Calling Fall 2010 Chicago Booth Applicants

I started the slides about 18 hours before the deadline. About 5 hours later, I clicked submit...no editing, no showing it off to people. I just found the cahones and did my thing. Fortunately I have a very strong art background, so making them look pretty and all wasn't too much of a chore.

As was suggested elsewhere, either reinforce your essays, or show off a new side of yourself. I'd recommend a new side of yourself, unless you really managed to cover everything in the essays.

Oh yeah, and be visual...the cliche picture montage with a half dozen words/slide is a decent way to go.

Given the suggestion to reinforce the essays, is it correct to assume that the implication is to wait for the deck until the end? Is it recommended to work on other apps (and thus essays) before Booth so more material is on mind?

Actually please don't reinforce essays. I've spoken to the adcoms at Booth about the PPT before and they've consistently indicated (and I think in some instances even in public chats, maybe someone can find one) that the biggest single mistake people make is re-iterating what was already stated elsewhere in the application.

If you've already said it, don't say it again, unless it truly adds some new dimension that the rest of your app didn't cover. For instance, if the only place you mention that you took 10 blind orphans to the top of everest in a bullet on the bottom of your resume, then by all means, have a slide with you and the kids holding a flag. If however, all of some other essay was about this, then there is NOTHING to be gained by repeating yourself.

Also, don't waste too much time on 'looks'. This isn't art school. Its ok if you aren't a master in photoshop. Try and avoid a near seizure inducing color scheme, but don't worry if it doesn't look like you spent the last 5 years in the art department of Leo Burnett. Some very effective PPTs look like they were made with a bout of spastic mouse clicking.

Avoid wasting a trillion hours trying to find a 'cute' theme that ties your PPT slides together. It's cute, but odds are (1) you arent the first and (2) its not that memorable. If you don't have a clue what I mean, thats OK, you are probably better off that way All too often however, the ppts I've seen have a tendency to rehash known facts. Often, they are 'clever' and creative, but the novelty of the concept wears thin within about 10 seconds - and what they really lack is meaningful content. For instance, I saw one last year where the guy used his name to spell out something like "D.A.N" = "Dedicated, Adventure...". That might be 'clever' and a bit creative, but its pretty low on the scale of actually communicating anything of consequence. There was another I saw last year where the guy turned the whole thing into a 'client presentation' (he wanted to be a consultant) about himself, complete with the regurgitation of lots of facts from his resume. It was cute that he made up a consulting company and was presenting on himself - but again, that novelty is quickly forgotten. I've seen lots of variations of this - bankers creating "mock" pitch books on themselves, marketers presenting "sales figures" on a candy bar named after themselves (hint: sales are through the roof!), , the 'pre and post MBA human capital valuation' (on themselves again, and guess what, the post MBA valuation is really high! Lets invest!) from someone wanting to do VC. Those are all cute, and you get a laugh - but they aren't particularly memorable. (In other words, odds are, you aren't the first to come up with a 'pitch book' concept). Like I said, these are all fine - intrinsically, there's nothing wrong with any of them -- but often the tendency is for the 'cute hook' to be 70% of the point of the powerpoint, with the actual content simply reinforcing the hook rather than saying something of consequence. For instance, the VC post and pre valuation investment book had a page with, basically, resume bullets before mba and resume bullets post mba. Again, very much supports the 'pre-post mba valuation' hook, but all the pre mba resume bullets were basically what was on the resume already, and the post mba ones essentially outlined his goals, which were in the essays. You didn't actually learn anything new from the slide.

So, my advice, is this: rather than get hung up coming up with something cute, figure out what you have and have not yet told the admissions committee.

The other thing I'd caution against is attempting to rehash other essays from other schools into some kind of PPT. It doesn't work. Bullet pointing your story about saving the engineering team from fudging up the doohikie doesn't lend itself to an interesting PPT.

Final note: If you are a guy, avoid the picture of you doing a kegstand. If you are a girl, avoid sending pictures of you in a tiny bikini. No, I'm not kidding.

Ok time to go to TNDC. Later boys.

visited booth last thursday....admissions assitant director said that the essays are gonna change this year.

I've heard the booth questions change every year, but the Power Point will probably remain the same. They seem to really like it, and it's a good question since it gives the applicant free form space to try to capture areas that they feel are important in understanding themselves.

