Mbamission Chicago Booth Insiders Guide 2023-2024

mbaMission’s Insider’s Guide
Booth School of
Business
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
2023–2024
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mbaMission Insider’s Guide: Booth School of Business · 2023–2024 4

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Table of Contents
9 Booth School of Business

9 Summary
10 Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger
13 Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core
15 Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method
17 Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers
20 Professional Specializations
20 Consulting
21 Entrepreneurship, Private Equity, and Venture Capital
24 Finance
25 International Business
27 Marketing
30 Nonprofit/Social Entrepreneurship
31 Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town
34 Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience
35 Alumni Base: Opportunities to Engage
37 Rankings and Reputation: Important Metrics or Arbitrary Measures?
40 The Dean: Madhav V. Rajan
41 Notable Professors and Unsung Heroes
44 Social/Community Life
46 Academic Summary
47 Admissions Basics
50 University of Chicago (Booth) Essay Tips, 2023–2024
54 Appendix: Booth Facts and Figures

54 Basics
54 Class Profile (Class of 2024)
55 Employment Statistics (Class of 2022)
The University of Chicago
Booth School of Business
Summary
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is known for its strength in finance, but the school offers a wide
range of experiential opportunities beyond those found in finance—especially for those interested in consulting and en-
trepreneurship. And although Chicago Booth will never be mistaken for Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management in
terms of its offerings in marketing, we have learned that Chicago Booth does in fact have a surprisingly strong program
in this field—as well as in the nonprofit sector.
If “finance” is one buzzword for Chicago Booth, “flexibility” is another. The school is known to have a very flexible curricu-
lum—its LEAD (Leadership Effectiveness and Development) program is the only course that is mandatory in the Chicago
Booth program. Although students must meet certain requirements by taking courses chosen from among several foun-
dations, functions, management, and business environment options, the school has no strictly defined mandatory core
curriculum. Students told mbaMission that because the program is not rigid, they are able to focus on their professional
ambitions as soon as they start the academic program and can avoid redundant or even potentially irrelevant classes.
The school has a reputation for superior academic research, particularly in finance and economics, with several of its
academics having won Nobel Prizes in these fields. As mentioned, many prospective candidates consider Chicago Booth
a “finance school,” which is understandable, particularly given that 36.2% of the program’s 2022 graduates (30.3% in
2021, 34.7% in 2020, and 36.2% in 2019) accepted positions with a finance function.
However, even though the aggregate percentage of all the finance-related functions has been consistently higher than
for any other function for many years, consulting has steadily been the most popular standalone job function among Chi-
cago Booth graduates, with investment banking claiming the second-highest percentage as a standalone function. We
believe this helps attest to the diversity of the school’s MBA program.
Indeed, the Booth Associate Dean for Student Recruitment and Admissions (now Chief Marketing and Communications
Officer) Kurt Ahlm told mbaMission in an interview, “Chicago Booth is a breeding ground for critical thinkers. Our gradu-
ates are analytical problem solvers who can apply what they learn here to successful careers in any number of fields.
Booth has strengths in many areas beyond finance, including entrepreneurship and marketing.”
Diversity has, in recent years, been at the forefront of Chicago Booth’s culture not only in terms of coursework. In 2020,
under the leadership of Dean Madhav Rajan, the school announced the launch of the Chicago Booth Diversity and Inclu-
sion Action Plan, referring to it as “a start, aimed at addressing concerns raised, in particular, by students in our full- and
part-time MBA programs.” The plan includes recruiting initiatives aimed to attract a more diverse applicant body, serv-
ing as the 2022 host for the national Management Leadership for Tomorrow Conference, updating the MBA curriculum,

and increasing faculty and staff diversity. “Booth’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan serves as the cornerstone of our
commitment to rejecting racism, and to building a more diverse and inclusive community,” the school’s website reads.
Year-Over-Year Class Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of Class of
Profile Data: Chicago 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
Booth
Number of Applicants 4,352 5,037 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 4,021
Number of Full-Time 621 620 621 593 591 582 585 585 581 581 580
Students
Average GMAT 729 732 724 730 731 730 726.3 726 724 723 720
GMAT Range 600–780 590–790 600–780 610–790 610–790 620–790 NA NA NA NA 680–

7601
Average GPA 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.59 3.57 3.52
GPA Range 2.4–4.0 2.7–4.0 2.8–4.0 2.7–4.0 2.7–4.0 2.72–4.0 2.6–4.0 3.2–3.91 3.2–3.91 3.1–3.91 3.1–3.91
Average Years of Work 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4.6 4.6 5 5

Experience
Average Student Age 28 28 28 28 28 28 27.9 27.8 27.7 28 28
Minority Representation 47%3 44.2%3 43%2 27%2 31% 27% 29% 23% 22% 24% 22%
Female Representation 40% 42.3% 38% 40% 42% 40% 42% 36% 36% 35% 35%
International 37% 38.9% 30% 31% 30% 36% 39% 34% 36% 37% 32%
Representation
1 Median 80%.
2
Includes U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
3
The total number of students who identified as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Other Pacific Islander, Asian American, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx
American, and Multi-Race students divided by the total number of U.S. citizens/permanent residents in the class.
Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger
One element that affects the character of a school’s MBA experience is class size. You might want to reflect on your high
school, college, and work environments to help you determine whether you would be more comfortable in a larger class
or a smaller one—or whether this is even a consideration for you at all.
Students at smaller schools (which we define as having approximately 350 students or fewer per class) tend to interact
with most of their peers and professors at some point during the typical two-year MBA period. Thus, the smaller schools
are generally considered more “knowable,” and their communities tend to be quite closely knit. Also, consider that as-
suming a leadership position is easier in a smaller environment, because, for example, the Finance Club may have only

one president at both a small school and a large school, but competition for such a position would
obviously be greater in the larger program.
Reflect on your past

Some individuals might prefer to be at a larger school where they can better maintain their anonymity academic and work
if they so choose. A student at a school with close to 900 people or more in each class will not likely
environments to
get to know each and every one of their classmates by the end of the program, and some people might
determine whether
prefer this. Further, advocates of larger classes tout the advantage of being able to interact with
more people during one’s MBA experience—and to thereby develop a broader and more robust net-
you would be more
work of peers. Note that many schools divide students into smaller groups—called “sections,” “clus- comfortable in a larger
ters,” “cohorts,” or even “oceans”—in which approximately 60–90 students take certain classes to- or smaller class—or
gether, and this approach can help foster a stronger sense of community within the larger programs. whether this is a
consideration for you
With a typical class size ranging from 580 to 621 (621 in the Class of 2024), Chicago Booth at all.
is one of the country’s larger MBA programs. Although a class of this size is too big to allow
every student to truly get to know one another, Chicago Booth is contained within a single
building—the Harper Center—which has a massive public meeting space at its core, and this
helps facilitate and encourage student interaction.
Chicago Booth does not divide its incoming students into dedicated sections for the first full year of its MBA
program, but all students must participate in the LEAD (Leadership Effectiveness and Development) Program
and are divided into sections (often referred to as “cohorts”) of approximately 60 for that purpose. A second-
year student wrote in a Booth Experience blog post: “The unique thing about Booth’s co-
horts is that after our single required [LEAD] class is completed in the fall, any additional
time we spend with our cohorts is completely optional. Because of this, each cohort really
gets a chance to form its own personality outside of just studying foundational classes.” Given the program
size and that students
LEAD begins two to three weeks before the start of the first semester at orientation and
are not divided into
ends just before the semester ends. In the LEAD class, students are further divided into
clusters in their first
small squads (of six to eight members) and participate in a variety of team-building experi-
ences on- and off-site. A second year wrote in a Booth Experience blog post that the LEAD
year, I particularly
program “is a dynamic course where first-year students focus on developing the most criti- like Booth’s
cal aspects of leadership—cultivating support and influencing others, understanding dif- program for clients
ferent working styles and motivating diverse teams, presenting ideas, and managing under who are focused
crisis. At Booth, we believe these skills simply can’t be learned in a traditional academic and comfortable
setting, so LEAD is a fully experiential program where first-year students are constantly proactively targeting
challenging themselves to practice these skills and incorporate feedback from each other
their experiences and
to improve.”
building relationships.
Some students reported to mbaMission that they appreciate the LEAD course as an oppor-
‫ ݥ‬Susan Kaplan, mbaMission
tunity for socialization, and some of the program’s student sections—or the “squads” with-
Senior Consultant
in them—arrange reunions to stay in touch with one another after the program is over. An
alumnus we interviewed who had been a LEAD Facilitator (as well as student club co-chair

and an Admissions Fellow) pinpointed the course as one of the most impressive Class Size
elements of his business school experience. “I thought that all three activities 900 to 1,000 Harvard Business School
were great,” he said, “but being a LEAD Facilitator was where I got to practice
800 to 900 UPenn Wharton
my public speaking and build great bonds with my squad.”
700 to 800 Columbia Business School1
Another Facilitator wrote in a blog post: “LEAD facilitators serve a role as 500 to 600 Chicago Booth
‘bridge’ between first-year students and second-year students. In true Booth 400 to 500 Northwestern Kellogg
give-back fashion, LEAD facilitators become one of the very handy access MIT Sloan
points for those first-year students to connect to other second-year students Duke Fuqua
who just finished their summer internships and are excited to meet first-year Stanford GSB
Michigan Ross
students.” A third facilitator expressed similar thoughts in a blog post: “Be-
tween the relationships I formed with my first-year students and the bonds I 300 to 400 NYU Stern
deepened with the second-year LEAD [facilitators] I worked closely with, I feel UCLA Anderson
UVA Darden
that my connection to the Booth community was greatly benefited by being a
Yale SOM
LEAD [facilitator].” Yet another facilitator wrote in a blog post: “For me, LEAD
felt like the pinnacle of Booth’s pay-it-forward culture. As a LEAD [facilitator], 200 to 300 Cornell Johnson
Dartmouth Tuck
I am one of the first people in the Booth community to welcome the first-year
UC Berkeley Haas
class. Furthermore, I get to pass on and improve upon the lessons from my own
LEAD [facilitators]. In this way, I feel like I’m tangibly impacting the culture of Classes are listed from largest to smallest within each category.
leadership at Booth.” 1
Includes J-Term students.
LEAD is Chicago Booth’s only mandatory class; thereafter, students take courses of varying sizes with both
first- and second-year students. Oftentimes, Chicago Booth’s full-time students will take classes with stu-
dents in the school’s Executive MBA and Evening and Weekend MBA programs at the downtown Gleacher Cen-
ter. These elements serve to broaden the community beyond the approximately 600 students with whom one
will graduate.
Meanwhile, another graduate we interviewed explained, “It is easy to build strong relationships with class-
mates, so long as you get involved. Whether it be through joining student groups, attending TNDC [Thursday
Night Drinking Club, a weekly social activity for the entire MBA student body], or just hanging out in the Winter
Garden, there are many ways to not just meet, but actually socialize with classmates.” A student with whom
we spoke attested that the culture among Chicago Booth’s students is largely supportive, saying, “Most of the
students are very willing to help each other despite the competitive nature of the classes.”
A student observed in a post on her personal blog that the school’s breadth of social opportunities requires
students to take on a more active role in engaging the community. “I will readily admit that although Booth has
a very vibrant community, it is built differently than at other schools,” she wrote, adding, “Booth is set up so
that students aren’t interacting with the same people day in and day out. Booth fosters breadth of socializing,
but it’s up to the individual to determine where to seek depth. One of the best consequences of this breadth
is a greater sense of cohesion between the first- and second-year classes. This is the very opposite of the
structure at most schools, where the depth of socializing is built into the program and it’s up to students to
seek out a wider breadth.”

Curriculum: Flexible Versus Mandatory Core
Many business schools have a “core” curriculum—a standard series of courses that all students must
take. However, these core requirements can vary tremendously from one program to the next. For
example, one school may teach its required curriculum for the entire first year, meaning that stu-
dents will not take any elective courses until their second year, whereas another MBA program may The rigidity or flexibility
stipulate only one or two required courses. of a school’s first-year
curriculum affects
The rigidity or flexibility of a school’s required curriculum affects students’ education and socializa-
students’ education
tion. Regardless of their professional experience, students at a school with a rigid core curriculum
must all take the same classes. At some schools, for example, even CPAs must take the required
and socialization.
foundational accounting course, whereas at others, students can waive selected classes if they can
prove a certain level of proficiency. Again, both approaches have pros and cons, and what those are
depends on your perspective.
Proponents of a rigid core curriculum would argue that academics understand what skills students need to become true
managers and that when students “overspecialize” in one area, their overall business education can ultimately suffer. A
significant body of academic writing has been devoted to critiquing programs that give students a narrow view of busi-
ness, notably Henry Mintzberg’s Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management De-
velopment (Berrett-Koehler, 2004) and Rakesh Khurana’s From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of
American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession (Princeton University Press, 2007).
Advocates of the core curriculum approach would also argue that having all students take the same classes creates a
common language and discussion among the classmates because of the shared experience. In addition, proponents
contend that a rigid core curriculum facilitates learning, because students who have applicable direct experience bring
that knowledge and insight into the classroom and can thereby help teach others. Finally, schools with mandatory cores
generally keep students together in their sections for several months, if not an entire academic year, and students who
interact every day in this way ultimately forge strong bonds. This sustained contact and connection can create a deep
sense of community among the students.
In contrast, those who would argue in favor of a more flexible curriculum feel that students benefit from the opportunity
to specialize immediately—that time is short, and students need power and choice in preparing for their desired careers.
So if, for example, a student intended to enter the world of finance, an advocate of flexibility would argue that the student
should be able to study finance in depth throughout the MBA program, possibly even from day one, so as to gain as much
experience as possible in this area—especially before interviewing for a summer internship. Furthermore, proponents
for flexible curricula caution that experienced students could end up “wasting” hours taking courses in subjects in which
they already have expertise. Finally, they would assert that a flexible schedule allows students the opportunity to meet a
greater number and wider variety of their classmates.
The Chicago Booth MBA curriculum emphasizes leadership, flexibility, and preparing the students to be bold
risk-takers. The academic calendar is divided into three ten-week quarters (fall, winter, and spring), and stu-
dents take three to four courses per quarter, for a total of 21 classes (including LEAD) over 21 months. Although

a great deal of flexibility does indeed exist within the Chicago Booth Can Waive/ Cannot Waive/
Test Out of Classes Test Out of Classes
curriculum, students do not enjoy a truly “open buffet.” Beyond LEAD,
the school breaks its first-year course selection down into different Chicago Booth Harvard Business School
categories, and students must choose from among the options within Columbia Business School MIT Sloan
Cornell Johnson Stanford GSB
each category to fulfill certain requirements. Although these course
Dartmouth Tuck UVA Darden
categories are required for all students, approved substitutes may be
Duke Fuqua Yale SOM
taken in areas where students may have prior experience.
Michigan Ross
Northwestern Kellogg
First, students must take three Foundation courses, one from each of NYU Stern
the following three divisions: financial accounting, microeconomics, UC Berkeley Haas
and statistics. Each of these divisions includes between five and eight UCLA Anderson
UPenn Wharton
course options from which students may choose.
Foundation (one course from each of the three categories):

• Financial Accounting
• Microeconomics
• Statistics Booth’s approach
is “choose your own
Second, students must complete seven Functions, Leadership and Management, and Busi-
adventure”—students
ness Environment courses, which are divided into eight categories. The Functions catego-
who thrive at Booth
ries include finance, marketing, operations, and strategy; Leadership and Management
includes decisions and people; and Business Environment includes economy and society.
have the maturity
Each category offers between four and twelve courses from which students may choose. and independence to
Thereafter, ten elective options remain for students among the 21 total courses (including determine their own
LEAD) they need to graduate. With faculty permission, students may waive the prerequi- course of study, yet
sites for some courses. also have the curiosity
and confidence to
Although this flexibility has its advantages, it also requires students to make certain aca-
take on challenging
demic choices early on. One Chicago Booth second year told us, “I was lucky. I knew what I
courses.
wanted to do after school and had a clear academic path in mind to meet my needs from day
one, which is when I had to make my academic choices. I felt that some who were unsure
‫ ݥ‬Kate Richardson, mbaMission
of their paths were at a disadvantage with such limited structure.” Another second-year
Senior Consultant and Booth
student with whom we spoke said that she, too, felt fortunate to have a defined path. Still, Alumna
she seized the opportunity to discuss her academic and career plans with second-year stu-
dents via the Career Advisor program—a peer advisor program in which experienced and
trained second years talk through career options and approaches with first years—and felt
that it was of such benefit that she became one herself in her second year.
“Chicago Booth offers the most flexible curriculum of any of the top business schools and has done so since
its founding over 100 years ago. We have decades of experience behind us in creating a culture that supports
a multitude of choices a student is faced with while they’re here,” a former Chicago Booth admissions director
told mbaMission in an interview.

