Chicago Booth
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Chicago Booth Application Deadlines
Round 1
Deadline: October 13, 2010
Notification: December 15, 2010
Round 2
Deadline: January 5, 2011
Notification: March 16, 2011
Round 3
Deadline: April 13, 2011
Notification: May 18, 2011
Chicago Booth Essays Questions & Tips
Chicago Booth
Essay 1 : How did you choose your
most recent job/internship and how
did this experience influence your
future goals? What about the Chicago
Booth MBA makes you feel it is the
next best step in your career at this
time? (750-1000 words)
1a.( Reapplicants Only) : Upon reflection,
how has your thinking regarding your
future, Chicago Booth, and/or getting
an MBA changed since the time of your
last application? (250 words)
Chicago Booth Esssay 1 Tips:
This cleverly phrased essay question hides more than it reveals. The most effective way to answer it is to break it into parts, understand them and then answer these parts individually.
In describing your choice of most recent role, the Chicago Booth adcom wants primarily to see what career path you have in mind for yourself or do you even have one in mind at all. Were you part of the herd straight out of college going where most others were going or did you meticulously choose which role you wanted to work in? And even if you indeed were part of the herd at some point, the adcom wants to see how you realized your mistake and took corrective actions. Keep in mind that seasoned members of every adcom understand that a typical candidate at 27 years of age may not have a crystal like clarity on their long term career goals and even if they have, two years at a top ranked international B school may completely change their motivations in life and career. But what the school expects from you then is evidence that at every stage you have made serious effort to weigh your options in the light of what your short term and medium term goals were at that time and you had reason to move in whatever direction you moved.
In asking about your most recent role’s influence on your future goals, the adcom would like to see how you use the subtle feedback from your everyday experiences in developing yourself. After all, Chicago hopes to groom you into an international business leader through the everyday experiences of its campus activities and your interactions with its faculty and other students.
In asking you specifically about the Chicago Booth MBA, it wants to see if you have done some research on its program, courses offered, club activities, student and faculty profiles, and other resources and if you really understand how these resources can help your career. It also tells them that given an offer, how serious you are specifically about joining Chicago Booth amid all other B schools you may be considering because no school would like to be rejected by its admits.
Reapplicant Essay: Just put a delta (Δ) before the first essay question and you get the reapplicant essay question. Δ is a Greek alphabet and a mathematical symbol for a change in anything. If you were rejected last time because of weakness shown on any of the points mentioned above for the main essay, the adcom would like to see how you have dealt with that weakness. Touch briefly on improvements in all the points but specifically focus on the weakness that held you back last time. If you received any feedback from the adcom last time, this is the place to use it.
Chicago Booth Essay 2: Please
select one of the following (500-750
words)
Describe a time
when you wish you could have retracted
something you said or did. When did
you realize your mistake and how did
you handle the situation?
or
Describe a time when you were surprised
by feedback that you received. What
was the feedback and why were you
surprised?
Chicago Booth Essay 2 Tips:
Undoubtedly, mistake or failure essays are one of the toughest ones in any B school application. While trying to put their best foot forward, most candidates find it very tough to write on their mistakes. Start by understanding the reason behind adcom asking you this question.
Chicago Booth grooms its students into business leaders and it needs to see that potential in you before it takes you onboard. A person demonstrates the potential to be a good leader when he acknowledges his own mistakes gracefully, doesn’t seek excuses, and takes corrective action as soon as he realizes the mistakes because to him doing justice with the expectation of his subordinates is more important than his own ego. This essay also tests you emotional intelligence which is an important characteristic of a successful leader.
The first question asks you to describe how you actively managed and resolved a mistake whereas the second question asks you to describe how you introspected passively on a mistake and what lesson you learned from it. The surprise part checks how well you reconcile your positive intentions behind an action and the unintended bad effects of it on others, disregarding your ego.
