Chicago Booth (GSB)

Guys I've been looking into the GSB lately and I've become really interested in applying in R1.

How is the campus?

Is the school "commuter" (whatever your definition of the word) or do people hang out on campus?

Do bschoolers mingle with the other schools?

Where do the students mostly live and mingle?

Campus (or rather the Harper center) is a top-notch modern facility, second to none. Well, maybe Ross will have something of a kind, once it's finished.

Yes, it is a commuter school, whatever it means People live all over the city (of course there are more densely GSB populated areas - South Loop, Hyde Park) but they tend to hang out in Harper Center the whole day. So, probably there is more socializing in this "commuter" school than in many "campus" schools.

So I wanted to get an opinion on my thoughts for the 2a essay:

2a) Have you ever made a decision that caused you to go against popular opinion? Please describe that situation and your rationale for you decision. b) Did you feel at any point that people misperceived your motives? Explain? c) In retrospect, how do you think an MBA from Chicago GSB would have affected your decision?

I'm thinking about using a recent acquisition that I was against from the first time we began to look at it (I'm in Corp Dev/Strategic Planning). It made no sense to buy the company and still doesn't as far as I'm concerned, but there are several senior people for the acq. What I'm not sure of is how to answer the motives part of the question? Not sure how people could misperceive my motives, it's not like I have an agenda or something. How do you think this sounds as the basis for my answer?

I think that sounds like a good topic for your response. As for misperceived motives, you could discuss the potential for more senior people at the firm seeing your opposition to the acquisition as a way to potentially make a name for yourself/earn your stripes over a more senior person. Seems like an angle you could run with. Of course, I am not sure if there was any indication of misperceived motives in your situation.

wow that is sketchy! I'm an Indian citizen but US permanent resident - wonder which bucket that puts me in?

For those looking for a swanky-er place to stay this weekend, Marriott has a deal at one of their renovated facilities on the Magnif Mile in July/Aug - it's something like $180/night instead of the usual $300 or so.

I on the other hand am crashing on a friend's air mattress - and all it's costing me is a bottle of Jager woo!

Hi Folks,
Thanks for helping us out! I am applying to GSB for 09. I am vissiting chicago over the labor day weekend. I was wondering if one of the current students could spare some time to meet me?
Thanks
Akshat

is it time to rename this thread to Chicago Booth?

On a serious note, how do current students feel about how this donation is going to improve the school? It already was reputed to have the best facilities...

If you read how the gift is set up they arent going to cash it in. A lot of schools keep their endowments growing and only use the interest, so thats probably what this will do. It brings them up to the level of Kellogg and Wharton in terms of their b-school endowment now so personally I dont think its going to make a huge impact immediately...its more of a long term thing. However, you need to realize their competition is definitely going to use this to help them raise money.

wow, only Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia left...

and Yale. (I had forgotten that one too, but saw it in a Businessweek article)

Any Chicago Booth ambassadors available to meet Friday morning? rhyme, kwam, irish?

Actually is only Yale, Columbia and Stanford. Harvard is actually the George F. Baker Foundation (I know different story but still). And at Stanford no school is allowed to have a name - you should know that you went there .

Soni I will be at school from 10 am if I can finish a case I have till tomorrow night. I sent you a PVT.

kidro

Quite frankly sentiment is still mixed. I preferred the GSB, but I fell that Booth sounds ok - even though it reminds me some other stuff - and in my home country everybody says that I'm at The University of Chicago, that were the brand equity comes from actually.

The deans are talking to students, telling the strategy: brand, faculty, building - I bet that in a couple of year we will have a campus for Exec MBA somewhere else, and I believe it's going to be at the UEA - etc. The Money may give space to school make what Kellogg already does: Direct Student Loans.

Chicago was behind its peers in endowments, and was considered even a stretchy school, and a good thing is that it is $150M already ahead of others, as it has already the building for the FT MBA.

The point is that Mr. Booth, is really attached to the school and the university, and his gift already made some other Alumni to participate in the $100M matching program, this will allow the school to compete in a better position, for sure. Also his story is very interesting, and even though some people don't like Efficient Markets Theory, truth be told is that DFA made lots of Money using the semi-strong form of it and some anomalies that the Fama-French 3 factor model showed.

I read the HBS case about Dimensional last week, really intriguing.

Interesting, I did not know that no schools at Stanford is allowed to have a name. I went to engineering school there, remember? None of the engineering schools have a name. This whole "naming of school" thing is stuff of the Professional schools.

I had no idea Stanford wasn't allowed to name its schools. You learn something new every day! The naming trend is starting to slowly spread to med schools (Geffen/UCLA, Feinberg/Northwestern, Keck/USC) as well. I have no idea what impact that'll have.

I don't think that's the case Kryzak. The engineering school I went to was named after a donor/professor: Henry Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom. He donated 10 million to get those naming rights. He also donated the same amount to another state school to get their engineering school named after him as well. Of course, given his legal troubles, there is talk of removing his name/reselling the naming rights.

Oh I forgot to mention one thing about the "name changing" here. I like my avatar, I REALLY do, and I want something at the same level before I change it.