In a Bloomberg Businessweek online chat, a second-year student noted, “Booth’s flexible curriculum enables
each individual to tailor his or her individual experience. I think being able to customize your MBA is a differ-
entiating feature of the program.” One recent graduate with whom we spoke credited the program’s flexibility
with his ability to obtain a banking internship in a difficult economy. He told mbaMission that he overloaded on
quantitative and financial courses in his first semester to allay recruiter concerns about his rather qualitative
background and then planned to take marketing, operations, and strategy courses thereafter.
Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method
Students will likely encounter multiple styles of learning while in business school—including partici-
pating in simulations, listening to guest speakers, and partaking in hands-on projects—but the two
most common MBA learning styles are case method and lecture. Students will encounter
many different styles
Pioneered by Harvard Business School, the case method, or case-based learning, requires students
of learning during
to read the story (called a “case”) of either a hypothetical or a real protagonist who is facing a manage-
their time at business
rial dilemma. As the student reads, the student explores the protagonist’s dilemma and has access to
various quantitative and qualitative data points meant to facilitate further analysis. (Cases can vary
school, but the two
in length but are typically 10–20 pages long.) After reading and studying the entire case, the student most common are case
generally understands the profundity of the problem and is typically asked a simple question: “What method and lecture.
would you do?” In other words, how would the student act or react if they were in the protagonist’s
place? What decision(s) would the student make?
After completing their independent analysis of the case, the student typically meets with the members of their study
group or learning team (if the school in question assigns such teams) for further evaluation. Together, the group/team
members explore and critique one another’s ideas and help those students who may have had difficulty understanding
particular aspects of the issue or progressing as far on their own. Often, though not always, the team will establish a
consensus regarding the actions they would take in the protagonist’s place. Then, in class, the professor acts as facilita-
tor and manages a discussion of the case. Class discussions can often become quite lively, and the professor will guide
students toward resolving the dilemma. Sometimes, the professor will ultimately reveal the protagonist’s decision and
the subsequent results—or even bring the actual protagonist into the classroom to share and discuss the case’s progres-
sion and outcomes in person.
In short, the case method focuses primarily on the analytical process and illustrates that the problems presented have no
clear-cut right or wrong responses. For a student to disagree with the protagonist’s chosen path—even after it has proved
to be successful—is not unusual. After all, another approach (or even inaction) may have produced an even better result.
Note that case-based learning is not specific to one academic discipline. Cases are available in finance, strategy, op-
erations, accounting, marketing, and still other areas. Further, many cases are interdisciplinary, meaning that they ad-
dress more than one area at a time, such as requiring students to think about how a financial decision might affect the
operations of a manufacturing company or the ways in which a marketing decision might involve significant financial
considerations. Importantly, students in case environments are often graded on their “contribution” to the class discus-

sion (measured by the level of one’s participation in discussions and analysis, not on the frequency with which one offers
“correct” answers), so the case method is not for those who are uncomfortable speaking in class. However, it can be
incredibly helpful for those who want or need to practice and build confidence speaking publicly.
Lecture is the method of learning that is familiar to most people—the professor stands in front of the class and explores
a theory or event, facilitating discussion and emphasizing and explaining key learning points. Often, students have read
chapters of a textbook beforehand and have come to class with a foundation in the specific area to be examined that day.
Although the case method gives students a context for a problem, those who favor lecture tend to believe that the case
method is too situation specific and therefore prefer a methodical exploration of theory that they feel can be broadly ap-
plied across situations. In lecture classes, the professor and their research or theory are technically paramount, though
students still participate, challenge ideas, and debate issues.
Note that at some schools, professors may alternate between cases and lectures within a single semester of classes.
Chicago Booth terms their “educational phi-

losophy that sets Booth apart from every other
business school in the world” as “the Chicago Most people know Booth as a school with academic
Approach.” The trademarked approach, which rigor and an intense multidisciplinary approach
relies in large part on a fundamental business
to tackling business problems, which stems
education and soft-skills training, is aimed at
from its tradition of teaching the theoretical
cultivating a strategic mindset, strong analytical
skills, and the ability to lead confidently in am-
underpinnings of business. But Booth is so
biguous circumstances. The Chicago Approach much more than that. The school’s offerings in
was developed in the 1950s and 1960s by Booth experiential learning and entrepreneurship offer
faculty and extends to all Booth programs. a very contrasting approach, helping students
connect theory to practice in an earthy, common
True to Chicago Booth’s reputation for flexibil- sense, nuts-and-bolts style. The highlight of
ity, the school allows its professors to decide
my own time at Booth was Waverly Deutsch’s
which method of instruction they prefer on a
“Building the New Venture”—a no-nonsense, funny,
class-by-class basis. Some professors use
cases, others use lectures, and still others use
thought-provoking, actionable, and relatable class
both, switching back and forth from course to where she takes students through the stages of
course. Assessing the ratio of lectures to case a simulated business in the most brutal, comical,
method classes is difficult, because the choice and enlightening way. Jim Schrager’s “New Venture
of approach varies from professor to professor Strategy” is another gem—I still have notes from his
and courses are constantly being revamped. class and regularly use them to advise my friends
outside the business school world on their start-up
One recent graduate with whom we spoke noted
and small business problems.
the advantages of flexibility as it pertains to
pedagogy. He felt that he was able to specifi-
 Harshad Mali, mbaMission Senior Consultant and Booth Alumnus
cally target classes in which case-based learn-
ing would be more effective and then engage in

lecture courses when he wanted more of a theoretical grounding. And a recent alumna we interviewed re-
ported that she felt the variety of teaching methods used allowed for better accessibility of some the subjects
covered. “I would say that it was a really good mix of classroom teaching and case studies,” she said. “I thought
it was really helpful to get lectures on certain topics and then to use a case study as an application of them. I
just thought, for me, it made a ton of sense to learn some of the theories first and then to do more applications
of them, do real-world scenarios.”
A first year with whom we spoke emphasized that no matter which teaching method is used from one course
to the next, the school’s curriculum overall is generally heavy on quantitative analysis, saying, “Be ready to
be challenged. Even the intro foundation classes at Booth are not easy by any means. Booth is analytical and
proud of it.”
“Chicago Booth is not for people who are simply looking for a credential to add to their resume. At Booth, the
MBA is the culmination of two years of exploring your interests, engaging your mind, and learning how to think
critically about markets and organizations. There is no cookie-cutter approach here, no single way to get a
degree, so unless a student is prepared to step in, create a path and leverage the full range of opportunities in
front of them, this will not be a good fit,” former admissions director Kurt Ahlm told mbaMission in an interview.
Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers
Schools’ brands and reputations develop over time and tend to endure, even when the programs
make efforts to change them. For example, many applicants still feel that Kellogg is only a marketing
school and that Chicago Booth is only for people interested in finance, even though both programs
boast strengths in many other areas. Indeed, this is the exact reason mbaMission started producing Do not merely accept
these guides in 2008—we wanted applicants to see beyond these superficial “market” perceptions. stereotypes but truly
Make sure you are not merely accepting stereotypes but are truly considering the breadth and depth
consider the breadth
of resources available at each school.
and depth of resources
We have dedicated the majority of this guide to exploring the principal professional specializations
available at each
for which resources are available at this particular school, and we encourage you to fully consider school.
whether the MBA program meets your personal academic needs by supplementing the information
here with additional context from the school’s career services office, by connecting with the heads of
relevant clubs on campus, and perhaps even by reaching out to alumni in your target industry.
Although Chicago Booth’s reputation as a “finance school” may be warranted—given that many of its standout
theorists have made names for themselves in this area and a large portion of the program’s students aspire to
enter this field—the school certainly offers more than a finance education and has been making a concerted
effort to broaden its reputation beyond this industry. Leadership is at the core of the Booth experience, and
serves as a cornerstone in the curriculum.

Top Industries: Chi- 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009
cago Booth
Consulting 35.5% 34.4% 38.2% 33.7% 31.0% 32.6% 27.5% 32.1% 27.9% 30.7% 30.3% 27.8% 24.0% 23.2%
Financial Services 35.1% 27.0% 30.3% 31.3% 31.6% 29.9% 36.0% 35.2% 36.4% 35.0% 43.2% 41.1% 45.0% 42.5%
Technology 14.9% 22.9% 16.3% 20.7% 20.3% 18.7% 16.7% 15.2% 13.5% 12.3% 9.0% 9.9% 7.5% 5.7%
Health Care 4.1% 3.3% 3.5% 1.0% 2.1% 2.9% 3.3% 2.9% 2.2% 2.5% 2.4% 2.1% NA NA
Consumer Products 2.2% 4.4% 4.8% 4.3% 4.3% 5.3% 6.9% 5.0% 6.1% 2.1% 2.2% 5.7% 5.8% 6.9%
In fact, in an exclusive interview with mbaMission, then Associate Dean of Student Recruitment and Admis-
sions (and current Chief Marketing and Communications Officer) Kurt Ahlm noted, “Our graduates are analyti-
cal problem solvers who can apply what they learn here to successful careers in any number of fields. Booth
has strength in many areas beyond finance, including entrepreneurship and marketing.” And in a post on the
Booth Insider blog, an associate director of admissions addressed the myth that the school prefers applicants
from finance and consulting backgrounds, saying, “We value diversity in all its forms, including career indus-
try. Many of our applicants come from finance or consulting backgrounds; but many more have work experi-
ence in other industries, including military service, marketing, education, retail, and nonprofit work, just to
name a few.”
In a Chicago Booth admissions chat geared specifically to applicants interested in entrepreneurship, a coach
in career services noted, “There is so much support here for students who are interested in starting their own
entrepreneurial venture. Between courses, the Polsky Center [for Entrepreneurship and Innovation], student
clubs, conferences and meet-up groups, an active alumni network, and support from career coaches and peer
advisors, the possibilities are strong. If you bring your passion, we provide the ways to channel it!”
Indeed, Chicago Booth has received praise for being a better-rounded school than its noted reputation for
quantitative analysis may imply, and a recent alumnus with whom we spoke reiterated this point, commenting,
“It is not just a quant school! Some of the best classes that I took were in the strategy and marketing realm.”
Similarly, when asked why she chose Chicago Booth, a first year we interviewed said she was attracted to the
school’s “balance of quant and non-quant classes.”
Members of Chicago Booth’s Class of 2022 largely entered the consulting industry (35.5%), followed by finan-
cial services (35.1%). Consulting was the largest standalone job function, with 36.8% of graduates hired, fol-
lowed by finance at 36.2%.
Chicago Booth offers 13 concentrations that “signal to prospective employers that [students] have deep
knowledge of a particular field, along with relevant analytical skills and tools,” asserts the school’s website.
Concentrations are not required, but students typically fulfill one to three of the following options:
• Accounting
• Analytic Finance

• Behavioral Science
• Business Analytics
• Econometrics and Statistics
• Economics
• Entrepreneurship
• Finance
• General Management
• International Business
• Marketing Management
• Operations Management
• Strategic Management
Most Common Pre-MBA Industry (Class of 2024) Top Industry for Class of 2022 Graduates
Chicago Booth Consulting 23% Chicago Booth Consulting 35.5%
Columbia Business School Financial Services 29% Columbia Business School Financial Services 36.9%
Cornell Johnson NA NA Cornell Johnson Financial Services 39.0%
Dartmouth Tuck Financial Services 24% Dartmouth Tuck Consulting 47.0%
Duke Fuqua Financial Services 18% Duke Fuqua Consulting 36.0%
Harvard Business School Consulting 16% Harvard Business School Financial Services 34.0%
Michigan Ross Consulting 19% Michigan Ross Consulting 42.2%
MIT Sloan Consulting and Financial 23% MIT Sloan Consulting 31.2%
Services (Tied)
Northwestern Kellogg Consulting 37.9%
Northwestern Kellogg Consulting 24%
NYU Stern Consulting 31.2%
NYU Stern Financial Services 24%
Stanford GSB Finance 33.0%
Stanford GSB Consulting and Investment 20%
UC Berkeley Haas Technology 32.9%
Management (Tied)
UCLA Anderson Technology 34.1%
UC Berkeley Haas Consulting 23%
UPenn Wharton Financial Services 38.6%
UCLA Anderson High Tech 26%
UVA Darden Consulting 43.5%
UPenn Wharton Consulting 27%
Yale SOM Consulting 46.0%
UVA Darden Financial Services 21%
Yale SOM Financial Services 20%

Professional Specializations
Consulting
Although Chicago Booth has a reputation as a finance school, it still places roughly a third of each graduating class in
consulting positions. In 2022, 35.5% of Chicago Booth graduates took positions in the consulting industry. This percent-
age maintains the average over recent years: 34.4% in 2021, 38.2% in 2020, and 33.7% in 2019.
For more than a decade, McKinsey & Company has been the top employer of Chicago Booth graduates—61 in 2022, 46 in
2021, 43 in 2020, and 48 in 2019. Other firms that hired a significant number of 2022 Chicago Booth graduates for con-
sulting positions include the Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (53); Bain & Company (28); PwC Strategy& (9); Kearney (7); and
Deloitte Consulting (5). As a past Poets&Quants article states, the school has “become the preferred business school for
the elite consulting firms.”
Chicago Booth offers no specific consulting track, but the school provides considerable hands-on opportunities in this
area to its MBA candidates, particularly through its “lab” courses. Via the “Lab in Developing New Products and Services,”
for example, teams of MBA students take on consulting assignments and work with executives from major companies
to target a problem that the client firm is encountering or to conduct research on a strategic opportunity. The “Lab to
Launch” may seem to cater to niche groups, but in fact, they both represent opportunities for aspiring consultants to
engage directly with senior management and make hands-on decisions with the assistance of teammates and mentors.
In addition, a variety of student clubs at Chicago Booth serve aspiring consultants, including the Management Consulting
Group, the Corporate Management Group, and the Business Solutions Group. While the Management Consulting Group
and the Corporate Management Group educate students on the ins and outs of obtaining a job in this field—through re-
sume preparation and reviews, case workshops, and Lunch and Learn sessions—the Business Solutions Group is unique
in that it actively engages first-year students in high-quality consulting projects.
In short, the Business Solutions Group (BSG) is not so much about preparing for a consulting job as it is about gaining actual
consulting experience. Each fall, teams of five first-year students, along with a second-year mentor, work for a ten-week
period at a broad range of both for-profit and nonprofit firms in order to help them solve various marketing, operational,
and/or strategic problems. Organizations have ranged from the well-known international restaurant chain McDonald’s
and the internationally renowned Art Institute of Chicago, to a small nonprofit such as Little Miss Giving’s (a bakery) and a
start-up such as Advanced Diamond Technologies (which applies diamond film to products to make them durable).
The BSG reportedly maintains approximately eight to ten projects annually. In an interview with mbaMission, a BSG co-
chair explained, “The decision to limit the number of projects at ten was a strategic choice. We have always had ample
potential client interest in participating, but we’ve recently capped the number of projects in order to create a more
competitive project selection process. This is also beneficial for the students, as it ensures that only the best projects
are used for the group.” Recent projects have included conducting industry analysis for ArrowStream, developing a mar-
keting strategy for Excelerate Labs, performing internal research and analysis for Baxter Healthcare, and evaluating
membership revenue strategy for Ezza Nails.

