Booth School of Business

-When combing the finance and entrepreneurship toolkits, of which Booth is the best at helping you to assemble during your time as a student, you feel you have the necessary tools that help you to think outside the box in order to immediately impact and add value to your chosen industry after graduation.

-Recruiters clearly see the value of a Booth MBA, but the school's reputation among less sophisticated business people could still be strengthened, particularly overseas. The flexible curriculum is interesting, but it also means that you often run into classmates who simply don't have a strong enough foundation when taking more advanced topics.

-There's no faculty at a business school like that at Booth in terms of being highly regarded, highly quoted, and fully accessible. I also appreciate the sense of humility or Midwestern values that permeates Booth.

-While there is a lot of course depth available for those pursuing finance, other programs can be sparse relative to our peer schools (i.e. Marketing, MIS). I feel more options should exist for non-finance students.

-The curriculum flexibility is outstanding as you can focus your education from the very beginning to the topics you really want to learn. Moreover, the faculty and quality of the courses are outstanding.

-Find a way to balance the large amount of recruiting events in the fall so that everything doesn't magically coincide with midterms and finals. It sets a bad tone when recruiting and classes are competing for your attention.

-We get an outstanding education at Booth. When we talk to peers at other schools it doesn't sound like they learn half as much as we do at Booth. I also like that we get to live downtown in a great city like Chicago. The social life is what you make of it. You can do a Booth related event every night of the week or never. It's really your choice.

-It would be nice to see a stronger cohort structure, though I wouldn't trade off the flexible curriculum. Additionally, it would be great if the school did a better job cracking the old boy clubs in the top PE/VC firms. Our graduates are probably better prepared, we just don't market ourselves as well and we haven't fostered alumni relationships well enough in the past.

-I think the truly flexible curriculum allows Booth students to be independent drivers of their business education, allowing them to build the most relevant skills. I also feel the culture at Booth is unique; students are incredibly collaborative and always trying to make their peers better.

-The school could do more to encourage enrollment in leadership classes and stress the importance of these "soft" skills.

-Chicago offers a perfect balance of independence and collaboration with my peers. It stresses data-driven thinking and boasts an incredible faculty of theorists and practitioners.

-The marketing program is light in terms of depth. Need to add more strong professors to satisfy the demand for the material.

-The student body is very familial; everyone helps each other out, even if helping comes at a cost. I also feel the analytical approach to almost every class not only gives us skills to assess a problem, but allows us to frame our answers in a cogent, concrete way. Additionally, the flexible curriculum allows Booth students to tailor their experience to their individual needs.

-The alumni network could use some work. Unfortunately the type of person that generally attends this institution is generally the type of person that is not entirely outgoing and/or willing to reach out.

-The flexible curriculum allowed me to tailor what I learned to my address my weaknesses and explore new areas of interest. For example, during my internship I recognized a few academic areas I wanted to focus on to prepare me to return that job full-time. When I returned for my second year, it was simple to find a take the right classes, and I know feel much better prepared for work. I am entirely sure that I ended up a more well-rounded and better-prepared employee as a result of the flexible curriculum. It's hard to believe that so few schools have followed Booth's lead in this regard.

-Booth is essentially a commuter school. The student community is relatively weak and students quickly settle into off-campus cliques. The sense of community is very weak and the school does a relatively poor job of forging bonds among students. Key contributors to the poor sense of community are:

1) The "flexible" curriculum means that students are in different classes with different people all the time. One short quarter is hardly enough time to build lifetime bonds.

2) Almost all students live off-campus (specifically downtown). Students merely commute to school for classes and they immediately leave campus afterwards.

3) Admissions can do better with admission standards. There are a few people in my class that are just an embarrassment to be associated with.

-Chicago Booth is versatile. Its great for people looking finance, consulting, being an entrepreneur, etc. I can't say enough about how good the school is in placing its students and teaching them the skills necessary to succeed at their placement.