Chicago Booth Application Essays 2010-2011

Recently we wrote about Chicago Booth's admissions deadlines for the coming year. Today we dig into the school's admissions essays, which have changed quite a bit since last year.

It's interesting to note that, after there was some chatter a few months ago that Booth would drop its "PowerPoint question" this year, it lives on. We firmly believe that schools like Booth are still looking for new ways to learn more about you, and while that question hasn't been perfect, they don't want to give up on it since it's still Booth's best bet to get to know the real you before interviewing you.

Here are Chicago Booth's essays for the Class of 2013, followed by our comments in italics:

Chicago Booth Admissions Essays

1. The Admissions Committee is interested in learning more about you on both a personal and professional level. Please answer the following (maximum of 300 words for each section):
   
   a. Why are you pursuing a full-time MBA at this point in your life?
   
   b. Define your short and long term career goals post MBA.
   
   c. What is it about Chicago Booth that is going to help you reach your goals?
   
   d. RE-APPLICANTS ONLY: Upon reflection, how has your thinking regarding your future, Chicago Booth, and/or getting an MBA changed since the time of your last application?
   
   This question is new this year, although in many ways it's a direct descendant of last year's first essay question. This is the fairly standard "Why an MBA? Why this school?" question that most schools ask. Note that, as important is it is to make a convincing case about your career goals and your reasons for wanting an MBA, you also really need to take part (c) seriously... What about Booth attracts you to the school? This is where you need to show that you've done your homework, and convince the school that you're not only applying because Booth is highly ranked.


2. Chicago Booth is a place that challenges its students to stretch and take risks that they might not take elsewhere. Tell us about a time when you took a risk and what you learned from that experience .(750 words)
   
   This question is also new this year. The best response here will come directly from your work experience, provide enough drama to pull the reader in, and give you an opportunity to really answer the second part of the essay prompt: What did you learn from the experience? Last year "reflection" was a big theme in Booth's essay questions, and while this question doesn't specifically ask for reflection, this is your chance to show the kind of self-awareness and introspection that Booth admissions officers really want to see.


3. At Chicago Booth, we teach you HOW to think rather than what to think. With this in mind, we have provided you with "blank pages" in our application. Knowing that there is not a right or even a preferred answer allows you to demonstrate to the committee your ability to navigate ambiguity and provide information that you believe will support your candidacy for Chicago Booth.
   
   We have set forth the following guidelines:
   
   
   • The content is completely up to you. Acceptable file formats are PowerPoint or PDF.
   
   
   • There is a strict maximum of four pages, though you can provide fewer if you choose.
   
   
   • The document will be printed in color and added to your file for review; therefore, flash, hyperlinks, embedded videos, music, etc. will not be viewed by the committee. You are limited to text and static images to convey your points.
   
   
   • The file will be evaluated on the quality of content and ability to convey your ideas, not on technical expertise or presentation.
   
   
   • Files need to be less than 9 megabytes in order to upload. If your file is too large you may save your file as a PDF and upload your essay.
   
   This is the famous "PowerPoint question," although Booth sets it up differently this year, putting much more emphasis on the "Hey, you have a blank slate here!" message than before. Here the school asks you to present yourself creatively and succinctly. Almost nothing is out of bounds, but you really must ensure that these pages add something new to your application -- don't use it to just show off professional achievements that you already cover elsewhere in your application. Be creative! The reason Booth kept this question is because, while it hasn't worked perfectly for the school so far, it really is the admissions committee's best chance to tease some personality out of your application. So, give them some!

Are you applying to Chicago Booth this year? Download our Chicago Booth Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

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Sunil Kumar Named New Dean at Chicago Booth

Yesterday the University of Chicago Booth School of Business announced that Stanford GSB's Sunil Kumar will assume the role of Dean at the school. Kumar's appointment ends a search that began seven months ago, after Edward A. Snyder announced in December that he would leave the school at the end of the academic year after serving nearly two full five-year terms at the head of the school.

Kumar, who is currently the Fred H. Merrill Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, will begin his five-year term at Booth starting January 1, 2011. He brings with him an extensive resume of thought leadership in the operations management space. Kumar also is familiar with the role of leading an MBA program, currently serving as Stanford GSB's Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

This is an interesting appointment on multiple levels. For one, while longtime Chicago Booth faculty member Harry Davis never seemed to be a front-runner for the job, his extensive experience at the school made him someone the search committee had to at least consider. Davis was one of the key players who led the development of Booth's relatively new LEAD program, which represented a very significant change to the school's curriculum. Anyone who thought that Davis would be "too much of an insider" (i.e., unwilling to shake things up if needed) wouldn't need to look any further than that program.

