International students, keep walking!

One of the toughest challenges that many international MBA applicants face is arranging financial aid for their education and living expenses. And this is where the top schools prove their worth, extending exceptional support to admitted students by offering scholarships and loans with trusted vendors. Chicago GSB was no exception; through an arrangement with IDAPP (Illinois Designated Account Purchase Program), all GSB students could avail of different loans, with or without co-signors...till now. With the credit crunch taking its toll, IDAPP will no longer be able to continue this arrangement into the future.

But hey, thanks to some fast and intrepid work by Priscilla Parker and team at the Financial Aid Office, we have a new lender on board with a faster online application process, to boot. Check out a recent ClearAdmit post that details the issue.

So if you are an international student and had concerns about the student loan program at GSB, no worries… its business as usual! With that off your mind, we hope that you can fully focus on the application process, especially with R1 deadlines around the corner – keep walking and good luck!

Making the most of a global summer!

Summer is a busy time for everyone at the GSB - the admissions team is busy planning for next year's process, the academic services team is planning course schedules and 1st year students disperse across the world to intern with different companies, applying a year's worth of management theories and models to the real world.

To make sure prospective applicants do not miss out on the fun, we have tons of admissions events over the summer. Ranging from education fairs to school-sponsored events to informal student receptions, the events bring GSB admissions staff and students to a city near you and help applicants get a personal perspective on the GSB experience. The details of the events and links for signup are at:

http://www.chicagogsb.edu/fulltime/admissions/events.

We hope these events will help you prepare for the application season and get you set for the exciting journey ahead! We look forward to meeting you at an event and will be excited to share our perspective on the b-school experience and everything else…under the summer sun!

The Armed Forces Group at Chicago GSB

The GSB Armed Forces Group is committed to easing the transition to business school for recently separated military service members. If you have any questions about moving to Chicago, getting acclimatized to GSB life, preparing for the summer internship recruiting process, or anything else, please feel free to contact one of the AFG co-chairs:

Scott Elliot- selliot1@chicagogsb.edu

Steve Gould- sgould1@chicagogsb.edu

Brian Bartlett- bbartlet@chicagogsb.edu

We’re working to set up a couple events next fall, so stay tuned and make sure you reach out to us so we can get you on the email distribution list.

Want to discuss this topic some more? Head on over to the Chicago GSB Discussion Forums

The New New Team

The new DSAC co-chairs for 2008-09 are:

• Lindsay Brehm
• Rebecca Libby
• Samuel Rozas
• Nelson Santhosh
• Jennifer Varela
• Fiteh Zegeye

We are in the middle of transitioning responsibilities and are really excited to be taking over from what was a diverse and incredibly dynamic team.

Here’s to a fantastic new year and building on all the good work done in 2007-08!

The Indian Tiger Roars Again... At Chicago GSB!

The South Asia Business Group at Chicago GSB is organizing The 4th annual Tata India Business Conference on May 17th. This year’s conference with the theme “India – A Winning Contender” promises a star-studded lineup of speakers, with panels headed by Dr.Arun Shourie (former Disinvestment Minister in the Union Cabinet), Mr.Luis Miranda (President & CEO, IDFC Private Equity), Mr.O.P. Bhatt (Chairman, The State Bank of India), Dr. Sam Pitroda (Chairman, Knowledge Commission of India) and Mr.Muthuraman (CEO, Tata Steel).

The time and venue of The Tata IBC 2008:

Date
8:30 am - 6:00 pm on May 17th, 2008
(Registration begins at 7:30 am)

Venue
Charles M. Harper Centre, Chicago GSB,
5807, S. Woodlawn Avenue,
Chicago 60637.

The conference website is at http://www.chicagogsb-ibc.com/ and the blog is http://chicagogsb-ibc.blogspot.com/.

If you are in Chicagoland in mid-May, we look forward to seeing you there!

GSB newswire

Here's a look at what's been happening at the GSB over the past few weeks:

Bill Gates, founder and chairman of Microsoft, visited campus on February 20 and gave a speech to students at the Harper Center. Gates talked about investing dollars where they are most needed, and how the Gates Foundation is trying to help. He pointed out that "less than 10 percent as much is spent on malaria as is spent on baldness. Malaria kills a million people a year." Gates emphasized that the current focus of businesses to innovate should incorporate innovations that will help the world's poorest citizens: "With all these rapid innovations - material science and cultural science, medical science, entertainment, the quality of video games, enhanced commercialism - we should really not just focus on what these breakthroughs mean for the richest two billion of the six billion on the planet." Gates also talked about some of his biggest challenges in managing people at Microsoft. “My mistakes were picking engineers and saying, well, if you’re a high IQ engineer, then you can manage people, basically on the belief that IQ is fungible,” he said, “because I don’t understand why it’s not. But it turns out, it’s not.” Over two hundred students packed into Room 104 of the Harper Center in an event that was so highly demanded that a lottery had to be conducted for tickets.

