The Chicago Approach™ is more than a curriculum—it’s a practice.
The analytical tools, evidence-based frameworks, and ways of questioning you develop at Chicago Booth are built to work on any problem, in any industry, at any stage of your career.
When you’re a student here, you’ll learn these things until it becomes second nature—not because Booth asks you to, but because they work.
The Chicago Approach teaches you to challenge assumptions, stress-test conclusions with data, and arrive at answers more efficiently. That’s not a description of a culture or a set of values. It’s a description of a practice, and it’s one you’ll repeat in every class, on every problem, until it becomes instinctive. That’s what makes The Chicago Approach a method, not just a philosophy.
Most business schools teach largely through cases—real business situations analyzed after the fact. Cases are valuable. But they teach you to see patterns, not build frameworks.
Booth’s teaching style goes further. It equips you to analyze any situation and arrive at a defensible conclusion. That’s the difference between studying what happened yesterday and building the tools to solve what hasn’t happened yet.
In Voice of a Leader: Speaking with Executive Presence, students learn much more than public speaking. They focus on how to convey ideas like leaders, using the skills of meaning-making, connection, and projection. “We learned how to have clarity of thought,” says Full-Time MBA student Ude Adekunle. “If you’re looking to develop into a confident leader—into that person who knows how to draw meaning out of things and connect with your audience—then you will learn a lot.”
Eugene F. Fama, the Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2013 for his “efficient-market hypothesis.” The idea, which states that asset prices reflect all available information, led to the rise of index funds along with the growth of finance as an academic discipline. Mike Kirby, MBA ’85, applied learnings from Fama throughout his time as cofounder of commercial real-estate firm Green Street. “Questions like where are interest rates headed or what is the stock market going to do this year are kind of a fool’s game,” Kirby says.
Arjun Mahendroo, MBA ’17, got to Booth with a dream of working in the NBA. He concentrated in Econometrics and Statistics to gain the analytics skills that were becoming valuable in basketball, but it was his critical eye to the data that helped him score a role with the Milwaukee Bucks. “The No. 1 things I got from Booth are having the confidence to question the status quo and being numerate—understanding the importance of the numbers as well as their limitations,” he says. “Every class at Booth involved analyzing the numbers.”
These numbers don’t measure a program. They measure what happens when a method compounds over a career.
Alumni who say Booth influenced their ability to lead with confidence
89%
Alumni who say Booth influenced their ability to navigate ambiguous situations
83%Source: Data above is from our 2026 alumni survey. Figures have been rounded.
An Artistic Take on Business
Kyra Atekwana, MBA ’21, brings business-minded rigor to Broadway, using skills from courses like the New Venture Challenge to develop an investment thesis for her theater productions. It’s proven successful, earning her two Tony nominations—and helping multiple of her productions turn a profit, a rare feat in theater.
“This analytical framework has transformed not only how I evaluate creative projects but how I make data-driven decisions in a traditionally intuition-based industry—ultimately that’s what delivers artistic excellence and financial returns,” she says.
The Chicago Approach produces rigorous analytical thinkers.
It also produces something more: leaders who know how to make that rigor work in the rooms, relationships, and decisions that matter most.
Courses like Interpersonal Dynamics and Power and Influence in Organizations bring the method directly into the domain of leadership, using real-world scenarios and structured feedback to build the self-awareness and emotional intelligence that make analytical thinking land in human contexts.
Cocurricular opportunities including leadership roles, case competitions, and leadership retreats push students to engage with questions of identity and ethics, while helping them to become better leaders.
LEAD is one of the first examples of The Chicago Approach in practice—an experiential course for MBA students. It immediately changed how Aarthee Janur, MBA ’22, approached her time in the Evening MBA Program.
“The most defining moment I had was in an exercise when I didn’t speak up,” she says. “The coach asked why I didn’t speak, and said you chose to come to Booth; you can speak up and people will listen. I received collective feedback from my cohort that I could ‘keep’ my thoughtful insights and ‘start’ voicing them. These group exercises gave me the confidence to boldly share my ideas.”
Cesar Gueikian, MBA ’03, an accomplished musician with a great personal love for Gibson guitars, has led a turnaround of the iconic brand.
Plugged In and Focused
Booth’s Quantitative Marketing and Economics Conference connects scholars, students, and industry leaders around rigorous, economics-based marketing research.
A Data-Driven Legacy
Booth’s MBA Masterclass Series lets prospective students experience the transformative MBA classroom—virtually or on demand.
Experience the Chicago Approach DifferenceChicago Booth’s educational philosophy is embedded in every program Booth offers, shaping how courses are built, how faculty teach, and how students are motivated to think differently.
Put your bold ideas into action. No matter which degree program you choose, learn from world-class faculty and join the same influential network, and the same dynamic community.
Launch your career in management or finance with a specialized masters degree from Chicago Booth.
Specialized Masters Programs
Explore your research interests and earn a PhD from one of the best business PhD programs in the world.
The Stevens Doctoral Program
At the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, we are dedicated to developing data-driven executive education programs—rooted in the latest academic research—to meet the evolving needs of executives and their organizations.
Executive Education at Chicago BoothTell us where you are in your journey. We’ll show you how The Chicago Approach can change where you go.
If The Chicago Approach is the method, what follows is the proof: the faculty research, career outcomes, and the leaders it produces.
They changed how the world thinks. Now they’ll change how you think.
Faculty Impact
A Booth degree doesn’t just change your next job. It changes your ceiling, and everything that becomes possible after that.
Career Advancement
Discover how Booth graduates lead differently, and why the companies they build reflect it.
Leadership ImpactThe Sokolov Executive MBA Program is registered under the Hong Kong Education Bureau. Registration No.: 262427. It is a matter of discretion for individual employers to recognise any qualification to which this course may lead.