The freedom to choose your courses at Booth stems from therecognition that each student is coming into this program with differentskillsets, different perspectives, and different goals. The experience unitesall Booth students in their ability to explore their passions from day one. Alarge part of this exploration is preparation. Whether you are looking toswitch careers, prepare for your internship, start an entrepreneurial venture,or deepen your existing expertise in a given field, you can select the coursesthat meet your individual academic and professional goals.
The curriculum, faculty, and community are all designed tosupport you through every step of your career. Our goal is toequip you with the confidence and depth of analysis required to be successfulin your next project, your next class, or your next job. Booth’s abundance ofchoice and breadth of offerings prepares students to make an impact from the first day of class. With the Class of 2018 already on campus and planning for their first year,they will choose among more than 170 classes offered at Booth.
Below, students tellus about some of the courses they chose to meet their personal goals.
There have been so many classes that have been reallyinteresting and really relevant to what I’m interested in.* In my Corporation Finance class one of thecases that we had the chance to work on was a movie sequel options case.* It actually happened a week or so after I gotmy offer to intern with Paramount Pictures.*It was fun, it was engaging, and it was a chance to really jump intosomething I very well could potentially be working on. I thought that wasreally a testament to the types of experiences that I have had in the classroomand how the learning isn’t just within the context of a class but it is muchbroader, much more applicable and relevant to why I came to Booth in the firstplace.*-*
Michael Kurt, ’16
Having spent six years in financial services with a fairlysolid skill set in certain areas, I knew I had some areas for development. Ivalued the flexible curriculum because I knew that there were specific skills Ihoped to develop before internship recruiting started. I took classes like Managerial Decision Modeling, Revenue Management,*Cost Analysis and Internal Controls, and Operations Management - allcourses that I think prepared me to not only for the consulting interviewprocess, but also to be successful once I was on the job. -*Jenny Dunn, current student
One of the best things about Booth is the flexibility youhave to tailor the MBA to what you do want to do, and I think that’s one of themost important things here. In my case, I took courses that are related toconsumer understanding and development of new products because that’s mypassion. One of my favorite courses was Developing of New Products and ServicesLab. It’s pretty intense and you work with a real company. We had weekly touchpoints with an internationally known company. In the end we developed a newproduct for them by going through the whole process - from the needs, to theideas, to finally coming up with a final product. - Ramiro Sanchez Caballero, '16
I came to Booth to take my career in risk management at aJapanese commercial bank to a role in international business development,specifically in Southeast Asia.* I’m veryinterested in operations management in an international setting, so I'mchoosing a lot of industry specific classes like Healthcare Operations, AppliedRegression Analysis, and Big Data which give me exposure to many differentindustries. I learned organizational management skills from my Managing theWorkplace class, taught by Professor Canice Prendergast. We learned theoriesand practices in human resource management, which I feel I need to learn forexpanding our business in Southeast Asia and managing local operations. -
NobuKawai, current student
Post MBA, I'm interested in working for an impact investingfund, which will allow me to source new investments for the fund. This year Iparticipated in the Social Enterprise Lab in which I had an opportunity to helpa nonprofit organization create a revenue generating business. I was able toreally get into the field and think through the problems of social enterprises.Prior to Booth, I did not realize the level of interactions that I would havewith local social enterprises and nonprofits. This was actually very helpful tome during my internship search process. Two of the portfolio companies for theventure philanthropy fund in which I'm interning with this summer, I actuallymet both of them through various activities here at Booth. I spoke to my Boothexperiences during the interview process, and it was really impressive to them. *-
Brittany* Henry, current student
I was looking for a school with solid foundation inbusiness fundamentals, but also I wanted to try some entrepreneurialexperiments. I took Commercializing Innovation: Tools to Research and AnalyzePrivate Enterprises which gives you a framework and tools to analyze a businessfrom the investor’s perspective. I think it is very important to understand theperspective from both an entrepreneur - and from an investor. Soon I will beworking as a VC associate at the Chicago Innovation Fund and I will actuallyapply those frameworks I learned to look into a real world deal. I am superexcited about those opportunities.*-
Ray Liu, current student
I came to school with a list of probably a dozen differentbusiness ideas that I wanted to explore. I saw business school as a greatopportunity to get the mentorship I would need to be able to launch my ownstartup. Early on I took Building the New Venture with Professor WaverlyDeutsch. Students take their business idea and work on it for the duration ofthe class. You practice different scenarios and events that could come up foryour business, like a crisis for example. You then have to figure out how todeal with that problem. What it meant for us was researching and meetingdifferent lawyers to learn how we could cover ourselves in such a situation. Wethen took our startup to the Social New Venture Challenge, which is Booth’sbusiness competition for any sort of non-profit or for-profit social venture.*-