The webcast of this speech can be seen here.

In a recent New York Times article, Professor Austan Goolsbee said tax proposals by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama “would be fully paid for by closing business tax loopholes, cracking down on international tax evasion schemes” and restoring higher tax rates on some capital gains earned by the wealthiest taxpayers, according to an article published January 23. Professor Goolsbee is Obama’s senior economic adviser.

Clinical Professor Scott Meadow and Adjunct Associate Professor Linda Darragh were quoted in a Chicago Tribune article about entrepreneurs considering starting two businesses at the same time. “Look for a strategic link and a reason they fit together,” Professor Darragh said. “Unless I had Steve Jobs for both companies, I doubt I would consider backing someone who was working on two different deals,” Professor Meadow said in the February 11 article.

Gerald Beeson, MBA ’99 was promoted to COO of Citadel Investment Group LLC, a large hedge fund. Previously he was CFO of the fund which is based in Chicago. The announcement appeared in the February 7 edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Finally, over 300 students and their partners congregated at the River East Arts Center on February 23 for the 2008 Intrigue and Mystery Winter Formal. There were performances of old classics and modern hits by a live cover band, and this year's theme was a masquerade ball, so many students decided to get creative with their facewear. The setting was the dance hall of a modern art gallery overlooking the beautiful - and frozen - Chicago River. This event was put on by the Graduate Business Council. Thanks you guys for a great event!

Upcoming Admit Weekend

Congratulations to all our admits from Round I!

You have really impressed us with your experiences and qualifications, and we welcome you to the GSB community! We would like to take this opportunity to remind you about the upcoming Admit Weekend (March 7th). The Admit Weekend is a great way to get to know the school, the community and your fellow admits. We've got an exciting, informative and fun schedule lined up for you.

Here is what Becky - a 1st year student - has to say about it:

Hearing all the talk about Admit Weekend preparations here on campus reminds me of how I was feeling at this time last year. I was so excited to receive my acceptance from the GSB, but was a little nervous, kind of like a kid going off the summer camp. Would I know anyone? I had only communicated on the Admit Discussion Forum with a few other admits from the Washington, DC area. Would it be hard to make new friends? Was I going to freeze?

I can say now that my anxiety was unwarranted. I had a fantastic time at Admit Weekend, met some amazing people (who are some of my best friends today!), had a great time exploring the Harper Center here on campus and sitting in on a model class with the famous Kevin Murphy (and for those Freakonomics fans, Steve Leavitt sitting in the corner) and getting excited about taking microeconomics, hanging out downtown at Lucky Strike watching Rose try to bowl, and hearing about how much the current students loved the GSB. The weekend was a great start to my GSB career. Everyone I met was so excited to see me there, which eased any fears I had about not finding people to hang out with.

So, let me ease your anxieties, encourage you to make your plans for Admit Weekend and come have a fantastic time with us. Here are some logistical details to help you get started:

· Chicago has two airports: O’Hare and Midway. Midway is on the Orange “el” line that will take you into the downtown loop. O’Hare is much bigger and is served by all major airlines. It’s on the Blue “el” line which will also get you to the downtown loop. Information on public transportation can be found at http://tripsweb.rtachicago.com/.

· Hotel rooms certainly aren’t lacking in Chicago. Most people stay in downtown (GSB will run a shuttle from the downtown Gleacher Center to Hyde Park). The Admitted Student Website does have some suggested hotels here. Remember, weekends are a popular time to visit, so make your reservations early!

· Pack a coat. We’re realistic, Chicago can be chilly, and you’ll have much more fun if you are not cold. But take heart, the average temperature in March is in the 40’s.

· Get ready to have fun. If you talk to any first-year student who attended Admit Weekend last year, you’ll hear over and over again that Admit Weekend cemented the decision to attend GSB.

For more information, please visit this link on the admit website (requires login and password).
http://www.chicagogsb.edu/fulltime/admits/weekend/index.aspx


Want to discuss this topic some more? Head on over to the Chicago GSB Discussion Forums

Fall CWiB Conference

With the number of women at the GSB at an all time high of 35%, it is not surprising that the Chicago Women in Business (CWiB) student group was able to put on a successful Annual Fall Conference on October 25, 2007 at Chicago’s Intercontinental Hotel.