Finally, Chicago Booth’s one mandatory course, the LEAD Program, involves a series of events and activities that help
MBA students better understand their personal communication and leadership styles. Throughout this 125-hour pro-
gram, first-year students take on team challenges (e.g., the outdoor experience, which involves ropes courses, climbing
walls, and other physical challenges that incorporate a mental component), learn about their personality type (via the
Myers-Briggs test), and receive one-on-one coaching (e.g., on communication styles and negotiation strategies) from
faculty and second-year student mentors. This course is not designed exclusively for consultants, but its teachings are
broadly applicable to the team-based, leadership-oriented positions that consulting typically entails.
Similarly, Chicago Booth’s annual Management Conference is not solely for aspiring consultants but serves also as a
venue through which interested students can access cutting-edge research in the field of general management and can
network with more than 1,000 students, business community members, and alumni. The conference celebrated its 70th
occurrence in May 2023 with the announcement of a $100M donation to the Booth PhD program. The chairman and CEO of
Microsoft and the faculty director of Booth’s Polsky Center hosted a keynote conversation, and panel discussion topics
included “Business Opportunities in North America,” “Technological Change and the U.S. Labor Market,” and “Undersoci-
ality Is Unwise.”
The 2022 event featured a keynote conversation between Dean Rajan and the mayor of Chicago. The breakout panel
discussion sessions included such topics as “Future of Health Care,” “Trends in Environmental, Social, and Governance
Investing,” and “Future of Crypto Assets and Blockchain.”
The 2021 event featured a keynote conversation between the co-founder of AQR Capital Management, the executive
chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors (after whom the school is named), and Booth Professor Eugene Fama. Discus-
sion panels explored such themes as “Covering Economic Issues When Experts Are Not Trusted,” “Fu-
ture of the MBA,” “Perspectives on COVID-19,” and “Big Data in the Classroom.”
In past years, panel discussions at the conference have included such topics as “Entrepreneurial I’ve had two clients
Selling,” “Designing a Good Life,” and “CEO Perspectives.” The event has welcomed keynote speakers whose [Chicago Booth]
from companies ranging from The Pritzker Group and Amgen to Oak Hill Capital Partners and Cargrill.
professors were so
impressed with their
Entrepreneurship, Private Equity, and Venture Capital
entrepreneurial ideas
Chicago Booth and its Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation provide a wealth that they reached out
of formal academic opportunities in the areas of entrepreneurship, private equity, and venture capi- to the student and got
tal. The center received a $8M donation from Polsky in 2012—in addition to his 2002 $7M gift—which involved in funding/
has allowed the school to hire new staff, add facility space, and expand opportunities to help meet developing their
the growing demand for entrepreneurial programming. business!
Students may choose from among nearly 30 entrepreneurship and related courses, such as “Build- ‫ ݥ‬Jessica Shklar, mbaMission
ing the New Venture,” “Entrepreneurship through Acquisition,” and “Entrepreneurial Selling.” The Executive Director
school’s experiential “lab” programs, however, appear to constitute the real heart of its offerings in
this area. For example, via the “Lab to Launch,” students work hands-on in small groups with the se-

nior management of a new venture to identify and realize strategic and operational goals. For up to ten hours a week for
an entire quarter, students in this lab work in a variety of functions within a firm or take on a dedicated project in a class
designed to train those who intend to ultimately join start-ups or consult to them. Participating enterprises in the Chi-
cago area have in the past included InContext Solutions, MightyNest, Protein Bar, and Solixir.
The “Building the New Venture” course teaches students “how to raise initial seed funding, compensate for limited hu-
man and financial resources, establish initial brand values and positioning, leverage a strong niche position, determine
appropriate sourcing and sales channels, and develop execution plans in sales, marketing, product development, and
operations,” according to the course description. The class mimics the YourCo game, which was created by a University
of Chicago student and allows students to work in teams of four or five to simulate the first 18 months of a real start-up’s
beginning. Teams gain points by delivering weekly assignments on the progress of their “start-up.”
Continuing the school’s experiential offerings, the Polsky Center sponsors the annual Edward L. Kaplan New Venture
Challenge (NVC), which bills itself as one of the top-ranked accelerator programs in the country on its website. During the
fall, students form teams—each of which must include at least one University of Chicago graduate student but can also
include part-time and executive MBA students—and these groups pitch their business ideas and submit their feasibility
summaries by the following February. Then, approximately 30 teams advance to the second phase of the challenge, and
the Chicago Booth students who have made it this far join the “Special Topics in Entrepreneurship” class, where they de-
velop their ideas and have them critiqued by venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, with eight to ten ultimately advanc-
ing to the finals in May. A second-year student described the NVC in a Chicago Booth admissions chat as “one of the most
thrilling experiences here at Chicago Booth.” Another student we spoke with said, “I did the NVC in my first year, and I got
to see firsthand how much Booth actually invests in entrepreneurship, which is an almost absurd amount of resources.”
Finally, these fully developed ideas are presented to and judged by entrepreneurs and business leaders. Since 1996, the
center has helped launch more than 370 companies that, in turn, have raised upwards of $1.2B in capital in spaces as
diverse as payment solutions, flexible solar panels, food preparation, and children’s toys.
Eleven teams took part in the 2022 NVC finals, where the prize pool was a record $1.76M. OrisDX, which is developing
a saliva-based molecular diagnostics test for earlier detection of oral cancers, was named the winner and awarded
$665,000 in prize money. The $25,000 runner-up prize was split between BlackCurrant, a hydrogen trading marketplace
that helps connect transportation companies with sustainable feuls, and Canopy Aerospace, a creator of manufacturing
processes for commercial thermal protection systems for space and hypersonic industries. The $5,000 People’s Choice
Award went to Earthi, a plant-based meal provider.
The 2021 NVC finals featured twelve teams and a record prize pool of $1.6M. The winning team was Andes STR, which
helps short-term rental property owners with the various issues included in the process. The winner received more than
$660,000 in total. The second-place prize went to phlaxis, which is developing a vaccine to combat peanut allergies and
other food sensitivities. The phlaxis team received nearly $280,000 in prize money. Vetted, a subscription service aim-
ing to lower veterinarian bills for pet owners, came in third and received nearly $200,000. Vetted was also the inaugural
recipient of the new $5,000 People’s Choice Award.

The 2020 NVC was held in June, for the first time virtually. Eleven finalist teams competed for a prize pool of $1M. Pippin
Title, a nationwide title search provider, was chosen as the $150,000 first-place winner and took home $300,000 in ad-
ditional prizes. Lighten, which aims to ease the burden of loved ones’ tasks after a death, came in second and took home
$280,000 in various prizes. Traffic management software ETALYC came in third and received $130,000.
In previous years, NVC winners have included Manifest, a service that facilitates retirement transfers and consolidation;
AMOpportunities, a marketplace for medical trainees; TransparentC, a compensation transparency platform; and My Art
Cache, an online platform for matching fine art dealers with buyers and other professionals.
In addition to the traditional NVC and three other iterations of the competition, designated for undergraduates, alumni,
and students pursuing executive MBAs at one of the school’s international campuses, Chicago Booth students with an
entrepreneurial bent who also have an interest in social entrepreneurship may compete in the John Edwardson ’72 Social
New Venture Challenge (SNVC). The SNVC is co-organized by the Polsky Center and the Rustandy Center for Social Sec-
tor Innovation and invites participants to pitch both for-profit and nonprofit business plans that focus on sustainability
and social impact. If accepted into the competition, one student from each team must enroll in the course “New Social
Ventures” and the team is given mentorship, resources, and the opportunity to present their venture plans to experts and
business leaders in the field.
The 2022 SNVC included eight finalist teams and a record-breaking prize pool of $175,000. The first prize of $75,000
went to together.science, a web-based tool for math students. Aprendi, a visual content management platform, took
home the $50,000 second prize. ReHive, a climate fundraising platform, received the $5,000 Audience Choice Award.
The 2021 SNVC finals featured six teams, with SAEF (Support, Advocacy, Education for Parents) Legal Aid, which pro-
vides legal tools and services for low-income families, taking home the first prize of $75,000. The second place was tied
between LadderUp Housing, which aims to ease the homeowning process for low-income communities, and Southside
Market, a local market that provides easier access to healthy food. Both runners-up were awarded $37,500. The inaugural
$5,000 Audience Choice Award was given to Axo, which connects farmers with brands that offer sustainable ingredients.
At the 2020 SNVC finals, there were seven teams represented. The first-place prize was awarded to LivingWaters, a rain-
water collection system, and ImpactToolbox, a digital incubation platform intended for entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan
Africa; both received $40,000. The third-place prize of $20,000 went to Brink, which aims to ease the voting experience
for people with disabilities.
Past SNVC winners have included Debate It Forward, which uses debate curriculum to teach students with special
needs; AIM Clinics, which provides autism therapy for children in rural areas; Provide, which offers an administrative
back-office software for child care providers in low-income areas; JoinGiving, which pairs businesses with nonprofits;
and AccessArc, a technology company that aids incarcerated individuals.
Meanwhile, in the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), students play the role of venture capitalists, evaluat-
ing business ideas and making investment recommendations to a panel of experienced, real-world investors and entre-
preneurs. The winning team at the school level goes on to compete in the regional competition and then—ideally—the

international one, vying for the ultimate grand prize of $5,000 in funds, but more so for the prestige of the win and the
opportunity to catch the attention of the venture capital judges.
Eight regional competitions have been won by Chicago Booth teams, and the 2022 Booth team advanced to the global
finals and came in first place. In 2020, the Booth team also won the regional finals, but the global finals event was can-
celled due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. The 2021 Booth team also won the regional finals, but did not place in the
global finals.
We should note that entrepreneurially minded students can also apply for funding from the Hyde Park Angels (HPA), a
group of former Chicago Booth Executive MBA students who make investments in start-ups—the group reports that
more than 50% of its investments are in seed funding. Although the HPA is an arms-length organization and does not
source investments exclusively from Chicago Booth, it maintains a connection to the Polsky Center, which supports the
HPA’s mission. So, students hoping to get in front of the HPA’s investment committee will have a built-in networking ad-
vantage. Further, the HPA offers students the opportunity to intern as associates and gain venture capital experience
while pursuing their MBA at Chicago Booth. The associate director of the HPA at the time told mbaMission that eight to
ten students generally serve as HPA associates during the school year, while two serve over the summer.
The Polsky Center also supports the Entrepreneurial Internship Program, which allows students to intern, between their
first and second years, with small businesses that may otherwise be unable to pay the interning students a salary. Through
the program, students who work at eligible companies (i.e., those with less than $50M in revenue and no more than 100
employees) receive financial support during the course of their internship. This support, which is made possible via spon-
sor donations, gives the students the opportunity to gain real-world experience in an entrepreneurial environment.
A resource specifically for female students with an interest in entrepreneurship is the Herman Family Fellowship, also
offered through the Polsky Center. This fellowship, formed in 1995, was established to alleviate the burden of the ex-
pense of business school and thus help the student recipient pursue an entrepreneurial dream. Each year, one or two
female students receive funding that covers her two-year MBA experience.
A total of 12.3% of the Class of 2022 entered the private equity (7.1%) and venture capital (5.2%) industries—compared
with 8.5% (6.3% and 2.2%, respectively) in 2021 and 9.0% (6.4% and 2.6%, respectively) in 2020. Firms in this space that
have recruited at Chicago Booth in recent years include Baird Capital Partners; Altamar Private Equity; Cartesian Capi-
tal Group, LLC; Partners Group; Emerging Capital Partners; and Scale Venture Partners. Rather than accept a full-time
position with a recruiting company, 18 of Booth’s 2022 graduates—2.8% of the class—chose to start their own business
after graduation, a typical result in recent years (compared with 22 and 3.8% in 2021, 15 and 2.6% in 2020, and 19 and 3.3%
in 2019).
Finance
With names like Eugene Fama, (the late) Gary Becker, and (the late) Robert Fogel associated with the school, the word
“finance” readily—and not surprisingly—comes to mind whenever Chicago Booth is mentioned. We should note that Pro-
fessor Fama, generally regarded as “the father of modern finance,” served as inspiration for David Booth, who learned
about Fama’s philosophy on indexing (purchasing a broad number of stocks that are representative of the market at

large, rather than picking a small number of potential winners) and formed Dimensional Fund Advisors as a manifestation
of Fama’s theories. Now, years later, Chicago Booth is a $300M partner in the company.
Indeed, the school has a long history of economic and financial scholarship, thanks to its multiple Nobel Prize–winning
and distinguished faculty in these fields. Chicago Booth has 39 professors dedicated to teaching nearly 20 finance class-
es and had been consistently sending approximately one-third of its graduates into careers in this industry each year
(35.1% in 2022, 27.0% in 2021, 30.3% in 2020, and 31.3% in 2019). To put this into perspective, Chicago Booth requires the
completion of only 21 courses total to graduate. So, a student could not possibly exhaust their options within finance
while at the school—something committed finance types may consider a shame. Courses in the finance concentration
include “Financial Markets and Institutions,” “Cases in Financial Management,” “Financial Statement Analysis,” and “Cor-
poration Finance.”
As further testament to the interest in finance on campus, Chicago Booth has several student groups that focus either
fully or partially on the industry: the Private Equity Group, the Credit Restructuring Distressed Investing and Turnaround
Group, the Investment Management Group, Chicago Booth FinTech, and the Investment Banking Group (IBG).
The IBG, purportedly one of the largest student groups on campus, offers its members an extensive array of events and
resources each year, including resume reviews and mock interview sessions, and Lunch and Learn events to prepare
students for recruiting.
The Investment Management Group (IMG), another large campus organization, offers a stock pitch boot camp, mentor-
ship, and pitch competitions, though its largest annual event is the Investment Management Conference—the most re-
cent of which took place on campus in November 2023 and included panel discussions, fireside chats, a credit pitch
competition, and a stock pitch competition.
The 2022 conference featured fireside chats and panels with representatives from such companies as PIMCO, William
Blair, DFA, and Ivy Investments discussing such topics as “Long-Term Investment Principles for an Uncertain Future,”
“Careers in Investment Management,” and “The Future of Asset Management.” The event also included an investment
competition with quantitative and fundamental tracks.
Perhaps most important to some students interested in finance is the opportunity to participate in the Steven Tarrson
Impact Investment Fund, which the school describes on its site as one of the largest student-managed impact invest-
ing funds in the country. The fund was launched in 2019 with a $1M donation by Booth alumnus Ron Tarrson, after whose
brother the fund is named.
The 35.1% of Chicago Booth’s 2022 graduates who entered the financial services industry (27.0% in 2020) did so at firms
such as Bank of America Corporation; Credit Suisse; Moelis & Company; Goldman Sachs Group Inc.; Citigroup, Inc.; JPM-
organ Chase & Co.; and Morgan Stanley.
International Business

Chicago Booth’s international credentials seem quite strong: international students make up 37% of the Class of 2024
(39% of the Class of 2023, 30% of the Class of 2022, and 31% of the Class of 2021), approximately 25% of the faculty is
reportedly international, and alumni can be found in more than 120 different countries. Further, the school offers an an-
nual Global Booth Day (formerly the Worldwide Booth Night), wherein prospective students, current students, and alumni
gather in more than 100 cities around the world to network and socialize—no doubt an advantageous program for pro-
spective MBAs, to say the least. The 2022 event attracted more than 1,800 participants in over 40 countries worldwide.
Chicago Booth students also benefit from more than a dozen different national/regional clubs at the school:
African American Student Association

