Full-Time MBA Recorded Admissions Events

Nicole Chen: Hi everyone. My name is Nicole Chen and I'm here today with Chicago Booth's full-time MBA program. I'm really excited to be here to talk with you all and hopefully help provide a little bit of a better understanding of our MBA program and really what makes being a part of the Chicago Booth community so special. As you're considering an MBA, there are chances that you have a certain list of criteria that you're using to distinguish which schools to put onto your consideration list. We have the benefit of meeting thousands of candidates and applicants each year. So today we're going to operate under the basic assumption that you care about joining an MBA experience that's tailored to deliver in at least three key areas of impact. That's your community, your career, and your curriculum. I'm going to get started with talking about those three.

Nicole: So one of the most powerful and universal themes that we continue to hear from our students and alumni about their MBA experience is that it really delivers the greatest impact when you feel fully supported by the community around you. And the way that your community comes together at Booth is quite unique. So first, let's talk about cohorts. When you come into Booth, all of our students are joined by about 60 of their peers in one of 10 distinct leadership development cohorts. From there, you get the benefits of an immediate built-in friend base, but unlike a traditional cohorted structure, you then have the autonomy to branch out and build relationships around shared interests with other first and second year students through experience that include but are not limited to some of the ones listed here. For example, some of our student groups, global competitions and recruiting activities, pre MBA random walk trips, weekly student get togethers and events on and off campus. So if you think about it, at that rate, you're probably pretty good on friends. But what about the support to navigate the logistics and day-to-day of the program? At Booth there are extensive formal resources in place to help you with course selection, recruiting, health and wellness, general student life, pretty much you name it. You'll also benefit from the informal actions of students, alumni, faculty, mentors, and staff. Like lending a helping class, taking leadership roles, offering startup advice, or doing interview prep. Our culture is really to have a responsibility to one another, to pay it forward to the next generation of Boothies.

Nicole: So after talking about our community, I'm going to switch now to talking about another key impact area that any business program should be giving you, which relates to career. At a basic level, you're hopefully wanting to join an influential MBA network that includes top talent and will open doors for you. And so while a lot of schools can offer that, what's distinct about career impact at Chicago Booth? For starters, Booth has one of the largest career services teams of all MBA programs. Each year, they facilitate at least 5,000 interviews for full-time jobs and internships. You also get to benefit from one-on-one relationships with career coaches, including second year career advisors that can give you individual feedback and as well as coaches with an international focus that can connect students with companies that offer Visa sponsorship or companies in other countries if students want to work abroad. And our career services office sees really highly effective results. For example, in the class of 2023, 96% of students who were seeking jobs had offers within three months of graduation, and nearly 69% were hired through Booth facilitated channels. So as you're continuing to think about what your long-term career success might look like, as you know, industries continue to evolve, new opportunities present themselves to you, and you really progress in your career. You might be wondering how Booth will prepare you and continue to support you through all of that. First of all, at Booth, career services is for life. All alumni have access to job postings, advisors, and programming throughout their careers. Students also have access to professional student groups. Pretty much any industry you could be interested in, like consulting, tech, healthcare, et cetera, offers skills workshops, company visits, and so much more to support students throughout their recruiting process. Also, we have a number of industry and function research centers that offer dedicated resources, workshops, mentorship, and so much more also to our students in areas such as healthcare, entrepreneurship, social impact, and AI, and all of these are also built into your MBA experience.