As a first year student the prospect of figuring our which career path you want to take is daunting. Just when you feel as though you are settling into life in a new city with new friends and figuring out what it’s like to be a student again, you are quickly reminded that you have a future career to think about. We looked to Dr. Seuss to shed some very valuable insight:

You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose

As such, we decided to make this year’s theme for the conference - “Forging and Managing Your Career Path.” The CWIB Annual Fall Conference provides a safe environment for our women students to ask many corporate women candid questions about their experiences.

The Conference was well attended by over 175 members and 100 sponsors representing 26 firms across various industries.

We kicked off the event with two panel discussions – Managing and Navigating Your Career Path and Off the Beaten Path. The first panel is pretty self explanatory. We brought in many successful women across a broad range of industries to give their advice on how they had “figured it out.” The second panel was geared towards those interested in pursuing a non-traditional career path such as entrepreneurship, non-profit and corporate social responsibility. Panelists included:

Toby Alfred – Customer Acquisition Leader, Progressive
Katie Cusack – Director, Credit Suisse
Teri Hill – Senior Executive, Organization Strategy Practice, Accenture
Spring Hollis – Director, Deutsche Bank
Kristen Rossi – Executive Director, Investment Banking, Morgan Stanley
Julie Coffman – Partner, North American Recruiting, Bain & Company
Patrice P. DeCorrevont – Managing Director, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.
Marissa Haas – Senior Product Manager, Marketing, Abbott Pain Care
Anne Hamilton –Vice President, Lehman Brothers
Ingrid Tierens – Managing Director, Equity Strategies, Goldman Sachs
Susan Alnaqib – Co-President, Chicago Community Ventures
Margaret Annett – Assistant Treasurer, The Art Institute of Chicago
Chandra Greer – Founder, Greer
Maria Kim – The Cara Program

Following the panel discussions, we opened the floor up to a networking event where students were given the opportunity to float across the room and speak to representatives from all 26 firms. With over 100 corporate representatives present at the networking portion, students were given an amazing opportunity to ask candid questions about specific industries, jobs and firms.

The Conference closed with a formal sit down dinner in the Grand Ballroom where we graced with the presence of a truly inspirational female leader, Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream, who was the keynote speaker for the evening. The theme to Shellye’s speech was naturally about career planning. According to Shellye, a plan, much like a map, will help you navigate the potholed and congested road. It will also help you get back on track when you get lost. Funnily enough, Shellye had a plan to be CEO of a company at the age of 14! She is a true testament to the whole idea of having a plan. Her belief in having a plan is best encapsulated by the following story she shared. When Shellye was in college, she needed a winter coat (an expensive purchase for a student living on a budget). Knowing that a coat is meant to last approximately 5 years, Shellye took her plan into account. Shellye had a plan to be pregnant in 5 years. She took this into account when making her decision to buy a winter coat and opted for the one that she could wear while pregnant over the trendiest coat at the time. Although she was kindly reminded by her roommate that she didn’t have a boyfriend at the time, Shellye was indeed pregnant five years later and had a coat that she could wear.

Year after year, we hear great feedback about how valuable the opportunity to spend quality time with firm representatives is to students. CWiB is one of the largest student groups at the GSB. Our mission is to aid our members in developing professional and personal skills and building relationships with corporate recruiters, faculty, alumni, and other female students. With over 200 members, the group hosts career development, community service, and social events. The women of CWiB are pleased to speak with prospective and admitted students and always welcome new members!


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GSB newswire...

Overview of current events from the past week @ GSB:

In a speech to GSB students at the Gleacher Center, Motorola CEO Ed Zander said his company looked into the possibility of buying Navteq Corp before rival Nokia struck a deal but rejected an acquisition because it wasn’t a good strategic fit. “We looked at it and went on our way,” Zander said. He called the $8.1 billion price tag for Navteq “stunning.”

University professor Steve Levitt, author of the best-seller Freakonomics, was this week's guest at the Harper Center for the Becker Brown Bag Series. He discussed the benefits of running experiments in real businesses, even if many short-sighted CEOs have historically refused to participate in what they perceive to be risky undertakings. He also shared with students his most recent study, which analyzes the economics of prostitution in the United States.

Professor Steven Kaplan was quoted in a Bloomberg article about the slowdown in buyouts. Many private equity firms are now unable or willing to leverage up as they did before, Professor Kaplan said. “Those multiples are dead … The amount of leverage they can get has gone down and will stay down,” he said in the October 1 article.

Professor Raghuram Rajan appeared on The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams October 10 in a story about foreign investment in U.S. companies. Although some Americans may be leery of such purchases, Professor Rajan says it often makes good business sense. “People don’t spend $10 billion or $20 billion on a company just to run it into the ground or for some nefarious purpose,” he said.