Asian American Student Association
Belgian Club
Booth Africa
Canadian Business Group
Chicago Asia Pacific Group
European Business Group
Greater China Club
Hispanic American Business Students Association
Japan Club
Korean Business Group
Latin American Business Group
Middle East and North Africa Group
South Asian Business Group
Chicago Booth offers students the opportunity to earn an International Business concentration by taking at least three
courses in international business. Sample courses in this area include “International Financial Policy” and “The Wealth of
Nations.” Students may also complete international coursework offered by schools and departments within the broader
university, including the Harris School of Public Policy, the Law School, and the political science department.
The school offers exchange programs with the following partner institutions:
Australian Graduate School of Management, Australia
China Europe International Business School, China
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
ESADE Business School, Spain
ESSEC Business School Paris, France
Graduate School of Business, South Africa
Guanghua School of Management, China
HEC School of Management, France
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
IE Business School, Spain
IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain
Indian Institute of Management, India
ITAM, Mexico

Keio Business School, Japan
Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Germany
London Business School, United Kingdom
London School of Economics and Political Science: Interdisciplinary Institute of Management, United Kingdom
Louvain School of Management, Belgium
Melbourne Business School, Australia
Nanyang Business School, Singapore
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile
Rotterdam School of Management, Netherlands
SDA Bocconi School of Management, Italy
St. Gallen University, Switzerland
Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden
Wits Business School, South Africa
The multidisciplinary George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State (engaging the university’s
law school and the Harris School of Public Policy) is devoted to interaction between private and public economies. The
center’s predominant focus is research, and its publications could fill niches or perhaps be a bit esoteric for the casual
student of international affairs.
Finally, candidates should note that Chicago Booth offers a program called Random Walks, through which students can
take any one of more than 30 available trips to an international location (e.g., Chile, Iceland, Vietnam) as a preliminary
orientation to the school—indeed, the school’s website describes the experience as “an opportunity to meet and bond
with future classmates before the rigors of the MBA program begin.” Although this program is not part of the school’s
official curriculum, it represents an opportunity for students to gain enhanced global exposure. One first year with whom
we spoke described the Random Walks as “basically a kick starter to school social life.”
Another student we spoke with said, “Before you even start school, you’re meeting [approximately] 18 other people that
you know when you’re going in and you’ve had a shared experience with them, traveling in a random country somewhere.
… And it ends up being just a great bonding experience in terms of the experiences that you have, the places you see.
Then when you start school, … you not only have friends that are in your cohort, but you have friends outside your cohort
that you know because you went on a Random Walk with them. It’s just a great social experience in terms of meeting new
people that you wouldn’t have necessarily met otherwise.”
In 2022, 5.9% of graduates accepted positions outside the United States (down from 7.8% in 2021, 8.6% in 2020, and
13.3% in 2019). International recruiters of Chicago Booth MBAs in 2021–2022 include Credit Suisse, Softbank China Ven-
ture Capital, Impax Asset Management (Hong Kong), and responsAbility Investments AG.
Marketing
Arthur Middlebrooks, executive director of the James M. Kilts Center for Marketing, told us at mbaMission that Chicago
Booth offers students “a full-service marketing curriculum” with roughly a dozen marketing electives and, true to its
quant-heavy reputation, its 23-professor marketing department integrates marketing, economics, and statistics in its

courses. Second-year students we interviewed informed us that “Data-Driven Marketing” is a “quant-marketing” class
popular among aspiring marketers and consultants. Other sample courses in this study area are “Lab in Developing New
Products and Services” and “Pricing Strategies.”
Although Chicago Booth is not primarily known for marketing, by establishing the Kilts Center for Marketing—named
for the 1974 alumnus who was formerly CEO of Gillette and Nabisco—the school has attempted to bolster its reputation
for excellence in the field (possibly in hopes of gaining an edge over its crosstown rival, Kellogg). A first-year student
expressed to mbaMission that the school offers robust networking and recruiting resources to students interested in
marketing, adding, “Chicago Booth is known as a sort of rigorous, analytic school, but the amount of support provided for
‘softer’ kinds of learning really surprised me.”
Early in the academic year, the Kilts Center sponsors the Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME) Conference, which
helps facilitate and encourage interaction among researchers in the field. The conference’s goal is “[to provide] a forum
for in-depth discussions on the growing discipline of quantitative marketing,” states the center’s website. The 2022 con-
ference took place in October and featured ten sessions with such topics as “Organizational Structure and Pricing: Evi-
dence from a Large U.S. Airline,” “Influencers: The Power of Comments,” and “Welfare Effects of Personalized Rankings.”
The 2022 Dick Wittink prize for the best QME paper, which is announced each year at the conference, was awarded to a pa-
per titled “Selling Mechanisms for Perishable Goods: An Empirical Analysis of an Online Resale Market for Event Tickets.”
The two-day 2021 conference was hosted virtually in October. The event’s ten sessions included such topics as “Price
Discrimination in International Airline Markets,” “Customer Retention Under Imperfect Information,” and “Pricing Fric-
tions and Platform Remedies: The Case of Airbnb.”
The 2020 conference featured 11 sessions at which participants discussed such themes as “Discounts and Deadlines in
Consumer Search,” “Estimating Parameters of Structural Models with Neural Networks,” and “Deep Learning for Indi-
vidual Heterogeneity.”
At previous conferences, session topics have included “Higher Minimum Quality Standards and Redistributive Effects on
Consumer Welfare,” “You Get What You Give: Theory and Evidence of Reciprocity in the Sharing Economy,” and “Strategic
Ability and Productive Efficiency in Electricity Markets.”
The Chicago Booth Marketing Group typically hosts an annual, half-day Marketing Conference covering topics that are
less esoteric than those examined in the QME Conference and providing the requisite networking opportunities with
corporations. The 2022 Marketing Conference was themed “Marketing in a Digital Age.”
Various informal Marketing Group–sponsored opportunities exist for students to interact with company representatives
on campus, including corporate presentations and interviewing practice sessions. Kraft, Microsoft, Wrigley, General
Mills, Deloitte, Campbell’s Soup, and BCG have all presented for club members in the past. A first-year student with whom
we spoke reported, “Every single week, there’s a different company on campus, especially in the fall. The [presentations]
are great because you get a more informal interaction; you’re not wearing your suit and name tag.” The student also
mentioned an event at which approximately 30 first-year club members held a “product tasting,” buying various food and
beverage brands for the sake of comparison.

Further, the school offers “day at” opportunities, wherein students visit various marketing firms in the greater Chicago
area to learn firsthand about those companies’ career offerings and corporate culture. Participating “day at” companies
in recent years have included Abbot, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Wrigley, and Kraft. Of these off-site opportunities, a
first year told us, “You get a lot better sense of what the companies are like, even more than when they visit campus.”
As soon as December exams are done, interested students partake in Brand Week Trek, a networking blitz during which
they visit firms in New York and on the West Coast. Firms visited in recent years include American Express, Kantar,
Pfizer, Johnnie Walker, and Campbell’s Soup. According to a first year with whom we spoke, the West Coast Marketing
Trek has in the past targeted firms in the areas of retail, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, and technology.
And a first-year club member told mbaMission, “There are fewer Marketing Group treks because the company presenta-
tions tend to be a lot longer and more in-depth.” In addition, according to another first-year member, the group sponsors
a Retail Trek (coordinated with the Retail, Apparel, and Luxury Group), which runs concurrent to the Brand Week Trek. On
the Retail Trek, students have visited such companies as Coach, Cynthia Rowley, Rue La La, and Urban Outfitters.
The school’s website lists three management labs dedicated to the marketing function, with firms such as Abbott, Bar-
clays, Campbell’s Soup, and Honeywell International, Inc. having sponsored these lab classes, for which students take
on semester-long consulting projects. Arthur Middlebrooks, executive director of the James M. Kilts Center, explained
to mbaMission that each management lab consists of eight to ten students with one or two coaches per team who meet
three days a week. The class involves no curricular component: the class is the consulting project. Said Middlebrooks of
the lab course, “You learn a ton about the subject and a lot about your own work style.”
In addition, professors in Chicago Booth’s marketing department realized opportunities for increased practical involve-
ment and created such “hybrid” classes as “Lab in Developing New Products and Services” that involve a lecture com-
ponent but that also allow students to work on shorter-term projects with a narrower scope for firms large and small.
More than 200 students participate in these courses each year and work in teams of five with such companies as GE
Healthcare, Procter & Gamble, and Chicago Public Radio. Chicago Booth also offers the Kilts Marketing Fellowship, in
which students interested in marketing receive financial support and are paired with one of approximately 40 Chicago
Booth alumni mentors from leading marketing firms (e.g., General Mills, PepsiCo) who provide their assigned students
with career guidance and support.
Chicago Booth continues to expand its experiential learning opportunities through its partnership with The Nielsen
Company, a global market researcher. Chicago Booth houses Consumer Panel, Ad Intel, Panel Views, and Retail Scan-
ner store data for Nielsen. Middlebrooks told mbaMission that through classes such as “Data-Driven Marketing,” faculty
teach students how to use this kind of data in their decision making. For example, the Consumer Panel data provide a
record of what people buy in 60,000 homes, and through these records, students are able to “infer shopping behavior
and track spending,” explained Middlebrooks. Students can access the data only through Chicago Booth courses and
with faculty supervision. According to Middlebrooks, this partnership is meant to create “a clearinghouse for data for the
academic community.”

Of Chicago Booth’s 2022 graduates, 4.1% accepted positions with a marketing function (6.8% in 2021, 4.8% in 2020, and
5.2% in 2019). Companies that have been known to hire MBAs for marketing positions or extended offers to Booth gradu-
ates in 2021–2022 include Amazon.com, Inc.; Pepsico, Inc.; Cargill, Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; and the Kraft Heinz Company.
Nonprofit/Social Entrepreneurship
No major is dedicated specifically to nonprofit work or social entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth. However, because of
the MBA program’s flexible curriculum, students can define their own major in the area and might thus consider a variety
of courses in corporate governance, public policy, and social enterprise. Because students may take up to six classes in
other departments within the University of Chicago, they can take advantage of the extensive academic offerings avail-
able via the Harris School for Public Policy.
Chicago Booth received a $5M gift in 2013 from alumnus John Edwardson (’72), the former chairman and CEO of CDW, to
support the school’s Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation. This initiative “[equips the] bold thinkers and doers
with the knowledge and tools necessary to positively impact human life and our planet,” states the school’s website.
In recent years, the center sponsored several distinguished speakers related to social entrepreneurship, including the
strategic advisor to Grow Forward, a managing partner at Impact Engine, the vice president of business strategy and
regional operations at Slipstream, and a managing partner at Impact Engine.
In addition, the Booth Net Impact chapter offers students a significant experiential/leadership opportunity—its Board
Fellows program, in which students join the boards of nonprofits as nonvoting members and complete a strategic project
with the guidance of a board member who acts as a mentor. Students make a significant commitment to the nonprofit
with which they align—projects often demand eight to ten hours per week for six months.
Although the Giving Something Back group (known as the GSB) is less managerial than the Board Fellows program, stu-
dents interested in the nonprofit world may be interested to learn that it facilitates a wide variety of community volun-
teer opportunities. Currently, the GSB offers more than 20 project options. For example, students may commit to tutor-
ing disadvantaged children, assisting families with tax preparation, or preparing food for families staying at the Ronald
McDonald House. mbaMission learned that this program, which has nearly 300 members, is quite popular among Chicago
Booth students, and participants enjoy not only “giving back” but also bonding with their classmates through these vol-
unteer opportunities. A first-year GSB member told mbaMission that a goal of the group is “to reinforce the importance of
volunteerism among business school students in an enjoyable and rewarding fashion,” adding, ”We hope that our efforts
will promote long-term commitments and sensitivity to the importance of good citizenship.”
In addition, students can make an impact in the developing world through the Global Social Impact Practicum, which har-
nesses MBA students’ skills to benefit those in need internationally. The course was most recently held in 2019 (perhaps
due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and featured a required trip to India. In recent years, Chicago Booth students have worked
on consulting projects for the Inter-American Development Bank, the New York University/Gates Foundation Microfi-
nance Project, and the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Access Initiative, among other high-profile, international develop-
mental projects. Further, the group sponsors a Spring Trek to a developing country—past trips have been to Kenya Tanza-
nia, Botswana, the Philippines, Colombia, Vietnam, Nepal, the Dominican Republic, and Peru—where students spend one
week volunteering, meeting with local nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations, and sightseeing.

Students can also take part in the Steven Tarrson Impact Investment Fund, which was established in 2019 with a $1M dona-
tion by Booth alum Ron Tarrson. The school states that the fund was launched following years of interest from students.
Working with the fund, students research investment deals and make recommendations to an external committee.
Students concerned with environmental issues will likely be interested in EPIC (the Energy Policy Institute at the Univer-
sity of Chicago, formerly known as the Chicago Energy Initiative), a research center devoted to studying the economic,
environmental, and geopolitical impacts of energy use. Although students do not typically deal with climate change
“hands on” through the initiative, they have many opportunities to address energy use in academic forums through the
speakers and workshops the initiative regularly hosts. Past speakers include a U.S. Senator, the board chair of California
Air Resources, and the chief economist at ISO New England.
Organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Environmental Defense Fund have recruited Chi-
cago Booth students in recent years. Five members (i.e., 1.0%) of the Class of 2022 entered full-time positions in the
education/government/nonprofit industries (three and 0.7%, respectively, in 2020, and five and 1.0%
in 2019; no figures were listed for 2021).
Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town The environment

and community
Pursuing an MBA can be quite intense, and the environment and community surrounding the campus
surrounding your
can profoundly affect and even shape your MBA experience. For example, imagine stepping out of a
chosen school can
class at New York University’s (NYU’s) Stern School of Business and into the energetic bustle of New
York City’s West Village. Now imagine walking outside after a course at the Tuck School of Business
profoundly affect
at Dartmouth and being surrounded by the tranquility and natural beauty of New Hampshire’s Upper and shape your MBA
Valley. Neither scenario is necessarily “better” than the other, but one might appeal to you more. experience.
An urban campus can undoubtedly offer social and cultural opportunities that a college town simply
cannot match. This is not to suggest, however, that college towns are devoid of culture—indeed, intense intellectual and
cultural programs exist in college towns precisely because the academic institution is at the core of the community.
While schools in college towns tout their close-knit atmosphere and the tight bonds classmates form in such a setting,
this environment can be welcoming for some students and overwhelming for others. In contrast, urban campuses are
more decentralized, with students often living in various parts of a city and even in the surrounding suburbs. Someone
who has a greater need for privacy or personal space might therefore prefer an urban environment. In addition, in major
urban centers, some students—particularly those who lived in the city before enrolling in business school—may already
have well-developed social groups, and this scenario may again be better for those who find an academically and socially
all-encompassing environment less attractive.
One aspect of the MBA experience that candidates often fail to consider when evaluating their school options is weather.
Although factoring climate into your school choice may initially seem superficial, if you know you cannot comfortably
manage frigid conditions or soaring temperatures, certain programs should be stricken from your list. We encounter
many applicants each year who wisely stave off a potentially miserable experience by choosing to not apply to certain

schools in locations they just do not feel are “liv- Urban Campus Schools Urban/College Hybrid Schools College Town Schools
able” for them. Chicago Booth Northwestern Kellogg Cornell Johnson

