Calling All 2011 Booth Applicants!!

Does anybody know of a not-too-expensive accommodation near Booth campus?

My suggestion is to try Priceline and use the Name Your Own Price option. I think they you can bid specifically for Hyde Park. It's usually a good deal when you book last minute.

Just came back from my Chicago interview. I'm very happy with how it went. I hope this debrief helps people.

My interviewer was an Alumnus. The guy holds an important position of an American bank in Hong Kong. The interview was in a meeting room at his office.

He arrived 20 min late to our appointment (I waited him in the meeting room). When he finally arrived he apologized for keeping me waiting and quickly started talking. We exchanged business cards and he presented himself briefly. He told me that he had been working and living in several continents (as I did) and explained about his different positions he has held. He was clearly a successful finance guy.

Then he told me to present myself and to walk through my resume. I started speaking about my education, work experience, the positions I held and projects I led, etc. I had prepared a lot the "walk your resume" questions so I did well, trying not to bore him but also trying to not forget anything important.

About my resume he only asked about my last job a couple of very specific questions, as his domain is related to mine somehow. He seemed like "testing" I really work where I say in my resume.

Then he jumped to typical question such as why I want to do an MBA and why now. Then why Booth is my best fit and so on, and why I plan to learn in case I'm accepted. I answered with totally sincerity and we started a great conversation about the school, about my career and many things about Chicago. He was very helpful and gave me advices.

He asked me what I like from Hong Kong (I'm from Europe), or why I don't prefer to continue working where I work now instead of spending two years studying. He also asked me about my personal life and if my wife supports me in my decision to do an MBA and things like that. This triggered 10 minutes speaking about my wife as she is also interviewing in Chicago.

Then I started asking him questions. He told me how Chicago helped him in his career, what concentrations he chose, what he liked from the school, where he lived, etc. We also spoke about other schools. I told him I was interviewing in others, and he asked why I preferred Chicago.

At the end we spoke around 20 minutes about my career progression, about the school, campus, the best places to live during the MBA, about diversity, and so on.

I have to say that the conversation was formal but I enjoyed it a lot. It was very interesting speaking with him and I think he also enjoyed it. At the end he told me to keep in touch, wished me luck and told me he was very satisfied and that I fitted to Chicago. Hopefully he'll write a good report....

For you guys that still have not interviewed, I think the interviews of this kind you should do your best to sell yourself, the interviewer is not going to ask you the questions you want (I would have loved to tell him more about some stories but he didn’t ask anything that could have led me to speak about them), so try to use each of the questions to convey the ideas you want he remember about you. Once the interview is finished, ask yourself: Did I speak about leadership? Did I say I'm X, Y or Z? Did I speak about my stories A, B or C? Did I say an MBA from X School is the best option for me?

Got this email from Booth...

Fresh info from the chat:

XXXXX asks: Hello. I was wondering what percentage of the Round 1 applicants
invited to interview will be offered a spot in the class of 2013.

Donna: We do not know the percentage for this year. In the past it has been between
20% to 40%. This includes those who are waitlisted and ultimately granted admission.

---

Another one:

YYYYY asks: They say R1 and R2 are given same weightage. Is it true? or applicants of
R1 possess better chances than others?

Donna: Honestly chances of admission are not greater in either round. We interview
approximately 50% of the applicants and admit 20 to 40% of those interviewed.

---
My note: now we can conclude that the secret admittance rate of Booth is 10% ~ 20% (as expected).

Hmmmmm.... I imagine that the acceptance rate for interviewed applicates hovers in the 40-50% range. I'm assuming that the 50% interviewed number is correct and the last two classes really did have an admission rate of 24.8% and 22%.


Maybe I'm just being hopeful....

Am I late with the news that Business Week just released their newest edition of bi-annual b-school rankings? Booth is at the top again. Check it out...

https://www.businessweek.com/bschools/co ... hools+2010

Rhyme - do you have any insights on the percentages listed above? I was also under the impression it was more in the 40-50% range for people with interview invites, but the adcoms seem to be stressing otherwise.

Under promise, over deliver? Ha ha...I either need to start yoga or boxing after my interview to calm my nerves until December 15th.

Hi

Has anyone interviewed in Bangalore, India recently ? I have an interview scheduled sometime next week and it will be great if someone can share their experience.

BabaPi

I really doubt that the admit rate after interview is 50%, especially since they interview 50% of the applicants. Most (good) schools have an acceptance rate of about 15%, not 25%. That would put the post-interview admit rate at about 30%, right in the middle of the range the Adcom specified in the chat session.

My interview will be a week from tomorrow!

I have an interview scheduled in Delhi next week. Anyone who can share the experience? PM me plz if u some1 is interviewing in delhi too...

Retracting my previous comments... I just saw this on the front page of Yahoo.

1. University of Chicago
Booth School of Business
Selectivity: 22 percent

If they're admitting 22 percent of all who apply, and interview 50% of the applicants, that roughly means 40% of the interviewees are admitted.

Booth believes in a discipline-based approach, saying that managing a business requires understanding all of it's disciplines, such as marketing, economics, statistics, etc. Doesn't that go against the flexibility? I would expect this from a school with a core curriculum. There are some requirements at the beginning but I still don't understand how these two concepts fit together. Any ideas?

I had my interview yesterday. I met an alumni and the interview took place at a meeting room within his office at a large European bank.

It was really relaxed overall, he had a standard set of questions he asked about, most notably:
- Why MBA now
- Why Booth
- 3 most important things in your life
- If I could change one thing, what would it be

I walked through my resume briefly and he had a few questions there as well. I then had quite a few questions on Booth as well which he answered and the interview then turned into a general chat about Chicago and the program.

Overall the interview was much more relaxed than I anticipated. I had expected more direct and specific questions regarding leadership and experiences, but the questions asked were basically the top 4 you read about in all the accepted.com/wikiadmit forums.

An overall good experience and I'm still very excited about Booth. Nothing more I can do now to increase my chances of admission so now it's just a matter of kicking back, staying positive and checking the mailbox daily!

Best of luck to all other applicants.

Gerrard, thanks for sharing your interview questions.


Fyi, until December 15th they won't will tell you anything about the decision