Just visited yesterday, the Admissions person we met with for the info session said that Booth will NOT be increasing class size unlike several of its peers. Internship placements are aparently lagging a bit but the Career office is expanding and has made a strong push to get alumni to make whatever they can available to first years.

I visited them last friday...had a great time.
Couple of take aways, which have already been posted by other forum members -

- Questions might slightly change for 2011 batch
- They have increased the placement cell or career services (not sure what its called) by adding 3 more members to help facilitate placements
- Loans for intl students will be made available (but there is a premium involved)


Overall, i had a great time meeting the prof's and students. Booth has moved up my hitlist!

I visited Booth during the "live" event last month, and was extremely impressed with the the facilities, the class I sat in, the students I met, who were impressive yet humble, and the transparency of the admissions officers. It's obvious that they try very hard to give you a lot of information about the admissions process and what they are looking for in perspective students. I thought they put on a fantastic program. Rd. 1 for sure!

Got this email from Manhattan GMAT......(they keep spamming me w emails even after I am long done with their courses... )

MBAMission - Interview w Booth School of Business Adcom (Rose Martinelli:) - PART I

Admissions Interview: Chicago Booth

mbaMission: Chicago-Booth is stereotyped as a finance school, is that fair? What should the school be known for that it’s not now known for?

Rose Martinelli: Chicago Booth is much more than a finance school, it is an economic powerhouse, and critical thinking is at the core of everything we do. Economics underpins most business functions, including finance, strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurship. While we have been known globally as a great financial institution because of the number of faculty who were awarded Nobel prizes for their innovations in the financial markets, Booth offers so much more.

Our entrepreneurship program, which has the Polsky Center at its foundation, is excellent and unique in its focus on both the practitioner and the investor side. The curriculum combines academic and experiential learning together to enhance the learning experience. Marketing is another area where we have been recognized for the work of our faculty in quantitative and behavioral marketing research. We recently received the AC Nielsen database which will allow for tremendous insight into consumer behavior. For students interested in pursuing a career in marketing, our combination of analytical and behavioral marketing coursework provides unparalleled preparation for future challenges.

Booth’s new concentration, Analytic Management, provides the same type of rigor and depth focused on data-driven analysis as our analytic finance concentration.. Our emphasis on and excellence in quantitative and statistical analysis for decision making is unmatched. These analytic methods are applied to a wide range of industries and functions such as understanding advertising and consumer behavior; analyzing risk and incorporating uncertainty; identifying profitable customers and determining optimal pricing policies; accelerating product innovation; optimizing supply chains; identifying the drivers of financial performance; and allocating resources.

Our focus is on building critical thinking skills that utilize the many lenses of business. We’re great on teaching technical skills, and making sure those technical skills are applicable and practical. At the same time, we’re equally focused on helping students to develop their executive presence and leadership profile. It’s a packaged deal.

mbaMission: You mentioned marketing and entrepreneurship. Is there a strategy to grow these fields or do these things just happen organically?

RM: I think it’s been a combination of both. Typically programs grow when student interest grows. It also grows when there’s faculty interest, and there is a lot of research going on. Over the past 10 years there has been a huge amount of growth in entrepreneurship due to those dual interests.

Whereas the marketing group has always been a smaller group, but has gained enormous amounts of energy and prestige in the last 5 years with the launch of the Kilts Center -- with a lot more groundbreaking research taking place behavioral and analytical marketing.

The growth of our programs has always been linked to student and faculty research interests. Once there is enough of a groundswell, the administration also provides additional resources to strengthen those areas, and that’s what’s been happening here at Chicago Booth.

mbaMission: Chicago Booth was fortunate to receive quite an impressive donation of $200 million from David Booth, who the school is now named for. I’m curious what the immediate impact of the gift is?

RM: This remarkable gift came at the right time, just as the market began to tumble, which helped us remain shielded from some of those enormous pressures that occur when endowments fall. This gift has given us an opportunity to focus on strengthening the core values of Chicago, which is truly the power of inquiry. Instead of these dollars being put into scholarship funds, they’re being put into strengthening the overall value proposition of the school to ensure that we have the best faculty, we recruit and matriculate the best students, and that those students find great opportunities facilitated by the support of our career services. It’s more about strengthening what was already strong, and ensuring that the Booth legacy continues long into the future.

