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Love is in the air at Chicago Booth! Whether one finds their sweetheart while at Booth or brings their beloved along for the ride, embarking on your MBA journey while in a relationship offers a unique and fulfilling experience. At Chicago Booth, all couples are welcome to join the Booth Partners Club, open to Booth students and their partners. As an official Booth club, this group aims to ensure couples at Booth feel supported throughout the MBA journey by exploring what Chicago has to offer together, in addition to providing support and tips on navigating the MBA experience at Booth, and more. Read on to hear from current Booth couples, including how they support each other as well as their advice for future Booth twosomes!
Shreya is a second year full-time Boothie originally from Queens, New York. As a graduate from UChicago, she enjoyed having the chance to take Booth classes and gain exposure to the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Post-undergrad, Shreya began thinking about pursuing entrepreneurship as a long-term career path and saw Chicago Booth as a great place to fuel her journey. Shreya applied to Booth through our Chicago Booth Scholars Program and worked for five years in economic consulting and analytics roles before deciding to matriculate at Booth to explore the next stage of her career.
Gautam is a second year full-time MBA student. Gautam’s journey to Booth started when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. He had the opportunity to take some finance classes at Booth during undergrad, which in turn got him interested in a career in investing. With an interest in pursuing an MBA to gain a more formal finance education, Gautam applied to our Chicago Booth Scholars Program and worked for five years in a number of different roles across investment banking, private equity, and investment management before returning to Booth.
Shreya and Gautam met as UChicago undergrads! Both Econ majors, they met in one of their math classes. They then decided to work together and form a PSet group, and the rest is history (PSet bonds are for life, after all!). After college, they pursued careers independently for a few years, visiting each other between Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. During the summertime in 2021, they got engaged lakeside at one of their favorite spots in Hyde Park, Promontory Point (also where Star Wars creator George Lucas famously had his wedding reception). The couple got married in the summer of 2022, and started their journey together at Booth a few months later!
Though we pursue our independent interests at Booth, we support each other’s endeavors any way we can. This ranges from more general things (preparing for job interviews, practicing negotiation conversations, shifting home responsibilities) to Booth-specific things (getting involved in each other’s clubs, brainstorming club ideas together, and creating community between clubs). We catch up at the end of each day, try to stay on top of what’s going on in each other’s lives, and build in time to support each other at and outside of Booth. While this takes up more calendar time, it’s incredibly rewarding to show up for your partner and bolster their pursuits.
Shreya: Gautam loved playing the drums growing up, and during his first year at Booth he joined an all-Booth band called Murders & Acquisitions. It was great to see him pursuing his passion for drums again, and through the band’s collective hard work, compete at the annual Battle of the Bands competition against Kellogg!
Gautam: Shreya channeled her entrepreneurial spirit and co-founded an ecommerce fashion startup, called Zaars, with two other Boothies. It was great to see her combine her passion for fashion and culture to make it all the way to the New Venture Challenge Finals!
Shreya & Gautam: Another great experience has been sharing our common interests with other Boothies. We both love to dance, and one of our favorite memories at Booth is helping choreograph some of the 2Y group dances for the South Asian Business Group’s annual Diwali Cruise!One of the great things we love about being a couple at Booth is being able to see each other grow and achieve our goals. Through it all, we’ve loved being able to see each other pursue our passions, grow both personally and professionally, and have fun!
Amy took the pre-med track in undergrad, majoring in Biochemistry and Economics. On the verge of graduation, Amy realized that pursuing a career in medicine wasn’t the right fit for her. She then pivoted to healthcare consulting, first at IBM and later at ZS Associates. Meeting incredible people along the way led Amy to apply for MBA programs, and she eventually landed at Chicago Booth.
Mittul was born in India but grew up in many cities across the U.S., where he helped his parents run their small businesses, sparking his interest in entrepreneurship. Post-college, Mittul started his first business: a media agency in Philadelphia. After a few years of corporate experience in New York, Mittul came to Booth to leverage the amazing entrepreneurship resources at the Polsky Center. Since coming to Booth, he’s launched his startup Zaars with two fellow Boothies, while also making time to learn about new industries from his peers.
