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(4.9) |
I had an amazing experience at Booth. The program and culture live up to the mantras of "Challenge everything" and "Independent thought" in my experience. Personally, I was drawn to the fact that there is no one path at Booth -- you're not forced into a cohort, you're not told which classes you have to take, you're not assigned to study teams and instead, you have the freedom to chart your own course (within some guidelines of course!) and you gain much wider exposure (e.g., taking classes with 2nd years). Looking back, the LEAD course was extremely helpful and I apply those lessons about leadership and self-awareness everyday now. The student culture is very strong (and different than what many perceive) -- it's a bit different from other schools where there's a concentrated campus that everyone lives near and again, things aren't dictated for you. I was incredibly impressed by my classmates -- not just their intelligence and career drive but also their passion for traveling and experiencing the city of Chicago. I did not find it to be competitive at all - I think because of the grade non-disclosure but also in recruiting, I had so much help from my classmates.
A bit about my experience: I was a career changer. I worked in HR before and worked in consulting afterwards (boutique/startup firm in Chicago). My course specializations were Strategy, Economics, and Marketing. I was very involved with the Admissions team while there, serving on the student adcom, leading tours, planning admit weekend, etc. I also loved the Business Solutions Group where I worked on a pro-bono consulting project for a non-profit education company. I lived in Hyde Park (rare for Booth students, but I loved it).
My advice to future applicants: engage with the Booth community as much as possible. Visit campus, sit in on a class, talk to students and alums, connect with the alumni group in your closest city. Be prepared to have reasons for "Why Booth" beyond just the finance reputation and flexible curriculum.
Amazing professors - my personal faves were Murphy's Turbo Econ, Epley's Managing in Organizations and Boethner's Strategy and Structure. Also recommend taking advantage of the many lab classes and the Polsky Center for those interested in entrepreneurship.
Strong across the board but especially strong in consulting and finance. Companies that recruit for marketing are really impressive too, and they seem to value Booth's data-driven approach to marketing. Some classmates recruiting for jobs in California had to do more of their search on their own, but that may have improved since I was there.
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Overall, Booth is a great school for those who like to think analytically. Flexible curriculum and excellent faculty are fortes. The career services is very good and is one of the few programs that let's you opt for in campus recruiting. Overall, I had a wonderful experience and it definitely helped me gain the career traction that I was looking for. Furthermore the alumni network is strong and widely spread across the globe, making it easy to look for opportunities anywhere in the world. The brand name name and reputation further helps in gaining opportunities. Feel free to reach out me if you have any questions.
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Booth is a fantastic school for those who have a very clear sense of what they want to do. Between the flexible curriculum, ability to take classes in both the Harper and Gleacher center, and the strengths in a wide variety of subjects, the school is a great place for independent people and those who are naturally outgoing. However the school's strengths are also its drawbacks, namely there is not a very strong cohort system, and so one has to really go the extra mile to get to know ones classmates.
As somebody who was transitioning sectors within finance, I found that the classes and brand helped immensely. I was able to secure a private equity internship without any prior banking experience.
Advice I would give to future applicants: you should seriously consider Booth, it's a fantastic school and the "where fun goes to die" adage does not apply to the business school, only the undergraduate college.
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Booth is a "create your own adventure" type business school. There's no cohort structure, and there's tons of freedom when choosing classes. This school is great for those who thrive with this unstructured academic and social approach.
The school gets all the basics right. Career services are good, and classes by and large are good. Banking, consulting, investment management and all the basic career paths are strong here. We also have private equity/venture capital too but it's a little harder to break into.
The one area which was disappointing, and why I could not give it a perfect rating, is the culture of the school. The culture isn't bad, but I do not believe it is as advertised. The school markets itself as a very intellectual, rigorous place. In my experience, there was a lot of platitudes and I never heard anything really interesting or thought-provoking. To the extent this culture exists, it's in the PhD program and academics, Booth's true strength area. The MBA program culture was pretty typical yuppie as far as I could tell.
Booth seems to have a strong presence in analytics, so if that's an area of interest the school is definitely worth checking out.