Nicole: So we've talked about community, and we talked about career, but finally, you're probably looking to pursue an MBA because you want to build on your existing knowledge and leadership skills, and that's really where a curriculum with a significant impact can become a differentiating factor as well. So at Booth, you're going to take 21 courses total with only one required leadership development course or LEAD for short. The rest of your two years is really spent on your particular academic path. We get asked all the time, what's the true benefit of Booth's curriculum flexibility? Well, really being able to select courses that you want to take is essential if you want to get the most out of this relatively short MBA experience. We don't have time here for redundant learning. You know, all of our students have different backgrounds, skillset, and have different ideas of where they want to go and what their goals are. So we want you to be able to dive into topics that are really going to be additive to your experience and applicable to your specific career path. I also want to note here that during your MBA program, you can take up to six courses outside of Booth at the Greater University of Chicago. So that gives you a little bit more added flexibility to specialize and explore different areas depending on what your ultimate career goals are. Ultimately at Booth, we want to provide all of our students with a well-rounded academic experience. We want to ensure that you have the right mix of electives, but also a mastery of fundamental business disciplines, like the behavioral sciences, economics, statistics, and accounting. So all of this might sound really great in terms of flexibility, but how do you know what classes to take? Well, all of our students get the benefit of working directly with academic advisors, student groups, and their peers to really identify the specific courses that are going to meet your needs. And all of these resources can provide guidance to really map, help you map out your course sequences in your curriculum. Regardless of the path that you take, in all of our courses, you're ultimately going to learn how to develop different frameworks and ask different questions to get to the best solutions. You're going to learn how to make decisions based on data, figure out how to uncover patterns, and provide persuasive evidence to either support or perhaps challenge different solutions as well.

Nicole: Okay, so now that I've shared a bit about the Booth experience, let's talk about the next step in the MBA process, which is your application. These are the general timelines of when our applications typically occur for our three rounds of applications each year. As you prepare your application, I want you to know that we evaluate our applications holistically. So that means that every piece of the application is truly important and plays a part in our evaluation process. So to start, we ask for a professional resume, and that really helps us to understand what your career progression has been like so far to date. We ask for two letters of recommendation. These are really to help us understand how you've impacted your workplaces, colleagues, and those around you in a professional setting. And we ask for at least one of these to come from either current or former supervisor. We ask for academic transcripts. This lets us see your past performance in a classroom setting, and we'll ask you to submit these from the different institutions where you might have taken coursework previously. We also require a GMAT or GRE test score. We accept both of those test formats, and we have no preference between the two. For some of our candidates, we will also ask for an English language proficiency test score as well. And that helps us to really evaluate your ability to fully take advantage of the classroom. Next, we have a few brief essays that are really an opportunity for you to let your personality and story shine. We want to learn more about you and how Booth can really help play a part in where you're looking to go in the future.

Nicole: Finally, we do invite a number of candidates to interview. They are by invitation only, and they are required to be admitted. If you are invited to interview, that's another great chance for us to get to know more about you off paper and in person. So as you're thinking about the admissions process itself, there really is no advantage to submitting before the deadline. We don't evaluate on a rolling basis, and we don't really look at applications until after the round deadline has passed. For a little bit of context, all of our applications go through multiple readers who review the application in its entirety. Like I said earlier, each section of the application is as important as the next. No one particular section is weighted any more than any other. After all of our readers review an application, the evaluations are looked at to make a decision of whether or not to interview. Those who move on to the interview stage, also submit a short video response, and all of that information, the interview, short video response, is taken with the application as it's reviewed in its entirety again, and an ultimate recommendation is made on whether or not to admit a candidate. On the day of our decision release, all of our candidates will receive their decisions at the same time. Above all, as you're putting together your application, just really think about how you can show off your true self. That's really what the admissions committee wants to see. Thanks so much for taking the time to listen. I hope this presentation was helpful as you're starting to think about your Booth application and hopefully joining us in the future. We look forward to seeing your application soon.

Anna Young: Hi, I'm Anna Young. I work in Booth Admissions. And today, we're going to spend some time talking about strategies and tips for creating your best full-time application. Alright, let's get right into it. Let's take a step back to look at the entirety of Booth's application process. Once you submit your application, it's going to go to initial review with our admissions committee, followed by a second review from someone on the admissions committee. Then, we decide if an interview should be extended. And following that interview, there'll be a third review and a final review, which leads to the final decision. So as you can see, there's a lot of eyes on your application throughout the entire review process. Our application requirements are straightforward. They include the completed online application, your essays, resume, two letters of recommendation, transcripts, test score, and your interview, which is, again, extended by invitation only. 

