The University of Chicago MBA taking questions

skypacerzhou

Busy these days. Will respond to the inquiries tonight.

skypacerzhou

以下是引用vaporization2003在2004-10-14 23:30:00的发言：

Hi skypacerzhou,

you are such a nice person who is willing to share your knowledge with others.

I just finished my AT test , and got 700. I have 5 years working experience in dealing room (Deutsche bank and SMBC). When I studied the school information from businessweek, I found that GSB has a wide range of GMAT score, unlike NYU, whose range is only 30~40 points. Does that mean GSB will consider more other than GMAT?

And another question, I notice there are 2 essays which I felt a little confuse...

2. Chicago GSB is seeking a mascot to represent our new facility, The Hyde Park Center, what would your choice be and how will it represent the attributes of Chicago GSB? (500 words maximum):

3. If you could step into any celebrities shoes for a day, who would it be and why

Can you share your opinion about these 2 questions? GSB is one of several B school who have such kind of creative essays. Dose school try to found some specific charactoristics from those essays?

many thanks in advance~

Good question.

First, put yourself in the shoes of the adcom and think from a historic perspective. Many applicants percieved Chicago as a highly quantitative schools that prefer academic superman over well-rounded business professional. In terms of that, Chicago is probably the school that recieved most misunderstandings, and it do care about the applicants' committment toward and knowledge about the school. So the strategy of the school is that, they ask you to write an application that is totally different from what you need to write for other schools. They are expecting applicants with real interest and committment toward the school.

As to what specific qualities that Chicago is looking for, I think they are basically same as other top MBA programs, like leadership, teamwork, vision, executional ability and favorite personal flavor. Top MBA programs usually don't weigh GMAT as much as non-top MBA program because they don't need to worry about the average GMAT score, given the high quality applicants pool. That's why you see the GMAT score range at Chicago is larger than NYU.

As to your question about essay topics, the first essay has been covered in this very thread, pls check back. The other essay is actually asking about your role model, through which your values and philosphies are natually reflected. I think the choice of your role model should be a decision combining your personality, experience and future career goal. It's not easy to explain such a complex problem and I'll refrain from misleading you by giving any simplified suggestions. But I do recommend my personal web blog, which is siberiawolf.blogchina.com, they are a wealth of info that you may find helpful for your essay work.

skypacerzhou

以下是引用thelastloner在2004-10-15 13:41:00的发言：
Hi skypacerzhou, if some b-school offers information system as one of the concentration areas which matches my background better, do you think I will have a better chance if I state in my applcation that I want to choose information system as my primary specialization area? You know I can change it after getting admitted, right? Thanks!

YES, but you really need to think hard about differentiating yourself from tons of indian applicants with similar experiences and goals.

[此贴子已经被作者于2004-10-16 23:12:51编辑过]

thelastloner

Hi man, thank you very much.

thelastloner

skypacerzhou, what is non-profit concentration?  What will you do after graduation if you pursue your career in that direction? Thanks!

snow_mountain

hi, this question has nothing to do with GSB application. it is about a scholarship essay for another B school.  

题目是这样的：

Milton Friedman once said: “The social responsibility of business is to maximize profits”.  Do you agree or disagree with him?  Why?  (Maximum 2 pages – double spaced)

这题如果是GMAT AI， 偶就不用问了， 直接开写。 但作为essay for scholarship application, 我不是很清楚应该采用什么strategy.

是很有激情的光写自己的理解， 就好像写AI 一样。 还是要努力结合自己的工作情况来写。 比如说，我所出的行业或公司， 某某问题至少是和利润同样重要的。 公司是如何做的， 作为员工我又是如何做的。 感觉后者有点难度。 毕竟这种公司行为不是员工能够左右的

skypacerzhou

以下是引用thelastloner在2004-10-18 8:59:00的发言：
skypacerzhou, what is non-profit concentration?  What will you do after graduation if you pursue your career in that direction? Thanks!

I am not very knowledgeable about non-profit. I only know that Yale's non-profit is good, but I guess they don't want applicants to consider Yale SOM as a non-profit school.

Non-profit career don't mean you are working for free. It means you go working for non-profit organizations like united nations, non-profit foundations, governments, etc. Google with non-profit + MBA and I guess you will find quite a lot stuffs.

skypacerzhou

以下是引用bryony在2004-10-18 18:22:00的发言：
hi, this question has nothing to do with GSB application. it is about a scholarship essay for another B school.  

