Great School, Great Experience

Experience during the program

I had an incredible experience during my two years at Booth. To say it was the best two years of my life would not be an exaggeration. The new friends I made, the experiences both in the classroom and travelling the world, and the personal development opportunities all exceeded my expectations.

I believe that all top schools will provide wonderful opportunities to network, learn, grow, and experience new things and Booth certainly offers all of these. I think what makes the biggest difference in experiences between schools is finding a supportive environment where you feel at home. For me Booth delivered on that completely - I felt like I could be myself and that people were happy to accept me - unique quirks and all.

You will feel humbled by the achievements of your classmates both before and during school. You will be challenged by people who think differently from you or are smarter than you or want different things from life. This diversity of thought makes Booth a special place.

There are two things I wanted out of my MBA experience:

CAREER ADVANCEMENT: Met/exceeded expectations
- I was able to transition into a role at a company in a Leadership Development Program, which are only open to MBAs from top schools
- Booth Career Services is excellent if you want a job in a company that recruits on campus. They are a well-oiled machine that prepares you for the interview process and sets you up to get a job you want if you put in the work. They are less helpful if you are looking for a job that is more unique or non-traditional because they have less experience with them, so be ready to do more of the work on your own. (I suspect this is true at most schools). How you perform once you get the job is up to you.

FUN/REWARDING MBA EXPERIENCE: Far exceeded expectations
Since I've already written perhaps more than people care for on the amazingness of my classmates and the experience overall, maybe a list of some of the things I did during school would illustrate this better.
- Visited 3 continents with classmates (before, during, and after school) including trips to Jordan, Tanzania, Morocco, and SE Asia
- Ski Trip! Hundreds of Booth students skiing and partying together for a week
- Weekend trips including New Orleans, Nashville, Ice Fishing in Wisconsin
- Lived in the "unofficial dorm" with hundreds of my classmates
- Startup Weekend - pitch and launch a startup over a weekend
- Leadership Challenge
- Kellogg's Marketing Strategy Challenge
- Helped with Production for the Follies Show
- Co-chair of our Strategy Games Club
- Helped launch the first Leadership Class at a Law School in the country
- Member of many professional and social clubs
- Worked with two companies in Lab classes on quarter long projects
- Helped numerous classmates with interview prep
- My husband was integrated into the community - he went on spring break with me and my classmates, came to formals and happy hours, and even went on a road trip with classmates without me!

When I look back at my experience and list things out like that it feels overwhelming and amazing how much was packed into those two years. And I wish I could go back and do it all over again and not change a thing.

Overall BSchool experience (5.0)
Schools contribution (5.0)
Classmates rating (5.0)

Strengths of the program:

Curriculum, Classes, Professors
Student body, diversity
Alumni Network
Career opportunities provided by school
Brand/Ranking
Culture & Student Support

Best fit at this program:

Consulting
Finance
Marketing
Investment Banking
Tech
Entrepreneurship
Management

Can be improved:

Specialization in a particular area (e.g. Finance, Consulting, Healthcare, etc)
Southern California network is not very strong