Admitted to Chicago Booth Class of 2011 Thread

My wife and I just got back tonight as well. I will put together a more detailed post tomorrow regarding this weekend. Until then, I'll just say that this weekend was absolutely phenomenal. The school did a fantastic job putting together the weekend events.

Oh, and I know how you feel Olive. Due to an alcohol-induced brain fart, we barely made our flight home.

I sent in my deposit today. I was fully committed to Chicago from the start, but everything I learned about Time Value of Money says to wait until the last possible day. Unfortunately, when that money is in an investment account in 2009, the discount rate is a really really big negative number. Darn.

That's an awesome quote. May be we should get used to these negative discount rate...

Terp,

I agree with you; the Dean's speech really made a difference. There is a strong culture and sense of pride at University of Chicago that is very appealing. The ideas before people is amazing and they really live it.

As someone who stayed in NYC and Chicago, you will get used to the city. It is not NY, but it definitely has its charm. The lake makes a big difference in the summer. Though it will never match the energy level you can feel in NYC but that's unique.

I realize I'm not in the best position to request anything (as I'm not an active contributor here), but does anybody still plan to write some comprehensive summary/impressions from Admit Weekend? Would be helpful to those who haven't been there (and I admit I'm very curious

Out of topic question. What's Chicago's color? Orange or burgundy?

Thanks!

Maroon! (That's #800000 in hex code, I believe).

Thanks! Are you a designer?

Ha! Imagine all the possible designer stereotypes and I am probably the exact opposite of all of 'em. Just enough inner nerd to look it up.

I definitely had a blast at Booth's ASW1. It was awesome meeting terp26, isa, MeddlingKid and (evil) olive. Also, a big thanks to rhyme for saving me from going to the Lunch w/ Alumni portion of the program. Though I thought the daytime events during DAK1 were slightly better, I would have to give Booth the edge when it came down to the parties at night.

That says it all.

I wish I had Ryhme's advice, the alumn lunch was the only so-so part of the week-end. That will teach me to book my flight too late and to miss GMATClub's get together...

I enjoyed the alumni lunch portion. We had a nice conversation with an alumni who is currently working for UA. That said, I did want to hang out with you guys downstairs too.

Yea to add what rhyme said during the lunch about the immense benefits of the flexible curriculum.

If you are a good test taker, you can find classes that only give midterms and finals. If you want a class that has 50% class participation as your grade and problem sets, and don't like finals, you can take those types of classes. And I am talking about between different sections of the same class as well. I was actually talking to a colleague currently who had graduated a few years back who was actually mentioning this exact point to me.

Also keep in mind that professors have different styles and teaching methods. There is no set curriculum each prof has to teach. At other schools for a professor to bring something new into the classroom, it would need to be approved by all the other professors teaching that class. In Chicago, each professor can design his/her class as he/she wishes. So if that professor is working on state of the art research and wants to design a class or give an assignment on it, that professor could do so.

One class that seemed interesting in which one of the faculty members was discussing was "Using Experiments in Firms". Class taught by Levitt (Author of Freakonomics) where they conduct different types of experiments at firms (pretty self-explanatory). So you would run randomized studies in companies and test different hypothesis. I forget their exact example (something to do with healthcare costs and absenteeism) but If I had to make one up it would be like randomizing a companies workforce and giving half a thousand dollar bonus and half nothing and figuring out whether that incentive has any impact on productivity rates.

Well we are pretty awesome....

To be fair, we didn't hang out with each other all weekend - although it may sound like that on this board.

We were divided into squads, had daily Booth-organized happy hours, dinners, and late night events. One was an informal 'happy hour' where representatives from school clubs were set up at tables so we could pick and choose which club we'd like to hear more about. Had random walk leaders also set up spots so we could learn more about those trips. In typical Booth fashion it was a very well-planned weekend, of course not every day event was great because of to be frank - boring topics - like scavenger hunts, financial aid (although important) - but the day also had interesting ones like student life, dean speeches, professor lectures, etc. Many of us know people through local events that Booth students have been organizing since January, so all in all it was a very social and informational weekend - ASIDE from the gmatclubbers (who also did happen to be great as well).

Sounds like everyone had a blast at admit weekend. Does anyone know when the next admit weekend is? Hopefully I'll have a reason to attend.