The other interesting thing about the donation was that it was a partnership distribution, rather than a lump sum gift. Therefore as a partner in the fund we’ll receive annual distributions.

mbaMission: A couple questions about the financial crisis. I’m curious from an academic perspective, how lessons from the financial crises have been taught over the last couple months.

RM: Chicago is well known for our notion of “challenging everything” and to every idea there’s always a counter approach. There are free market and behavioral finance faculty researching and teaching side-by-side, so, we were talking a lot about this long before the markets started to spiral downward. Now, the conversations have shifted to identifying solutions. Our faculty have been very active with the administration on both sides analyzing and doing research on how best to structure a way out of this situation. I graduated from my executive MBA just a few weeks ago, and the classroom had ongoing discussions about what was happening in the news. Faculty were not only debating these ideas publicly on campus, but bringing it into the classroom as well.

mbaMission: In the light of the downturn will there be any changes in the qualities the school is seeking in candidates?

RM: No. We are focused on selecting students who have records of achievement. And to me that can be seen in a number of ways: how well someone has done academically, how well he/she has navigated their career and leveraged opportunities. The second thing that we look at is a student’s level of self-awareness and their ability to engage and be intellectually involved in something that’s perhaps not so comfortable. Being able to get in there and debate, challenge each other, and be challenged are very central qualities to good leadership. While it is important to communicate ideas effectively, it’s more about what have they done, where are they going, and how this is all linked together, rather than elegant/eloquent writing skills. It can be short and sweet and very direct. When you know yourself well, you should know exactly what direction you are headed and what you need to be successful.

mbaMission: Chicago’s first essay is a little bit less direct compared to other schools with respect to short and long-term goals. What are you expecting in this regard?

RM: For me, the question as to why an MBA is important is much more relevant than exactly where you’re going since goals change. The thought process that brought you to this place in your career is what interests me. I’m looking for a sense of direction and knowing what your needs are. If you have very refined goals I would say that’s great. But for the vast majority of people, if you really pressed them, goals were often created recently and typically just for the application. And, since the whole point of an MBA experience is to explore, expand and develop a new understanding and awareness of one’s abilities and passions, I don’t get hung up on goals. I am, however, very interested in path, plan, and knowing one’s self.

mbaMission: When you make decisions, do you frequently consult career services?

RM: This is an academic institution, so we’re here to educate. And we’re here to facilitate development of future leaders who can be successful in their job search. So, one of the things that we need to establish is whether a person is reasonable in terms of where they hope to go and how much we as an institution can help them along the way. Sometimes we can’t, and there are other schools that are a better fit. So, yes, if I have concerns about path, I’ll run it by our career services team.

Tune in next week for the second half of mbaMission's interview with Rose Martinelli of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Booth just updated it fall calendar for Informational Events.

https://www.chicagobooth.edu/fulltime/ad ... erica.aspx

Does anyone know how to actually register for Booth Sponsored Events ?

Thanks

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I attended a Student Winter event last year, you can register through the website, but they probably haven't set it up yet.

I wanted to visit the campus during May, but couldn't get time off. Does anyone know when the next available option for visit with a class sit-in is? It says the summer quarter ends Oct 05, so I would imagine after that date, but there is a Booth Live event on 9/25.

That isn't right - summer quarter ends august 29. Autumn quarter begins sept 29.

https://academic-calendar.uchicago.edu/f ... #2009_fall

Hmm, I guess they define the quarter for visits differently? I was looking at this page:

https://www.chicagobooth.edu/fulltime/vi ... visit.aspx

Baffling. Those dates make no sense. June 8 is the week of finals for instance. I'd look at the link I posted - that will tell you when people are actually on campus.

edit: I think I figured it out - the dates they list for summer aren't really summer quarter, its dates during which you are not going to find classes in session / normal activities. Go to a booth live event after sept 29th.

Round 1 as well here! Good luck to all of you, I'm sure we'll be posting a lot more in the coming months!

Im in for booth as well. Slides are much easier than essays conceptually yet its pretty hard to do in reality as I keep making changes

I am in for round one. Good luck to all.