The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (2024)

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Academics

Faculty

Chicago Booth employs nearly 260 faculty members, 130 of whom are in tenure-track positions. These faculty members teach across 11 academic areas and contribute to Chicago Booth’s 13 research centers and initiatives, whose missions range from fostering entrepreneurship to interpreting Chicago Price Theory.

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 seven out of eight categories: finance, marketing, operations, decisions, people, strategy, economy, and society. 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 10 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.

Other MBA Degree Options

Along with its 21-month full-time MBA program, Chicago Booth offers Evening and Weekend MBA programs, which allow students to earn an MBA in about 2.5 to 3 years. The school also has an Executive MBA program hosted in Chicago, London or Hong Kong for individuals at a more advanced stage in their careers. In addition to these part-time options, Chicago Booth partners with the larger University of Chicago to offer joint degrees in eight different disciplines, including a JD/MBA with the Chicago Law School, an MPP/MBA with the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, an MA/MBA with the School of Social Service Administration, an MPCS with the Department of Computer Science, an MBA/MA in International Relations, an MBA/MA in Eastern European & Russian Eurasian Studies, an MBA/MA in Middle Eastern Studies, and an MD/MBA with the Pritzker School of Medicine.

Starting in the 2024-2025 academic year, Booth is offering a Master in Management degree and a Master in Finance degree for recent college graduates.

The Master in Management targets students who studied humanities, arts, social sciences, biological sciences, or physical sciences in college, and are interested in jobs that value business-oriented skills and knowledge. Booth’s 10-month program builds upon a student’s critical-thinking skills with an analytical course of study. Students in the program learn the fundamentals of business by taking five required courses: Microeconomics, Financial Accounting, Business Decision Modeling, Behavioral Foundations of Management, and Data Analytics. To round out their education, students take four classes in one area of study of their choice: Analytics, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Marketing, or Strategic Management. Finally, students select one elective drawn from a variety of Booth courses. Prospective students may begin applying for admission to the program September 1, 2023, to begin studies in August 2024.

Meanwhile, the Master in Finance is designed for accomplished recent college graduates in quantitative fields of study. The degree builds on their analytical aptitude for a career in finance such as in asset management, fintech, and investment banking. Students take four core courses, Investments, Corporation Finance, Data Analytics, and Financial Accounting, along with nine electives for a total of 13 courses. There are five finance elective requirements, and students choose the remaining four electives from select MBA courses.

Concentrations at Booth

• Accounting
• Analytic Finance
• Behavioral Science
• Business Analytics
• Econometrics and Statistics
• Economics
• Entrepreneurship
• Finance
• General Management
• International Business

Degree Offerings at Booth

Full-time MBA Program
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/mba/full-time

Evening MBA Program
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/mba/part-time/evening

Weekend MBA Program
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/mba/part-time/weekend

Executive MBA Program
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/mba/executive

Joint Degree Programs
MBA/MPP, MBA/JD, MBA/MD, MBA/AM, MBA/MA, MBA/MPCS, Certificate in Health Administration & Policy
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/mba/joint-degree

Master in Management Program
http://www.chicagobooth.edu/master-in-management

Master in Finance Program
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/master-in-finance

Campus Life

Clubs, Conferences & Competitions

Chicago Booth students have a variety of opportunities to get involved with the school community. The first such opportunity are the optional Random Walk trips, which are led by second-year students and take place in August before the first-year orientation commences. Past trips have taken place in Argentina, Jordan, Turkey, Nicaragua and South Africa, among many other locations.

Once on campus, there are over 70 student groups that students can consider joining, which cover everything from cultural affinity groups, such as the Hispanic American Busi­ness Students Association, to professionally oriented clubs like the Management Consulting and Investment Banking groups. Students can also explore their more personal hobbies or passions through groups focused on a variety of sports, the culinary arts, photography or volunteering.

Many of Chicago Booth’s student groups also contribute to the school’s events throughout the year. For example, each year the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group puts on the annual SeedCon, which includes one day of fast-pitch competitions and keynote speeches for aspiring entrepreneurs. In addition, the Marketing Group hosts a one-day conference that gives participants the opportunity to learn from current marketing practitioners at companies such as Wrigley and Proctor & Gamble.

Campus Spaces

Located just east of the University of Chicago’s central quadrangles, the Charles M. Harper Center houses the full-time MBA program’s 11 classrooms, 31 group study rooms, student lounge, workstations and other resources, such as two Bloomberg terminals and a café. The Harper Center was designed by Rafael Viñoly and opened to the Chicago Booth community in 2004. Meanwhile, the Gleacher Center, located in “the Loop,” serves as the headquarters for the educational pursuits of part-time and EMBA students.

The University of Chicago does provide graduate students with the opportunity to apply for housing on or near campus. Students can apply to live in one of 500 units owned by the University, many of which accept students with families or pets. Students are also welcome to live off-campus; a majority of Booth students live in the Loop, and other popular neighborhoods include Lincoln Park and Wicker Park.

MBA Careers

Career Services

The Chicago Booth Career Services office provides many ways for students to develop professionally during their time at the school. These services include computer resources and tests to determine an individual’s potential fit with different industries, one-on-one job coaching with members of the office staff, résumé and cover letter workshops, and an on-campus recruiting schedule that regularly brings over 200 companies to campus. First-year students looking to find summer internships start their recruiting process in October with Meet-and-Greets and corporate networking nights, which give potential employers the opportunity to present their organization to students. In early January, first-year students participate in on-campus interviewing in order to secure internship offers. The recruiting schedule for second-year students starts with corporate networking nights in September. Second-year interviews are then conducted on campus in October.

Career Statistics

Of the 628 members of the graduating class, 527 were seeking employment. At graduation, 91.1 percent of these MBAs had received a job offer, and nearly 96 percent had received offers three months post-graduation. Job acceptances at the three-month mark landed at 94.3%. The median starting salary for Chicago Booth graduates was $180,000.

38.6% of the Class of 2023 pursued roles in the consulting industry and 32.6% joined financial services. Breaking down financial services further, roughly 11 percent entered investment banking/brokerage, and about nine percent entered private equity. Just over 15% pursued work in the technology industry while nearly 3% of the class entered the healthcare field.

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, just shy of 30% of the Class of 2023 found work in the Midwestern U.S., with nearly all of that group remaining in the Chicago metropolitan area. The Northeast was the second most popular location for Chicago Booth graduates, with 27.2% of the class starting their careers there. 22.3% headed to the U.S. West and 6% to the U.S. Southwest. Nearly seven percent headed abroad for work, with Asia topping the list of destinations at about three percent of the class.

Financing

Chicago Booth’s 2023-2024 tuition is $80,961. With additional fees such as living expenses, health insurance and books, however, the estimated cost of attendance for nine months is $122,160. Though the school does not provide need-based aid to incoming students, it does offer a number of merit-based scholarships and fellowships. All applicants are considered for these awards upon admission to the program; applicants do not need to fill out any additional forms or applications to become eligible for consideration. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can also avail themselves of four different loan programs, including the Federal Perkins Loan and Federal Stafford Student Loan programs. In addition, Chicago Booth provides loan programs for students that do not require U.S. co-signers, regardless of citizenship.

Estimated Cost of Attendance (per academic year)

• Tuition, 10 courses $80,961
• Student Services Fee $1,398
• Admin. Fee (1st year only) $2,600
• Lifetime Transcript Fee (one time) $75
• Books $549
• Housing & Food $26,010
• Personal (includes health insurance) $7,167
• Transportation $1,800
• Computer (1st year only) $1,600
• Total $115,062

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