The University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

“The emphasis on [students] learning the basics rather than some predigested goo” along with “an unbeatable faculty” are “what make The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business one of the best, especially in hard-core areas such as finance and accounting,” students tell us. A “rigorous quantitative program that compels students to think critically and analytically” is the hallmark of a Chicago Booth MBA, although students hasten to add that Booth also “emphasizes persuasion, communication, and negotiation skills.”

Chicago Booth offers a full-time, part-time evening, part-time weekend, and executive MBA program. All four tracks share “top-notch” faculty, wide-ranging academic options, and an approach that “doesn’t chase new trends in business but instead relies on teaching sound fundamentals that can then be applied to any situation.” The programs differ in some details; full-time students, for example, enjoy a student-enacted grade nondisclosure policy that creates a conducive environment for “teamwork and sharing of ideas.” Students must also complete the Leadership Exploration and Development (LEAD) program, which “provides analytic frameworks for leadership that are very helpful in determining the best way to use [one’s] strengths and where to improve.” Parttimers enjoy “great flexibility,” noting that “most classes have several sessions taught by the same professor during the same quarter, enabling students to make up class sessions if for some reason they cannot attend their normal session.” Booth’s weekend MBA and Executive MBAs have “students flying to Chicago from across the U.S. and world to attend classes,” which “connects a much broader and more diverse group of people than other MBA programs can.”

Chicago Booth’s faculty includes Nobel laureates and cutting-edge researchers “who also excel in the classroom.” One accounting student reports, “Both my corporate tax strategy professor and my M&A accounting professor consult for corporate and government clients, so they have intimate knowledge of how to apply what they teach in the real world.” Booth is best known for its faculty in finance, economics, and accounting, but students note that the school should work to “increase awareness of its excellence in marketing, entrepreneurship, and general management disciplines.” Many students also “do a one-term or full-year exchange program at a foreign business school,” and “these international career development opportunities are a big part of the experience for many Booth students.”

The Booth Career Services Office doesn’t have to work hard; as one student explains, “The network and doors that open up to a graduate from Chicago Booth are outstand- ing. Gaining an MBA from this school carries a lot of weight and in the job market no one will question your education.” That doesn’t mean that Career Services slacks off, however; on the contrary, it “is an excellent resource and deserves praise,” and does a good job attracting recruiters in consulting, accounting, and finance including McKinsey & Company, Citigroup, The Boston Consulting Group, UBS, A.T. Kearney, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, and Booz and Company.

Chicago Booth also excels at “preparing career changers. You learn from the best faculty in the world to attain the skills you need to succeed in your given career. The alumni, and especially second-year students at the school, are available to answer any questions. Career Services does an excellent job of helping you identify your transferable skills to your new targeted career. . . . I would highly recommend the school for people looking to change careers.”

“The social aspect of University of Chicago is often overlooked,” students in the full- time program tell us, reporting that “there are all kinds of opportunities to get together with other students in social or more formal settings, including school-sponsored happy hours, etc.” Although “MBAs here work as hard as students at any other b-school, we know how to have fun too.” One student writes, “If anything, there are too many programs and opportunities to be involved. You need to carefully consider them all to properly juggle [your] schedule.” And with “the great city of Chicago is at our doorstep,” students don’t have to look far to find a wide range of fun diversions.

The school is located on Chicago’s South Side in the Hyde Park neighborhood, which “is too often made out to be a scary place when, in fact, it’s not. There is a pretty unique mixture of socioeconomic groups here, so you can drive by a building with three poor families living in it and four blocks later be at a stop sign next to a million-dollar (or more) home. The fact is that it’s on the South Side of Chicago so people automatically say, ‘bad, scary neighborhood.’” Part-time students attend classes at the Gleacher Center, “a beautiful building” in downtown Chicago, just off the Magnificent Mile. For students whose activities keep them in the Hyde Park area, Booth’s Charles M. Harper Center boasts a “winter garden,” a “dramatic foyer in the center of the building” where “people can catch up, do work, or just relax for a moment.”