Boothies Share their Favorite Classes at Chicago Booth

Since I am a joint-degree student who spent a great deal of time doing banking recruiting my first quarter, I’ve only completed a couple Booth classes since I began my MBA. With that in mind, my favorite class so far is a Booth class that I took during my undergrad: Money and Banking. It was extremely useful to understand how the banking system works and how a central bank manages the economy. The Diamond-Dybvig banking model that we learned got Professor Doug Diamond a Nobel prize recently, and the knowledge I obtained regarding central banks and macroeconomics was extremely relevant to my work at J.P. Morgan as the Federal Reserve increased the interest rates in 2022-23.

The classroom experience at Booth has been extremely impressive. I've had the opportunity to take some truly transformative courses, like Brand Management in a Digital Age, Competitive Strategy, and Advanced Decision Models with Python, which have all challenged me to think critically and approach problems in new and innovative ways. I've also had the chance to participate in the Lab in Developing New Products and Services, where I worked alongside a talented team to develop a digital solution for a new target market. These hands-on learning experiences have been invaluable in helping me develop the skills and knowledge I need to succeed in my future career.

My favorite class so far at Booth has been the Lab in Developing New Products and Services. This class gave me the opportunity to work alongside a talented team of classmates to develop a cutting-edge digital solution for a new target market. What I loved most about this course is that it provides hands-on experience in the entire product development process, from ideation to prototyping and testing. Moreover, the work I did with the client through this course aligns perfectly with what I'll be doing this summer during my internship as a product manager, which involves developing a digital solution to help the company scale and enter a new market segment. It was an incredible learning experience and a great segue into my upcoming internship.

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition taught by Professors Mark Agnew and Brian O’Connor was one of my favorite classes at Booth. I loved this class because it was strictly a leadership class. Since my end goal was to become a marketing leader, I found the curriculum very useful. Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition taught me how to adjust and strategically evaluate companies. This course also taught me how to navigate different situations that might come up when leading a company or entering a new space where one might want to adjust or change previously established cultures and norms. Overall, I thought it was a great leadership one-on-one course. Honorable mentions: Behavioral Economics with Professor Devin Pope and New Product Lab and Services with Professor Arthur Middlebrooks

Everyone always says to take one quant and one qual class each quarter, so I’ll answer this question the same. My favorite quant class has been Financial Statement Analysis & Valuation with Professor John Hand. Already having my CPA license, I knew I didn’t want to just do the standard financial accounting class. Prof. John Hand not only showed me a different perspective when analyzing financial statements, he made me excited to go to class every week with his engaging teaching style, which was what I needed most, being nervous going to my first class. My favorite qual class has been Interpersonal Dynamics with Professor Hugh Cole. There has been no 10-week span in my life where I have learned more about myself and other people while being excited in doing so even though everything that I learned continued to stretch my comfort zone. I formed life-long connections with everyone in the class, and I recommend that everyone try to take it.

I have a few favorite classes at Booth, and the top one is definitely Advanced Financial Analysis and Valuation for Global Firms taught by Professor Christian Leuz. At Booth, one of the many business skills you become really good at (besides areas such as marketing, strategy, and entrepreneurship) is finance. Professor Leuz’s course offers concepts and tools for fundamental valuations and financial analysis of companies taking students further into learning how to value firms with new business models, in high growth, tech or biotech industries, value banks and financial services firms, value private companies whose financial information is not public, evaluate foreign investments, work with financials that are prepared under international standards (IFRS) vs. US (GAAP), and more. Professor Leuz is extremely knowledgeable and engaging, and he cares that we understand every bit of the course content. I enjoyed every part of his class.

Corporation Finance is among my favorite classes at Booth so far, not only for the content but for the people who bring the lessons to life. My study group brought diverse background experiences, and we were all very interested in learning about financial governance, leadership, and decision-making in our respective areas of expertise. Enjoying the content and envisioning how I could put it into practice in my career made this class particularly meaningful. Honorable mention: Corporate Governance

I enjoyed taking Leadership Studio with Professor Harry Davis. At Booth, one of the mottos I hear often is to promote lifelong learning. Yes, one could take the occasional seminar or webinar, but ultimately how can we put that learning into practice? Professor Davis’s course addresses that question as Leadership Studio pushes students to experiment in their personal and professional lives. In doing so, we’re able to gain a better understanding of who we are as individuals. Leadership Studio taught me how to look at each aspect of myself as a character—this unique perspective allowed me to understand how I could bring certain versions of myself to life in different environments.

New Venture Strategy with James E Schrager was a great way to end my time at Booth. It’s an intense class with a ton of real world applications incorporated into the curriculum. I learned so much about how startups work, which I found to be a great benefit because I was looking at startup companies during my job search. Even after the course ended, Professor Schrager invited us back for a follow-up class available for alumni to join after taking his course. This course was definitely my favorite at Booth.