This thread is for the Booth 2011 Application Year, meaning applicants that are starting School in the Fall of 2011. Please direct all of your questions for this year into the 2012 thread calling-all-2012-chicago-booth-fall-applicants-116701.html If you are a current student/admit, please consider visiting the thread for Admitted Students admitted-to-chicago-booth-class-of-2013-full-time-mba-thread-107432.html At Chicago Booth, you get more than just a world-class education. You become part of a global business force. Please use the following form to add your stats to the spreadsheet: Form link Edit Link: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Av3d03301eNIdFozSUpyT2lUQzN0TG41MTFDWG83eHc&hl=en#gid=0 Spreadsheet 0Av3d03301eNIdFozSUpyT2lUQzN0TG41MTFDWG83eHc GMAT CLUB STATS Round 1 Deadline: October 13, 2010 Notification: December 15, 2010 Round 2 Deadline: January 5, 2011 Notification: March 16, 2011 Round 3 Deadline: April 13, 2011 Notification: May 18, 2011 Evening/Weekend MBA Deadlines: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/parttime/a ... #deadlines SCHOOL INFO Excerpts from Admissions Chat Events Application Review Process At minimum three people will review an application. We do not review applications in groups but the reader will have access to the previous readers' reviews. Our office hires students to serve as Admissions Fellows. These students will review the files(and conduct our on campus interviews.) Once the Fellows complete their review an admissions officer reviews and will make a recommendation. At this time a candidate is invited to interview or recommended for denial. If denial the Associate Dean will review the file. If invited to interview, after the interview takes place, the file is reviewed again by an admissions officer. A recommendation is made and ultimately the Associate Dean makes the final decision. We do not compare students between rounds; we only evaluate applications based on each round. The chances of being admitted are very similar from one round to the next. Interview As for interviews, Interviewers will NOT have access to your applications. We conduct interviews either on campus by admissions fellows or off campus by alumni. All applicants have the option of coming to campus or interviewing with a local alumni. Academics The Booth MBA is based on a discipline based approach to business education, with finance being at the cornerstone. Chicago Booth boasts a legendary finance curriculum, covering both corporate finance and investments. In addition, our long-standing relationships and success in recruiting with the biggest investment organizations in the world. General Guest: what are the top features booth is looking for in an mba candidate and how can i improve my chances of admission Kurt: The best way to be successful in this process is to really know your story. Where have you been? What skill and experiences have fostered over time? How do these things prepare you for an MBA, and a career post MBA? And finally, how does a specific program i.e. Booth bridge the gap effectively between where you are and where you want to be. Think through this effectively and convey this story utilizing all the aspects provided in the application will give you your best chance of success. To be candid we expect that students applying to a top school are smart, engaged and demonstrate signs for leadership potential. With those things being staples it is at the margins where you can most directly impact your outcome. And your story and fit is what lives in the margins. Neel the overwhelming majority of our students in the FT program are looking to make a career change. To do so you have to think through what you know about the desired industry, what skill and experiences do they covet and what do you bring to the table. In most cases once you do this exercise you will realize where your strengths and weaknesses lie, and at Chicago because of our flexibility and commitment to analytics you will have every opportunity to round out your necessary skill sets and go after the role you desire. Essays 1. The Admissions Committee is interested in learning more about you on both a personal and professional level. Please answer the following (maximum of 300 words for each section): a. Why are you pursuing a full-time MBA at this point in your life? b. Define your short and long term career goals post MBA. c. What is it about Chicago Booth that is going to help you reach your goals? d. REAPPLICANTS ONLY: Upon reflection, how has your thinking regarding your future, Chicago Booth, and/or getting an MBA changed since the time of your last application? These short essays will require you to know yourself. You will need to understand where you have been and where you are going. Before you begin drafting the responses to these essays, take some time for self-reflection. Why do you want to return to school? Why is the MBA the right degree for you? We know that many of you will use your MBA experience to help you figure out what kind of job to pursue next. Even though your future career plans may not be clear at this time, you should still be able to discuss your goals and how they relate to obtaining an MBA. For our reapplicants, question 1d is where you can tell us what, if anything, has changed since the time of your last application. What has occurred in your life or career that has either reinforced or changed your goals? What lessons have you learned or how have you grown since you last applied to Chicago Booth? 2. Chicago Booth is a place that challenges its students to stretch and take risks that they might not take elsewhere. Tell us about a time when you took a risk and what you learned from that experience (maximum of 750 words). You’re probably wondering, “What kind of risk do you want me to discuss?” To be honest, we’re not looking for one kind of risk in particular. It can be a risk related to your professional, academic or personal life. It can be a risk that resulted in either a positive or negative outcome. We want to hear about a time when you challenged yourself and what you learned from that experience. How has that experience influenced your future actions? 3. At Chicago Booth, we teach you HOW to think rather than what to think. With this in mind, we have provided you with “blank pages” in our application. Knowing that there is not a right or even a preferred answer allows you to demonstrate to the committee your ability to navigate ambiguity and provide information that you believe will support your candidacy for Chicago Booth. Earlier this year, there was some discussion as to whether we would continue using the presentation as part of our evaluation process. With the presentation proving to be such an important tool in helping us determine who is a good fit for Chicago Booth, we decided it was necessary to include in our 2011 application. However, this year, we are giving applicants even greater freedom to decide what information they want to convey in the presentation. Since we’re providing you with “blank pages,” what you decide to address in your presentation is up to you. Look at the other aspects of your application. Are there messages or activities that you have not yet been able to communicate to the committee? If so, then the presentation will be an opportunity for you to provide us with this type of information. After reviewing your presentation, we want to have a better understanding of who you are and how you think. Also, please remember that it is the content – not the design – that should be the focus of the presentation. We understand that not everyone is a design guru. So, whether it’s through photos, images, graphs, or just words, the goal is to communicate your messages as effectively as possible.

