Calling all Booth Applicants (2015 Intake) Class of 2017

FROM Booth Admissions Blog: Opportunities To Cross Paths With Booth Students

Now that you've had the chance to dive into The Booth Experience stories on the students' blog, you may be wondering: How can I meet students like those I’m reading about to determine if Booth is the right fit? How can I interact with the students who might be my peers one day? Booth students are incredibly passionate about this school and they are committed to paying it forward. What this means for you is that students are not only open to, but excited about meeting you, sharing their stories, hearing about your background and helping you to shape the path you could take as a potential Boothie. As those who have truly lived this experience, they will speak freely with you and answer questions only they can answer. In the coming weeks, there will be several Worldwide Student-Hosted Events in cities all over the globe. In the midst of internships in new places, industry treks, ski trips and hometown visits during Winter Break, students will also spend a part of their time off hosting these informal events with their classmates for prospective, and newly admitted, students. Find an event in your city and RSVP to spend an evening with Booth students! Additionally, we invite you to come to spend a day in the Harper Center. The Campus Visit Program offers abbreviated and full-day visit options with programming that includes opportunities to meet students and visiting a class in session. Visit our website for schedule options and to register. You may also opt to attend Booth Live, an all-day campus visit event during which you’ll engage with students, take on the Chicago Approach with faculty in class, and talk with the Admissions Committee during a special Q&A session. Finally, you’ll cap it all off with the Liquidity Preference Function (LPF)—a Friday happy hour tradition that brings together the student community. The next Booth Live will be January 23rd and registration will open in the coming weeks. If you can’t make it to campus, or there isn’t an event in your city, there are a number of other ways to engage with students. Consider reaching out to Booth International Country Captains, who represent cities across the globe. Simply put, there is no better way to understand our community than to engage with students. They are passionate about life at Booth and eager to provide their perspective. So, whether you’re attending an event, perusing the blog, or chatting with the co-chairs of various student groups, you’re one step closer to better understanding what your path at Booth could be. As always, we wish you the best of luck in the steps you take along the way and encourage you to reach out to us with any questions. Cheers, Kylie

FROM The Booth Experience: Switching things up, Part I: From I-Banking to Tech

Before business school, I was working at Credit Suisse in their Investment Banking division. The world of banking helped me understand how big corporates do business and gave me an opportunity to meet senior management of some of the biggest companies in the world. It was a dynamic and financially rewarding job. However, having fallen […]

does anyone know whether the adcom will call the admits on the 17th or just send emails on the 18th?

They will call on the 17th only to the admitted ones and send emails on the 18th to everyone.

How sure are you of this? Because everyone is now going to believe that if they don't get a phone call on 12/17 that they were rejected.

I'm 100% sure, if you don't recieve a call on the 17th then you can only expect a ding or a waitlist. All the people I know who had applied experienced this last year, including me. Last year I got waitlisted on second round and once again on third round on the decision date while all the people who were admitted received a call one day before. It's a tradition Booth has, they call one day before all the admitted applicants.

I haven't even applied to CBS yet, and am not sure if I'm interested. Here's what I posted over at WSO on why I'm thinking of not applying:

A couple things turned me off to Columbia. First was when I visited the school the staff was almost rude in how they treated me. Second, it didn't really even feel like it was a business school, it just felt like it was a place that students went to take classes during the day. Not much of a community feeling. Third, there wasn't really anything in my research on the school that particularly drew me to it - Stern does a lot of leadership stuff I like, Booth has great classes and teachers, Tuck seems like a unique experience in general. Columbia didn't really have anything like that.

Also concerning was that article that recently came out regarding Columbia job placement. Can't find the thread on it now.

Finally, I don't really know how Columbia students feel about the alumni network but Booth and Tuck had very, very strong networks. Students I talked to were very excited about going there. Alumni were enthusiastic about being part of these schools and seemed interested in actively helping current students and other alumni. Didn't get that kind of vibe from Columbia.

Less than a week to go... getting more nervous Booth or bust!

Question for other international applicants: do you see your TOEFL score as "Received"? Mine is still "Awaiting", although I submitted it in the same time as my GMAT, imediately after submitting my app... I hope there won't be any issue with this small aspect.

Fingers crossed everyone!

I'm pretty sure it's okay, don't worry. They would definitely let you know if there really was a problem. The AdCom would send you an email asking additional info or something like that, and you would have the chance to upload it directly into your application. I've seen it happening before, also for other schools.

Hope this helps!

Just realizing they will be calling the day before, not good...

Good luck, I'm pretty much in the same boat! Working on R2 apps but I have really fallen for this program.

For those of you applying Round 2, I took a few notes from an in-office Booth event we had with an admissions officer. Though I've already applied R1, I thought some of y'all could use a break from some of us talking about the wait or the speculation going on in the Kellogg thread.

