Richard Potter

I think I said on my application that if I was going to apply to summer institutes of education for business, it would have to be a school that had a worthwhile MBA program. I looked at other summer schools in America, but in the end I only applied to Booth. I liked that the course was designed to broaden our approaches as well as share what was best about Booth and Chicago itself. Finally, I really wanted to use my summer to prepare for my graduate job in consulting, and I felt that SBSP’s emphasis on finance and the opportunity to learn about the thriving sense of entrepreneurship at Chicago would be worthwhile experience.

It’s amazing how much material we covered in just three weeks. It was one thing to have access to such knowledgeable instructors, but for me the highlight was just how much I learned from working with my peers on top of our classes. The best part was the evening discussions with my team for some of our marketing strategy assignments. Everyone wanted to contribute; everyone had their own angles. This was perfect for a subject that encourages creative and lateral thought, and being able to see how their thought processes work was hugely rewarding in itself.

Our group was diverse not just in terms of nationalities, but also in terms of experience and education. It was great to see how this influenced their perceptions, and I think everyone benefited from understanding how we all structured and developed ideas differently.