An International Perspective

Hi everyone!

I hope you’ve had a great week! This week at TBE, we are doing one more double-header of WIWG – first asking students to reflect on what they would change about their Booth experience, and second, in honor of restaurant week, asking them what their favorite restaurants are in Chicago. You can check out these videos and more on our YouTube channel.

In this week’s blog, we wanted to take the time to get an international student’s perspective on the Booth experience. Over one third of the Booth class hails from outside the US, and we receive questions all the time about this subject. This week, we’d like to introduce you to Jaime. Jaime is a first year student from Spain who is pursuing concentrations in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship. Prior to Booth he has lived in France, New York, and Hong Kong. Jaime is also the founder of Club-MBA.com, a very popular MBA website in Spanish, and the author of the blog,“Mi MBA en Chicago Booth”, in which he writes about his experience at Booth.

Jaime will share with us his first months of MBA and how his transition to Booth as an international student has passed so far. Keep reading to learn more!

Tina

***



Hola a todos! Hi everyone!

I just finished my recruiting season and I would love to share some insights of my first months here at Booth!

First and foremost, why I decided to attend Booth?

Curriculum flexibility (I love it!), career opportunities, strength in entrepreneurship, rigor, momentum, and most importantly, because of the people I met when I was deciding among several acceptances, some of the most brilliant people I've ever met but at the same time humble and super friendly. In addition, what I really like about Booth is that we enjoy both studying in a traditional American top university, and also living in one of the most amazing cities in the US, Chicago.

Moving to Chicago

Many international students ask me about the transition to Chicago.

Moving to Chicago was a really smooth process. I came with my wife (also a Booth MBA student) and we found our apartment through a housing agency that works with the University. They were very efficient and we signed for the apartment online (they sent us many apartment options with many pictures, and we decided). When we arrived to Chicago everything was organized and the apartment was ready for us: a 40th floor apartment with views of the lake and Millennium Park, and almost all my classmates within a 5 minute walk in similar apartments.

I didn’t have any problem adapting to the life at Booth. The school really helps you in the transition and I got used to the school life very fast. In addition, my classmates are very supportive and almost 40% of students in the class are international so there is strong diversity here.

By the way, if you plan to come to Chicago with your spouse, you should definitely check out Booth Partners, a very active and popular club. Also, there are many events organized at the school where partners can come. Finally, the city of Chicago offers a great deal of opportunities for partners. For example, there are many other universities where many partners study other programs during our MBA, which can be very helpful for international students.

What about Academics?

As you probably know by now, at Booth you can choose which courses you take and with what professors. There is a website with information about how the course is taught (case method or traditional way, how it's graded, how many assignments are required, and you can access course and professors evaluations) so you have plenty of info to help you choose. During my first quarter, I took Microeconomics, Financial Accounting (both part of the required foundations), and Marketing Strategy, my first case method course ever. I enjoyed the three courses a lot and I have learned a ton!

How was recruiting?

One of the things that have amazed me the most is how strong Career Services is here at Booth. They help you from day one to find your ideal job, with resources such as Career advisors (second years experts in specific functions), Industry Immersion (series of events where we have a risk-free way of learning about the differing roles in each industry), tons of events during the first quarter (seminars about how to build a strong resume, cover letters and things like that), ITP (Interview Training Program, we interview with second years who volunteer themselves as representatives of a specific company you want to interview with), Winterview (day-long series of events including mock interviews), specific clubs events that organize mock interviews, and many others.

Thanks to all the resources available to us, I was well prepared for my interview session and I have been lucky enough to get an offer from McKinsey & Company in Madrid for my summer internship!

Ok... and what about the terrific Chicago Winter?

Well, as I'm writing this, winter has not been anything hard compared to what I expected. In fact, I only remember a week or so with temperatures below 0º C (32º F), with only a few days very cold. Before coming here I was expecting something like 6 months of winter. Anyway, it seems that this winter is some kind unusual.

Thanks for reading and good luck to those who have applied on Round 2!
Jaime