Context: Our group had a fairly diverse mix of people applying R2 through people planning to apply within the next few years, so there was a wide range of topics covered. Moreover, much of the information shared below can be found in interviews, info sessions, blogs, etc. (e.g.,https://blog.clearadmit.com/2014/09/admissions-director-qa-kurt-ahlm-university-chicago-booth-school-business/ )

Disclaimer: these are my notes and my interpretation of things that were said; you should always do your own detailed research and formulate your own opinions on any school.

About Booth (very consistent with public information):
- consistent with the broader UofC community, there is a big emphasis on ideas, inquiry, and academic excellence
- high emphasis on the "Chicago Approach" (see: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/about/chicago-approach)
- contrary to finance and quant-reputation, curriculum is focused to provide analytical framework that is applicable across every industry
- flexibility throughout the academic experience - with the exception of LEAD, all courses are up to the student; this theme carries through how students engage student-led orgs, housing, career center, housing, etc.
- strong support system - within weeks, you are engaged by a career adviser, academic adviser, 2nd year mentor, and many opportunities to connect formally and informally with 2nd year students and alumni
- opportunity for international study such as study abroad for a semester or participation in international clubs

About the Non-Essay/Presentation sections of the Application:
- generally, there was a huge emphasis on the holistic picture and demonstrating the competency to tell your story through the sum of each component; sections of focus are listed below:
- goals section: point of this section is to communicate how your experiences and passions combined with your expectations of your Booth experience will enable you to achieve your ST and LT goals; for those sponsored, advice was to place particular emphasis on what you hope to get out of Booth as having your ST goal just be "go back to my sponsored company" is not enough
- LOR section: emphasis was on: (i) using your 2 LORs to be complementary to each other, (ii) though you cannot write them, you can influence them to 'complete your story'
- optional section: only use as appropriate; examples for appropriate uses are employment gaps, components severely less competitive components (e.g., low GPA, etc.), why current
- unlike other schools, Booth does not specifically ask "Why Booth" so the advice was to demonstrate it in places like the essay and interview

About the Essay / Presentation portion of the Application:
- this should answer ''what else is there you want to share within the context of the whole application?''
- no limit, but self-awareness on the amount of content shared is important (i.e., 22 page presentation 'not fun' to read)
- topic is completely up to you and can address a range of personal issues (e.g., what are you passionate about? what completes your story? is it an experience? a collection of experiences?)
- viewed as a first impression to how candidates handle ambiguity
- 'not looking for Pulitzer Prizes' but do care about grammar, proper writing, etc.
- advice to dig deep and be introspective
- if you do a presentation, make sure not to try and hammer an essay into your presentation
- an example shared of a unique approach to the presentation was using a newspaper-like format

To those who also applied R1, best of luck to you all. To those who will apply R2, I hope the above helps and I encourage you to have fun with it!

Do they call applicants residing in other countries the day before too?

Any international applicants?

FROM Booth Admissions Blog: Let’s Talk About Round 2

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are already upon us and that we are getting ready to admit Round 1 applicants this week on December 18! Nevertheless, we know there are lots of Round 2 applicants who are ready to get the ball rolling and hit submit on January 6. In the spirit of Booth’s commitment to inquiry, I’d like to answer some of the most common questions from applicants so far this year. 1) Who should I ask to write my letters of recommendation? The admissions office asks that you select two recommenders to submit letters for your application. We highly encourage you to select at least one recommendation from your current supervisor and the other is at your discretion. Commonly used second recommenders are past supervisors, clients, or those you may have worked with at volunteer organizations. It is worth noting that we do have a number of applicants who are uncomfortable asking current supervisors for recommendations because they have yet to disclose their future plans. We understand that this can be a difficult situation so we highly encourage you to explain your reasoning behind not choosing your current supervisor. 2) Should I do a presentation or essay? In this year’s application,  we only have one required question for you to answer. You have the freedom to choose how to communicate the answer to us – in essay or presentation format. There is no preferred format for the admissions office as we recognize that everyone wants to tell their own story differently. 3) What does the Round 2 timeline look like? Applications should be submitted for Round 2 by January 6, 2015 at 5:00 PM CST. Later in January, we will begin releasing interview invitations. Please note that we review applications and release interview invitations in no specific order. All applicants will receive a decision of Invite to Interview or Deny Without Interview by February 4. Interviews will begin on February 9 and will go through the first week of March. Applicants will have the option to interview on-campus, with a member of our alumni community in your area, or at one of the various cities we visit around the globe for interview days. Final decisions will be released on March 26 at 9:00 AM CST. At that time you will receive a decision of Admit, Deny, or Waitlist. We know you may have many more questions during this process so please feel free to ask in the comments below. You can also connect with admissions during our twitter chat tomorrow on December 16. Use #BoothMBA to follow the conversation. All the best to our Round 2 applicants! Tyler

+1 to those who mentioned the call before the email, if I didn't get a call on the 17th I would have headed into the 18th with full hope. Now I know, have the phone on loud on the 17th.

1 day to go!