Additionally, over the past decade Booth has certainly spread its wings beyond hardcore quant and finance to gain a more well-rounded reputation among applicants and leaders at other schools. Appointing an "ops guy" like Kumar suggests that the school is comfortable with how far its reputation has come recently, and doesn't feel a need to go any farther than it already has. Ten years ago, we wonder if the school, which has been interested in broadening its branding beyond the stereotype of hardcore quant-types, would have made this same appointment. That's not to say that Kumar's leadership will put a damper on the school's other departments -- everything we've seen about him suggests that he's a well-rounded leader who happens to have a PhD in Electrical Engineering -- but it's an interesting signal about what the search committee thinks the school needs more right now.

Kumar had this to say about his appointment in Chicago Booth's announcement:

"I am excited to become dean of Chicago Booth," Kumar said. "I share the school's passion for the pursuit of ideas that hold up under careful scrutiny. I look forward to helping strengthen and enhance Booth's outstanding research environment and its rigorous, discipline-based approach to business education. I am eager to get to know the faculty, students, alumni, and staff of the school, and to engage with the business community in the city of Chicago."

No doubt about it, Kumar has some large shoes to fill. Snyder's tenure at Booth was arguably the most successful run by any business school leader over the past decade: In 2008 alumnus David Booth donated $300 million, a staggering sum that led to the school changing its name from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business to Chicago Booth. The school also opened its new state-of-the-art Harper Center, which has significantly improved the quality of life for the student body. And, Chicago Booth's global footprint has also grown significantly over the past decade, with a new campus in London and a planned campus expansions in Singapore. It's hard to argue that any dean has had more of an impact on his or her school over the past ten years than Snyder had.

Getting ready to apply to Chicago Booth? Download our Chicago Booth Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. Every year we help many applicants get into Booth, and we can help you, too. Call us at 800-925-7737 to speak with a Veritas Prep MBA admissions expert today.

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Chicago Booth Admissions Deadlines for 2010-2011

Chicago Booth's online application is now available for the 2010-2011 season. In a few days we'll dig into the school's significantly revamped essays for the coming year, but first we wanted to share Booth's admissions deadlines for the Class of 2013.

While Round 1 and Round have barely changed, there's some interesting news on the Round 3 front that has bigger implications for many applicants' overall timing strategies. We're diving into Booth's deadlines alone today to give enough space to this important lesson.

Here they are, followed by our comments in italics:

Chicago Booth Application Deadlines
Round 1: October 13, 2010
Round 2: January 5, 2011
Round 3: April 13, 2011

Round 1 and Round 2 have each only changed by a day this year, although Booth's Round 3 deadline is now five weeks later than it was last year! We suspect the reason may be similar to the reason that UCLA Anderson gave us before: Top U.S. schools compete with many top international schools to attract great candidates, and many international schools' final deadlines come much later than American schools' deadlines typically do. Booth doesn't want to miss out on a great applicant (who has legitimate reasons for applying in Round 3) simply because the admissions office has already shut its doors for the year.

For any applicant wondering if Round 3 is truly a dead zone in terms of admissions chances, this is an important clue: The school has pushed back its deadline to encourage more people to apply! Round 3 must not be a complete dead end, then. While we still advise that candidates aim for Round 1 or Round 2, don't believe all that you hear about Round 3 being impossible, especially at schools such as Booth that have made changes in their schedules to encourage more applicants to apply in Round 3.

Getting ready to apply to Chicago Booth this year? Download our Chicago Booth Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. Every year we help many applicants get into Booth, and we can help you, too. Call us at 800-925-7737 to speak with a Veritas Prep MBA admissions expert today.

And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!

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Chicago Booth to Eliminate PowerPoint Essay Question

A new BusinessWeek article titled Business Schools Revamp the Application investigates how some schools are breaking with tradition and exploring new approaches to the MBA admissions process. In some cases it's a matter of moving deadlines earlier or accepting the GRE in addition to the GMAT, while in others cases some schools are replacing traditional written essays with audio and video responses.

All interesting stuff, but what we actually found most intriguing was the fact that Chicago Booth will drop its PowerPoint question this coming admission season (2010-2011). This questions had been a staple of Booth's application for the past couple of years, but apparently it wasn't doing what the school had intended, so they put it out to pasture.

According to the article:

For the past few years, Booth has asked candidates to provide a PowerPoint presentation to show another side of themselves to the admissions committee. Although the committee has decided to eliminate the PowerPoint presentations starting with applications for the 2010-11 academic year, a new component -- as yet undisclosed -- will likely be in place this summer, says Rosemaria Martinelli, associate dean of student recruitment and admissions at Booth. The new addition to the admissions process may be something that MBA applicants will have to do after they get through an initial screening process, says Martinelli.

The PowerPoint slides didn't work, Martinelli says, because they became rote and entirely too easy to predict, They didn't showcase the applicant's personality and help the admissions committee determine who is and isn't a good fit, she said, adding that she hopes the new application procedure will do just that. "It's hard for us, especially when so much of the applicant pool is admissible," says Martinelli. "It comes down to who fits the life, spirit, and culture of an institution."

