When I transitioned from military to MBA, I thought I’d left the world of acronyms and confusing organizational lingo behind me. Little did I know, Chicago Booth was ready for me with a whole new set of idiosyncratic slang.
Here’s a few of my favorites:
Boothie (noun) – a current or former student at Chicago Booth. The term itself is almost universally hated because of its “cutesie” nature, and yet we all continue to use it.
Note: You might think that Boothie or Boothy could also be used as an adjective, but the correct way to describe the level at which someone displays Booth-like qualities is actually Boothie-ness. I’m not making this up.
LPF (noun) – Liquidity Preference Function, probably the nerdiest acronym at Booth. A play on a term John Maynard Keynes coined (pun intended) to describe the demand for money, LPFs also refer to a weekly Booth event (frequently held at the Harper Center) where students and their partners gather for free food, free drinks, and free fun.
LPFs are hosted by Graduate Business Council and are usually theme-based, such as featuring music or dance performances from Booth’s top talent.
Random Walk (noun) – a trip with 15 or so of your future Booth classmates that takes place immediately before the start of first year. Destinations are literally all over the world, or for the truly adventurous, a complete mystery until you show up at O’Hare International Airport.
MPP (noun) – acronym for Millienium Park Plaza, an apartment building in the Loop’s Lakeshore East neighborhood where a large percentage of Boothies live (kind of like a dorm). Theories for its continued popularity include cognitive inertia, groupthink, and some kind of black hole or other intersteller phenomenon.
Ex: “I’m only going to parties at MPP this quarter, because it’s cold out and I don’t want to change out of my sweatpants.”
TNDC (noun) – acronym for Thursday Night Drinking Club, arguably the most popular unoffical club at Booth. The name kinda says it all.
Related: Original Mother’s, Taco Bell Cantina, no Friday classes.
Running of the Bulls (noun) – the annual Booth vs. Kellogg basketball game at the United Center, where NBA’s Chicago Bulls play. One of the many ways that Booth goes harder in the paint than our Northside rivals.
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Turbo (noun) – slang term for Professor Kevin Murphy‘s Advanced Microeconomic Analysis course (BUS 33101). If you want to feel both lucky to be in the same room as a genius, and make your brain feel like you just went 3 rounds with Mike Tyson, this is the class for you.
Ex: “I’d love to come to TNDC tonight…except, Turbo.”
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That’s all for now, stay tuned for Episode 2 in the Booth Dictionary series!
