Chicago Booth 2012 - 2013 Essay Tips

1. What are your short- and long-term goals, and how will an MBA from Chicago Booth help you reach them? (500 words)

• When you write this essay, keep in mind that you will also be preparing the powerpoint that is supposed to give AdCom broader perspective on who you are - as such, keep this essay limited strictly to professional situations and goals
• When you write about the "why Booth" part, allow the reader to draw natural conclusions about your fit in the community - draw out specific things that will highlight how you will contribute to the areas most important to you

2a. What has been your biggest challenge, and what have you learned from it? (200 words maximum)

• Very limited space, so make sure you describe both the challenge and what you learned from it as succinctly as possible, focusing only on the content itself
• After you have written the essay, read it again to make sure that you haven't blamed anyone for your challenge!   This is the most frequent mistake in questions like this one

2b. Tell us about something that has fundamentally transformed the way you think. (200 words maximum)

• This is a challenging topic - especially difficult to describe in 200 words - pick a situation that helped you change your mind about something dramatically
• The situation can be personal or professional - but remember that it must clearly highlight what triggered the transformation
• The choice of words is very important - "fundamentally transformed" is pretty strong, so make sure you articulate a story which lives up to this question

3 - Presentation/Essay: The Chicago experience will take you deeper into issues, force you to challenge assumptions, and broaden your perspective. In a four-slide presentation or an essay of no more than 600 words, broaden our perspective about who you are. Understanding what we currently know about you from the application, what else would you like us to know?

• We've described some tips for this question in great detail here