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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.

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After over two years in the program, I'm a believer in the flexibility offered by the Chicago Booth Evening and Weekend MBA program. As part-time students, there is never a concern that we are an after thought to the full-time program. Rather, we are an integral part of the Booth community, and the faculty and office make this very clear from the outset. Especially in the current poor economic climate, the ability to design one's program flexibly and to continue to gain professional experience are highly valued features.

Evening and weekend events were planned a couple times per quarter to foster growth of the community and networking among students.

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The greatest strength was the professors' ability to tie real-world application to theory. Secondly, most of my professors had leading-edge research published, and they often provided excellent synthesis of general research/case studies/articles. The best professors engaged the classes to have the students bring out their experiences. The only weakness I can think of are those few professors who were a little too caught up in the theory without having true professional experience. But that was the exception. For example, I had a mix of strictly academic minds, while also learning from a former CEO and an economist currently working at the Fed as two non-academic examples.

I narrowed my choices down to Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. The faculty, flexibility of the curriculum, and my experiences with current students determined which program became my first choice.

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Chicago Booth has some of the best faculty in the finance and economics arena. The statistics program is also solid and marketing is not far behind in terms of quality. The program is difficult but worth every effort. The students are also very intelligent and willing to work hard up until the end.

I wanted to learn finance and economics, and I got that and more. The finance and economics education I experienced far exceeded my expectations, and then I even expanded into entrepreunership, managerial and organizational behavior, and international classes. I gained tremendous depth and breadth in a school that is often knocked for being too quant focused. Furthermore, professors and students were top-notch (especially after hearing from friends in other programs).

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One of the drawbacks of a part-time program is that everyone is so busy with work and school, and if any of them have families too, there just isn't enough time in the day to socialize and network outside of class, too. It forces all events to be more scheduled and formal than I would prefer.

It is amazing how much I have learned in the past few years and how impressed my managment has been with some of the concepts I have been able to apply in the office. It really allowed me to expand outside of the assigned responsibilities of the job and make a great contribution to the company. I also gained a lot of confidence to express my opinion and take on a leadership role wherever possible.

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Chicago Booth has been a phenomenal program. Flying every weekend from Omaha to Chicago is certainly not easy, but I've found that with careful planning and balance, I have been able to obtain an amazing education. I imagine many prospective students feel limited to the geography where they live and don't realize programs like Chicago Booth exist.

Attending Chicago Booth certainly met my expectations in providing me with a strong foundation of business knowledge, but what surprised me was how much I learned about myself in the process. Group work, LEAD, and unique course offerings, such as Business Policy, really helped me become more self-aware and connect in new ways with peers and colleagues.

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CAREER SERVICES
  Do part-time MBAs have access to career development office?
Yes

  If yes, at what point in the degree process are part-time MBA students able to use the service?
At any time

  Are part-time MBAs permitted to interview for full-time jobs?
Yes

  Are part-time students included in resume drops?
Yes

Organizations that send the most participants to the part-time MBA program:

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B-SCHOOL ALUMNI
Living MBA alumni:
43,795

Active MBA alumni clubs:
93

Countries in which MBA clubs exist:
40

  Did school receive an individual gift in excess of $10 million in the past academic year?
Yes

Business school endowment
$  389,016,465

  Does the main university offer career placement services for alumni?
Yes

  Does the main university have an alumni networking Web site?
Yes

University alumni networking site:
http://alumniandfriends.uchicago ... areer_Resources.htm

  Does the B-School have an alumni networking Web site?
Yes

Business school alumni networking site:
http://career.chicagobooth.edu/alumni/

  Do current MBA students have access to an alumni database?
Yes

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TECHNOLOGY
Technology improvements in the last three academic years:
Implementation of a web-based student study room reservations systems. The new system supports various browsers and provides download capability of room reservations to smart phones. Booth deployed a web-based recruiter and student global talent system, GTS, to manage student career opportunities. The systems allows recruiters to post jobs on-line and students to apply and/or bid for jobs via a user-friendly web interface. Students and vendors are participating in a pilot to access Booth web applications via a smart phone. An on-line curriculum system replaced the paper-based guide. The system provides students real-time curriculum and schedule information as well as robust search capabilities. Booth alumni now have access to a web-based alumni administration system which is a community directory to update profiles and share information. Students also have a web-based administration and bidding system for classes.

Amount spent:
$  17,507,910

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Does the B-school offer an accelerated part-time MBA program?
No

Leading areas of study:

Economics

Entrepreneurship

Finance

Marketing

Strategy

Graduation requirements:

Students must have attended a minimum number of classes

Students must have earned a pre-determined GPA/letter grade average

Other:

Must complete and pass 20 courses within a 5-year period plus the Leadership Effectiveness Development course.