Calling All 2011 Booth Applicants!!

It's disturbing how luck plays such a huge factor in how experienced, nice and helpful you interviewer will be. It's frustrating that after hours of hard work and stress one person's bad attitude can mess up your chances. However, I'm not sure on the level of importance the adcom at Booth place on the interviews. I know it varies from school to school, but I think at Booth it's about 20% of the entire application.

I have to think adcom anticipates and accounts for potentially sloppy interviews, especially w alums. I think important point is that the interview is more of a screen than a boost. I don't think anyone gets into bschool because of a great interview, but a bad one can keep you out. So it's unfortunate if you don't hit all your key points in an interview, but hey, that's what the written app that gets read by 3 adcom members is for. Your interview is primarily to make sure you are personable, speak English, and can thoughtfully discuss your career. An interview non-event sucks but I don't think it's a huge missed opportunity or will in and of itself cause a ding... Good luck!

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Hello All

I had my off-campus interview with an alum last evening. He had gone through my resume, and started off by "you have XXX, YYY and ZZZ...why do you want an MBA?" Now, I was expecting questions on XXX, YYY and even ZZZ, but not altogether I somehow mumbled something out. However, he was clearly not satisfied and what followed were multiple rounds of questions on "Why MBA", "Why Now" and "Why Booth". I think he was trying to test how passionate I am about pursuing my goals. And about getting an MBA. "What if you are not able to get what you want, then what is the Plan B?"

After that, he asked me a couple of situation based questions - I suppose to test me again whether I know anything about what I want to do - such as, "if you are in your dream-job and AAA happens in future, how will you tackle the situation"!! I took 15sec to answer that

The above questions are more or less in order. He did not ask me how I'll engage the Booth community, any leadership or team-work oriented experiences! Overall, he seemed like a really nice guy, was very patient while I was mumbo-jumboing, and even asked me the same questions again a couple of times when I couldn't answer them satisfactorily the first time. I don't think he was trying to scare me or make me uncomfortable. And clearly, he was very happy with his Booth experience.

Any comments anyone? I can't believe that it's over and am not daring to think how it went

Dudes and chicks (which are my new appellations now that my colleagues have noticed that I use these terms as basic gender nouns, rather than favorable nouns),

I just had a very pleasant Chicago interview. It lasted the exact same amount of time as my my other M7 interview (90 min) but was a MUCH more enjoyable experience. He was a recent graduate, extremely friendly, bright and analytical, and he had obviously read my resumé with some care, because he asked laser-focused questions on specific things I'd done. I greatly appreciated this because it gave me a chance to give a lot more detail about what I do (and I genuinely think my business experiences will be something valuable to the community).

He was professional in terms of not giving too much away, but the little that he did was encouraging, or was guiding me towards a better place in the conversation.

He did not follow a script: we had a very natural conversation with no sort of stilted, jarring "well, let's begin the interview, Chicago asks me to do this and that". We went straight to it - rather than do the whole "I must verify who you are and bla bla", he started by telling me when he'd moved to this city, discussing where in town we live, where we work, how long I've been here, etc. The whole thing flowed quite naturally although he'd stop to re-examine my CV and say, tell me about this. He knew well what he needed to do, and he's committed to Booth, and when that happens, folks don't need to follow scripts. His questions were good - he was so much more prepared than my other M7 interviewer, and asked much more intelligent questions. He wanted the real story behind what I did, so dudes and chicks, be clear on what you've done.

Rather than questions, we covered topics. There is a big component in understanding who you are, what you do, why you're doing it, and then how that ties in to the MBA, and how all of it ties into your short term and long term goals. I should note, as others have, that the importance of the goals thingamajig cannot be overstated: while it is unrealistically for folks in their mid-20s to have a clearcut view of what life will be like at 45, "a sense of direction" is important, as he put it. So it took a second take, but I was able to explain clearly what kind of career I'm pursuing. Surprisingly, he did not ask why Chicago, although my reasons for pursuing an MBA are so closely aligned to Chicago's strengths that maybe he felt he already knew the answer.

What made me feel best about the entire interview was that we reached a level of trust with one another. He noticed I have some languages on my CV, and he's perfectly fluent in my worst language, and out of the blue, he asked me to speak in that language. Fortunately I had just been speaking that language last night, so it was fresh in my mind, and I was able to pounce on it. I think he was happy with the result, and I told him that I try to be very honest about my abilities, and I don't want to play up my skills, which is why I identified that language as my worst one (listed as "beginner" on my resumé) - and he said "well, you can clearly handle a conversation in it." A charitable description but it's always awesome to meet someone who wants to see the good in others. Be prepared to be tested on your claims!

So dudes and chicks, I think that goes a long way, because when you're talking about your top accomplishments and he's asking you about behavioral questions, you'll feel much better if know you that you've established trustworthiness and conveyed truthfulness (and I told him the entire truth and nothing but the truth to the best of my abilities - hell, I even told him about a time I damaged company equipment!).

He himself does a very cool job and he is obviously extremely well prepared. I left feeling fantastic about meeting him and hoping to keep in touch. We had some laughs and we share some interests/activities, so it felt great. I left my other M7 interview thinking "sheesh, I really hope this guy isn't the norm over there" but today, I really thought: WOW, CHICAGO BOOTH.

Dudes and chicks, I'M SO PSYCHED ABOUT BOOTH!

Look at the post by boogs about halfway down this page - calling-fall-2010-chicago-booth-applicants-78611-680.html

They revised the date to the 16th.

