Booth (Chicago): Calling all applicants - Class of 2016

Had an off campus interview today morning. The alumna was from way back in the 90s but he still had great enthusiasm for the school. Made me crave even more for admit.

Fingers crossed !

Just finished an off campus interview. Loved my interviewer! He was very friendly and passionate about Booth. The questions were pretty standard:

-Tell me about yourself
-Specific questions about the resume
-Why MBA
-Why Booth
-Post-MBA goals
-How do you work in a team
-Have you visited campus
-Areas of improvement
-Specific questions about non-work activities

Good luck everyone!!

I have been reading up on the Booth's PT MBA and have overall concerns that this affects the prestige and experience of the FT MBA in Booth.
Prestige -> PT program dilutes FT brand
Experience--> PT people if you are ever forced to be their classmate can not commit that much time to projects etc due to family and work commitments.



My statements rests on the following assumptions so feel free to attack them or shed further light on them as I could be terribly wrong:
1. PT MBA is less selective therefore lower quality people. By quality I mean if you take a random sample and put their CV in front of MBB or BB it would be not looked at. Of course we are allowing for exceptions.

2. A good group of the PT MBA people have a great fit with PT (going back to old employer) while there is this large minority who see the PT MBA as a backdoor entry to get the benefits of the FT MBA (except internship) without needing to work that hard ever in their pre MBA lives.

3. It is logical to be pissed that Booth allows PT to eventually access OCR resources during their full time search. I value exclusivity and prestige as my ~120k usd and 2 years will exclusively go to Booth.

4. It is logical to be pissed at Booth as they give them the same "MBA Booth" title end of the day and future recruiters, perhaps not those on campus but future recruitiers, will not see the difference. I WANT them to see the difference.

I currently work in Chicago and know a few people in the FT and PT programs, let me give you my perspective.

1. Hard for me to give an assessment on the whole PT class but MBB and BB are known to be GMAT sensitive and the average gmat of the PT program is in the mid to high 600's so I would assume your point to be true. MBB and BB will only recruit during regular recruiting anyways which PT students will not have access to so there is no dilution to traditional MBA'esque jobs (Leadership Development Programs, MBB, BB, VC, PE)

2. Possibly true for a number of PT students, no worries, should not affect your Booth experience.

3. Most of the jobs you are after will be had during regular FT recruiting period and recruiting events which the PT class does not have access to. An MBA has the most significant impact on your first offer right out of bschool and slowly diminishes their after. The chance if you utilizing the OCR 2-5 years after bschool is slim so PT students eventual access to the OCR shouldn't be too concerning.

4. Employers will know they went to the PT program since on the resume it will show they were in school for 3+ years and also show that they have been working while attending the MBA program. Most savvy employers should be able to tell very quickly, especially from MBA programs that have large PT programs like Booth, Kellogg, Duke, NYU. Imagine the dilution at Duke.. they have 4-5 MBA programs with MUCH different standards from their traditional MBA to their other offerings.

99% of the PT students take classes at the Gleacher center which is downtown. I have not met a PT student that attends classes in the main MBA Hyde Park Campus. FT students get priority bidding for classes at the main campus anyways, the chances of you being grouped with a PT student as a FT student is an extremely rare event.

Don't get me wrong, working in Chicago for the past 3 years and meeting so many people that go to Booth due to the huge PT program makes it all feel a little less special but just keep in mind if you join the FT program you will be a part of the FT student bubble, PT students and FT students do not really mingle. 60-70% of the FT student body live within a 2 block radius of each other downtown in one of four high rises and create a really strong community while in the program.

Good luck!

Anyone know if the Harper Center cafe is open on Saturdays? Wondering where to get breakfast on Super Saturday!

Not sure but there is a large starbucks 5 minutes walk from campus.

Z&H and Medici on 57th are good choices as well.

Posted from my mobile device

Thanks aalba005 for the great answer. These are the types of questions I do not want to ask admissions especially when we are still in the deliberation stage as of now. Oh well...I might explore the theme more with them if ever admitted to the program.

Beyond the practical benefits of an MBA, the psychological benefits of "part of exclusive club", "great professional achievement", "2 years with the smartest people in the planet" etc. count a lot for me as well so want to make sure there is a fuller understanding.