Dig into your professional life, extra-curricular, or situations where you interacted with people. Narrow down to the instances when you made mistakes. It takes days and sometimes weeks for candidates to figure out the right mistake for a B school essay and then the best way to write on it. Start early and keep thinking about possible stories around different mistakes of yours in free time. Choose a story which demonstrates your positive intentions behind an action, the way it went wrong, your inner dialogue with yourself when you saw it impacting negatively the people around you, the corrective action you took, and the way you faced those impacted by your actions.
Mistakes from professional life are more appropriate than those from personal life because particularly through this essay, adcom would like to gauge your potential to be a business leader. Moreover, you can analyze the mistakes from professional life more dispassionately.
This essay question easily lets the adcom know how much you have introspected for your B school application.
Chicago Booth
Essay 3 ( Slide Presentation) : We have asked for a great deal of
information throughout this application
and now invite you to tell us about
yourself. In four slides or less please
answer the following question: What
have you not already shared in your
application that you would like your
future classmates to know about you?
We have set forth the following guidelines
for you to consider when creating
your presentation:
* The content is completely up to
you. There is no right or wrong approach
to this essay.
* Feel free to use the software you
are most comfortable with. Acceptable
formats for upload in the online application
system are PowerPoint or PDF.
* There is a strict maximum of 4 slides,
though you can provide fewer than
4 if you choose.
* Slides will be printed and added
to your file for review, therefore,
flash, hyperlinks, embedded videos,
music, etc. will not be viewed by
the committee. You are limited to
text and static images to convey your
points. Color may be used.
* Slides will be evaluated on the
quality of content and ability to
convey your ideas, not on technical
expertise or presentation.
* You are welcome to attach a document
containing notes if you feel a deeper
explanation of your slides is necessary.
However the hope is the slide is able
to stand alone and convey your ideas
clearly. You will not be penalized
for adding notes but you should not
construct a slide with the intention
of using the notes section as a consistent
means of explanation.
Chicago Booth Slide Presentation Tips:
Finally, a personal touch to your application! Of the various people you meet at Chicago Booth, your classmates would like to know you personally. Think about your hobbies, your extracurricular activities, or something you do in your personal time. What excites you? What are you passionate about? Use this essay to bring that out vividly. The adcom wants to know how your presence would make the campus more dynamic or boring. Think of it as a graphical representation of yourself. This is how the adcom would imagine you at a personal level. Differentiate yourself.
The adcom has clearly mentioned that you would be evaluated on the quality of content and ability to convey your ideas, not on technical expertise or presentation. Hence, give more weight to your content here than the template or layout of the presentation. However, there is still an implicit balance between presentation content and style because your presentation style would determine how well and vividly you are able to take your points home with the adcom.
So, why a slide presentation rather than a text essay for anything you haven’t already stated in your application? There may be several reasons -
One, business leadership is about communicating – with your customers, employees, and shareholders. Ability to present ideas through various means is important in business.
Two, so far the first two essays have been mainly around your professional life but this one is about your passion. The presentation format gives you freedom to bring out that passion vividly. Use colors, images, graphs, charts, whatever describes your passion. But again, don’t miss the importance of content. Everything on the slide should be there for a purpose.
Chicago Booth Essay 4 (Optional): If there is any important information
that is relevant for your candidacy
that you were unable to address elsewhere
in the application, please share that
information here.
Chicago Both Essay 4 Tips:
As far as possible, avoid writing the optional essay unless it adds something that can make your candidature outstanding. The adcom has given you enough bandwidth in the first two essays and the presentation to bring out your various sides. It’s irritating for the evaluators to read an extra essay that doesn’t add anything to the candidature of the applicant.
However, this essay can be effectively used to give explanations for any specific weaknesses in your profile. These problems may be a gap in work experience, a low undergraduate GPA, an absence of recommendation from your current employer, etc.
Seeking excuses for weaknesses doesn’t help your candidature. For every such weakness, try to demonstrate a strength that explains and makes up for that weakness. Just for example, you may have had a bad academic year because you won for your state in sports.
Also if a weakness can also potentially show up during your MBA at Chicago Booth, give convincing reasons to the adcom how you will not let it show up there.
In any case, keep this essay short. A maximum of 300 words should be good for it.
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