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Calling All 2011 Booth Applicants!!

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discrete83

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04 Mar 2011, 13:45

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To satisfy my own curiosity -- how many people who interviewed at Booth thought that the interviews went well? Basically - am trying to figure if you're still likely to get dinged even after a relatively good interview.

And also - for those who want to play with acceptance / admit #s, I have included my Booth admit calculations excel sheet here. Enjoy the scenarios! The notes in the bottom are outdated, I used the recent numbers from the posts above.

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File comment: Chicago booth forecast for admits
Chicago Booth R2 2011 Admit rates.xlsx [12.47 KiB]
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ghunar

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04 Mar 2011, 13:53

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discrete83

I felt like mine went well, but it's sort of hard to evaluate your own interview I think. When I tried to open that file it came up as a .php file- not sure how to open it.

discrete83

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04 Mar 2011, 13:55

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its an excel 2007 file, attached an 2003 version here

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Chicago Booth R2 2011 Admit rates Excel 2003.xls [31 KiB]
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discrete83

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04 Mar 2011, 14:01

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as far as the interview goes, I think you can tell by body language, the questions they ask, and some verbal cues. I suppose I am just paranoid now that even though I have done everything I can, the decision is outta my hands.

That being said, sure is nice to try to get numbers around the quality of the interviews. More probability based calculations then!

SEOmatt

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04 Mar 2011, 14:03

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ghunar

discrete83

I felt like mine went well, but it's sort of hard to evaluate your own interview I think. When I tried to open that file it came up as a .php file- not sure how to open it.

I also felt like mine went well, but agree that it's hard to self evaluate. (The file worked fine for me. Just click on it and it downloads.)

ghunar

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04 Mar 2011, 14:17

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discrete83

Interesting file. What are you basing your submit distributions per round on? And what about the admit rate percentages per round?

theacademist

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06 Mar 2011, 00:04

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Yeah, I really think my interview went pretty well. I even had them laughing several times (good laughing ;p) But I totally ducked the why now question on accident because they asked it at the same time as why an mba. Spent all my time answering that and never got back to it

I also rambled some - horror of horrors!!

Really long interview and not just cuz I rambled...they definitely werent in a hurry to leave. We'll see how it goes tho...

jerrykid

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06 Mar 2011, 03:12

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theacademist

I also rambled some - horror of horrors!!

Really long interview and not just cuz I rambled...they definitely werent in a hurry to leave. We'll see how it goes tho...

I prepared for "Why MBA" and "Why now" as 2 separate questions. I also prepared for "Why MBA and Why now" asked at the same time as a single question. when my interviewer just asked "Why now", I did not have trouble with it.

I think that I would be in the same situation with you without prior preparation. It took me quite long to figure out how to tackle "Why MBA & why now" as a single question. I am not sure at all I would not ramble if I had to come up with the answer right on spot.

I had mixed feeling about my interview. At times, I think that it went really well and I had my interviewer laugh (good laughs). I think that I did not ramble, thanks to thorough preparation, I guess. At other times, I think that my interviewer did not agree with what I was saying. I really wish that I had been more prepared so that my answers on "Why Chicago Booth" and "What would be your contribution to Chicago Booth" would have been more interesting and passionate.

missjj

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07 Mar 2011, 03:57

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Please add me: new to this forum. Interviewed with an alum Feb 21st.

disposable8201

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07 Mar 2011, 12:54

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13 months after taking my first practice GMAT, I have reached the point in my application process where I am getting nervous and losing confidence. I'm amazed that it took me this long--I feel like I've done a really good job of taking things in stride and feeling confident about my applications--but I have realized that I really want to go to UChicago, and that has made it more difficult to be aloof. Anyone have good guidance on how to avoid melting into a puddle over the last nine days?

mreevit

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07 Mar 2011, 13:20

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disposable8201

I try to look at the upside of not getting admitted. For me, I would have the opportunity to get a promotion, manage direct reports, and have an overall better candidacy and higher quality group of target schools next year. Also, I have another year to pay down debt/save cash before I take on $150,000 more debt.

