The Right Time for a Booth MBA is Now

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the economy hard and poses unprecedented consequences for industries and companies. Strong business leaders are needed now more than ever – people who will help us rebuild and grow as the world adjusts to new challenges and ways of moving forward. Leaders like that start at Chicago Booth.

A Booth MBA creates bold visionaries others will look to in the post-pandemic job market. It begins with an MBA that teaches how to approach the unfamiliar and, more importantly, how to solve complex problems when there is no previous example to study. Make this your time to pursue a Booth MBA.

Leading the Way in Leadership Development

If the past few months have taught us anything, it’s that leaders must possess qualities that instill confidence and trust in our fellow citizens, employees, and students. At Booth, the MBA begins with LEAD (Leadership Exploration and Development), an experiential course designed to help you identify your strengths and opportunities as a leader and integrate those insights into an active, intentional, and ongoing process of leadership development.

As one of the first courses of its kind at a major business school, LEAD is an integral component of Chicago Booth and is how students discover and understand their leadership capabilities. LEAD challenges students to explore who they are as leaders and how they want to be leaders by offering opportunities to gain self-awareness and take action for development. In pursuing a Booth MBA, you develop the skills necessary to lead teams with grace under fire, encourage honest communication, and facilitate corporate and personal growth during trying times.

Booth Students Are Always Connected 

We now find ourselves socially isolated for a good cause but this kind of isolation runs against human nature, says Nicholas Epley, the John Templeton Keller Professor of Behavioral Science at Booth and a Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow.

According to Epley, just because we have to keep physical distance from one another doesn’t mean we have to stop being social. There are ways to be prosocial, even from afar. In an online talk titled, “The Surprising Power of Social Connection,” Epley gave advice for how and why people should proactively stay socially connected amid the pandemic. “If we underestimate the positive effects [that instances of reaching out] can have on others, we might not do them,” he said. “That’s important now, when social connection isn’t as easy or automatic as it used to be.”

At Booth, students build long-lasting connections that extend beyond the classroom into personal and professional real (and virtual) lives. Megan Lambert, ‘20, Public Relations chair for the Student Advisory Council (SAC) and a co-chair of the Wine Club, explains that you never have to feel alone, even though we're all apart. “Building a strong community was our primary goal over the last year and this time has provided the unique challenge of building community virtually,” Lambert says. “I'm fortunate to run two Booth accounts (one for SAC and one for Wine Club) so I get to see all the tags and [direct messages] with questions and stories about life in quarantine. We are here for each other. I know that I can reach out to anyone in this amazing community and they will help me or find someone else who can.”