Columbia Business School Stanford GSB Dartmouth Tuck
In addition, housing costs are one expense that Harvard Business School UC Berkeley Haas Duke Fuqua
MIT Sloan UCLA Anderson Michigan Ross
many applicants do not stop to consider before
NYU Stern Yale SOM UVA Darden
choosing a school to target. By researching real
UPenn Wharton
estate prices at the top programs, we found that
the cost differential between renting a
one-bedroom apartment in a Midwestern Median Monthly Rent for a One-Bedroom Apartment
college town and renting one in New York NYU Stern New York, NY $4,400 within .20 mile radius of campus
City, for example, can be quite significant—
MIT Sloan Cambridge, MA $3,798 within .50 mile radius of campus
adding up to tens of thousands of dollars on
Harvard Business School Cambridge, MA $3,300 within .75 mile radius of campus
a cumulative basis across two years. This
is an important factor to include as you Stanford GSB Stanford, CA $2,795 within 2.00 mile radius of campus
weigh your options and calculate your pro- UCLA Anderson Los Angeles, CA $2,697 within 1.00 mile radius of campus
jected budget.
UC Berkeley Haas Berkeley, CA $2,573 within .50 mile radius of campus
Columbia Business School New York, NY $2,400 within .50 mile radius of campus
In summary, a college town can be appeal-
ing for some candidates because its small- UPenn Wharton Philadelphia, PA $1,990 within .75 mile radius of campus
er size tends to create strong bonds within Northwestern Kellogg Evanston, IL $1,925 within 1.50 mile radius of campus
the business school’s community, though
Yale SOM New Haven, CT $1,795 within .50 mile radius of campus
for others, the lack of privacy could be un-
Duke Fuqua Durham, NC $1,599 within 1.00 mile radius of campus
desired or overwhelming. Furthermore,
some find a slower pace of life calming and Chicago Booth Chicago, IL $1,532 within 1.00 mile radius of campus
comfortable, whereas others crave the Michigan Ross Ann Arbor, MI $1,500 within 0.75 mile radius of campus
energy and bustle of a city. If you strongly
UVA Darden Charlottesville, VA $1,424 within 2.00 mile radius of campus
prefer one or the other, you should be able
to quickly eliminate certain schools from Dartmouth Tuck Hanover, NH $1,338 within 3.0 mile radius of campus
your list. Cornell Johnson Ithaca, NY $1,270 within .75 mile radius of campus
Chicago, Illinois, known as the According to Rentometer.com, accessed June 2023.
“Second City” (a nickname estab-

lished when the city was the second most populous one in the country after New York City), boasts a popula-
tion of just over 9.5 million in its greater metropolitan area. So, rather than discussing everything that a city
the size of Chicago has to offer—and it indeed offers plenty in terms of arts and entertainment (several major
sports teams, the world-renowned Art Institute of Chicago, and a stunning array of architectural styles amid
rows of towering skyscrapers, just to scratch the surface)—we will focus on the neighborhoods in which stu-
dents at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business primarily study and live, starting with Hyde Park,
where the business school is located.
For years, Hyde Park was maligned as a dangerous part of Chicago, but the neighborhood has gentrified sig-
nificantly and appears to have even earned some cachet. Hyde Park is now perhaps best known for being the

Chicago home of a certain former Illinois senator who became President of the United
States. Some Chicago Booth students are not concerned about Hyde Park’s safety but told
mbaMission that the area is fairly quiet at night and that students who do not live down- When I was looking at
town might miss out on all that Chicago has to offer. Still, Hyde Park has its charms, being a schools, I was blown
neighborhood where both professors and student families live, and it is relatively economi-
away by Booth’s main
cal, with one-bedroom apartments costing approximately $1,300 per month (according to
building (the Harper
real estate website Trulia.com), compared with approximately $2,000 per month down-
town. Students who live in the neighborhood told mbaMission about eating at Medici on
Center) and the
57th, a rooftop balcony pizzeria that has been in the neighborhood for more than 60 years, community it fosters
and hanging out toward the end of the week at The Pub at the University of Chicago’s Ida with the central atrium.
Noyes Hall. Hyde Park, where I
lived for three years, is
Within Hyde Park, a notable number of students reside in the Regents Park high-rise com- a vibrant community
plex, where monthly rents for studio apartments start at $1,650, and two-bedroom apart-
with easy access to
ments start at $2,050. Booth Partners, the school’s club for the significant others and fami-
the lakeshore and
lies of Chicago Booth students, has reported that 60% of students live downtown in the
Loop/Lakeshore East area and approximately 12% live in South Loop. According to the club,
all the happenings in
the Gold Coast/Streeterville and River North areas attract approximately 10% of students downtown Chicago.
each, and roughly 5% of students live both in the Hyde Park and the Lincoln Park/Wicker
Park/Logan Square areas. A first-year student estimated in a post on The Booth Experi- ‫ ݥ‬Kate Richardson, mbaMission
Senior Consultant and Booth
ence blog that 80% of students live in the Loop area, half of them within a single building.
Alumna
A popular housing option for Chicago Booth students, according to the club, is a building
called Aqua at Lakeshore East, a spectacular 87-story high-rise, built to comply with LEED
green building certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Students who want to relax after a tough day
can swim in one of the facility’s pools, watch a movie in the media room, work out in the fitness center, or just
enjoy the view from the observation deck. At Aqua at Lakeshore East, which is located approximately 35 min-
utes from campus via the “L” (Chicago’s largely elevated rapid transit system), students pay between approxi-
mately $1,960 and $2,400 per month for a studio and roughly $3,630 per month for a two-bedroom apartment.
Commenting on the preference many students have for downtown living, one first year wrote in a post on her
personal blog, “MBAs have been out of school for at least three years (some of us even 10+ years) and have
become used to living a certain way. If we have the opportunity to maintain that lifestyle (lack of income and
debt be damned), we’re going to do it. Hyde Park is lovely, but most of us just aren’t about that 2.5 kids, Sunday
at the park life quite yet. Chicago’s public transportation makes it easy to commute to school and we have
lockers so that we can keep the stuff we need on campus to avoid extra trips. Given these conveniences, we
choose to live where Chicago’s night life does.”
A first year who had enrolled in the program with their partner wrote in a guest post on the Booth Experience
blog: “Residing in the Loop neighborhood has proved to be the perfect urban adventure, offering us quick access
to restaurants, shops, museums, and Chicago hallmarks. Exploring the city is our favorite pastime activity.”

Regardless of where students choose to live—and according to much of the information shared in the Chi-
cago Booth admissions chats we consulted, more and more seem to choose downtown—taking advantage of
everything Chicago has to offer is reportedly quite easy. Said one first year in a post on The Booth Experi-
ence blog, “Always taking our accomplishments to new heights (literally in this case), Boothies can even claim
that 15 floors away would be a more accurate measure for us! About 40% of the Booth community lives within
the same building in the Loop area of Chicago and an additional 40% live from two to three blocks away. This
proximity makes it feel like a true college town in the third largest city in the US.” The student contributor con-
tinued: “The walk to nearby parks or outdoor locations allows us to safely stay connected without needing to
utilize public transportation. Moreover, these social activities have become a central part of my Booth experi-
ence. I could not be in a better environment to socialize and meet new friends.”
In recent years, Booth Partners has claimed that approximately 20% of students with families live in university
housing. Graduate student housing is offered in 12 buildings on a first-come, first-served basis and is available
in the Hyde Park area, with units from efficiencies to three-bedroom apartments. In addition, international
students have the option of residing at International House. This residence hall is open to all students at the
University of Chicago, although the residence population is largely made of graduate students.
One international student with whom mbaMission spoke cautioned that some prospective students may not
realize how expensive Chicago can be: his rent in the typically pricey Gold Coast area, in the north side of the
city, was $1,700 per month for a one-bedroom apartment. He added that he also had to stop taking public
transportation to campus because the trip was taking him a full hour; instead, he bought a car, which reduced
his commute to 35 minutes.
Chicago Booth represents an urban campus within a large city, thereby offering its students both neighbor-
hood and downtown living. Candidates should consider how they feel about a decentralized community (and
possibly a significant commute) when deciding whether to apply to the school. Further, applicants might con-
sider whether the general ambience of a major metropolis is ideal for their personal lifestyle as well as their
study style.
Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience
When contemplating an MBA program, do not overlook the school’s facilities. Renovations, upgrades, and new construc-
tion are all regular occurrences on school campuses these days, as some programs increase their square footage while
others unify disparate areas or refresh existing spaces. Some schools boast on-campus housing or elite athletic facili-
ties, others have established new green spaces and meeting rooms, and still others have refurbished or added class-
rooms, theaters, libraries, and other such resources.
Keep in mind, though, that just because a school has not updated or added to its facilities in recent years, this does not
mean that its offerings are outdated or subpar; the lack of updates may simply be because no updates have been needed
or the school has invested in other aspects of its program instead. A campus visit is always the best way to evaluate

firsthand what a school has to offer, but we nonetheless dedicate this space to a discussion of the
facilities available at this particular program.
If a school has not

Designed by world-renowned architect Rafael Viñoly and completed in 2004 at a cost of updated its facilities in
$125M, the Charles M. Harper Center houses Chicago Booth’s full-time MBA program. The
recent years, perhaps
business school’s location boasts a number of architectural points of interest, standing
none were needed or
near Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and the University of Chicago’s imposing Rockefell-
er Memorial Chapel. The Harper Center’s Rothman Winter Garden—a towering atrium with
the school has invested
six-story, glass Gothic arches—is at the heart of the building and serves as a central place in other aspects of its
where students can study, socialize, and hold club meetings. With over 400,000 square feet program instead.
of space, 12 classrooms (on the downstairs “classroom level”), offices for the entire admin-
istration and faculty (on the third, fourth, and fifth floors, known as the “faculty floors”), 31
group study rooms, a 3,500-square-foot student lounge, and 150-person dining facilities, the Harper Center
helps shape Chicago Booth’s community and is part of the school’s identity.
MBA students have access to the University of Chicago’s extensive library system. Students may also take ad-
vantage of the 150,000-square-foot Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, which includes fitness centers, gymnasia,
and a swimming pool and is home base for the university’s basketball, volleyball, and wrestling teams.
Finding a parking space can reportedly be difficult at the Harper Center; indeed, the Chicago Booth website
recommends that students driving to campus allow 30–45 minutes for parking alone. Parking permits for
spaces on the University of Chicago campus start at $125 per month.
Alumni Base: Opportunities to Engage
The size and depth of a school’s alumni base may be important to you as you seek to break into a
specific field or region/country. Some MBA programs have had large classes for many years and can
therefore boast sizeable alumni networks, whereas other schools may have pockets of strength in Some schools boast
particular parts of the world or in certain industries—or can claim a smaller but tighter-knit and more sizeable alumni
dedicated alumni network overall. For example, Dartmouth Tuck has a smaller absolute number of
networks, while others
alumni than most top U.S. schools but has repeatedly been touted as having the highest rate of an-
have pockets of
nual alumni giving, thanks to its very dedicated graduates.
strength in particular
Although acquiring detailed breakdowns of a school’s alumni base is sometimes difficult, you may regions or industries.
want to consider whether the school you are targeting has alumni clubs in your chosen professional
area (i.e., some schools have industry-specific alumni groups) or preferred post-MBA location. Fur-
thermore, if you are determined to live in a particular city/country/region after graduating, then earning your MBA in or
near that area, if possible, may be a good idea, so that you can more easily connect with local alumni while you are in
school—particularly if you want to pursue a niche professional area and do not expect to participate in on-grounds re-
cruiting. Of course, technological developments have greatly facilitated outreach, meaning that alumni are no longer a
flight or long drive away, but are now just a phone call, email, text, or even Skype session away.

Alumni Base
Schools are listed in order from largest alumni base to smallest within each category.
NYU Stern, UPenn Wharton, Harvard Business School 75,000 to 110,000
Northwestern Kellogg, Chicago Booth, Michigan Ross, Columbia 50,000 to 74,000
UCLA Anderson, UC Berkeley Haas, Stanford GSB, Duke Fuqua 25,000 to 49,000
MIT Sloan, UVA Darden

Cornell Johnson, 10,000 to 24,000
Yale SOM, Dartmouth Tuck
0 25,000 50,000 75,000 100,000 125,000
Note: Some schools include MBA program graduates only in their alumni total; other schools may also include alumni from their part-time, executive, doctoral, and/or other programs,
so totals may not be directly comparable.
Chicago Booth has more than 55,000 alumni who stay connected to the school via approximately 90 alumni
clubs (31 in the United States, 44 international, and seven special interest). The school’s special interest alum-
ni clubs include the Chicago Booth Black Alumni Association, the Chicago Booth Energy Network, the Chicago
Booth Real Estate Alumni Group, the Chicago Booth Women’s Network, the Booth Alumni Nonprofit Consul-
tants, the Chicago Booth Angels Network, and the Chicago Booth Mobility and Cities Group. Graduates have
reportedly even started corporate networks at such companies as Kraft, Motorola, William Blair, GE, Goldman
Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, and Northern Trust.
Chicago Booth also has a mix of roundtable programs, in which groups of alumni meet for events and speak-
ers—predominantly in Chicago, but also around the world—so they can stay connected. The roundtable pro-
gram topics include Big Data and Analytics and Finance.
Indeed, the school offers a wide array of events and functions for alumni, both nationally and internationally—
in fact, too many to list here. To learn more, view the alumni events calendar online at www.chicagobooth.edu/
alumni/events. Potential students should be encouraged to learn that, after they graduate, they will have a
variety of ways in which to stay connected with the school and to network with their fellow alumni around the
world. For an up-to-date and interactive map of alumni locations, go to www.chicagobooth.edu/alumni/clubs.

Rankings and Reputation: Important Metrics or Arbitrary Measures?
MBA rankings should always be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism, given that they can fluctu-
ate dramatically from year to year and from publication to publication. For example, if you had relied
on the U.S. News & World Report rankings to choose the NYU Stern School of Business as your busi- The various surveys
ness school in 2016 because of the program’s position at number 11, you probably would have been should and will provide
disappointed to see the school then slide down to 20th place just one year later. Similarly, if you had
some context for your
selected UC Berkeley Haas in 2014, when it was number 19 in Bloomberg Businessweek’s ranking, you
decision, but resist the
would have been delighted to see the program rise to number six in 2018.
temptation to choose
Can an MBA program—which is made up of so many moving parts—really change so much in just one a school based on
or two years? And how can one reconcile that, in the most recent rankings, UPenn Wharton is ranked rankings alone.
first by Poets&Quants but seventh by Bloomberg Businessweek (not to mention that, due to insufficient
alumni survey respondents, the school was not included on the Financial Times list, where it is usually
ranked in the top three)? Or that Cornell Johnson is ranked fifth by the Financial Times but 15th by U.S. News & World Re-
port? Or that Columbia Business School is ranked first by the Financial Times but 11th by U.S. News & World Report?
Of course, the various surveys should and likely will provide some context for your decision, but resist the temptation to
choose a school based on rankings alone, because rankings may ultimately betray you—possibly even before you graduate.
One thing to keep in mind, particularly for international students, is that a school’s reputation domestically can be quite
different from its reputation abroad. Years ago, mbaMission worked with an international candidate who was accepted
into the MBA programs at Cornell Johnson and Dartmouth Tuck. When this individual shared the good news with his man-
ager, his manager said, “I thought you would have gone to an Ivy League school like Princeton!” Of course, Dartmouth and
Cornell are in fact Ivy League institutions, and Princeton does not even have an MBA program—the manager’s reaction
illustrates how misconceptions can arise. So, after considering an MBA program’s strengths, you might factor in that
some schools have greater brand power in certain parts of the world, especially if you plan to live and work abroad after
you complete your studies.
We advise you to consider your MBA a long-term investment that will pay dividends throughout your life, and such an in-
vestment should be based on more than a one-time ranking. In fact, most MBAs who are five to ten years out of school are
not even aware of what their school is now ranked. Perhaps more importantly, if you were to ask one whether the school’s
position in the rankings has any effect on their career, the response would certainly be an impassioned “No!”
Chicago Booth typically places among the top five domestically in what are widely considered to be the most
prestigious MBA rankings. In Bloomberg Businessweek’s 2022 MBA rankings, the school was ranked in second
place domestically, up two spots from last year. In the Financial Times’ 2023 survey, Chicago Booth fell from
sixth to eighth place in the United States, and from seventh to 11th internationally, tied with Duke Fuqua and
MIT Sloan. The program was listed second in the 2022 Poets&Quants ranking of U.S.-based business schools,
unchanged from the three previous years.

