Booth School of Business – The University of Chicago - Full-Time MBA

Chicago Booth Full Time MBA Program Structure

The University of Chicago full-time MBA program at the Booth School of Business classes are generally completed over the course of 21 months. Students take courses at the Harper Center. The full-time MBA, unlike many other cohort or team-based programs, allows students the flexibility to schedule and prioritize their own course of study as long as they fulfill basic program curriculum requirements listed below. UChicago operates on a quarter system, with a rotation approximately every 11 weeks.

Curriculum

Professors utilize a mix of teaching styles at Chicago Booth, from case studies to lectures. Regardless of approach, the school prides itself on creating classroom environments that promote discussion and debate. The academic year is broken into seasonal quarters, which last an average of 12 weeks. Fall Quarter classes generally begin in late September and end by early December. Classes resume for the Winter Quarter in early January and conclude in mid-March. After a short break, Spring Quarter begins in late March and finishes by the first or second week of June. In the summer after their first year, students are encouraged to prepare for their post-MBA careers by completing summer internships in their desired fields.

Chicago Booth’s curriculum gives its students the flexibility to create their own tailored educational path from the start. While students must take one “foundation course” in each of three disciplines—Financial Accounting, Microeconomics and Statistics—students already well versed in the basics of these fields can choose more advanced alternatives to fulfill this requirement. Students must also take one course in each of six out of seven categories: finance, marketing, operations, decisions, people, strategy, and business environment. The sole required course that all students must take is the Leadership Effectiveness and Development (LEAD) course, which teaches students about successful leadership techniques and how to motivate others. LEAD starts with ropes courses and social events during first-year orientation; additional LEAD-associated classroom sessions and other activities are held throughout the rest of the year.

Once foundational requirements are met, students are then given the opportunity to take 11 elective courses to round out and deepen their education. Through their choice of electives, students may pursue one or more of the 13 offered concentrations, which vary in focus from entrepreneurship to strategic management. In addition, students are given experiential learning opportunities through the school’s lab courses, in which teams of students help companies resolve issues across industries such as social enterprise and clean technology. Booth also allows students to gain international exposure by studying abroad for a semester at one of the school’s 30 exchange partner schools.

Full-Time MBA Rankings

• U.S. News & World Report: 3 (tie)
• Bloomberg: 4
• Forbes: 1
• Financial Times: 10
• The Economist: 1

Class Profile

Chicago Booth’s Class of 2022 is comprised of 621 students. Twenty-eight percent of Chicago Booth’s Class of 2022 pursued degrees in business during their undergraduate studies, while 24% studied economics and 21% studied engineering. Thirteen percent had majored in liberal arts and 10% in physical sciences. Upon matriculation at Chicago Booth, students averaged 28 years in age with five years of full-time work experience. A full quarter of the class came from the consulting industry. Financial services were the next most popular career choice, at 20% of students’ pre-MBA experience. Eleven percent came from the tech industry and another 10% had worked in government/non-profit. Others gained pre-MBA work experience in private equity/venture capital, energy, health care, and other industries.

Eighty-three percent of incoming Booth MBA students took the GMAT and their average score landed at 724. Seventeen percent had taken the GRE, and those test-takers averaged 163 Quant and 161 Verbal scores. In total, 30% of students in the Class of 2022 are international, 38% are women and 43% identify as a member of a U.S. minority group; students hail from 56 countries overall.

Careers Statistics

By graduation, roughly 91% of the Class of 2019 had received job offers and about 87% of the class had accepted positions. Within three months of graduation, the latter percentage rose to nearly 95. The median starting salary for Chicago Booth graduates was $145,000.

Nearly 32% of the Class of 2019 joined the finance industry, with just over 10% of that group entering investment banking and brokerage. Another popular industry for Chicago Booth 2019 graduates was consulting, which claimed nearly 34% of graduates. Over 20% pursued work in the technology industry while just over 4% of the class entered the consumer products industry. Chicago Booth graduates also chose positions in healthcare products and services, energy, and education, among other indus­tries.

Chicago Booth keeps with the general business school trend of placing a considerable percentage of its graduates in the region where the school is located. In this case, 29% of the Class of 2019 found work in the Midwestern U.S., and about 26% of that group remained in the Chicago metropolitan area. The West was the second most popular location for Chicago Booth graduates, with 22% of the class starting their careers in the Bay Area, Seattle, or Los Angeles areas. About 13% of students pursued positions internationally, with the largest percentage of that group heading to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Tuition, Scholarships, and Financial Aid

Chicago Booth’s Full-Time MBA 2020-2021 tuition is $73,440.  With additional fees such as living expenses, health insurance and books, however, the estimated cost of attendance for nine months is $110,328.

Estimated Cost of Attendance (per academic year)

• Tuition, 10 courses $73,440
• Student Services Fee $1,248
• Health Insurance $4,566
• Admin. Fee (1st year only) $2,600
• Lifetime Cred. Fee (one time) $75
• Books $684
• Rent & Utilities $22,185
• Personal $2,286
• Transportation $1,944
• Computer (1st year only) $1,300
• Total $110,328

Booth requires a $3,000 nonrefundable deposit that is divided in half. The first half is paid when a student accepts their offer; the other is paid later.

Financing is available to all admitted students through student loans and merit-based scholarships and fellowships. There is no need-based financial aid at Booth.

There are three loan programs available for Full-Time MBA students who are US citizens or permanent residents: The Direct Unsubsidized Loan and the Direct Grad Plus Loan. Finally, all students can apply for private, credit-based alternative loans.

Booth offers full and partial tuition awards for exceptional full-time MBA students through Merit-based Awards, Chicago Booth Fellowships, and Corporate Fellowships.

Merit-based Awards do not require a formal application beyond the normal process of applying to Booth. The scholarship and fellowship committee works to identify candidates who have excellent academic, work, and community service records. The committee also takes into account intended concentration and the overall strength of the applicant pool in awarding merit-based funding from $10,000 to $30,000 per year. The awards are renewable for the two years that students are enrolled in Booth’s full-time MBA Program.

There are 15 Chicago Booth Fellowships available. Again, like the merit-based awards, these have no formal application process, although interested Booth applicants are encouraged to contact the Office of Admissions (773.702.7396) for more information. Fellowships are awarded under the categories of: Academic, Diversity, Industry, Leadership, Military, Regional, and the Yellow Ribbon Program.

Admissions

To complete an application for the Chicago Booth full-time MBA program, prospective students must submit a completed online application with personal background information, two short answer essays and a personal presentation or essay, a professional resume, two letters of recommendation, unofficial transcripts from all post-secondary educational institutions attended, official GMAT or GRE scores, and a $250 application fee. International applicants must also submit TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE scores.

An interview is required for admission. They are granted on an invitation-only basis once submitted applications are preliminarily evaluated. Admissions staff, students, or alumni conduct the interviews.

2022 Chicago Booth Full-time MBA Deadlines

Working on your Chicago Booth full-time MBA application? Check out the Clear Admit Booth Essay Topic Analysis for advice on how to approach your essays.

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