Realize that you can always re-apply next year.

jb88

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07 Mar 2011, 15:13

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mreevit

Realize that you can always re-apply next year.

It's never the end of the world. I don't care who you are, there is so much each of us can do to improve our overall candidacy. The hardest part is not beating yourself up trying to figure out specifically 'why not me?' especially since there is so little feedback from schools in this whole process.

CalvinNHobbes

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07 Mar 2011, 21:21

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Booth Loves me...Booth Loves me NOT...Booth Loves me...Booth Loves me NOT...Booth Loves me...Booth Loves me NOT...Booth Loves me...Booth Loves me NOT...Booth Loves me...Booth Loves me NOT...Booth Loves me...Booth Loves me NOT...

10 more days of this.... cant take it... and am running outta flowers

alienfluid

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07 Mar 2011, 21:24

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disposable8201

I know how you feel. I was quite confident all the way till the interview. Now I am sitting here analyzing every little bit of my application and the interview. The couple of dings I've received so far don't help either. I'm in the same boat - Booth is my top choice and my visit for the interview (2nd time) made me want to go there even more! These last few days are going to be hard.

jerrykid

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08 Mar 2011, 00:00

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alienfluid

I know how you feel. I was quite confident all the way till the interview. Now I am sitting here analyzing every little bit of my application and the interview. I'm in the same boat - Booth is my top choice and my visit for the interview (2nd time) made me want to go there even more! These last few days are going to be hard.

Haha, the same goes for me. I caught myself thinking and analyzing every little bit about my application and interview. I read my essays many times and wish that in the interview, if I had answered this question this way, that question the other way etc. the chance would be higher.

chuyrulez

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08 Mar 2011, 10:19

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I also interviewed on campus for R2, and I would like to throw out a question to the GMATCLUB community. Do you feel that because it is 2nd year students who interview that it could be and advantage/disadvantage that these students may not evaluate objectively? What I am trying to say is that because they have limited interviewing experience, what may be a great candidate to one interviewer may not be so great a candidate to another interviewer, and because of their lack of interviewing experience they cannot objectively compare to other potential candidates??? Or does anyone know what type of preparation these student interviewers are given before actually interviewing candidates???

stormbringer

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08 Mar 2011, 10:19

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If you continue on the waitlist past 16 March and are admitted later, will you only hear on the round three decision day or does the school inform admitted students on a rolling basis?

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Cookiesn

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08 Mar 2011, 10:29

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chuyrulez

I dont believe that's a fair assumption to make. Based on what I've heard from various sources (current students, alumni, admissions etc.), 2nd year students who volunteer to interview prospective applicants undergo a fair amount of training themselves to ensure that the evaluation process is somewhat standardized. You could perfectly well argue that without the interviewing experience, biases would still exist (and I would agree with that) but IMO they wouldnt be significant enough to give you a major advantage or disadvantage.

You could present the same argument when comparing 2 members of the admissions team (what if one of them has recently joined the admissions team while the other one has been around for 10 years).

I think the real black box can be alumni interviews, who receive instructions via email and may or may not follow the script while conducting interviews. I think if you read back to various peoples' interview experiences with alums, you would understand what I am trying to say here.

jb88

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08 Mar 2011, 10:44

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Cookiesn

My understanding is these 2nd year students are paid student ambassadors of the adcom and undergo a fair amount of training. Not to mention these are the same 40-50 people that review your application 1st before a member of the adcom. Further, I would say these students are experts in interviewing given that they already went through the 1st year internship recruitment the prior spring and those applicants interviewing in R2 are interviewing with 2nd year students who have also completed full-time offer recruiting in the fall.

Cookiesn

I think the real black box can be alumni interviews, who receive instructions via email and may or may not follow the script while conducting interviews.

I agree alumni interviews are the wildcards.

mjb

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08 Mar 2011, 10:49

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chuyrulez

Remember that some of these 'students' will actually have 5-7 years of industry experience and will have led teams before going back to b-school. Also, they'll be interviewing far more candidates than any single alum might so I'd expect the student to have a better idea about how to evaluate a given candidate.

Now, if your real question is "do the interviewers evaluate consistently as a group" then it's more difficult to answer. I would say that the assembly line approach to the on-campus interviews would mean that the actual interview process should be consistent across student interviewers (much more so than across alumni based on the interview reports posted in this thread). Whether that translates to a more consistent evaluation of any given candidate is anyone's guess, but I seriously doubt the alumni interviewers would be any more consistent in their evaluations than the students.