Amy and Mittul met at a friend’s wedding in Los Angeles – Mittul was a groomsman and Amy was a friend of the bride! They spent the next four days sightseeing in LA together and the rest was history. Six years later, they are still partners-in-crime but newly engaged! Celebrating their engagement with Boothies has been one of their favorite memories while in school.
Try to give each other space to explore your own interests and make new friends but don’t forget to be intentional and carve out time for just the two of you! As an example, as much as we wanted to participate on a Random Walk together, we encouraged each other to meet new people by going on separate trips – Ecuador (Amy) and Iceland (Mittul). We were glad we stepped outside of our comfort zone, so much so that we decided to lead separate Random Walks as 2Ys – New Zealand (Amy) and Panama (Mittul)!
You don’t need to have the same schedules or go on the same trips. You just need to find time to catch up with each other!
Amy: Mittul was the GOAT while I went through the recruitment process – he meal prepped, drove me to recruiting events, and was even willing to be my study partner while I crammed for technical interviews. When I ran the Chicago Marathon last Fall, my first-ever marathon, he also biked alongside the route, handing me snacks (and much-needed Advil!) while cheering me on the entire way.
Mittul: On the flip side, Amy was my #1 supporter when I put my startup Zaars through the New Venture Challenge. She helped my team refine our NVC pitch, visited Little India to help source customers, and organized our launch party.
Above all else, we just try to be there for each other!
Together, Mittul and Amy took a road trip spanning 15k total miles the summer before starting business school. They’ve also moved ten times across five different cities (Philly, DC, NYC, LA and Chicago x2!) in the last five years. Separately, Amy used to be a late-night radio show host in college, and Mittul used to be a competitive Forza Motorsports player!
Holli’s interests took her from the halls of Indiana University into the world of finance and equity markets. Based in New York, she spent her early career at J.P. Morgan focused on algorithmic trading and principal risk solutions. She decided to come to Booth to advance her financial expertise before taking the leap into strategy consulting. Upon graduation, she will be joining McKinsey & Company.
Cat’s pursuit of a chemical engineering degree at Johns Hopkins opened her eyes to the complexities of healthcare, leading to an early career at Genentech. Joining Booth through the Chicago Booth Scholars Program was a natural step for Cat to enhance high-impact skills for the business facets of the healthcare sector. Upon graduation, she will be joining Oliver Wyman’s Healthcare & Life Sciences practice.
Holli and Cat’s paths crossed on the first day of orientation with assigned seats positioned directly across the room from one another. It was clear from the start that they shared a lot in common. Mutual love for endurance sports and the outdoors quickly sparked into something more. Now, after more than a year together, the two are excited for their next adventure to the Bay Area after graduation. As they look forward to their next chapter, their Booth experiences – rooted in love, support, and ambition – will undoubtedly continue to guide their path forward.
Navigating the rigor that comes with graduate school within the same demanding MBA program has taught us the importance of empathy and having a shared understanding. We want to stress the importance of being able to support your partner through the peaks and valleys of the intense yet rewarding period that comes with pursuing an MBA. Our journey at Booth has been a cornerstone moment, helping us to grow both as individuals and as a couple. We feel very lucky to have met during this time, and believe taking on the MBA experience together has been an epic start to our story.
Climbing Kilimanjaro together has been a major highlight of our shared time at Booth. The week-long summit allowed us to completely immerse ourselves in the experience, leaving cell service behind while tackling major challenges together. Our trip to Kilimanjaro was a lifetime bucket list item that we were able to scratch off together.
Our go-to date spot is PLANTA Queen, a stronghold in Chicago’s plant-based food scene. Cat has been vegan for several years now and although I have yet to fully convert, this is one of those places that has quickly risen to the top of both of our lists.
Holli and Cat share a passion for endurance sports; running triathlons and ultra-marathons transformed what were once personal challenges into shared journeys. Running races together, from the Brooklyn Mile to the Chicago Marathon continues to provide a connection for the two to get closer to one another through training. They enjoy and appreciate the rush that comes from making it across the finish line together every time.
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