A lot of people end up having to do a "specialized search", meaning going for companies that do not recruit on campus. If you're looking for traditional big MBA employers like banking, consulting and tech, on-campus is fine. But most corporations, even some very large ones in the Chicagoland area, do not recruit at Booth directly. So if you're looking to work in a corporate function in Chicago post-graduation, that's something to be prepared for.
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REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED ****@chicagobooth.edu [?]
I had high expectations for Booth. The experience dramatically exceeded my expectations.
I expected to learn a ton. But the amount and pace of learning blew me away.
I expected awesome colleagues. Their deep kindness, altruism, wicked smartness blew me away.
I expected a great entrepreneurship education. I got one of the world's best entrepreneurship education and incubator programs. Super super super the real deal.
If you are looking for a program that holds your hand, Booth is not for you. At Booth, they put the weight on you to develop and drive your own experience. If you put energy into that, it's such a journey on which you'll grow more per day than anywhere else in your life.
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Can be hard to run down important information
Booth does not have quite the same reputation as the schools that typically precede it in most business school rankings (i.e., Harvard, Stanford, Wharton), but it should be considered every bit the equal of these programs. The faculty and curriculum are unmatched, and the philosophical approach to education is a serious draw. In addition, the school has considerably stepped up the financial aid it offers to students in the form of scholarships, and as a result it has eased the financial burden felt by many students in attending.
Apply to Booth if you are serious about wanting to learn something during business school rather than coasting through and partying. The experiences you gain here will be extremely valuable throughout your subsequent career.
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The mantra of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business is it’s all about the idea. Students focus on generating, analyzing, comparing, and refining ideas in order to elevate them to better ideas.
The full-time MBA program consists of 20 classes plus Leadership Effectiveness and Development (LEAD). The flagship of the program is its flexible curriculum. Unlike many other top schools with lockstep first-year MBA programs, Booth does not require its MBAs to go through every class together. One key exception is the LEAD course, which all MBAs must take. However, by and large, students design a program tailored to fit their own career goals.
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Before coming to Booth, I was very aware of its reputation of "quant-y." Although I found this to be somewhat true as everyone I encountered was very smart and many were analytical. I found it very misleading to label an entire school under one umbrella. The people at Booth were for the most part, very well-rounded individuals, each with their own unique characteristics. As I spoke with my friends from other top business schools, like Kellogg, Wharton, or HBS, I thought it was insulting when they said everyone at my school was a "nerd" since that wasn't the case at all. I was and still am constantly impressed by the level of people I have met at Booth.
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Every (successful) Booth applicant has likely heard about Booth's flexible curriculum, yet I can't stress enough how this "we'll treat you like an adult and let you make your own choices" philosophy can shape one's Booth experience. Personally, having worked in finance and completed the CFA program before Booth, I opted not to take the basic Investments and Accounting classes that would have been mandatory at peer institutions in favor of advanced finance (including PhD classes and a well-known bankruptcy/restructuring class at UChicago Law) and additional entrepreneurship coursework. I saw many classmates similarly take full advantage of the ability to pick and choose from a diverse course offerings to pursue their varied passion. This is not to say that academic is the dominant factor underlying a Booth experience; like other top MBA programs, we spent large chunks of our time exploring career options, preparing for and going through interviews, traveling, and of course, partying. But one shall not ignore how much whom you meet IN the classroom shape your MBA experience. I was fortunate to meet and become good friends with "Boothies" in my class as well as the classes immediately above and immediately below mine, many of which came from a wide variety of fascinating backgrounds. I became a better person because of knowing them.
Last but not least, Chicago's relatively low cost-of-living and the fact that >80% of Booth students live right in the heart of Chicago (with an easy train commute to school) mean that we all had a great time!
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Depending on the area of focus/industry you are interested in, the school offers different sets of resources. For example, if you are interested in investment banking or consulting, there is a wealth of resources (current students, alumni, clubs) that are available to help pursue an internship or job in these areas. However, if you are interested in some of the less common professions like marketing or PE, then much more of the onus is put on you to guide your search. Booth still makes great efforts to help in these areas but it still lacks in comparison to others.
I would suggest coming into business school with a purpose and an idea of what industry/profession you want to pursue. Although the school does a great job of providing background in most areas, do your homework before coming in to get the most out of the resources provided. There are great social aspects that add to your experience, but not enough to justify the high price that business school costs.
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