University of Chicago Reputation?

First, you have to distinguish between the Universtity of Chicago economics department and the Booth school of business. Many professors have joint appointments to both, but most do not.

The one thing I really like about Booth is that while they're known for liberal economics, they're very much diverse. You get Gene Fama at one end of the hall talking about how markets are ultra-rational, and at the other you get Richard Thaler, probably the most important behavioral economist alive today, talking about how irrational people make the markets by extension irrational. And I don't know what liability you could be talking about. Chicago has its shares of Keynesians as well--it's not Princeton, but you definitely won't be indoctrinated. But then again I bring up my original point: you're talking about Booth, not the economics department.

If you really want to know more about this, watch this documentary online on behavioral econ. Notice how both sides of the leading arguments are represented at Chicago.

Obviously you gotta go with where you are most comfortable with, and a few peoples' opinions really shouldn't matter. That said, I know that Chicago's reputation in economics breach further than its school of economics. According to my limited pool of law school friends, even its law program (which is highly ranked too) is known to have this bent in this type of "economic thought" academics when people apply. Booth's program is very well regarded in finance, so you shouldn't have a problem if you want to go into investment banking and other roles.

I would agree with the point about their economics. Their Finance beliefs are pretty set in stone as well. Don't go mentioning alpha. You will get stared at and suddenly found yourself getting woken in the night by an angry mob with torches.

Congratulations on getting into Booth. Booth is known for its 'free-market' and 'markets are efficient' theories but it does not limit you from your own opinions.My husband graduated from Booth few years back and absolutely loved the experience.He did join Investment Banking at Lehman ( ) and highly recommends Booth school for Finance.But I have to say that the name recognition of Harvard, Stanford, outside US, surpasses that of Booth school....atleast thats what we felt back home in India.

Hi chambax,

I would not be concerned about the two comments you heard. Chicago Booth is an excellent business school.

We actually discussed some great reasons to attend Booth on Quora here:

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-top-r ... of-Chicago

Cheers,

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team