Professor Rajan was also quoted in an October 6 article by The Economist about whether there needs to be more regulation of banks’ liquidity. Professor Rajan said what is needed is consistent monitoring of banks’ liquidity positions over the economic cycle. One benefit of the recent crisis, he said, is that it will provide a benchmark for assessing whether banks have enough liquidity in the future. More scrutiny may be the only way to ensure less reliance on the state.

Timothy Chen, MBA ’91, was named CEO of NBA China, a subsidiary of the National Basketball Association, according to a September 21 Forbes article. There are an estimated 300 million basketball fans in China, the article said. Previously Chen was CEO of Microsoft China.

James Kilts, MBA ’74, was elected to the board of Pfizer Inc., according to an announcement September 27. He is a founding partner of Centerview Partners, a private equity and financial advisory firm and was CEO of The Gillette Company prior to its merger with Procter and Gamble. Kilts is also chairman of Council on the Graduate School of Business, a group of executives that advise Dean Snyder on program issues and serve as a link to the business community.

Want to discuss this topic some more? Head on over to the Chicago GSB Discussion Forums

Chicago... my future home--but where?

Where to live? It’s a question that many applicants think about in deciding where to apply for business school. Whether you’re very familiar with Chicago or have never visited, housing is always a hot topic among applicants and incoming students.

At first, many incoming GSB students are under the impression that housing is simply a choice between Hyde Park and the north side (usually either downtown or Lincoln Park). While a good portion of students do choose to live either very close to campus or in the popular north side locations, some decide to tap into one of Chicago’s many other interesting neighborhoods. After all, Chicago is known as a city of diverse, rich neighborhoods, so it makes sense that the student body has equally varied tastes when it comes to housing.

Here are a few “other” neighborhoods in which GSBers live that you may not have initially thought of:


South Loop: Want proximity to school outside of Hyde Park? How about closeness to both downtown and the exciting nightlife of Gold Coast? If so, then the South Loop may be a great option for you. Not many years ago, this neighborhood just south of Grant Park was an abandoned area of railroad tracks and warehouses. Since then, it has been revitalized by a frenzy of construction: mainly high-rise and mid-rise condominium buildings with all of the amenities. Many GSB students with families have chosen to invest in buying condos in this neighborhood, while others who prefer to lease have settled in rental buildings or sublet from condo owners.

Student Ade Ifelayo said of his neighborhood: “It’s a central, or ‘compromise’ location between Hyde Park, Downtown and the Northside areas. It has easy access to public transportation—on both El and Metra lines. Driving is even better, as it’s against the flow of traffic both commutes.”

Although it still has the feel of a young, new neighborhood, the South Loop is full of everything you’d want in everyday life—from grocery stores and a huge Target, to bars and restaurants, including Ade’s favorite brunch spot, Yolk. (“It’s the best!”)


Wicker Park / Bucktown: These neighborhoods are just west of the Loop, are more affordable than some of the more central locations in the city, and offer a delightful combination of charming shops, restaurants and cafes. This area is also much more parking friendly than the rest of the city can be, which is important because public transportation to the Harper Center can be time-consuming from here. In other words, you’ll probably want a car if you make this your home.

According to second year student Christen Cuculich:

“The people in Bucktown are a little less homogenous than other areas of the city, partially due to the big arts scene in the area. There are no high-rise buildings, few chain restaurants, and you can easily walk to tons of great restaurants, coffee shops, bars, grocery stores, boutiques, music venues, the blue line, dry cleaners, and just about everything you could imagine. Beyond being home to some of the best restaurants and shopping in Chicago, Bucktown is also an ideal area for animal lovers. There are a lot of pet-friendly apartments and condos and there are multiple dog parks.”


Lakeview: This neighborhood is adjacent to the northeast part of Lincoln Park and can best be described as a comfortable, moderately-priced and easily-navigable option for your time in b-school. Families and young folks alike choose to make this their home, resulting in an interesting mix of parks, gyms, pubs and Lake Michigan.

Dru Rossbacher chose Lakeview “for its proximity to the lake, to public transportation and to a myriad of good restaurants and bars” and accessibility to everything from supermarkets to various good places to do yoga. There’s always a lot going on at night, from local bars to trendier clubs—and the chance to attend a Cubs game in nearby Wrigleyville. Dru notes that “it is considered to be one of the safest neighborhoods in the city, so I have never felt unsafe returning home from a night out.” Parking can be a problem, however, since rented spaces tend to be quite expensive and street parking is limited and can take a while, especially in the bad weeks of winter.


Hopefully, you’re beginning to realize that Chicago is a great city offering its residents a variety of living choices depending on what matters to you most. If you come to the GSB, everyone will have an opinion on where is the best place to live—just remember that, whatever it is that you want, Chicago has it.

Want to discuss this topic some more? Head on over to the Chicago GSB Discussion Forums