Chicago GSB: Oct 12th Roll Call

good event. great to meet rhyme, nervousgmat, forcefeed, riverripper, and dosa don.

met tons of current students that were extremely helpful

It was great meeting all you guys (and gals). I hope you had some fun and I'm sorry I didn't find you guys at lunch (i looked for ya)...

Funny story: Two other prospectives and I chatted later in the day. One guy was very concerned about the TOEFL and he didn't know what a GMAT was. The other guy, who looked much older, didn't say much. The older guy offered me his business card, but hte younger guy didn't.. I thought that was a little, well, strange... but whatever.

Then the younger guy asked me why people seemed "so old". I told him i thought the average age was 26 or 27, and he was shocked. Finally, I figured it out... he didnt know the GSB was a masters program..... he wanted to come to the US for a bachelor's degree. Thats why he thought people were so old... and thats why he didnt have a business card - he didn't work. The guy who gave me a card was, almost without a doubt, his dad.

With competition like this, you should all be admitted easily

that is a good story! Haha, I hope all the competition is this easy!

I kind of feel bad for them... Rhyme, were you able to explain to the two of them that there is a difference between a graduate and an undergraduate school?

They understood immediately - they just didnt know the GSB was strictly a masters program. They must have thought it was just a "business school" arm of Chicago.

It was great to meet you guys and Nervous yesterday. Rhyme, I completely missed you yesterday thanks to the nightmare finding parking yesterday. So reached the session a little late. Did you end up at the LPF last night?

Anyways guessed River (based on his name tag) and ended up meeting up the rest of the gang- pretty cool to put a face to a face.

Anyways - my 2c on the GSB session. Was nice and they did put in a lot of effort to plan it.
1. I did not think the LEAD session was very useful (I am not sure if everyone else felt the same). I think they could used some 2nd year facilitators instead and it would have been more fun.
2. The application review that we did was interesting but the essays were quite ordinary
3. The LPF seemed like a lot of fun- but felt that GSB forgot that they invited some prospectives there. They could have arranged some current students to talk to us or give us an overview there. I saw bunch of prospectives talking amongst ourselves.
4. Harper center is awesome
5. The adcom at GSB reads b-week forums. Might want to be careful about what you post out there
6. Lots of stupid questions were asked (as expected)

Good feedback. Can I pass it along to them, anonymously of course...

As for the LPF issue - a good point - in everyone's defense, the school never told us prospectives were around, so unless you are a wierdo like me and keep track of stuff like that, no one at the LPF probably had a clue you were not a student.

Oh and dosa, sorry I missed you

Next time.

I think a great part of the event that is overlooked by a lot is just getting a sense of who else is applying. Not necessarily to gauge the competition but I am sure that does happen to an extent as you listen to people since thats human nature but to see who might be your classmates. Overall I was impressed with almost everyone there, I didn't run into anyone who seemed clueless about the whole process (rhyme's story is shocking). My general take is the quality of the people is great, from the students I met (both wed and fri), applicants, and the faculty/staff. There was really no one I would dread being in school with, though there were a few who definitely took up far more than their share of discussions.

Through the whole search, I have been impressed with all the schools I have looked at. I think in general people pursuing MBAs are pretty self selecting so it shouldn't be a shock that they are not only talented but also personable.

As Dosa pointed out the essays we reviewed by the "candidate" were not impressive overall. I think that was probably done intentionally but I hope thats an indication of the level they receive. I mean, there were lots of spelling and grammar mistakes. Not to mention all the sentences that were 4 lines long and rambled about nothing really. Overall they just didn't flow well or have a good clear picture. So lets hope most people submit essays like the ones we read.

Rhyme.......are you taking any classes at the Gleacher Center?

I think the Gleacher center is for part time MBA programs.

I went there the first time as I was living 2 blocks down the road and they nicely shooed my away. (The receptionist was helpful - she was the one who told me about the bus route - Hyde Park Express to the main campus)

Rhyme can correct me on this but I believe that though the Gleacher Center is mainly for PT MBA programs, you can attend the classes there as a FT student if you want.

I think lhmcjen attends the U Chic PT MBA program and I guess he is trying to connect with rhyme in case rhyme is planning to take classes at the Gleacher center.

Sure you can give them the feedback anonymously hopefully

Just would like to add to this:
Overall I the program presented a great picture of the GSB. The student panel was very informative as well.

Were you there at the LPF rhyme?

i was there too...
great facilities. alumni panel was impressive.
LEAD program sounds great..

I think you are referring to the student panel dont remember an alumni panel

You are correct. Some people do, but generally its only when you really want to get a specific class and the only open section is there or if you want to save points and pay less, or maybe you just like evening courses. Some people are just nuts though. I know one girl who has class on Wednesdays from 8:30-11:30, 1:30-4:30, and 6:00 to 9:00. That's a pretty long day.