U.S. Ranking: Chicago Booth 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Poets&Quants NA NA 2 2 2 2 4 4 3 3 4 3 3 3 3
U.S. News & World Report 1 1 3 3 3 1 3 2 4 4 6 4 5 5 6
Bloomberg Businessweek1 NA NA 2 4 NA 2 4 5 4 4 2 3 [1] 1 [1] 1
Financial Times NA 8 6 1 6 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
1
Until 2015, Bloomberg Businessweek released rankings every two years (in November), so numbers in brackets represent carryover from the previous year's ranking.
2
Bloomberg Businessweek did not include Chicago Booth in its 2020 rankings for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2024 U.S. News & World Report survey, the school was in first place, unchanged from the previous year
(when it shared the spot with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania). In addition, U.S. News
ranked the school in the following specialty areas: finance (2), part-time MBA (2), executive MBA (3), account-
ing (6), marketing (6), nonprofit (8, tied with Duke Fuqua), business analytics (9), management (19), produc-
tion/operations (19, tied with two other schools), entrepreneurship (23, tied with three other schools), and
supply chain/logistics (25, tied with Marquette University). The Princeton Review’s 2023 ranking of 243 MBA
programs named Chicago Booth number six for Best MBA for Finance and number ten for Toughest to Get Into.
Several students with whom we spoke expressed general satisfaction with the school’s placement in the vari-
ous rankings. “We are solid,” said a first-year student we interviewed, while another remarked, “I think the
rankings are certainly justified,” adding that “Booth offers a world-class education and gives you access to
the best professors and most talented students and alumni.” And another first year declared, “Booth is ranked
in the top consistently, so I am satisfied.”

Poets&Quants (2022) U.S. News & World Report Bloomberg Businessweek Financial Times (2023) 1
(2024) (2022)
1 UPenn Wharton 1 Columbia Business School
1 Chicago Booth 1 Stanford GSB
2 Chicago Booth 2 Harvard Business School
2 Northwestern Kellogg 2 Chicago Booth
3 Stanford GSB 2 Stanford GSB
3 UPenn Wharton 2 Harvard Business School
4 Northwestern Kellogg 4 UC Berkeley Haas
4 MIT Sloan 4 Northwestern Kellogg
5 Harvard Business School 5 Cornell Johnson
5 Harvard Business School 5 Dartmouth Tuck
6 MIT Sloan 6 Northwestern Kellogg
6 Dartmouth Tuck 6 MIT Sloan
7 Columbia Business School 7 Yale SOM
6 Stanford GSB 7 UPenn Wharton
8 Yale SOM 8 Duke Fuqua
8 Michigan Ross 8 Columbia Business School
9 Dartmouth Tuck 8 MIT Sloan
8 Yale SOM 9 UVA Darden
10 UC Berkeley Haas 8 Chicago Booth
10 NYU Stern 10 Yale SOM
11 Michigan Ross 11 UCLA Anderson
11 Columbia Business School 11 Cornell Johnson
12 Duke Fuqua 12 Dartmouth Tuck
11 Duke Fuqua 11 NYU Stern
13 Cornell Johnson 13 UVA Darden
11 UC Berkeley Haas 13 Duke Fuqua
14 UVA Darden 14 NYU Stern
14 UVA Darden 14 UC Berkeley Haas
15 NYU Stern 15 USC Marshall
15 Cornell Johnson 15 Michigan Ross
16 UCLA Anderson 16 Michigan Ross
15 USC Marshall 16 USC Marshall
17 USC Marshall 17 Rice Jones GSB
17 Emory Goizueta 17 Emory Goizueta
18 UT Austin McCombs 18 WU Olin
18 Carnegie Mellon Tepper 18 GIT Scheller
19 UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan- 19 Georgetown McDonough
Flagler 19 UCLA Anderson 19 UT Austin McCombs
19 Washington Foster
20 Washington Foster 20 UT Austin McCombs 20 UCLA Anderson
20 Washington Foster
1
This list reranks U.S. schools from international ranking. Financial Times ranks Chicago Booth 11th internationally.

The Dean: Madhav V. Rajan
In 2016, Sunil Kumar, who had served as the dean of Chicago Booth since 2011, announced his departure from the school
in order to join Johns Hopkins University as the provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. Kumar’s decision
came as a surprise to many as he had been appointed to serve a second five-year term as dean in 2015. The search for a
new long-term dean came to an end in 2017, when the university announced the appointment of Madhav Rajan, who served
as the senior associate dean for academic affairs at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) from 2010 to 2016.
“We sought the most outstanding candidate whose values, ambition, and abilities fully comport with the distinctiveness
of Chicago Booth as one of methodological rigor in its research and education, and through that commitment one of high
impact on the world,” then President Robert J. Zimmer and then Provost Daniel Diermeier said in the announcement, con-
tinuing: “We are confident that Madhav will be an outstanding leader for Chicago Booth in the coming years.”
Rajav holds three academic degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and one from the University of Madras in India. He
joined the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and worked as an associate professor and later as a
professor at the school before stepping in as an area coordinator for accounting at the Stanford GSB in 2002. Rajan’s role
as dean does not constitute his first professional involvement with Booth—he served as a visiting professor at the school
during the 2007–2008 academic year. In addition to his contributions in the classroom, Rajan has sat on the editorial
board of numerous accounting journals, including The Accounting Review and the Review of Accounting Studies.
In the announcement for the appointment, Rajan expressed enthusiasm for his new role, which he stepped into at the be-
ginning of the 2017–2018 academic year: “The values I have in research and education are deeply valued at Chicago Booth.
People come here to do rigorous, empirically based research and analysis, which provides the basis for a transformative
student experience and an extremely effective MBA curriculum. We have an exciting opportunity to take Booth’s deep
strengths and leverage them here and around the world. I am thrilled to have the chance to be dean at what is unquestion-
ably the greatest academic business school.”
In his first five years as dean, Rajan helped raise more than $1B for the school’s fundraising campaign, exceeding the
originally stated goal of $950M. Speaking to Poets&Quants in 2018, when the fundraising campaign had not yet reached
its goal, Rajan joked that luck helped him excel at his new job early on: “Having dumb luck is a great thing. … So, you take a
job, and you raise money, and you win a Nobel Prize [Booth Professor Richard H. Thaler received the Nobel Memorial Prize
in Economic Sciences in 2017] and U.S. News says you are number one. It’s all been good. I’ll take dumb luck anytime. It’s
been wonderful, super fun, and it probably has gone way better than I had any right to expect,” Rajan said. He emphasized
the significance of the Chicago Booth alumni pool to Forbes in 2019, stating: “Our alumni are deeply committed to the
success of the school. … Our alumni’s contributions of their time, philanthropy, and mentoring, referrals of students and
recruitment of our graduates are all critical to the school’s success.”
Still, he acknowledged that, in some areas, he had his work cut out for him. “This school has always had the best faculty
and that is part of its reputation. But if you go back over the past four or five years, we’ve done well but not super well at
recruiting. It was below the standards the school had set for itself so that is one of the issues I wanted to fix when I came
in. In fields like finance and economics, which are the lifeblood of the school at many levels, we weren’t doing that well. So
turning that around was one of my big priorities coming in [in 2017],” Rajan said. Indeed, at the time of the article’s publi-
cation, Rajan had hired nearly 20 new faculty members, including Sendhil Mullainathan, whose previous work at Harvard

University has turned him into a renowned figure in behavioral economics. In terms of the future, Rajan expressed inter-
est in concentrating on such aspects as a new fundraising campaign for scholarships, increasing the marketing efforts
of the Booth undergraduate program, and examining the importance of online MBA programs in coming years.
In a 2020 interview with a Booth student for the Booth Stories section of the school’s website, Rajan discussed his frus-
tration regarding diversity at the school, saying, “[This] is where we have really tried to put a lot of resources into play.
That’s something I want to dig into. Why are we losing students? If we know that Booth is the better place for them in
terms of the academic reputation and the education they get, why are we losing them? I want to make it very clear to
the incoming students, that this is a very welcoming, hospitable environment for minority students.” When asked what
aspects of Booth he hopes current students can look back on in pride as alumni, he stated, “I think that you will still have
the best faculty in the world, but it’ll look different than what it is now. You’re going to see a diverse faculty. We’re going
to see a diverse curriculum on topics that are important to students that currently we’re not offering. You’re going to see
a student body that is even more diverse than what we have now. … Ultimately [what] we do as a school [is to] train you to
be a leader in a future world that is going to be incredibly diverse.”
In June 2023, Rajan was appointed for a second term as dean, effective the following month. In the announcement for
the reappointment, Booth described Rajan as “instrumental in many of the school’s recent accomplishments,” noting as
highlights the aforementioned fundraising campaign, the launch of the Healthcare Initiative, and the opening of the Cen-
ter for Applied Artificial Intelligence. “Many of the school’s recent accomplishments are the result of Madhav’s visionary
leadership. I am confident that he will continue building upon Booth’s strong foundation and advancing the eminence of
the school well into the future,” University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos said in the announcement. Rajan him-
self appeared equally pleased with the extended position, stating, “I am incredibly proud of all that Chicago Booth has
achieved over the past five years, and I’m thrilled to continue our work to ensure Booth remains the best business school
in the world.”
Notable Professors and Unsung Heroes

It is hard to top the
Sanjay Dhar (www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/d/sanjay-k-dhar): Sanjay Dhar has been collective wisdom
recognized as an outstanding faculty member in three Bloomberg Businessweek guides to the best
of the Booth faculty.
business schools. Dhar has received the Faculty Excellence Teaching Award, which is voted on by
Nobel Prize winners
evening and weekend MBA students, and has been honored by his executive education students with
the Hillel J. Einhorn Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition, students told mbaMission that they
abound, and they are
are pleased that Dhar is teaching more and researching less. He keeps the energy high in his class- incredibly down-to-
room by constantly walking up and down the aisles during discussions and then literally running to the earth and passionate
board to write down salient points. During the 2022–2023 academic year, Dhar taught such courses about teaching and
as “Marketing Strategy” and “Marketing Management.” advancing their fields.
Nicholas Epley (www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/e/nicholas-epley): As a result of bringing ‫ ݥ‬Kate Richardson, mbaMission

social science to bear on management practices, Nicholas Epley has received such noteworthy rec- Senior Consultant and Booth
ognitions as the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Alumna
Contribution to Psychology. Poets&Quants has also named Epley one of “The 40 Most Outstanding

B-School Profs Under 40 in the World.” “Most people are intuitive psychologists in their daily lives,” he explains on the
school’s website, “wondering why people think or behave as they do. I just happened to find a profession that enables me
to answer these questions for a living.” Epley’s work has been featured in top media outlets and published in leading so-
cial and behavioral sciences journals, and he has published the book Mindwise: Why We Misunderstand What Others Think,
Believe, Feel, and Want (Deckle Edge, 2014).
An alumna we interviewed called Epley one of her favorite professors and praised him for his approach to teaching be-
havioral analysis, saying it familiarizes students with “the psychology behind making decisions and also what people’s
biases are, how that works.” She added, “He’s done a ton of research behind that, and it was great to get that soft learning
behind decision making and work with other teams and other people, just because it’s obviously something that you’re
going to be doing in the real world.”
Eugene F. Fama (www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/f/eugene-f-fama): Among the most distinguished members

of Chicago Booth’s faculty is Eugene Fama, widely recognized as the “father of modern finance.” For his research on as-
set pricing and market efficiency, he received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Science jointly with Lars Peter Hansen
(University of Chicago) and Robert Shiller (Yale University). Fama is reportedly one of the most cited researchers in the
country, having published more than 100 articles and claimed a number of other prestigious awards in the field, including
the Fred Arditti Innovation Award from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Center for Innovation, the Award for Excellence
in Finance from the Morgan Stanley American Finance Association, and the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics.
The Nobel Laureate has also served as chair of Chicago Booth’s Center for Research in Security Prices. In recent years,
Fama has taught the “Research Projects: Finance” course, which is open to MBA and PhD students and focuses on con-
structing an extensive research paper.
Scott Meadow (www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/m/scott-f-meadow): Scott Meadow is widely recognized as

an expert in private equity investment and has served since 2000 as clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Chicago
Booth. As a testament to his decades of experience, Meadow was honored with the Richard J. Daley Award by the Illinois
Venture Capital Association for his contributions to the industry.
Meadow has taught more than 10,000 students, claims the school’s site, and received several recognitions for his teach-
ing, including the Faculty Excellence Award. An alumna we interviewed identified Meadow as one of her favorite pro-
fessors. “I thought that was a really great class,” she said of his “Commercializing Innovation: Tools to Research and
Analyze Private Enterprises” course, adding, “Basically, the class is like a week-long due diligence session for different
companies. … Professor Meadow’s worked in venture, worked in PE, has all of that real-world experience. So I was really
able to apply what his methodology is to a lot of different companies in a lot of different areas.” Meadow also teaches the
“Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital” elective course.
Arthur Middlebrooks (www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/m/arthur-middlebrooks): A 1988 Chicago Booth alum-

nus, Arthur Middlebrooks is also executive director of the Kilts Center for Marketing and a management consultant who
has helped notable companies—including the Bank of America, IBM Consulting, and BP/Amoco—introduce novel services
and products. With these experiences in hand, Middlebrooks is prepared to take students in his “Lab in Developing New
Products and Services” class through the entire product development process, starting from scratch. In his class, rather

than being instructed to dream up a product, students are given raw data and hold focus groups as they strive to iden-
tify a consumer need. Recently, students in this course conceptualized new bag products for Ziploc and presented their
findings to a panel of entrepreneurs. Students with whom mbaMission spoke described Middlebrooks as innovative and
gushed about his passion and energy. Plus, several were impressed that he knew each student’s name on day one of class.
Lubos Pastor (www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/p/lubos-pastor): Still relatively young, Lubos Pastor has al-
ready received considerable recognition for his research on the stock market and asset management and has been fea-
tured among “The Best 40 B-School Profs Under the Age of 40” by Poets&Quants. Pastor’s work has been influential,
earning him such high-profile accolades as the NASDAQ Award, the Goldman Sachs Asset Management Prize, and the
Barclay’s Global Investors Prize, as well as Chicago Booth’s own Faculty Excellence Award for MBA Teaching twice. One
student quoted in the Poets&Quants article said, “his witty style elevates classroom conversations and facilitates reten-
tion of core concepts.” Pastor’s “Portfolio Management” is an advanced course, especially suited for students consider-
ing working in the asset management industry.
James E. Schrager (www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/s/james-e-schrager): Although he has a PhD from the

University of Chicago in organizational behavior and policy, James E. Schrager is not just an academic but also a practi-
tioner, able to claim that he helped take the first private American company public on the Tokyo stock exchange and as-
sisted in turning around aspects of the Pritzker family holdings, which were ultimately sold to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire
Hathaway. Students we interviewed noted that Schrager brings his high-level experiences to class but remains entirely
in touch with students’ more modest perspectives, adapting his anecdotes accordingly and creating practical learning
points that pertain to what students will face early in their post-MBA careers. Schrager is also a three-time recipient of
the university’s Emory Williams Award for Excellence in Teaching three times, and has received the Faculty Excellence
Teaching Award. One second-year student told mbaMission, “He is not up in the sky, but very practical, and by the way,
his class is always full.” Students’ grades in Schrager’s “New Venture Strategy” class are based in part on the success of
a business idea the students present to their peers—the other students act as venture capitalists and give feedback on
the idea.
Luigi Zingales (www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/directory/z/luigi-zingales): Luigi Zingales is known on the Chicago

Booth campus for his charm, sense of humor, and humility, but students with whom mbaMission spoke also call him an
innovator, citing as evidence his perspective on the discount rates used to evaluate the future cash flows of new and
risky ventures (i.e., his ability to mathematically explain why some firms deserve a 30%–50% discount rate). Zingales’s
novel approach to solving the mortgage crisis was profiled in The Economist, and Bruce Bartlett of the National Review
Online called his book Saving Capitalism from Capitalists: Unleashing the Power of Financial Markets to Create Wealth and
Spread Opportunity (coauthored with Raghuram G. Rajan; Crown Business, 2003) “one of the most powerful defenses
of the free market ever written.” More recently, he published the book, A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost
Genius of American Prosperity (Basic Books, 2012). In 2015, he became director of the school’s Stigler Center for the Study
of the Economy and the State. His students call him an “emerging finance superstar”—significant praise, considering the
company he keeps at Chicago Booth.

