Calling Chicago (Booth) Applicants for 2009

The GSB has some of the finest faculty in the country, and their quantitative coursework is top notch. However, by no means is everyone a quant jock. I think rhyme has mentioned a few times that he only knows a handful of people who are majoring in Analytical Finance. Chicago's General Management and Entrepeneurship curriculum is top notch, but it is less advertised and it is almost like a diamond in the rough.

Essays are up! Anybody else starting to get nervous about these essays? Enjoy...

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WOW. 1a and 2a are downright scary.

last year's essays were a lot easier haha. Good luck guys.

Yeah, no offense, but those essays suck. Chocie between two equally important obligations? Against popular opinion? Seriously? It's going to be really tough to write an interesting essay about either topic, sigh

Sheesh. They're trying to give us the same amount of pain as Stanford or MIT.

Ouch.. Those are some painful essays and they've really shortened essay 1.

No!!!!!!!!!!!

Those essays are horrible. I've been working on Columbia's and they suck too!! Where are the "tell us about your greatest accomplishment" "tell us about a time you led", etc, etc type questions. Man.... this sucks. I'm not happy right now

Hey IHateTheGMAT, what are the topics for the Columbia essays. I didn't see them anywhere on the Columbia website?

Oh sorry about that. I should have been more clear. I have been working on the J-Term essays. I plan to apply ED but an adcom I talked to said the ED essays would likely be the same as J-Term. I'm not sure if those essays are posted on GMAT Club anywhere. I know this isn't exactly the right thread for it, but here they are....

Columbia J-Term Essays

Essay 1 (Required): What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit)
Essay 2 (Required): Master Classes are the epitome of bridging the gap between theory and practice at Columbia Business School. View link below. Please provide an example from your own life in which practical experience taught you more than theory alone. (Recommended 500 word limit)

View with Real Player: https://merlin.gsb.columbia.edu:8080/ram ... s-promo.rm
View via Google: https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1370&hl=en
Essay 3 (Required): Please provide an example of a team failure of which you've been a part. If given a second chance, what would you do differently? (Recommended 500 word limit)

Essay 4 (Required): Describe for us your greatest passion in life. (Recommended 250 word limit)

In looking at these Chicago essays in more detail its even worse than I thought. Not only is essay 2 horrible, and obviously the powerepoints are a beast, but even the simple career essay is tougher than normal. I look at Chicago's essay 1 last year and it was the standard what are your short term and long term goals and how will a Chicago MBA help you get there. Now they only ask why this is the right time in your career for an MBA! That means we don't get to follow the standard formula of here are my short-term goals, here are my long term and here is why your school is so great. They don't even ask you to speak about Chicago GSB specifically anywhere in the question. And... it's a lot easier to explain what your goals are and how an MBA will help you get there than it is to devote 750 words to why this is the right time in your career to get an MBA

I think GSB's essays really are going to make you guys work for it. Cutting essay #1 in half and making the other essay not only tougher but longer definitely will make essay writing a challenge. These are the type of essays that might push fence sitters away from applying...they will be a lot of work. Good luck guys and my sympathies.

wow, they are really trying to break the mold here....must have gotten a lot of harvards and stanfords left in the essays from last year, they don't want any re-used essays. This will take some deep digging and introspection.

2a has a typo in it. A little nitpicking lol


2a) Have you ever made a decision that caused you to go against popular opinion? Please describe that situation and your rationale for you decision. b) Did you feel at any point that people misperceived your motives? Explain? c) In retrospect, how do you think an MBA from Chicago GSB would have affected your decision?

I am still not able to view the application online. All I see is the Evening MBA apps.. where exactly are the essays up?

The application isn't going to be up until later this summer. You have to do a little navigating to find the essay questions, but here is the link:

https://www.chicagogsb.edu/fulltime/admi ... lides.aspx

Note the first sentence:
"Essay questions for the Fall 2009 application are below. The Fall 2009 Chicago GSB application will be available in late-July 2008."

Wow! the Essays this year are tougher in my opinion.

Good Luck guys!