Calling Chicago (Booth) Applicants for 2009

Sorry to those who got denied.

This process reminds me of my job search experience when I graduated from college in 2003. After interviewing with virtually every bank on the street and receiving numerous final round rejections, I was losing hope. But in the end I got 1 job offer and that made all the difference.

Please remember, all we need is 1 good admit. Good luck to all!

Yep I have to start thinking hard about R2 as well. My problem is that I have basically bet it all on R1, I don't have many top schools left to apply to. I might think about UW, Georgetown, Boston College/U, Irvine.

Sorry to heard about the denials guys, I second river though, it takes just one admission.

Kwam/Rhyme,

I haven't visited campus yet. Is there any advantage of doing an on-campus interview?

I'm not Kwam or Rhyme but I think there is- the invite specifically encourages you to visit campus. I'm doing an on campus interview as I haven't had a chance to visit Chicago yet and I heard it's beautiful. It's a good opportunity to visit the school.

Thanks meowzilla. I know the invite encourages to visit but its not easy for me to take time off work and travel half way across the country. I am curious if not visiting will put me at a disadvantage.

If you don´t know the school and the city yet, and you have the means and time to do so, yes you should do it, Chicago is an awesome city and you will love the campus. That said I'm an international and when I applied I was living far from Chicago, so I didn't do my interview on campus. I assume that Adcom wouldn't like an off campus interview if you live an hour away by plane for instance. But we have here in Gmatclub, people who traveled a long way, had a strong profile and app and was denied, so there is no formula.

I think the school encourages on-campus interviews for a few reasons, not the least of which is to give prospectives a chance to see how awesome the school/campus is. It's a chance for the school to make its sales pitch that much more meaningful.

However, I actually prefer to do an off-campus interview because an alum is most likely going to be less stringent than a current student (especially if on-campus students are conducting several interviews.) I believe this is because current students are not as far removed from their own grueling admissions processes as alumni are.

got to agree. Also alumni are likely to have more perspective and experience dealing with someone not exactly like themselves. I had a second year student interview me at tuck and it was a bloody pain to explain work experiences and why mba etc. It just didnt seem to flow well.. Alums seem to be much more able to converse. Maybe its me. But i have noticed this even in recruiting where its easier to talk to the more senior/experienced ppl than the kids just out of school. I currently lead my company's recruiting i do find that in the feed back we get from both the candidates we make an offer to and the rejections, that the recruits were surprised at how easily they connected with exp ppl and found the younger interviewers too tough, technical, nervous etc.

2nd yrs are also likely to make more comparisons and bias their own background / experiences in the selection than alumni. with experience, ppl are more likely to look at you as an individual than compare you with every individual they speak too.

anyways - i dont have a choice since i live in the chic area so on-campus it is. Hopefully, its either adcom or a frnd of a frnd type thing and it goes smoothly..

I am talking to an U Chicago alumna today. She was an adcom member as a student and conducts interviews. I wanted to get her opinion about the interviewing process. Any questions anyone would like answered?

What is the magic word to gain admission?

The school does not put different weights on on-campus vs off. Honestly, visit if you want to, dont if you don't. They understand not everyone has the $ and time to do it and they genuinely don't assign different weights.

That said, here's the difference: An on campus interview is short, 30 minutes or so of question peppering. It's sorta like ripping off a band-aid. Short and sweet. On the one hand, thats nice, especially if you might be the kind of person to say something stupid if given too much air time, or if you get an interviewer you don't like. On the other hand, its an awfully short time to make a real impression and to connect with someone.

On the flipside, an alumnus interview might last an hour or more. If you make a connection, thats great - you got tons of time to milk it. On the other hand, if it doesn't go well - if you get someone who grills you - or if you are worried you might just say something stupid, the longer your interview the worse / more painful it is.

Which is better really depends on you and your interview preference / style / poise / etc.

Final thought - that also kind of cuts both ways: There's a (small) chance your interviewer on campus would be staff, not student, and certainly if you make a good impression that can't do anything other than help (during deliberations, certainly having your interviewer there to say "no no, he really was good" helps). By the same token, if you make a bad impression, they might be there to say "no no, he wasn't that good.". On the other hand if you do an off campus - the alum isn't there to defend you - nor is he/she there to push you further down a hole.

Again, which is better largely depends on luck and whether or not you think are a good interview.

Finally, there is one other general argument to visiting over not: If waitlisted, it's easier to write a love letter about how much you like the GSB if you've actually visited.

On balance, there are clear pro's and con's to each and the decision should be yours. Either way, rest assured that simply being off campus doesn't automatically put you at a disadvantage.

sorry for typos, running out door for flight to BWI

thanks for the write up!

kwam, rhyme: are there a lot of students at chicago who are intersted in entrepreneurship? how is the overall entrepreneurial community on campus? (access to VCs, startups looking for patners, etc.)

I think Chicago is a great school and I am thinking of applying in R2 but need to do a bit more research.

I think rhyme will have more info than I do - after all he did his summer internship with VC - but I will start. Entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth is big, and there are many people willing to work with VC, Start-ups and PE, take a look here about the Polsky Center:
https://www.chicagogsb.edu/entrepreneurship/

You should keep in mind though that VC and Startups are industries REALLY hard to break into. Usually people with previous back ground are those who can. For instance for tech VC, people with engineering background and experience are the ones who can get jobs. I know that those who can get into the PE/VC Lab are those who will be more exposed, hence be more likely to succeed

EDITED: to succeed in the short run finding jobs in the area.

I am interested in PE/VC as a long-term goal.

Scott Meadow and Steve Kaplan are by far some of the most impressive professors for PE/VC/Entrepeneurial Finance in the country (go look at their profiles on the website - absolutely amazing). Additionally, James Schrager's New Venture Strategy class is phenomenal and he is often nominated as one of the best professors at Chicago.

Yes, you won't have access to the people on Sand Hill Road in your backyard like you would at Haas or Stanford, but I think that Booth is likely the most premier center for entrepeneurship in the Midwest. If you are looking to pitch Chicago-based VCs, they will have a high level of respect for your degree.