Sara Raffa, ’16
I thought it would be ideal for me to go to a businessschool where I get to make the experience my own and where I could choose theclasses that I wanted, instead of having a generic curriculum chosen for me.Coming from an emerging country, I hope to work as a portfolio manager orequity analyst in an emerging market. The Analytics of Financial Crises classwith Professor Anil Kashyap is one that I would never have the opportunityto have anywhere else. The level and the depth of the analysis are trulyunique. The professors are really anchoring not only in a strong economic backgroundof the School of Economics at Chicago, but also really bringing inpractitioners and their perspective. It was a wonderful opportunity to learnfrom the best in the business. -
Ziad Abouchadi, current student
I think Booth is a great place for instilling confidence inyourself. You are in this environment that feels safe, but you’re still pushedto limits in some respect. Leadership and Effective Development (LEAD) is theone required course that everyone takes and for me it was a really fun classexposing me to just jumping in and presenting in front of my peers.* I had the great opportunity to practice someof those presentation skills when I participated in the Deloitte casecompetition this year.* We were given acase problem and together with a team of three we had to prepare a presentationon a company that we hadn’t seen before and present it to three or fourpartners at Deloitte. It was a brilliant experience being pushed to the deepend presenting to quite senior people. It was a great confidence boost to knowthat in just two days you can understand what it takes to be a consultant. Iknow that these transferable skills learned through LEAD will be very useful inmy internship when analyzing data, and then presenting it in a way that isunderstood. -
Deepti Jodhawat, current student
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Before I came to Booth, I probably would have had no idea that I had as much interest in marketing as I discovered here. What I found, especially through the courses Data-Driven Marketing with Professor Günter Hitsch and Pricing Strategies with Professor Jean-Pierre Dubé
is that I absolutely love the way you can use analytics to inform marketing. I think that is a big piece of the future of marketing as big data becomes more readily available and easier to analyze through the new tools that are being developed in the market.**I find it so interesting how a huge pool of customer data inform specific pricing strategies that will help a company increase its sales by 20% just from thinking about changing prices by one penny and what that impact is.
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Emily Ruff, '16
Booth is known for its finance and economics, but itsso-called "soft" classes are amazing! In Professor Ron Burt's Strategic Leadership in ManagementNetworks class, we took an analytical view at successful networkers, and whatdrove their success. I learned how to leverage my own network at work and atschool, a lesson I will carry with me for years to come!
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Amruta Hunnurkar,current student
I participated in the Healthcare Analytics Lab where youwork on a real-world consulting project. Depending on what project you choose,this would either be at the hospital or healthcare system or an insuranceprovider. We were given an actual live data set where we analyzed the data,generated an output and made a recommendation. This course was something that Iwas looking to get during my MBA because I do not have a lot of experience withdata analytics. I think it's also a great add-on to your MBA if you don't havea lot of prior experience in healthcare and that's an industry you want totransition into. -
Priyanka Karandikar, '16
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When I arrived to Booth, I was excited about looking at newindustries. I took the Energy and CleanTech Lab focused on emergingtechnologies in the energy industry and renewables. It was a great opportunityto find out how different technologies can get to market.* In this lab, the role of the students is toestablish plans and work with real world partners on getting their technologiesinto the market through business plans, fundraising opportunities, andinvestment proposals. We focused on a coatings company that was bringing newcoatings and application methods to the energy industry through automated dronetechnology. This was a fun and very practical business lesson I will use duringmy internship on the new markets entry team for Tesla's energy products in PaloAlto. -
Erik Underwood, current student
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The reason I enjoyed Financial Statement Analysis so muchwas that Professor Michael Minnis took a subject that I expected to be dull andmade it very insightful, interesting, and interactive.* During parts of the recruiting process laterin the year, I found myself needing to look over a company's 10-K or 10-Q toget a better idea about their business and its performance.* I was able to take many of the lessonsapplied here to quickly extract what I needed.*-
Nithin Kuchibhotla, currentstudent
In addition to designing their own MBA experience, Boothstudents also become part of a community built on curiosity and exploration.The classes you take, the student groups you join, the career path you choose,the passions you pursue, and the people you meet all shape your experience.
Hear more stories about how students are shaping their Booth experience »
Looking forward to sharing more student stories,
Kate
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