题目是这样的：

Milton Friedman once said: “The social responsibility of business is to maximize profits”.  Do you agree or disagree with him?  Why?  (Maximum 2 pages – double spaced)

这题如果是GMAT AI， 偶就不用问了， 直接开写。 但作为essay for scholarship application, 我不是很清楚应该采用什么strategy.

是很有激情的光写自己的理解， 就好像写AI 一样。 还是要努力结合自己的工作情况来写。 比如说，我所出的行业或公司， 某某问题至少是和利润同样重要的。 公司是如何做的， 作为员工我又是如何做的。 感觉后者有点难度。 毕竟这种公司行为不是员工能够左右的

Milton Friedman was a University of Chicago GSB professor and a Nobel laureate of economics. He was a strong advocate of so called "free market" notion, where he believed that market was essentially the universal unseen hand to allocate resources.

I think the essay is asking you about your understanding toward that statement. Insight is important, but I guess you need to elaborate your ideas by relating it with your experiences and readings.

It's quite exceptional that a school requires a seperate scholarship essay.

mumuwa

Let us understand more about C GSB...

quoted from BW MBA forum:

From: UChicago2006 Oct-2 3:03 pm T AppMan2005 (8 of 42) 58581.8 in reply to 58581.6 UChicago2006 - Thanks for the opportunity.   Hi Appman!  No problem - thank you for your interest in the Chicago GSB. 1. What do you like best about Chicago? That's an excellent question.  I think if I had to pin one thing down, it would the sense here at Chicago that the school is really on the move.  We just built a brand new, $125 million building that's maybe given us the best facilities of any b-school in the world (or, at the very least, ensured that our facilities are second-to-none).  Dean Snyder, a Chicago alum who turned Darden into a top tier MBA program during several years as its Dean, has been very energetically at work ensuring that the Chicago GSB MBA experience is the very best in the world by making a lot of changes over the past couple of years, including constructing the new building.   So, there's alot of excitement here that the GSB is really putting its best foot forward relative to other MBA programs by marrying its traditional academic strength as an august and venerable business school with a more modern, aggressive and cutting-edge approach to MBA education and promotion. 2. Chicago seems to talk a lot about how it is an institution that does cutting-edge research in management, economics etc. (I especially like the comment "Case studies of yesterday are not enough") and how it continually incorporates that research in teaching. My question - how exactly does Chicago incorporate groundbreaking work in MBA curriculum? Can you give concrete examples? Sure!  I think maybe the best examples of this groundbreaking work in the MBA curriculum are the labs, which are applied coursework done in conjuction with a professor as well as real world companies.  The Chicago GSB is the only school in the country to offer a Private Equity/Venture Capital Lab that places students with a Chicagoland PE or VC firm and allow them to supplement their professional experience with those companies with formal academic training.  We also have a Management Lab (which recently had an exciting real-world project framing Yao Ming's endorsement strategy) as well as a Entrepreneurship Lab (which includes participation in the GSB's famous business plan competition judged by professional venture capitalists). Hope this helps!  As always, if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask!

[此贴子已经被作者于2004-10-19 23:33:27编辑过]

mumuwa

more Q&A from this guy....

I haven't gotten too far into the application yet, but I'm assuming that the interview will be based off of a resume.  

The interview is application-blind in any case, which means that it will be based off your resume and nothing else.  Actually, when I applied last year, I actually interviewed and visited campus first before writing my essays.  My only caveat here is that you should ensure that you've at least read up and done your homework on the Chicago GSB before your interview, even if you have not started your essays yet.

What should I expect from a Chicago interview?  I mean this in terms of style (is it behavioral or is it more of a discussion on my past experiences), length, attire, etc.  

You should expect your interview to be fairly relaxed, collegial and conversational.  (However, don't let this lull you to sleep - you should absolutely be professional and take it seriously as it will be a core part of your evaluation.)  It is not at all a behavioral interview and is more of a discussion of your past professional, leadership and community experiences, your career aspirations, your desire to pursue an MBA and what you hope to gain out of it, why you believe the Chicago GSB is the best place for you, etc.

The length is 30-45 minutes, if I remember correctly.  You should be dressed in business attire for your interview, although I am not sure if there is any official dress code.

Are the interviewers all part of admissions, or do 2nd year students interview?

It can be either, although my interviewer last year was a 2nd year and I believe most of my friends who interviewed on campus met with 2nd years as well.