Raise the bar for admissions. Do not create discrimination between full- and part-time students. Provide more opportunities to build community. Replace the current dean of career services, who is biased toward the full-time program. Provide the same level of career services to part-time students as full-time students.
Chicago Booth has great events. There are student club meetings, guest speakers, confereneces, brown bag series, and countless others.
There is no question in my mind that the business program at the GSB is the top program in the country. The relevance of cutting-edge research and faculty involved in industry and government was never more evident than amid the financial crisis over the last year. In addition, since economic fundamentals are the basis for all business disciplines, Chicago has a huge advantage over other schools because of its strength in economics and the high degree of overlap between the economics department and business school, to say nothing of the opportunity to gain the quantitative foundation that the school is known for.
Chicago Booth brings an analytical component to all subjects in the MBA curriculum. Even concepts taught in HR or management classes are backed up with empirical evidence from research. While this approach was highly satisfying for me, it may not serve others as well. For instance, success in many classes depended on the strength of a person's analytical abilities. I would say that the key to success in many of the projects assigned had to do with intense analysis on the front end and then successfully executing that winning strategy. For someone who is more innovative-minded or adaptive, he may get more out of another program.
University of Chicago's flexible curriculum and acceptance of students taking time off to pursue an internship is a practical program for students who know what their career goal is and have the determination to achieve it. University of Chicago's part-time program appears to be the program that really can enable students to gear their career goals to where they want (as long as the students work as hard as they should).
I would ban the use of laptops in class. It needs to be a more professional environment. Some students treated MBA classes like undergrad classes.
The faculty are definitely on the cutting edge of research and new topics in their respective field. I have no question that the content of this MBA program is about as good as it gets. However I'd say that teaching ability ranges across a wide spectrum. Some professors are definitely better at guiding discussion than others. It's evident that each faculty member has a lot to impart, some are just better than others at leading the students to the conclusion through thoughtful questions and segues while others provide the information outright.
I wanted to attend a part-time program that was indecipherable from its full-time counterpart. The program should provide me with access to the same quality education and experience that the full-time program was known for. At Chicago Booth, not only was I learning from the same faculty, but I also had the same extracurricular experience, access to experiential learning, flexibility in learning, and career support as the full-time program.
I would want to go through the full-time program. Being a weekend student, I missed out on some (but not all) of the top professors and courses. In addition, I was unable to attend any of the various activities throughout the week because I lived out of town.
I've been pretty disappointed with my experiences with the administrative face of the program. The GSB/Chicago Booth program office has some well meaning people, but the class bidding process is a nightmare. The dean is very unresponsive to student concerns. On the other hand, the instructors in the program are incredible and the rigor of the curriculum is fantastic.
There is almost too much to do. You are constantly bombarded with e-mails about various activities and presentations and group activities. It is easy to become overwhelmed.
I can honestly say that I've never been educated to the extent that I have been at Chicago. The professors are world class, and they teach not only intuitively but also theory interlaced with real-world application. It is a difficult program, and we have exactly the same professors as the full-time program, but it is harder since we are more competitive and have full-time jobs often with families in the balance.
The program has exceeded my expectations by a long shot, and although the class participation grading is a bit subjective, the faculty and quality of the teaching more than makes up for it in our enhanced skill set and knowledge.
I can honestly say that I've never been educated to the extent that I have been at Chicago. The professors are world class, and they teach not only intuitively but also theory interlaced with real-world application. It is a difficult program, and we have exactly the same professors as the full-time program, but it is harder since we are more competitive and have full-time jobs often with families in the balance.
The program has exceeded my expectations by a long shot, and although the class participation grading is a bit subjective, the faculty and quality of the teaching more than makes up for it in our enhanced skill set and knowledge.
The strengths of professors were their interest in quality teaching, openness to discussing the subject matter without restrictions and the overall energy they brought to the classsroom. The biggest weakness was too much emphasis on quantitative subject matter, even when qualitative approaches may have been more helpful, educational, and interesting.
Often, a handful of students would dominate classroom discussions to accumulate "participation points." While I understand that professors want an interactive enviroment with the students, eliminating these points may have shut up the people who had nothing of value to add but just wanted some points.