When a school adds or changes or deletes an essay question, it's a sign that the admissions office isn't quite getting what it needs. When reviewing every application, two main questions that goes through an admissions officer's mind are, "How well does this applicant fit with the school?" and "What about this applicant makes me want to choose him over other, similar applicants?" If a question generates similar answers from hundreds of applicants, or doesn't add anything new to most applicants' stories, then it's not getting the job done.

We suspect that many applicants' PowerPoint slides were nothing more than recaps of the rest of their applications, offering not much in the way of personality or useful information. This definitely wasn't the case for everyone -- some of our clients got into Chicago Booth this year with terrific PowerPoint slides -- but odds are that not enough applicants took full advantage of the medium, so Booth will move on.

Still, kudos to the school for trying something new. Also, we're very intrigued by the "may be something that MBA applicants will have to do after they get through an initial screening process" comment... The natural move would be for Booth to follow schools such as UCLA Anderson and offer a video or audio component. But, maybe it will be something else entirely, and maybe it will be something used as the admissions interview is used -- to get to know an applicant better after the school likes what it initially sees. We'll find out this summer, when Chicago Booth releases its application for the 2010-2011 admissions season.

For more advice on getting into Chicago Booth and other top business schools, download our Annual Reports, 15 completely free guides to the world's top MAB programs. And, as always, be sure to subscribe to this blog and to follow us on Twitter!

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Six Must-Have Professors at Chicago Booth

Continuing our series of admissions insights clipped from Veritas Prep's Annual Reports, our in-depth insider's guides to 15 of the world's top business schools, this week we take a look at six professors who have earned Chicago Booth students' love. (Our Annual reports are absolutely free with registration, but we thought we'd share some snippets here to help get you started in your Booth research.)

Among Chicago Booth students, there are a handful of professors who are considered "must-haves" during one's time in Hyde Park. Note that, while Booth is best known for finance, some of the school's most popular professors come from other departments:

• Sanjay Dhar - Professor Dhar primarily teaches the basic marketing strategy class and is very active in all Chicago Booth MBA programs. Professor Dhar makes this list because his passion in teaching is infectious. He makes the effort to truly know his students and it is not uncommon for Professor Dhar to have all 65 (or more) students in his class remove their name cards so he may recite their names back on the first day of class. Dhar is the recipient of several awards such as the McKinsey Award for Teaching Excellence in 2000, and was cited among the outstanding faculty in BusinessWeek's Guide to the Best Business Schools.


• Steven Kaplan - Professor Kaplan primarily teaches entrepreneurial finance and private equity. A quarter does not go by without students complaining that they were unable to get into his class prior to graduation. His courses are highly completive choices during the bidding process and students are only able to take his courses late in their program, when they have accumulated enough point "wealth." Professor Kaplan consistently attains top scores in Chicago Booth's internal faculty rankings by students over the last decade.


• Eugene Fama - The percentage of students who take Professor Fama's class is relatively small, but the reason for this is that his course content is highly specific, highly rigorous, and has a scope that may go beyond the average Booth student's interest. Professor Fama has been called the "father of modern finance." Professor Fama is highly respected both in academic circles and in the outside investment community. Taking a "Fama course" and doing well does wonders for the credibility of a Booth graduate in the field of finance, but truth be told, only highly skilled Booth students with an interest in analytical finance tend to enjoy his classes.


• Art Middlebrooks - Art Middlebrooks is a prime example of a great adjunct faculty member. His teaching method of "learning by doing" is appropriate in his services marketing and product marketing classes. As a Booth alumnus, he really connects well with his students and continually gets top marks in faculty evaluations. Mr. Middlebrooks is also the current Executive Director of the Kilts Center for Marketing and is the coauthor of Innovating the Corporation and Market Leadership Strategies for Service Companies.


• Harry Davis - Harry Davis is the type of professor who brings balance and perspective to the MBA experience. His Business Policy course is not at all the typical Chicago Booth fare.
  While most courses at Booth tend to dominate the left brain, Professor Davis focuses more on right brain activity: being intuitive, holistic, and metaphorical. Part of the Chicago Booth faculty since the mid-1960s, Professor Davis was once co-dean of the program and was integral to Booth's push to establish campuses in other countries. Booth is not really known for emphasizing leadership topics, yet Professor Davis does just that.


• James Schrager - James E. Schrager's New Venture Strategy is another highly sought-after course at Chicago Booth. His credibility in the business community equals his reputation as
  a faculty member at Booth and his expertise is on display in multiple mainstream media formats, such as the Wall Street Journal and various major television networks. Booth students across the board absolutely love taking his class.

Today's blog post was clipped from our Chicago Booth Annual Report, one of 15 completely free guides to the world's top business schools, available on our site. If you're ready to start building your own application for Chicago, Harvard, Kellogg, or any other top MBA programs, call us at 1-800-925-7737 and speak with an MBA admissions consultant today!

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