Calling Chicago (Booth) Applicants for 2009

Got the ding this morning. And just found out I am WL at Wharton.

Not the results I was looking for, but such is life.

Congrats to everyone who was accepted & best of luck at Booth next year.

Same here. Ding - Chicago and WL - Wharton.

Does anybody know whether Booth (or UofC, for that matter) has an alumni club similar to that of some of the Ivies? I found the website for the University Club of Chicago, but the requirements say you must be an alumni of the 4-year program and do not mention graduate programs.

Thanks!

I can't exactly answer your question, but I do know that the University Club of Chicago isn't connected to U of C. They require a 4-year degree from some program, as well as being sponsored by an existing member, I believe. My impression is that it's kind of a stuffy older-person's club, but the building is pretty neat. My in-laws have stayed there once or twice. Just don't wear jeans.

Oh, I assumed it as affiliated with the U of C.

This is my impression as well. And they do not have a clubhouse in New York.

The University Club in Chicago has no affiliation with the University of Chicago. University of Chicago graduates can become members of the Penn Club in New York.

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?


Can someone shed some light on how to deal with this essay .. Writing this essay has put me on the verge of quitting the whole MBA process

c)In retrospect, how do you think an MBA from Chicago GSB would have affected your decision?

What would be an appropriate way to address the above question .. How can I say for sure how an MBA would help me .. If I already knew what I was going to do after getting a Chicago MBA why would I need an MBA in the first place. Anyways, It would be great if you can share your thoughts and/or tell how you addressed the question yourself in your essays.

Thanks in Advance

Best thing to do is to put serious effort into reflecting on decisions you've made. Nobody else can provide inside into how an MBA might have helped you, because that's extremely personal and relative to your unique set of experiences and character traits. Working on bschool essays was enormously rewarding to me largely because it pushed me to reflect seriously on what I've done in the past, on what matters to me, and on where I want to go. It also pushed me to consider the MBA degree a bit more deeply and to be sure it really would offer me what I'm looking for. This question does exactly that - helps you focus on how an MBA would make you a better businessperson. The self reflection takes a lot of effort, but it's worth it, even if you aren't admitted. And I would think that it's obvious to adcoms whether you've done the reflection needed vs. used ideas others have given you.

thanks for the great advice ohthatmba!
almost done with columbia essays, pulling my hair out over booth essays, but it's really encouraging to see how gmatclubbers rocked booth r1. congrats r1 admits!

Anyone know where I can find some sample ppts for Booth? This is the second year with this sick powerpoint question, but I cant find any examples.

You're new here, right? So here you can...


Guys, I'm really sorry for those dinged, this is a really hard season as you've seen. Anyway, don't lose hope and keep your MBA search.

For those in, congrats I hope to see you all at the admit weekend.

For the WL, show BIG LOVE!

Are you serious? I got into booth and I'm not even posting my PPT slides in the essay vault. If you can't come up with a personalized PPT for Booth, you can kiss it goodbye. They give all the guidelines/suggestions you need: Be genuine, be yourself. That's the best advice I can give you as well.

Mine only got me waitlisted, but I would like to give you some tips:

1. Show personality. Don't just send them picture of yourself. Make the person reading think to himself "I would like ot meet this guy in person" or "He will be a great classmate". You can do that through humor, a mission statement or just being original.

2. Be original. Don't send them something they've seen a thousand times. This is EXACTLY the point of the PPT in my opinion. To see if you can take a task, with limited guidelines, think outside the box and prepare something extraordinary and original. Yes, they expect you to wow them - a difficult task, but remember you are applying to one of the best schools in the world under the claim that you are one of the most talented candidates in the world.

3. Prepare it soon and show it to a lot of people before you send it out. Preferablly people who barely know you. Things that seemed funny/awesome/extraordinary to me, seemed childish/bland/boring to people I showed my presentation to. It took weeks to fine tune.

Good luck!

I did an abstract PowerPoint which got me rejected. I used a hobby of mine, spent the 4 slides speaking about 4 different values that it has instilled in me, and related the values to success in life and business.

A very typical format which many people use (and many accepted students especially have used over the past couple of years) is something of the following: 1 slide on family and friends, 1 slide on hobbies and interests, 1 slide on something else (unique personal traits or values, perhaps), and 1 last slide on future aspirations and how Booth ties in. Cliche and I'm sure they see hundreds of people use a format similar to this - but it works and gets people admitted.

Try to make it speak about you and you only, while illustrating facets of yourself that haven't been described or hinted at elsewhere in your application. Many try to be overly creative - I think that generally fails. Many try to reiterate why Booth, or whatever - I don't think that is necessary, as it's been covered pretty thoroughly elsewhere. In the end, you have to ask yourself, what is it that B Schools actively seek in applicants. In my opinion, they are strongly seeking diversity, so I really targeted things that make me unique, and what differentiates me from my peer group (scientists).

Here's my flow - as an FYI, I was accepted and got a cushy fellowship.

Slide 1: Cover - Welcome to James XXX - with the canned phrase "where award winning art, business, science, leadership and heart racing adventure converge". This was paired with pictures of each - kayaking, world travels, my award winning art porfolio, and some science pics.

Slide 2: Talk about my award portfolio - and illustrate with pictures. talk about my business awards at Haas (Haas logo + logo of awards), State level award winning art porfolio (with pictures of the art), and science awards - NSF Fellowship, NIH Fellowship at Harvard and UC Berkeley, etc.

Slide 3 - talk about an entrepreneurial club I started with 24 members with pictures of the facilities I arranged in downtown SF, describe the wine society I founded -with pictures from wine tastings, and describe the inline skating club I've been part of for the past 4 years.

Slide 4 - Simply describe my passion for adventure and the unknown and how branching out to Booth pairs with scuba diving, mountain climbing, kayaking, snowboarding, and exploring the national parks.

It the end, it wasn't remotely creative, but it showed off pretty much every part of me that was not described in detail elsewhere in the app - it made me seem interesting, diverse, and notably different than my peer group. Hey, at least that's what I think it did. Whether or not admissions agreed - who cares, it got the job done.

Best of Luck!

agold, i tried a similar approach with the powerpoint and focused on a specific thing and how i learned from it. obviously this didnt work for me. i really think going the traditional route will help -- family, hobbies, interests, why booth etc...