GMATClub Chicago GSB Applicants Round 1: Tally: Admitted: 9 Dings: 9 Waitlist: 4 Matriculating: 6 Irishfan: Matriculating dabots: Matriculating kwam: Matriculating jpjazzman: Matriculating burger2001: Matriculating CookieMonster: Waitlist (R1) Admit (R2) Matriculating cooldar: Admit malumier: Matriculating ApolloLuna: Admit Withdrawn for Kellogg Forcefeed: Admit Withdrawn for HBS CfaMiami: Waitlist Admit Withdrawn for Kellogg (I think) maina_s: Waitlist Aviroop: Waitlist (R1), Denied (R2) Faceman: Denied w/ Interview riverripper: Denied w/ Interview chillonamill: Denied w/ Interview Vij101: Denied w/ Interview Sangoman: Denied w/ Interview gnr646: Denied w/ Interview Collegesenior: Denied w/o interview nnabros: Denied w/o interview beyondinfinity: Denied w/o interview Round 2: Total applicants: 42 Admit = 10 Waitlist = 3 Dinged = 21 unknown = 6 mNeo - Matriculating helg - Matriculating CerealsMBA - Matriculating nick_sun - Matriculating Jann - Matriculating ujjib - Matriculating wallspotter - Matriculating nervousgmat - Admit Withdrawn for Kellogg ghgirl - Admit Withdrawn for Kellogg Audio - Admit Withdrawn for Wharton clarksdv2 - Waitlist sudden - Waitlist bherronp - Waitlist yellowjacket - Waitlist adcxaway - Denied w/ Interview bsd_lover - Denied w/ Interview vchhaochharia - Denied w/ Interview tsaditya - Denied w/ Interview max125 - Denied w/ Interview nupurgupt - Denied w/ Interview KingKREEP - Denied w/ Interview KK Iyer - Denied w/ Interview pandeyrav - Denied w/ Interview Poochandi - Denied w/ Interview grap - Denied w/ Interview svrider - Denied w/ Interview trojan812 - Denied w/ Interview foxtrot - Denied w/ Interview SoccrRef - Denied w/ Interview nupurgupt - Denied w/ Interview hsampath - Denied w/o interview bkk145 - Denied w/o interview gregspirited - Denied w/o interview ryguy904 - Denied w/o interview dosa_don - Denied w/o interview spideyeclipse27 - Denied w/o interview Prodigy - Denied w/o interview PEtoMBA - Denied w/o interview Pokerface - Submitted (01/09), Invited to interview (02/08) JDMBA - submitted, Invited to interview ncprasad - Submitted 01/09, Invited to interview swedenr09 - submitted 1/9, Invited to Interview Cleardmit has some useful advice to approach this year's Chicago GSB application essays. I hope this is useful for all you GSB aspirants out there. https://blog.clearadmit.com/2007/07/chi ... 2007-2008/ Reproduced in full below Essay 1: Why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? Describe your personal and professional goals and the role an MBA from the University of Chicago GSB plays in your plans to reach these goals. (1,500 word maximum) Our general guidelines for the standard career goals essay apply to this document, but the above-average length and the nature of Chicago’s other questions add another strategic consideration. While the second and third essays certainly provide ample opportunity to share information about oneself, there really isn’t much room for narrative. This is a distinct contrast from schools like Stanford and MIT, which ask applicants to recount the details of their actions in several specific kinds of situations across the application essays. With this in mind, Chicago applicants might want to use a portion of their 1500 words in this essay to briefly share the details of some professional achievements and significant experiences. Essay 2: If you could step into someone else’s shoes for a day, who would it be and why? (500 word maximum) The most common trap that applicants fall into when answering this question is writing more about the person whose shoes he or she would choose to occupy than about the reasons for this selection and the way it fits into his or her candidacy. While this can be a fun question with an answer that is sure to be telling, it’s important not to lose sight of what should be the main objective of one’s application: sharing impressive information about oneself that is relevant to one’s business school candidacy. Selecting a prominent figure whose work is in line with one’s professional goals or favorite hobby can be a great strategy for producing an interesting essay that allows for detail about the applicant’s background as well. Essay 3: We have asked for a great deal of information throughout this application. In this portion of the application, we invite you tell us about yourself using a non-traditional application format–a PowerPoint presentation. In four slides or less, please provide readers with content that captures who you are. This approach isn’t exactly revolutionary - Stern’s usual Essay 3 asks for a personal expression that gives candidates complete freedom with content and medium (except for the exclusion of edible/perishable personal expressions) - but it does speak to Chicago’s interest in a candidate’s interests and personality. While all this “white space” might be daunting to some, an easy way to approach this process is to ask oneself a few simple questions. Are there four personal themes to which you would like to devote a slide each? Would you prefer to use the four frames to create a sense of progression through a day, event or activity? We’re hesitant to provide too much guidance given the free-form nature of the task; the best advice we can offer is to think about who you are (and how this might be of interest to the GSB adcom), consider how you could translate this into words and images, and then try it out. Showing the initial result to someone who knows you well could be a great way to determine how successful this draft is. Good luck, and have fun! ***Updated applicant list: 1/9/08 RiverRipper

Good morning, Chicago! I hope you slept well. I did You still have half an hour to grab your cup of coffee and a doughnut! After that, pls let us know our status a.s.a.p. Please!!!

I got to work at 6 am this morning(Of late 10:30 -11 was the normal time for me) because I did not sleep at all last night. not because i am anxious and i hope that chicago will somehow list an admit against my name on the system but forgot to call me but i kept thinking about what went wrong. Well, I have about 6 months to figure that out. Best of luck to all internationals awaiting the decision. All the admits, please post your essays to the essay vault before you bid adieu to these boards. Best wishes !

At this point, international or not, isn't it as good as a ding for those who didn't get the call? I'm just sitting around waiting to read the official ding

I am killing time, re-reading my last year's ding letter

Is it definitely a ding if you did not get the call?

I believe that for all US based candidates (citizens or internationals) who did not get a call, the chances are that it is 99.9% a ding or a WL. There is always the remote chance that your file fell off the table or the adcom checked against your name instead of someone else's and hence did not call or email you. I guess a R2 GSB WL would be incredibly tough to get off this year.