the experience. For instance, Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, and also potentially the smartest man I ever met, is at UChicago. He doesn't teach at Booth. In fact, he's not currently teaching (although when I was there he taught the most amazing Economics of Crime course ever, but even then only in the college.) If you want to get the chance to interact with and learn from one of the smartest economists in the world, you'll have to reach out to him, send him an email, see if you can work with him doing research, and so on.

Then there is the law school where Obama once taught, which also has an amazing faculty. Did you also know that UChicago has the top Sociology, Literature, and other humanities departments in the world? And that, when you take classes at the Gleacher Center downtown with the part-time MBAs, the whole atmosphere of the class is different? Once you go in, you'll realise that you don't have time to seek out or think about such things. And then you would have gone through two years in what I believe is one of the best schools in the world, and never even knew that you had so many resources at your disposal. Oh, and if anyone seriously wants to improve their writing, I recommend you take the Little Red Schoolhouse writing class. I use principles of writing and persuasion that I learnt in that class everyday. Again, this is not a Booth class. It's a UChicago class. You take it with all the students who are looking to write their PhDs- ie, people who formulate and write persuasive academic arguments for a living. If you think it's tough writing a business school essay, just wait till you try to make a dry academic paper readable to the general public. This was the only class I had to pass-fail in my entire time at UChicago. But oh what a class it was!

Apart from these, there are of course the regular Booth resources you can pursue- clubs, social events, and so on. Apart from Finance, Booth also has excellent Entrepreneurship and Marketing departments. I met many winners of the Booth Entrepreneurship competition.. the school really gives you a lot of support. Perhaps you'd like to start a business in 10 years? Do you have the necessary skillset and confidence to do it then? Maybe you can train it here. Many people dip their toes into entrepreneurship here with classes like "Commercialising Innovation". But they don't realise how easy it is to actually just start the business, with the incubator resources that the school offers.

Anyway, you already know these. Remember, you have two years here, and you'll never be back again. You won't have time to do everything. Before you make the decision to spend all that time doing a single thing, perhaps you should explore your options, and think about what you will truly treasure from the UChicago experience, 10 or 20 years from now.

You're about to embark on an amazing journey. I'm envious!

Jason