Associate Dean of Student Recruitment and Admissions at Chicago Booth has added an interesting post on the cohort system at Booth in the admission’s blog. Here’s an excerpt:
“First-year students are placed in cohorts of 50 students for our Leadership Effectiveness and Development program (LEAD). Through this experience, they get to know one another really well and begin forming networks early on in their academic experience. As a school, we help jumpstart that feeling of community in much the same way other schools utilize the cohort system. The difference is that LEAD only lasts for 7 weeks, and once LEAD ends, the traditional cohort experience ends as well. Sure these cohorts will continue to get together for events and social activities, but the formality that existed in LEAD ends with LEAD programming.
From that point forward, your network will expand rapidly. Because Booth maintains a non-prescriptive approach to the MBA – where each student creates his or her own unique experience – we believe that choosing your friends, your community, or your networks should not be any different. As you select your classes, you will constantly be forming new teams and learning from new people. You’ll meet first years, second years, and students from other divisions of the University of Chicago. These relationships are further fostered through activities outside of the classroom with over 70 student groups, Random Walk Trips, Career Treks, Joint Degree Programs, study abroad, elective courses that can be taken in any department at University of Chicago, parties, formals, and the list goes on and on. With all of these connections, you’ll find that our community feels small and tightly knit because there are familiar faces everywhere you go.
One final point that’s worth mentioning is this environment is an incredible conduit for redefining who you are. For many people who are looking to change careers or reshape their future path, you have complete freedom to do that at Booth. Cohorts are often constructed by placing people into teams based on their careers prior to business school. So a team might be comprised of the finance person, the marketing person, the operations person, etc. We don’t follow this model because it positions people to wear a hat or assume a role on a team that they might be trying to step away from while they’re in school. Since your teams at Booth will change with each class you take, your role on those teams can change as well. You don’t have to assume a role as the marketing or finance expert, you can choose to take on a new role in each new situation you’re in – allowing you to add value to your team and to increase your knowledge in a particular area. Again, it is Booth’s commitment to allowing our students every opportunity to create their ideal learning environment”.