Social/Community Life
Booth Partners: Booth Partners is an official school club that supports the significant others and families of Chicago
Booth students by hosting social events, offering advice about moving to and living in Chicago, and providing a network-
ing resource for members who hope to work and volunteer while in Chicago. During admit weekend, sessions are run by
current partners to inform admitted Chicago Booth students and their significant others about life at the school, show-
ing, said a partner with whom we spoke, “that the partner is recognized as an important part of the decision-making
process.” She added, “Upon acceptance to Booth, not only does the student receive a letter, the partner does as well!”
Partners, with or without children, who move with their students to Chicago Booth can take advantage of what the group
has to offer by paying a $130–$280 one-year membership fee or a $300–$350 two-year membership fee. Membership bene-
fits include invitations to partner parties, such activities as a Japanese cooking class or a beer-tasting event, and inclusion
in sub-clubs, such as a Book Club. Events take place on average one to four times a week. In a post on The Booth Experi-
ence blog, one partner wrote: “I love the pay-it-forward culture here at Booth. During my first year as partner, I had such a
wonderful time attending Booth Partners events where I met my closest friends that I knew I wanted to be part of the board
the following year to recreate fun activities and guide incoming partners.” The Booth Partners website offers a detailed
guidebook on moving to Chicago, with information on gyms, day trips, grocery stores, restaurants, and other resources.
Within the Booth Partners club is Parents of Little Ones (POLO), a resource specifically for students/partners with chil-
dren. Said the partner with whom we spoke, “There are lots of resources available to make everyone that is special to a
Booth student feel welcomed and cared for! As a Chicago Booth Partner, I have found the Booth Partners club to be an
excellent organization in which to meet new people and participate in fun, interesting activities.”
Chicago Booth Ski Trip and Tuck Winter Carnival: Candidates who decide to attend Chicago Booth can look forward—
with hundreds of their closest friends in the community (partners are invited as well)—to the school’s two annual ski
trips, which take place in December and February in varying locations. The 2022 trip took place in December in Whistler,
Canada, and the February 2023 trip took students to Val Thorens, France. Past trip destinations have included Park City,
Utah and, in Telluride, Colorado, Breckenridge Ski Resort, Steamboat Springs, and Aspen. After skiing and snowboarding
all day, trip attendees spend their evenings enjoying back-to-back parties.
“There was no shortage of board shorts, bathing suits, Hawaiian shirts, blow-up pool toys, beach balls, and glow sticks
on the dance floor,” recalled a second year of a “Summertime Fun” themed on The Booth Experience blog, noting, “Half
of my suitcase was snowboarding gear, and the rest was costumes.” Other ski trip activities have included a flip cup
tournament, a pub crawl, a grilled cheese bake-off, and a visit to a local hot spring. Students and partners who are not
interested in skiing or snowboarding can typically take advantage of the selected location’s other offerings, such as spa
treatments, bumper cars on ice, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing.
Members of the Chicago Booth Ski and Snowboard Club also participate in the annual Tuck Winter Carnival (at Dart-
mouth), for which many of the country’s top business schools send teams to compete in a ski race—though we learned
the event tends to be more about beer than competition.

Liquidity Preference Function (LPF): LPF gets its name from a financial term coined by John Maynard Keynes, and these
gatherings are held weekly at Hyde Park. Students and their partners/families get together after classes in a communal
area in the Harper Center called Winter Garden for free food and drinks. LPF is a school-sponsored event organized by
the Graduate Business Council (a group of students elected by the student body to organize activities). LPFs are often
theme based, such as a Chinese New Year LPF, hosted by the school’s Greater China Club; a Mentor-Mentee LPF; and an
LPF at which the Studio Booth club displayed the finalists in a photography contest it sponsored, and at which music and
dance performances were featured.
Random Walks: Each year, Chicago Booth students can choose to take part in one of more than 30 trips abroad, called
Random Walks, as an orientation to the school and a way to kick-start their MBA social lives. Three to four second-year
students organize each of the weeklong excursions, which take place toward the end of August each year. Because stu-
dents organize these trips, they can become quite specialized—for example, two trips have typically been offered to Be-
lize, one for singles and one for couples. As trips fill up, they become “suspended” to allow admits from Round 2 time to sign
up. Still, students who have their hearts set on a particular destination would be wise to claim a space as early as possible.
Students interested in participating in a Random Walk but have not set their sights on any particular destination can
elect to join the “mystery trip,” for which participants do not find out where they are going until they arrive at the airport
to depart. (In recent years students on the “mystery trip” have traveled to the Galapagos Islands; Japan; Finland and Es-
tonia; Barcelona, Spain, and Dublin, Ireland; Jordan; and Portugal.) One first-year student wrote in a post on the Booth
Experience blog: “I couldn’t imagine my Booth Experience without Random Walk, and it seems like this year’s first years
feel the same way,” while another expressed similar sentiments: “Taking part in Random Walk Panama was a fantastic
way to kick off my Booth experience. It provided a brilliant opportunity to unwind before diving fully into MBA life, as well
as some solid friendships to make the whole thing a bit less daunting.” A third student said simply: “The best part about
Random Walk are the relationships you form.”
Thursday Night Drinking Club (TNDC): According to a first year with whom we spoke, Thursday Night Drinking Club, or
TNDC, is “a Booth tradition that everyone goes to and a weekly staple.” This event is organized by six second-year stu-
dents (“chairs”) who are handpicked by the previous year’s chairs and who select a new location each week where stu-
dents and their partners/families can gather in downtown Chicago. A member of the Dean’s Student Admissions Com-
mittee told mbaMission that TNDC is “just one part of the vibrant city-based social environment of Booth,” and a recent
alumnus remarked, “I think that our Thursday night events were really great because they provided an avenue for all
students to come together and hang out outside of school.” Noting that attendance regularly numbers 200–400, a first-
year student we interviewed remarked, “Booth frequently takes over the venue.” During the 2021–2022 and 2020–2021
academic years, TNDCs were hosted virtually.
Winter Formal: Later in the academic year, both first and second years don their tuxedoes and cocktail dresses to enjoy
the Winter Formal, which draws approximately 700 attendees. Students told mbaMission that they enjoy these oppor-
tunities to get their energy pumping and break up the long winter with a party. The Field Museum of Natural History, the
Museum of Science and Industry, and the Shedd Aquarium have served as the event’s venues in recent years. In a 2020
post on the Booth Experience student blog, a second-year student called the formal “Booth’s biggest event of the year,”
adding: “With how hectic life is at Booth, it seems impossible to get all of your friends in one place at one time. Until now.

Winter Formal is the ultimate opportunity to get your crew (Random Walk squad, Ski Trip housemates, interview family,
you name it!) back together for a swanky night of partying in style.”
The 2022 formal took place at The Field Museum and raised more than $30,000 in the accompanying auction, benefiting
such charities as Deborah’s Place, Metropolitan Family Services, and Connections for Abused Women and Their Children.
“[The excitement before the formal] is palpable. Everywhere you go, students are asking each other about what they’re go-
ing to wear and what their plans are for before and after the formal,” a student wrote in a 2022 blog post regarding the event.
Academic Summary
Curriculum: Chicago Booth is renowned for its flexibility—its LEAD Program is the school’s only mandatory course.
Nonetheless, this claim to flexibility can be a bit misleading. Chicago Booth breaks its course selection down into dif-
ferent categories; students must take three foundation courses from among 18 financial accounting, microeconomics,
and statistics options. Then, students must take six courses from the selections offered in the Functions, Management,
and Business Environment categories. Each of these three categories is broken down into subsets: the Functions subset
includes finance, marketing, and operations; the Management subset includes decisions, people, and strategy; and the
Business Environment subset is eponymously named. Students must ultimately take seven courses from among these
eight subsets, for which they have more than 40 options. Thereafter, ten elective options remain for students among
the 21 total courses (including LEAD) they need to complete to graduate. Students can take up to six courses outside the
business school at the University of Chicago.
Majors: Rather than official majors, Chicago Booth offers students 13 available concentrations, which each require the
completion of three to six courses within the study area. Concentrations are not required, but students typically fulfill
one to three of the following options:
Accounting
Analytic Finance
Behavioral Science
Business Analytics
Econometrics and Statistics
Economics
Entrepreneurship
Finance
General Management
International Business
Marketing Management
Operations Management
Strategic Management
Teaching Method: Chicago Booth does not adhere strictly to one method (case method or lecture). Professors are free to
select the format that best fits the subject matter being conveyed.

Research Centers and Initiatives:
Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics
Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence
Center for Research in Security Prices
The Chookaszian Accounting Research Center
Fama-Miller Center for Research in Finance
George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State
Harry L. Davis Center for Leadership
Healthcare Initiative
James M. Kilts Center for Marketing
Kent A. Clark Center for Global Markets
Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Roman Family Center for Decision Research
Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation
Admissions Basics
Note: Any specifics discussed in this section related to application requirements were valid for the 2022–2023 admissions
season (unless otherwise noted). Be aware that requirements for any subsequent admissions cycles may differ. Always
check with the school directly to confirm all application details.
We at mbaMission maintain relationships with business admissions committees and regularly sit down with admissions
directors to discuss the application process and much more. For our latest interviews with admissions directors, see our
YouTube channel.
The Chicago Booth admissions committee regularly hosts hour-long online chats and gives very candid responses to all
sorts of applicant questions. If you have a query or concern about the school’s MBA program or applying to it, these chats
provide a forum in which to connect and get “straight talk” on the issue.
Application Process: Once a complete application has been received, it is given to an admissions fellow (a trained sec-
ond-year student or an admissions staff member), who reads the application and makes a decision as to whether to in-
terview the candidate. The application is then passed on to an admissions director, who reads the application and makes
a similar decision. If these two decisions differ, another director breaks the tie with a third decision. When a candidate
is interviewed, a subsequent interview report is made, processed, and given to another director, along with the rest of
the applicant’s file, for a third, or possibly fourth, read. That director then votes to either admit the candidate, deny the
candidate, or bring the decision to committee for further discussion.
Admissions Rounds: Although applying in Round 1 rather than Round 2 may confer a slight statistical advantage—be-
cause Round 1 involves fewer applications, and no decisions have yet been made (thus, no limit exists at this point on
the number of spaces available)—admissions staff at Chicago Booth have emphasized in various communications that
quality is more important than speed when one is applying to the school and that candidates should wait until Round 2 to

submit their application, if necessary, rather than rushing through their application to submit it in Round 1. By Round 3,
fewer spaces and scholarships are available. The admissions committee does recommend, however, that international
students consider applying in Rounds 1 or 2 so that they may have sufficient time to acquire their visas. The director of
student recruitment noted in a 2020 online chat, “Students who apply earlier do have the advantage of knowing their
decision earlier which allows them time to plan earlier for their transition.”
The director of student recruitment also stated in a 2019 online chat: “Round 1 and Round 2 are our largest rounds of
receiving applications. It is typically by Round 3 that most of the classes are filled. However, each application receives
a full review and consideration no matter which round.” A senior associate director of admissions commented in a 2020
online chat, “We say apply when you are ready. If you feel your application isn’t quite ready send it when all systems are
go!” In a 2018 online admissions chat, an admissions officer stated plainly: “All application rounds are considered equally.”
GMAT/GRE/GPA Cutoffs: Chicago Booth has no GMAT,

GRE, or GPA cutoffs and stipulates no ideal score or aver- Average GMAT of Incoming Average GPA of Incoming Students
Students (Class of 2024) (Class of 2024)
age. Applicants are evaluated on a holistic basis, and all
their attributes are considered (work experience, com- Chicago Booth 729 Chicago Booth 3.60
munity/leadership activities, etc.). Columbia Business School 729 Columbia Business School 3.60
Cornell Johnson1 710 Cornell Johnson1 3.30

Community Leadership: Chicago Booth seeks well-
rounded candidates but understands that some careers Dartmouth Tuck 726 Dartmouth Tuck 3.52
may limit the amount of activities in which certain appli- Duke Fuqua NA Duke Fuqua NA
cants can participate. Sometimes, an individual who is
Harvard Business School1 730 Harvard Business School 3.70
“too busy” now can make up for a lack of current involve-
Michigan Ross 720 Michigan Ross 3.50
ment once they arrive at the school. In an admissions chat,
an associate director of admissions noted, “We value MIT Sloan1 730 MIT Sloan 3.62
leadership and community involvement in whatever form Northwestern Kellogg 729 Northwestern Kellogg 3.70
it comes from each individual applicant. Some are re-
NYU Stern 733 NYU Stern 3.62
ally involved in traditional activities, while others choose
Stanford GSB 737 Stanford GSB 3.76
to get involved in community organizations—churches,
nonprofits, etc.” There is no right number of community UC Berkeley Haas 729 UC Berkeley Haas 3.64
engagements an applicant should have; the admissions UCLA Anderson 711 UCLA Anderson NA
committee is simply trying to understand the candidate’s
UPenn Wharton 733 UPenn Wharton 3.60
interests—quality trumps quantity. Applicants should not
UVA Darden 720 UVA Darden 3.51
be hesitant about discussing faith-based community en-
gagements. Yale SOM1 725 Yale SOM1 3.69
Unemployment/Layoffs: The school does not necessar- 1

Represents median rather than average. 1
Represents median rather than average.
ily view a layoff or period of unemployment unfavorably.
International Quotas: Chicago Booth does not have any specific quotas by country or industry. Student numbers by
country fluctuate a great deal each year.

Recommendations: The school requires that applicants submit two letters of recommendation and
specifies that one of the two should be provided by a supervisor. If a candidate’s recommenders miss
a deadline, the candidate can email the admissions committee to ask for additional time and may be I often work with
granted a one-week extension. Third recommendations are not recommended, but the school can- applicants who want to
not guarantee that it will be reviewed. “Your second letter of recommendation can be professional
go to Booth to develop
in nature or come from an individual who has worked with you in an organization, club, or on a volun-
their quantitative
teer project. There is no preference on who supplies your second letter of recommendation, our only
guideline is that it should add new and valuable insight to your candidacy,” an associate director of
abilities. At the same
student recruitment said in a 2019 admissions online chat. time, Booth needs to
see some quantitative
Interviews: Interviews are mandatory for admission for all candidates, including reapplicants. The ability so they can be
percentage of applicants who are invited to interview is based solely on the quality of the applicant confident that the
pool, and no set number exists. Traditionally, approximately 40%–60% of applicants are interviewed, applicant can handle
although the school notes that the percentage varies year to year. Interviews are conducted by ad-
the program. So, an
missions committee staff, students, or alumni and are held on campus or in a location convenient for
applicant with no or
the prospective student. All interviews, regardless of who conducts them, receive equal weight in
the evaluation process. Interview invitations are randomly distributed. The timing of a candidate’s
weak quantitative
interview invitation has no bearing on their chances of admission. background should
build up some data
Although interviews are important, they are not “make or break.” Interviewers are primarily attempt- points to prove this to
ing to assess the candidate’s fit with the program (i.e., whether the applicant has done their due dili- Booth.
gence on the school and understands how it connects with their MBA needs and career goals). “We
are just trying to understand your goals and your familiarity with our program. We have no set “style” ‫ ݥ‬Susan Kaplan, mbaMission
of interviewing,” a senior associate director of admissions said in a 2020 admissions online chat. Senior Consultant
Financial Aid: Chicago Booth applicants are offered a merit-based fellowship at the time of their ad-
missions decision, if they have been granted one. These awards are based on the quality of the can-
didate’s application and on any specific criteria identified by the donor. An applicant cannot do any-
thing to enhance their chances of gaining an award, aside from simply being a meritorious candidate.
Booth’s essays always

Reapplicants: Reapplicants to Chicago Booth should understand that in the eyes of the admissions make me think—I like
committee, they are not starting from a “penalty” situation. However, they are expected to have a
how they try to go deep
more profound perspective on their decision to pursue an MBA and a stronger sense of fit with the
into understanding
school than someone who is applying for the first time. The admissions committee will look to the
reapplicant’s current application to provide all the information needed and will only infrequently go
who the applicant
back to and review the candidate’s previous file. Applicants are only considered reapplicants if they really is.
have applied to the school within the last two years.
‫ ݥ‬Jessica Shklar, mbaMission
Executive Director

