The Power of the Booth Curriculum

This week, we wanted to talk about how Booth’s flexible curriculum and world class professors prepare us to tackle the industry's toughest situations and win over the harshest critic. Kelly Gushue, a classmate of mine, has offered to share her summer experience in investment management:

In the first week of my internship in Investment Management, there was an assumption that as an MBA student, I may not have been up to date with the developments regarding the Financial Regulatory Bill. FinReg was top of mind for investors at the time. After taking such classes as “The Analytics of Financial Crises” which covered the Financial Regulatory Bill, I was able to jump into meetings my first week and have an impact. My classes at Chicago Booth had prepared me to contribute my views on critical issues affecting financial markets including the financial crisis, the sovereign debt crisis and Fed decisions during my summer internship.

Anil Kashyap's “The Analytics of the Financial Crises” is the first MBA course to cover the 2007 financial crisis. Each week we dissected a different facet of the financial crisis from credit rating agencies, Fannie & Freddie, bank runs and CDOs. For my summer internship, I wrote an industry report on Commercial Real Estate. With this class as a foundation, I was able to analyze trends with the commercial real estate cycle and commercial real estate loans on bank balance sheets.

Another valuable class was “Understanding Central Banks” with Randy Kroszner. He was one of the five decision makers at the Fed during the financial crisis. We obtained a behind the scenes view on how the Fed makes decisions about monetary policy and analyzed scenarios including deflation and inflation. In addition to incorporating this knowledge into my report, I was able to reach out to him during the summer to ask questions about my project.

While the courses I took at Chicago Booth prepared me to be successful in my summer internship, I continue to leverage this knowledge when reviewing today’s issues in financial markets. As the implications of the financial crisis continue to impact markets, I am able to assess QE2, Fed decisions regarding deflation versus inflation, and ongoing sovereign debt issues.

While I could go on and describe more unique classes at Chicago Booth such as International Financial Policy that analyzes currencies, I will stop here. As a second year student, I am excited I still have one more year of great classes.

I hope you enjoyed reading about Kelly's experiences. Regardless of the industry you are pursuing (marketing, entrepreneurship, finance, operations, or economics to name a few) you will find similar stories - I know Booth certainly prepared me on a level greater than I ever expected. Until next time, take care and good luck on the applications.