Chicago Booth is a place of growth, love, and learning! Quoting a Boothie’s birthday toast, “My greatest ROI from this MBA degree has been the people”.
You step out of your room to see your flatmate rushing to leave for school with a coffee tumbler in their hand. Both of you crib about the 7:45 am Metra and greet a bunch of new faces in the elevator, a group of excited and nervous 1Ys, all set for coffee chats. You swarm into the Metra with 50 other Boothies and find a seat next to your study buddy from the last Fall Quarter. You two are not everyday friends and yet they were a part of some of your most memorable days—face paints in Colombia, that one godforsaken TNDC, the accounting final you walked out of together! Suddenly you find yourself relating a lot more to this Boothie than your old friend from college. You persevere on that thought for a moment and then go on with your day.
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022
During the break from class, you excitedly head to the Winter Garden for the Nobel Prize celebration. You’re curious to see who Professor Douglas W. Diamond is (Booth’s newest Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences). When he comes up on stage and that unending applause begins, you, just like everyone else, don’t want to stop clapping. Thoughts of ‘which Nobel Prize could I win’ or ‘would I open my thank you speech with a joke’ cross your mind, oblivious to the fact that it may never happen (side note: I decided I’d go for Nobel Peace Prize, also extremely oblivious). You partake in his prize or at least a part of his glory. You feel a strong allegiance to the professor that you probably never interacted with before. Just the way you feel an allegiance to your flatmate, those first years, the herd storming the Metra, and your former study buddy. All because we share the same institution, the same metaphorical roof hovering over our heads for two years, and a name that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. It is that sense of shared pride that ‘Year of Booth Proud’ is all about.
“BoothProud is the celebration of our rich heritage, school pride, and collective accomplishments and it paves the way for the 125th anniversary of Chicago Booth. Boothies (students, staff, and faculty) have historically been very unassuming and humble about their achievements but it’s about time we shine some light on ourselves!”
-Starr Marcello, Deputy Dean for MBA Programs
We have been a place of excellence—10 Nobel Laureates, several innovative startups (Foxtrot, Simple Mills, Grubhub, Braintree, and many more), leading community workers (Ghian Foreman, Maria Kim), and more recently, topping business school rankings. Our students practically run this machinery—professional clubs, GBC, Career Advisors, LEAD, Admission Fellows, to name a few. Our collaborative community—hundreds of 2Ys have volunteered to help with recruitments outside of formal roles. And the most important of it all—our diverse diaspora of students truly makes Booth what it is today.
So now you know why you’re here and not somewhere else?
Booth students, faculty and staff gathered together at the first LPF of the academic year 2022-23 in the Winter Garden at Harper Center. It was a celebration of the new academic year and the school spirit. LPFs (Liquidity Preference Function) are organized by Booth’s Full-time MBA student government, the Graduate Business Council, for the purpose of bringing students, staff, and faculty together over activities, snacks, and frosty beverages.