I check airline prices to random destinations using different websites and dates. I am not gettting any work done either, but it seems keep me sane

I'm going to suggest "I'm going to take my talents to Windy City and join Chicago Booth."

You have to click the "View Your Interview Schedule" to see the "In progress/ interview complete"

One hour ago I received a call from an American number (I'm in Asia...), I picked the phone and it was a girl...

Girl: "Hello. Are you XX?"
Me "Yes I am" (thats IT!! I did it !! So happy!!)
Girl: Is this a good moment?
Me: "Yes" (of course, come on! I'm waiting your call since 1900)
Girl: "Are you in the job market? I found your profile in Linkedin and I have an interesting position ... "

owned

I'm IN !!!! located in HK!

great for reducing stress , are you serious ?

I am IN!!! (they didn't say anything about sponsorship, I wonder if that's because I got out of control before the end of the call)
I had almost given up but got the call at 4:45PM Chicago time

Brazilian/720/Banking and PE background

I confess that I literally cried when I hung up the phone... this was a tough year waking up at 5:30 to 6:00 AM to study for the gmat and then doing the same for the essays.

Good luck to you guys

Waitlist letter for those interested:

Dear XXXXXX,

Your application to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business has received the careful consideration of our Admissions Committee. While we are impressed with your application, we are unable to provide you with a final decision at this time and will place you on our waitlist for future consideration. I want to assure you that being placed on the waitlist signals our sincere interest in your candidacy.

This year, our admissions process was highly competitive. While Chicago Booth is grateful to have so many talented students seeking to join us in Fall 2011, we are simply not able to admit all of our most qualified candidates at this time.

During the coming months, the Committee will review waitlist candidates for admission as a part of our Round 2 evaluation process. Decisions will be released as part of our Round 2 process on March 16th. While we hope to enroll as many waitlist candidates as we can at that point, the possibility does exist that some students will continue to be on the waitlist into the next application round.

You are more than welcome to visit Chicago Booth at any time, though this is not necessary and will not directly impact your admission decision. In the meantime, we ask that you stay in touch should you choose to make other plans and no longer wish to be considered for a spot in the Class of 2013.

As we continue with the Admissions process for Fall 2011, please contact our office directly via e-mail regarding any questions you may have. We appreciate your patience during this process and wish you the best.

Sincerely,

Kurt Ahlm
Senior Director of Admissions

A couple of quick clarifying points for your WL:

* You are considered alongside other applicants in each round.
* You can be admitted, denied or remain on the waitlist through R2, R3 and into the summer.
* If you are WL and DO NOT INTEND to go to Booth (e.g. you got your admit to some other school "up north") take yourself off the list and give someone else a chance at their dream. Don't be an ass and try to collect as many admits as possible. No one will ever care and you won't either in about six months.

If its any consolation, I think the anxiety we put on ourselves during this process is far worse than the view of our evaluators. In R1, I submitted my app on the day of the deadline, because I worked on it until 4am the day before, and missed the special application fee payment instructions. Had to go through the embarrassment of calling admissions and resubmitting my app just hours before the deadline. To top it off I caught a couple of spelling/grammar mistakes on my Blank Pages essay after submitting (in my mind, I stood no chance thereafter). Yet, somehow, I got the call on the final day. Keep your hopes up and do your best. I think the substance and insights of your application and interview, matter a lot more than the format, stats, or process (I had a 710 and I went to a very small, rarely known college). Good luck!

I say let that love for Booth be known! Go into your interview with confidence. Don't worry about the brilliance of other applicants. Your profile is a nice match for Booth, given your IB background and nice GPA and GMAT scores. Since your scores put you right in the mix with the average stats from other Booth admits, focus on displaying your fit and allegiance to Booth. That will make the difference for you.

In my opinion, one of Booth's few weaknesses is its yield rate. It's significantly lower than the other elite schools. I think that the adcom is sensitive to that stat and would like to drive it lower by converting more admits to enrolled students. If you can convince your interviewer that if admitted, you are bar-none, absolutely going to Booth, you will have done yourself a great service. I have a former client (from my i-banking life) who obtained the start-up capital for his now successful tech firm while he was a student at Booth. Several of his backers were faculty members at Booth. He told me that if you can convince the folks of Booth of your undying love and commitment to the school, you'll be in very good shape. I think his advice was poignant and played a big part in my successful admit.

Good luck!

Be very careful using that as your guide to these schools. I take issue with much of the content in there. I can't speak to Kellogg (surprisingly, I've never been a student there) but this passage is lazy:


While it's true that Booth doesn't have official residence halls, we have unofficial residence halls in the loop downtown. Over 50% of our student body lives in the loop, with 95% of that in 5 or 6 buildings. If you want to live in a building with 200 other Booth students, then live in Millennium Park Plaza. If you would rather live in a nicer building with smaller numbers, take a look at Aqua/Tides/Shoreham. Want to save money? Live in Columbus Plaza.

I was a little worried about community coming to Booth, but that's because of silly websites like this one. Not only has community not been an issue, it's been fantastic. And unlike some other schools that have limited space in their residence halls, the capacity of these buildings is such that it's up to you where you live (...and how much you pay...and how nice your building is...), not a lottery.

I'm not trying to be too critical, but that passage makes me wonder if the authors talked to a single Booth student in the past 3-5 years. Go to the admit weekends, meet the students, ask them questions that address your concerns, etc. They're both great schools and you really can't go wrong, just please don't make your decision off of what you read on one of these websites.