School (Class of 2024) Women International Minorities Most Common Undergraduate Major for Incoming Students
(Class of 2024)
Chicago Booth 40% 37% 47%
Chicago Booth Business 25%
Columbia Business 44% 51% 42%1
School Columbia Business School Business 33%
Cornell Johnson 39% 43% 16%4 Cornell Johnson NA NA

Dartmouth Tuck 45% 43%2,3 31%1
Dartmouth Tuck Arts / Humanities / Social 41%
Duke Fuqua 48% 39% 43% Sciences
Harvard Business 46% 52% 38%1,2 Duke Fuqua Engineering / Natural 33%
School Sciences
Michigan Ross 42% 36% 42%1,2 Harvard Business School Engineering 28%
MIT Sloan 46% 40% 32%4 Michigan Ross STEM 40%
Northwestern Kellogg 48% 38% 37%4 MIT Sloan Engineering 29%
NYU Stern 45% 44%2,3 21%4 Northwestern Kellogg Economics / Business 45%
Stanford GSB 44% 37%2,3 51% NYU Stern Business 27%

UC Berkeley Haas 46% 41% 45%
Stanford GSB Engineering 24%
UCLA Anderson 35% 47% 28%
UC Berkeley Haas Engineering 23%
UPenn Wharton 50% 35% 35% 1
UCLA Anderson Business 26%
UVA Darden 37% 43% 20% 1
UPenn Wharton Humanities and STEM (Tied) 34%

Yale SOM 43% 48% 2,3
54% 1
UVA Darden NA NA
Yale SOM STEM 38%

1
Specified as U.S. minorities.
2
Includes permanent U.S. residents.
3
Includes dual citizens.
4
Specified as underrepresented minorities.
University of Chicago (Booth) Essay Tips, 2023–2024
The two required application essay prompts for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business complement each
other well, allowing candidates to offer insight into both their professional lives and their personal lives. The school also
offers applicants significant leeway in how thoroughly they want (or feel they need) to respond to the questions by stipu-
lating a minimum word count of 250 but no maximum. That said, the admissions committee does include a “response
guideline,” in which it encourages applicants to “think strategically” about how long their essays ultimately are. No doubt
Chicago Booth is interested in learning more about you and your story (that fits the given question, of course) but is si-
multaneously not interested in learning absolutely everything you can think of to share. Our full essay analysis follows.
Response Guidelines: We trust that you will use your best judgment in determining how long your submission should
be, but we recommend that you think strategically about how to best allocate the space.

Essay 1: How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (Minimum
250 words, no maximum)
If this essay prompt seems rather simplistic and straightforward, that is because it is. Chicago Booth is requesting very
fundamental—yet incredibly important—information and really just wants you to provide it so the school can understand
your motivation for pursuing an MBA from its program and where you expect to go in your career afterward. Be as spe-
cific as possible in your description of where you see yourself after graduation and several years down the line, from
the industry and role to any additional details about which you currently feel confident (perhaps specific companies or
responsibilities that appeal to you in particular). Explain what has brought you to this point in your professional life, not
only your career progression to date but also what has inspired you to earn an advanced degree as a vital tool in moving
forward. And ideally, take the extra step of noting which of the program’s resources you believe will be most helpful to
you in your pursuits. To be effective, this needs to be more than a passing mention, so do your research on the school
and draw a clear picture for your admissions reader as to how and why the particular offerings you have identified relate
directly to your needs and how you intend to apply them.
This essay includes some of the most elemental components of a traditional personal statement essay. We therefore
encourage you to download your free copy of the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide (https://shop.mbamission.
com/products/personal-statement-guide), in which we provide much more in-depth guidance on how to consider and
respond to these sorts of questions, along with numerous illustrative examples.
Essay 2: An MBA is as much about personal growth as it is about professional development. In addition to sharing your
experience and goals in terms of career, we’d like to learn more about you outside of the office. Use this opportunity
to tell us something about who you are… (Minimum 250 words, no maximum.)
As we have seen, Chicago Booth’s first essay question focuses specifically on candidates’ professional paths and aspira-
tions, and with this prompt, the admissions committee is very explicitly directing applicants to discuss their personas
and lives, separate from the workplace. The school is essentially asking for whatever information or insight you believe it
needs to understand you more fully as an individual and to be able to evaluate you thoroughly and fairly.
The admissions committee will already have a lot of information about you that it can and will use to get to know you
better, including your resume, extracurricular activities, recommendations, short-answer question responses, and aca-
demic transcripts. You should therefore approach this essay by first thinking about what these portions of your applica-
tion convey about who you are. Whatever you discuss should complement that information and help provide the school
with a more well-rounded impression of you. Do not use this essay to pander to the school or make a general pitch for
your candidacy or why you need an MBA. The focus needs to be on you and on giving the admissions committee a new
window into your profile. Consider elements of your personality that you feel are particularly revelatory of who you are as
an individual (e.g., values, hobbies, skills) as well as significant instances from your past that illustrate something about
you or influenced the person you are today (e.g., accomplishments, excursions, milestones). The ideas about which you
feel most enthusiastic are likely your best options and should also be the easiest to write about.
You might also consider giving some thought to which elements of your persona or background mesh best with the Chi-
cago Booth experience. (Dig deeper into what life at the school is really like by reading student blogs, perusing discus-

sion boards, catching up on press releases from the school, and watching videos on Chicago Booth’s YouTube channel at
www.youtube.com/user/ChicagoBoothMBA.) If you are struggling to decide among several topic options, selecting one
that aligns with Chicago Booth’s character or with specific offerings could help to illustrate your fit with the program.
In the end, as with all application essays (no matter the school), what you want to convey most is authenticity. Do not get
caught up in trying to say what you think the admissions committee wants to hear or writing in a way that is incongruent
with your natural communication style. And avoid just indiscriminately relating as much information as possible about
yourself in hopes of stumbling on the “right” answers. Writing with sincerity and letting your true self shine through will
make your essay its most compelling and memorable.
Optional Question: Is there any unclear information in your application that needs further explanation or additional
details you would like to share with the Admissions Committee? If so, please use this section to clarify. (Maximum 300
words)
Chicago Booth’s optional essay prompt is a little quirky in that the admissions committee uses the word “unclear,” which
to us says, “Don’t share additional information just to ‘sell’ your candidacy. Use this space only to address a problem area.”
So let us be especially clear: however tempted you may be, do not simply submit a strong essay you wrote for another
school or offer a few anecdotes you were unable to include in your required essays. This is your opportunity to address—if
you need to—any lingering questions that an admissions officer might have about your candidacy, such as a low GMAT or
GRE score, a poor grade or overall GPA, or a gap in your work experience. For more guidance, we encourage you to down-
load your free copy of our mbaMission Optional Essays Guide (https://shop.mbamission.com/products/mbamission-
optional-essays-guide), in which we offer detailed advice on when and how to take advantage of the optional essay,
along with multiple examples, to help you mitigate any problem areas in your application.
Reapplicant Question: Upon reflection, how has your perspective regarding your future, Chicago Booth, and/or get-
ting an MBA changed since the time of your last application? (Maximum 300 words)
With this essay question, Chicago Booth is testing your resolve and your reasoning. We surmise that the admissions
committee wants to be certain you are not just stubbornly following a path and trying to “finish what you started,” so to
speak, but that you have truly reassessed your needs in the aftermath of your unfortunate rejection. We recommend that
you discuss your subsequent growth and development as they pertain to additional personal and professional discovery,
which validates your need for an MBA. In the interim, some of your interests or goals might have changed—that is not a
bad thing, and the admissions committee will not automatically assume that you are “wishy-washy,” unless you give them
good reason to do so. Just be sure that any of your updated goals still logically connect to your overall story and desire for
an MBA. Your aspirations—new or original—need to represent a compelling progression of the growth you have achieved
in the past year.
The Next Step: Mastering Your Chicago Booth Interview
Many MBA candidates find admissions interviews stressful and intimidating, but mastering this important element of the
application process is definitely possible—the key is informed preparation. And, on your way to this high level of prepara-

tion, we offer our free Interview Guides to spur you along! Download your free copy of the Chicago Booth School of Business
Interview Guide today at https://shop.mbamission.com/products/chicago-booth-school-of-business-interview-guide.
Also be sure to watch our video “How to Get into the Chicago Booth School of Business” on our YouTube channel: https://
youtu.be/7K1vOx7-gKE.

Appendix:
Booth Facts and Figures
Note: Facts and figures in this section are prone to change. Occasionally, conflicts may exist between the school’s publica-
tions and its web pages. Applicants are urged to recheck facts and figures for the most up-to-date information.
Basics
Year Established: 1898

Location: Chicago, Illinois; London, England; Hong Kong, China (London and Hong Kong are executive campuses)
Dean: Madhav Rajan (2017)
Associate Dean for Student Recruitment and Admissions: Donna Swinford (2019)
Programs:
Full-Time MBA
Evening MBA
Executive Education
Weekend MBA
Executive MBA
PhD
Summer Business Scholars
Joint Degrees:
MBA/MA: International Relations; Middle Eastern Studies; Eastern European and Russian Eurasian Studies; and
Social Work, Social Policy, and Social Administration from Crown Family School
MBA/MPP with the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy
MBA/JD with the University of Chicago Law School
MBA/MD with the Pritzker School of Medicine
MBA/MPCS with the Department of Computer Science
MBA/Graduate Program in Health Administration and Policy
Class Profile (Class of 2024)
Class Size: 621

Average GMAT: 729
Median GMAT: 730
GMAT Range: 600–780
Applicants Who Reported a GRE Score: 26%
Average GRE Verbal: 163
Average GRE Quant: 164
GRE Verbal Range: 150–170

GRE Quantitative Range: 153–170
Average Work Experience: 5 years
Average GPA: 3.6
GPA Range: 2.4–4.0
Average Student Age: 28
Countries Represented: 57
Female Representation: 40%
U.S. Minority Students (the total number of students who identified as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawai-
ian, Other Pacific Islander, Asian American, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx American, and Multi-Race stu-
dents divided by the total number of U.S. citizens/permanent residents in the class): 47%
International Students: 37%
First-Generation Students: 11.0%
LGBTQ+: 7%
Veterans: 8%
Employment Statistics (Class of 2022)
Median Base Salary: $175,000

Median Signing Bonus: $30,000
Graduates accepted positions in the following industries:

Consulting: 35.5%
Financial Services: 35.1%
• Investment Banking/Brokerage: 10.8%
• Diversified Financial Services: 7.2%
• Private Equity: 7.1%
• Venture Capital: 5.2%
• Investment Management/Research: 3.5%
• Hedge Funds: 0.6%
• Insurance: 0.6%
• Search Funds: 0.2%
Technology: 14.9%
• E-Commerce and Internet: 9.1%
• Software: 3.0%
• Financial Technology: 1.5%
• Services: 0.9%
• Hardware: 0.4%
Health Care: 4.1%
• Services: 1.5%
• Health Care Products/Medical Devices: 0.9%
• Pharmaceutical Products: 0.9%

• Biotech and Life Sciences: 0.4%
• Healthtech/Telemedicine: 0.4%
Consumer Products: 2.2%
• Food/Beverage/Tobacco: 1.7%
• Consumer Goods: 0.6%
Law: 2.0%
Real Estate: 1.7%
Retail: 0.7%
Energy: 0.6%
• Clean Tech/Renewables: 0.4%
• Oil and Gas: 0.2%
Aerospace/Aviation: 0.4%
Agribusiness: 0.4%
Arts/Media/Entertainment: 0.4%
Automotive/Transportation Equipment: 0.4%
Education: 0.4%
Government: 0.4%
• Federal: 0.2%
• State and Local: 0.2%
Manufacturing/Chemicals: 0.4%
Recreation/Leisure/Sports: 0.4%
Nonprofit: 0.2%
Graduates accepted positions in the following functions:

Consulting: 36.8%
Finance: 36.2%
• Investment Banking: 15.4%
• Private Equity: 8.4%
• Venture Capital: 4.8%
• Investment Management/Research: 4.1%
• Company Finance (Analysis/Treasury): 1.9%
• Real Estate: 0.9%
• Mergers and Acquisitions within a Company: 0.6%
• Structured Finance: 0.2%
Product Management (Tech): 7.8%
General Management: 5.8%
• General Management: 5.4%
• Customer Relations Management: 0.2%
• Project Management: 0.2%
Marketing: 4.1%
• Brand/Product Management: 3.7%
• Sales: 0.4%

Corporate Strategy/Strategic Planning: 3.7%
Law: 2.0%
Business Development: 1.9%
Operations - Production/Supply Chain Management/Logistics: 0.7%
Analytics/Data Science: 0.7%
Engineering: 0.2%
Graduates accepted positions in the following locations:

United States: 94.1%
• Midwest: 30.9%
Chicago: 27.0%
Minneapolis: 1.1%
• Northeast: 29.2%
New York: 25.1%
Boston: 4.1%
• West: 20.1%
Bay Area: 11.9%
Seattle: 5.2%
Los Angeles: 2.4%
• Southwest: 5.6%
Denver: 2.0%
Dallas: 1.9%
Houston: 1.1%
• Mid-Atlantic: 4.5%
Washington, D.C.: 3.0%
• South: 3.9%
Miami: 2.0%
International: 5.9%
• Asia: 3.0%
Shanghai: 1.1%
• Latin America and the Caribbean: 1.5%
• Europe: 0.7%
• Canada: 0.6%
• Middle East and North Africa: 0.2%
Major Employers (companies that hired four or more graduates in 2022):

McKinsey & Company, Inc.: 61
The Boston Consulting Group, Inc.: 53
Bain & Company, Inc.: 28
Amazon.com, Inc.: 22
Google: 16
Credit Suisse: 11

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.: 11
PwC Strategy&: 9
JPMorgan Chase & Co.: 8
Citigroup, Inc.: 7
Kearney: 7
Lazard Freres & Co. LLC: 7
Bank of America Corporation: 6
Adobe, Inc.: 5
Deloitte Consulting: 5
Guggenheim Partners, LLC: 5
Morgan Stanley: 5
Evercore Partners Inc.: 4
Facebook: 4
Fidelity: 4
Greenhill & Co.: 4
Salesforce, Inc.: 4

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Extensive, unparalleled Services available for all

mbaMission Insider’s Guide: Booth School of Business · 2023–2024 4

mbaMission Insider’s Guide: Booth School of Business · 2023–2024 5

Admissions Guides Insider’s Guides

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9 Booth School of Business

54 Appendix: Booth Facts and Figures

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Number of Applicants 4,352 5,037 NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA 4,021

GMAT Range 600–780 590–790 600–780 610–790 610–790 620–790 NA NA NA NA 680–

Average Years of Work 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4.6 4.6 5 5

Average Student Age 28 28 28 28 28 28 27.9 27.8 27.7 28 28

Class Size: Smaller Versus Larger

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Reflect on your past

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Foundation (one course from each of the three categories):

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Pedagogy: Lecture Versus Case Method

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Chicago Booth terms their “educational phi-

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Academic Specializations/Recruitment Focus: Resources and Employers

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Chicago Booth Consulting 23% Chicago Booth Consulting 35.5%

Cornell Johnson NA NA Cornell Johnson Financial Services 39.0%

Dartmouth Tuck Financial Services 24% Dartmouth Tuck Consulting 47.0%

Duke Fuqua Financial Services 18% Duke Fuqua Consulting 36.0%

Michigan Ross Consulting 19% Michigan Ross Consulting 42.2%

Yale SOM Financial Services 20%

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 African American Student Association

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Location: Urban Campus Versus College Town The environment

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able” for them. Chicago Booth Northwestern Kellogg Cornell Johnson

Chicago, Illinois, known as the According to Rentometer.com, accessed June 2023.

“Second City” (a nickname estab-

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Facilities: Shaping the Academic/Social Experience

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African American Student Association