Chicago Booth Essays and Essay Tips 2009-2010:

Chicago Booth MBA 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)

Chicago Booth MBA Essay 1 Tips

As in earlier years the Chicago Booth admissions committee has a multi-part goals essay to kick off the essay-pack and is extremely interested in EACH part of this flagship application essay.

2007-2008 and 2008-2009: Why are you pursuing an MBA at this point in your career? Describe your personal and professional goals and the role an MBA from the University of Chicago GSB plays in your plans to reach these goals.

2006-2007: Explain the path that has led you to pursue an MBA as the next step in your professional and personal development. Describe your short and long term post-MBA career goals. What or who influenced your choice of schools, and how specifically will Chicago GSB help you succeed?

2005-2006: Explain the path that has led you to pursue an MBA as the next step in your professional/ personal development. What steps did you take and how did you reach your decision? What or who influenced your choice of schools? What criteria will you use to decide where you will attend? What is it specifically about Chicago GSB that is going to help you succeed? Describe your short and long term post-MBA career goals. What steps will you be taking in order to achieve your goals?

YOUR objective remains as clear as ever - describe, specifically and at length, your career progression, and the reasons that connect Chicago Booth with your past, present and future. Apart from connecting the Pre-Chicago, Chicago and Post-Chicago phases of your career (and life), this essay demands a clear focus on the importance of your latest job (or internship). Articulate the reasons why your current/latest professional experience is critical to attaining your career goals, mention how the experience has improved and enhanced you, and connect it if possible/necessary with your earlier professional experience.

With 1000 words at your disposal endeavor to push yourself to look beyond a straightforward career narration; feel free to explore and reveal your personality to the Chicago Booth admissions committee in a manner that incites an interview invitation.

Be realistic and be as specific as you need to be while detailing your Post-Chicago Booth long term and short term career goals (both about the industry and the functional role). "Why Chicago Booth?" and "Why Chicago Booth now?" have to be dealt with application, research and intelligence.  Personalize your answer as much as possible, and link your career goals with Chicago Booth as closely as possible. Please try to go beyond cutting/pasting info gleaned from the Chicago Booth website. Perhaps if you can convincingly accomplish all of the above and also show why the 2009-2010 Chicago Booth intake is the perfect time for your MBA, you may have got it made.

Go for it!

Chicago Booth MBA Essay 1.a. (reapplicant essay)

FOR 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 MBA Essay 1.a. (reapplicant essay) Tips

While the question only asks you to describe changes in your "thinking" your aim here should be to go beyond and present the professional, academic and personal improvements in you that make you a stronger candidate for a Chicago Booth admit than in your last application.

You have to succinctly answer "what has changed since Chicago dinged me last time?". State compelling reasons why you deserve a second chance. What steps have you taken to strengthen your Chicago Booth application. Stronger work experience, professional achievements, better GMAT, international exposure or academic accomplishments can all find place in the Chicago reapplicant essay. Proactive Chicago-specific steps taken by you, perhaps based on direct or indirect feedback from Chicago Booth, might prove a trump card.

In case you have new perspectives about your career goals or new "fit-points" with Chicago that did not appear in your earlier application this is the place to mention it.

Go for it!

Chicago Booth MBA Essay 2

Please select one of the following (500-750 words)

2.a. 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

2.b. Describe a time when you were surprised by feedback that you received. What was the feedback and why were you surprised?

Chicago Booth MBA Essay 2.a. Tips

2.a. 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?

Take a moment to reflect on why you are writing this Chicago Booth essay. I am sure you understand that demonstrating how you realized, learnt from and rectified the mistake is the objective of this essay; giving a straight description of how you made a fool of yourself will win you few points.

The success of this story hinges on how well your leadership/learning/decision-making/people skills are used to rectify the situation. While you certainly start off with a failure/mistake by the time your ideal essay ends, all the reader remembers would be your great comeback actions.

Beginning your thought process from the second part of the question will make things much easier for you. Never forget that this Chicago Booth mistake essay is in reality meant to be a success story where you learnt/improved/rectified a mistake and readied yourself for future successes. Let that show.

Go for it!

Chicago Booth MBA Essay 2.b. Tips

2.b. Describe a time when you were surprised by feedback that you received. What was the feedback and why were you surprised?

Once again the object of the essay is not to tackle the questions straight on but to show how and what you did after the feedback and the surprise.

The most obvious theme for this essay is "Learning". Using the essay to delve into how you got a feedback and improved yourself based on it, and focusing on your capacity for learning and self-improvement would be a good idea. After all learning and self-improvement are the very skills needed to make your presence in the Chicago Booth MBA class worthwhile.

Having said that I need to point out that the essay prompt is quite open ended and can be used to talk about a variety of occasions/incidents, without limiting yourself to a "learning and improvement" story. In case you use a different approach, clarity about the theme of the essay should illuminate every part of this essay.

After writing this story read the essays again and evaluate each point in your Chicago Booth application essays in relation to the rest of the essays and the recos (if you have access to them). Your application should present a single unified face - there is absolutely no room for internal contradictions.

Go for it!

Chicago Booth MBA 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?

Chicago Booth MBA Essay 3 [Slide Presentation] Tips

I am sure this Chicago Booth perennial knot-twister has many of you sputtering and wincing. Actually that is the usual first reaction because this is probably the only mandatory visual presentation demanded by a leading business school application.

There are two approaches to this dilemma. In the first, you have to assume that your bewilderment will be shared by the other applicants. So simply sulk and do your worst. After all you have company!

The second option involves far more effort. You will have to take a leap of thought and try to understand that this is a godsend [atheists can ignore that - I do!] opportunity. There are very few questions in any MBA essay package that MOST applicants will be completely befuddled by. Each such question presents you with the prospect of creating a well-defined advantage for yourself. This Chicago Booth PowerPoint/PDF presentation is undeniably one such opportunity, and if you can grab it, that might be the best thing you do this admission year.

On to some "real" tips. First and foremost, take some time to forget all the "creative" elements of this question - do not bother thinking about whether there should be more pics or less text or this color or that background. The basics still remain the same. What else and what more (even of the same) would you like the Chicago Booth admissions committee to know about you that have not been covered in your other essays? Get the answers to that question and ONLY THEN think of all the razzle-dazzle options [since only static slides are accepted there really can't be much of that].

You can use the presentation to portray yourself from a different angle, to highlight different aspects of yourself or even to re-emphasize what makes you tick. Of course if you can show creativity, humor and insight through the presentation style you might score more - and have some fun too. Since the slides might be printed out for viewing, use clear text and bold pictures - and check the output in monochrome before finalizing the work.

Go for it!

Chicago Booth MBA Optional Essay

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 Booth Optional Essay Tips

As usual an optional essay requires effort even when you don’t write it. The main question in any optional essay is to decide whether you need to write it at all. Attempt the Chicago Booth optional essay only if you feel that it will improve the factual and material strength of your application.

Do not submit your Chicago Booth optional essay as an addendum to any of your essays. With 2500 words and a complete PowerPoint presentation at your disposal, you better not take this route!

You can use the Chicago optional essay to explain shortfalls in your application which you feel are truly detrimental to your candidature. Areas of underperformance (academic or professional or GMAT) or events which stick out (gaps in your resumes or second MBA) can be commented on if you have an explanation that is intelligent, interesting and credible. The Chicago optional essay is also acceptable if you need to convey an extraordinarily positive information that CANNOT be accommodated in the other essays.

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