Had my interview today. Pretty standard questions as reported by others

Tell me about yourself
Short/Long term goals
Why MBA
Why Booth
How will you contribute at Booth
Example of leadership
Example of failure
Questions

There were quite a few supplementary questions depending on what I answered to the main prompt

Interviewed at Booth yesterday. Overall, positive experience. Thought the interview questions were fairly basic and predictable:

-Tell me about yourself
-2 detailed questions about my work experience that coincided with the interviewers background
-Post-MBA goals
-Why Booth
-Concrete skills I'm looking to get out of an MBA
-What do I foresee as the most challenging aspect of b-school
-Most memorable experience from undergrad

Good luck to those of you with interviews in the coming week.

I don't think so but there will probably be breakfast provided for students. But in the sake of being prepared, you should bring your own food just in case you don't like what's provided

As a current student I thought it would be useful to chime in.

1) It doesn't dilute the Booth brand by any means even if you think that the PT students are subpar to FT students. Our only interaction with them is if FT students choose to take a evening or weekend class. Also, since ALL (LITERALLY ALL because it's in their contract) professors that teach FT students have to teach a PT section of the same course, they receive access to the same amazing professors we do. There is a large Booth community (obviously) in Chicago so why would you pass up this opportunity to network with current business professionals? FT students have access to the directory of FT and PT graduates, which are typically senior members of their organizations after 10+ yrs of working experience. Lastly, they don’t have access to summer internship recruiting so they are not competition.

Also, all recruiters (since I'm recruiting for Investment Management but drop into IB recruiting, I'm talking about Goldman Sachs, JPM, MFS, Fidelity, Hedge funds, Wellington, etc) have told me "you got into Booth. We know you have the mental horsepower to be successful". That doesn't sound like dilution to me. Lastly, if your thought is that a programs brand is lessened due to a PT program, then you should apply that logic to every school except for HBS and Stanford.

2) Again, this is incorrect. They don’t have access to courses at the Harper Center and have a separate career services department to address their needs. Booth caters to our every need and you can not believe the support they give us from academics, adjusting to life in Chicago, career services, recruitment, access to alums, and access to professors. It’s amazing. Our month long orientation included 2 straight weeks of interaction in person with alums that work on every corner of the globe and in very sector imaginable. Info sessions, networking opportunities, after-hours sessions at bars/restaurants in Chicago. I was blown away. As a FT’er, you could walk up and have a conservation with Professor Austan Goolsbee, Professor Fama (which I’ve done), or Dean Kumar (everytime I’ve seen him order food, he gets a salad) in the lunch line. That doesn’t happen at the PT program…their orientation program is 5 days.

3) Again. That doesn’t happen. Also, you will be happy that there’s a PT and weekend program during the recruiting process. It allows the flexibility to miss your regularly scheduled class and make up the lesson on a weekend or at a night class.

4) Again, most PT graduates will say that they went to the PT program. Also, employers will know that you went to the FT program because you attended for 2 yrs vs. 3+ yrs for a PT student. Lastly, it’s the same professors, same material, and same level of rigor. In fact, a growing number of FT students take PT classes because they choose to take an internship during the school yr or want to focus on creating a business during the day.

I echo Prudence's statements. I wrote an essay because I'm bad at PPT. When I received my official acceptance letter, admissions commented on how refreshing it was to read my "life-story" after seeing countless numbers of PPT's.

Don't focus on the medium. Focus on the product giving an accurate but unique window into who you are as a person.

My on-site questions were very similar. Very conversational, as well. Definitely less structured than most folks have been indicating.

I loved my Chicago interview today (on-campus)

Very standard questions around resume, leadership experiences et all.

Does anyone know if the 2nd year MBAs who conduct the interviews already have your resume before hand (if so, how much time do they have it for)? If not, what do people think about using a more up to date / overhauled version of the resume than the one that was submitted with the application?

Just looking for thoughts? I think my revised resume is much better, but I don't want to confuse the adcom or shed any doubt that Booth is a school that I want to go to.

Actually, I stand corrected. I attended Super Saturday today, and they had a lunch with students and tour set up. When you walk in, there's a sign with the schedule. It's open to all who are interviewing so you don't need to sign up beforehand. Granted, the tour probably feels a little weird since the building is kind of desolate on Saturdays (at least today it was)