Chicago Booth Announces New International Loan Program

More good news is on the way for international business school applicants. Last week the University of Chicago Booth School of Business announced a new loan program for international students. Launched in partnership with JPMorgan Chase, the new program will give these students access to private educational loans without requiring a co-signer.

The new program will provide loans to international students who are not eligible for federal assistance in the U.S. and cannot qualify for standard private loans because they do not have a U.S.-based co-signer.

Under the terms of the new deal, JPMorgan Chase will provide financing to qualified international students for amounts up to the total cost of attendance, minus any financial aid received. Exact terms will be announced later this spring, when students will receive more information on the program.

"Almost 20 percent of our students are from abroad, and they add a great deal of intellectual vibrancy and cultural richness throughout the University and our community," said Kimberly Goff-Crews, Vice-President for Campus Life and Dean of Students, in a release on the school's site. "We have focused our attention on finding loan programs that will meet the needs of this important segment of our student body."

For more information on applying to Chicago Booth, visit the Veritas Prep Chicago Booth information page.

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What Counts as Significant International Work Experience?

For international experience to be significant it has to be something that you can write about at length and appropriately in a b-school essay.

1. Can you articulate how you lead a team in a multi-national or cross border environment? This is what the adcom would want to see if you were writing an essay. A lot of applicants have worked occasionally overseas. More important is what you learned, how it changed your perspective, how you overcame an obstacle and how you produced a positive team outcome.
2. That is, what you got out of it and what you can put down on paper is what will set your experience apart from other applicants. That is where I consider the line drawn with respect to whether or not an experience is significant.
3. With respect to any extracurricular international experience (start-up, professional volunteerism, etc.), if you can write about it effectively as part of your positioning then it’s significant and should be considered for an essay topic. So yes, this could fall under international experience as you interacted with others with perhaps different operating norms and value sets.
4. Remember, I always tell my clients “WWACD” or “What Would the Adcom Do?” Keeping that perspective help put a reality check on a lot of questions that pop up during the admissions process.

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