University of Chicago GSB Admissions
Interview
Founded in 1898, the
University
of Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB) claims 6 Nobel laureates
amongst its faculty
more than any other business school. It is a
top-tier business school with an extremely flexible curriculum that consistently
achieves top 10 rankings in the major ranking surveys. Amongst the major 2003
surveys (BusinessWeek, U.S. News, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times), the
GSB was ranked either one or two in:
-
Accounting
-
Finance
-
Quantitative Analysis
-
Part-time MBA
-
Executive MBA
Below is the 3 page transcript of our
interview with Don Martin, the Associate Dean of Admission, on February 23, 2004.
What new changes are occurring on
campus and how is the University of Chicago Graduate School
of Business evolving?
Perhaps the biggest development is the
opening of our new Hyde Park Campus in September of 2004.
Construction is on schedule, and a major dedication is
planned for the first weekend in November. For the first
time in many, many years, the GSB community students,
staff, faculty, and administration will all be together in
one beautiful, state of the art, new facility. The price
tag: $125 million.
Last year, applications for your
full-time program declined by
27%. Are you
seeing any early indications of how this years application
volume may compare to the 2002-2003 season? How about the
demographic make up of the applicant pool?
Applications were down across the board at most all business
schools last year. However, the year before, the GSB
experience our largest application increase in history we
were up 70%. So things are still looking very good for us.
This year is a bit too early to predict. My best estimate
applications across the board will be flat or slightly down.
Demographically speaking, the GSB recruits students from
all 50 states, and from about 70 countries outside the USA.
We enrolled students from just under 50 countries this past
fall.
The GSB has a reputation as a
predominantly male business school. What is your opinion on
this and what, if anything, is the school doing to recruit
more female applicants?
We are very
happy to answer this question. It is a good one. Perhaps
that perception was true in the 70's and 80's but no more.
The percentage of women enrolling in our full-time MBA
program has surpassed 30% for Fall of 2002 and 2003, and we
expect it to increase a bit more in the coming year. Those
who have questions/concerns about this should definitely
visit campus or directly contact our students at the
following e-mail address:
askastudent@gsb.uchicago.edu. I believe they
will be very pleasantly surprised.
What general advice would you like
applicants considering the GSB to know?
Several
things come to mind:
- We are a
full-menu business school, offering 13 excellent
concentrations.
- Our approach
to education is rigorous and truly life changing. We
teach our students to think, and ask questions, not just
provide answers.
- Our student
community is vibrant, with incredible curricular and
extra-curricular opportunities for networking,
teambuilding, and developing life-long friendships.
- Our alumni
network is ever growing 70 alumni clubs worldwide, some
36,000 grads, 5,500 of whom are heads of their companies.
When do you encourage applicants to
apply?
Perhaps
this sounds simplistic, but we encourage individuals to
apply when they truly believe they are ready to pursue a
graduate education in business, and are able to articulate
why.
Are there any specific characteristics
that you target in the applications to help you identify the
'best fit' candidates?
All
applicants are evaluated by three members of our admissions
committee on the following three components:
- Academic
performance
- Professional
development
- Personal
qualities
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