School Ties

One of the questions that I am often asked about Booth from prospective students and recent admits is, "If there are no cohorts and students live all over Chicago does Booth really have much of a community?"  According to Poets and Quants' article Chicago Booth vs. Kellogg, "The school purposely lacks core cohort groups and has no residence halls for its MBAs, factors that make it harder for real community to occur. Some Chicago students say the school still lacks the camaraderie you’ll find at many other b-schools, especially Kellogg, and that some students graduate from Chicago with only a handful of people they would call friends."  I've also repeatedly read comments like, "the flexible curriculum does not allow for bonding," and "Booth is a commuter school."

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Aaahhh...it's the weekend.  A time for relaxing, sleeping in, eating elaborate breakfasts, and doing a whole lot of nothing.  Unless, of course, you're applying to business school in Round 1.  If you're an applicant then a September weekend means essay writing.  Last year at this time I was trying to get my Kellogg career goals essay down to 600 words from an original draft of 1400.  Calling that process arduous would be an understatement.  From my observation of friends' applications and MBA forums it appears that this year's crop of R1 applicants to Chicago Booth are going through an ordeal of their own: the infamous Power Point.