Anna: Now, when we think about your professional resume, think of this as a snapshot of your professional and educational background. Focus on the content. Keep it concise. One page is preferred over two pages or longer. And a few tips to keep in mind. Spell check. You should definitely have someone else take a look over your resume to make sure not only that things are looking correct, but that it emphasizes all the accomplishments that you've achieved. Make sure that all the dates, titles, degrees that you are noting in your resume match what you're also submitting in other parts of your application. And avoid jargon and acronyms, but also remember you can add some fun personal notes in your resume. What are some hobbies you enjoy? What are places that you've enjoyed traveling to, things like that. For academic transcripts, we do require transcripts for all post-secondary education that you've completed. And a quick tip here is that we only need the unofficial transcripts from those institutions. The transcripts must include the courses you took, the grades you received, the degree you earned with the year conferred. And if your post-secondary education was completed at an institution where English was not the primary language, we do require an English translation of your transcript. 

Anna: Admissions essays. This is one of my favorite parts of the application because other than the interview, it's the opportunity for you to let your personality shine, to be able to tell your story, to explain why you're excited about attending Chicago Booth over any institution. We have two required essays and re-applicants will complete an additional essay. But remember, in all of these essay opportunities, be genuine in your essays. Let your personality shine through as you tell your story. But remember to adhere to the prompt. Letters of recommendation. We require two letters of recommendation. And a note here is that while we strongly recommend one of those letters come from your current supervisor, we do understand if there are circumstances as to why your current supervisor can't provide that letter. And there's also space in the application for you to note why it can't be your current supervisor. So when you are selecting your recommenders, make sure to select people who know you well, who can tell your story. Try to select someone who can provide that well-rounded and in-depth picture of you rather than their status at the organization that you know them from. And allow recommenders ample time to submit their letter to Booth. 

Anna: Test scores. Now, they are a required application component because they help us assess MBA readiness across a diverse applicant pool. We do not have a minimum score requirement. And you can look online to see our public test score ranges and averages. And you might be thinking, well, what if my score is higher or lower than the average? Remember, your test score is just one piece of the puzzle, one piece of the application. Booth has a holistic application review process where the test score is only one component that adds to the full picture, the full story of you. So, select the test that's right for you. Alright, you've been invited to interview. And remember, interviews at Chicago Booth are granted on an invitation-only basis. Our interviews take place in different formats. They can be conducted virtually, on-campus in-person, or in-person in your location if you're not in Chicago. The interviews are conducted by our current students at Booth, Booth alumni, or an admission staff member. And they last about 40 to 60 minutes. A tip here, is to think of your interview as a conversation where you're getting to know your interviewer and you're getting to know us. You're getting to learn if Booth truly is that fit for you and the MBA experience that you are seeking. Alright, so to wrap it all up, what are we looking for in our applications? We want to see evidence of strong, logical career progression, where you've been, where you'd like to go, and where your career could advance to. What's the potential that an MBA from Chicago Booth could provide you? We'd like to see the strength of your academic record and the potential for you to contribute to the classroom. Booth is a community where you are not just learning from the content that's provided by your professors, but from one another. So thinking about how your past experience in school and at work could lead to positive discussion in the classroom. Last, but not least, we're looking for your interest and passion for Chicago Booth. Why do you want to spend the next two years advancing your career with us? We really are looking for those that are interested and passionate about Chicago Booth for your MBA. 

Anna: Our application deadlines for the full-time MBA program typically occur around the same time every year. Round one applications are due in mid-September, round two applications in early January, and round three applications are due in early April. Be sure to check our website for specific deadlines every year. But a few notes here are that applications are not reviewed until after the deadline, so there's no benefit of early application submission. And apply for the round in which you're ready. Practice that test to improve your test scores, to really find that recommender. Maybe apply for a later round than rushing to complete by the nearest deadline. Well, thanks so much for spending the time to review. We hope that this information will help you put your best foot forward in your application and we look forward to receiving your application soon.