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Online MBA Chat with Ms. Kristen Pawlowski, Associate Director of Admissions, Chicago GSB
This is your opportunity to learn about the school and to demonstrate your interest (yes, you can mention your participation in the essays…).
Location: MBA Chances, the forum system of the IIMBA
Time: Monday, 25.10, at 19:00 Israel time.
Host: Gilam Levi of aringo.co.il
Reminder: you need to click "refresh" every few minutes to view the chat and it's progress
To: All
Welcome all to the Chicago MBA Chat!
I particularly want to welcome:
Ms. Kristen Pawlowski, Associate Director of Admissions, Chicago GSB
Mr. Assaf Wand, second year student
Mr. Moshe Sarfaty, first year studentYou may refer your questions to any or all of them.
To: mb108
good evening all
looking forward to answering some of your questions
Assaf
To: All
Thank you all for joining us today. This is your chance to ask questions about Chicago's program, admissions policies, career opportunities, and student life.
To: All
Please remember to click "REFRESH CHAT" (or press "F5" or refresh every few seconds), to see new posts.
Chat rules reminder:
1. Each forum member may post up to 50 messages and replies per chat. You may refer a question to any of the participants and may reply to their answers.
2. Posts are screened and are uploaded gradually. Therefore, you may see your post only after a while.
3. Preference is given to questions that use the member name over questions that are posted under "undisclosed member".
4. You may call the admission committee members by their first name (some people asked about this).
5. The chat is in English and lasts up to 60 minutes.
To: Gilam – aringo
Hi everyone,
we are here to answers any questions.
Moshe
To: Gilam – aringo
Hello and thank you for joining us for the chat. In addition to being the Associate Director of Admissions, I am also an alumna of theh Chicago GSB Full-Time program. I graduated in 2002. So, if there are any questions regarding the alumni network, I'm also more than happy to answer those.
To: All
Assaf, Moshe – maybe you can open by telling us a bit more about your background?
To: All
OK,
Maybe I'll start with talking about myself (like any good date:))
I am a 2nd year student at the GSB, previously worked for Intel Capital in Israel, served for 5 years as a Captain in the Air Force and worked the summer in McKinsey in NY
Assaf
To: Gilam – aringo
I worked in two software start-ups for the last two years. Before that I worked for Ben Gurion Airport security division for 4.5 years and brefore taht – the army
I was an officer in an infantry unit.
My BA is from Tel Aviv. Majored in Computer Science and Economics.
To: All
Good evening all,
What are the main fields Chicago specializes in?
To: Assaf Wand
Assaf,
Can you please tell us about how you went about getting your internship with McKinsey this past summer?
To: All
I'll start with why I think that the GSB is "The Best Biz School in the world"
What I live about the school are 2 main features:
1) Maturity- the school its students great flexibility in choosing their path (where to live, what to study, when to study, who to study with etc' etc')
2) Intellectual challenge- the school challenges students to think creativly, logicly and to challenge assumptions that are not backed by facts
To: gavrile
Well, we are best known for our strengths in Finance, Accounting and Economics. However, as with any top business school, all students will obtain a great education in a large number of business topics.
Our most popular areas of study for students are Finance, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Strategic Management and Economics. We excel in several areas; for example, we have one of the most productive Marketing faculties in the world.
We also have thirteen concentrations available to students; most students persue three concentrations.
To: Kristen – Chicago
Sure Kristen,
The school is currently ranked # 1 for the Career service (which I can truely agree with)
McKinsey is actually a stright forward recruiting effort- the school is considerd to be a core school for McKinsey (hence McKinsey comes several times a year to present, host dinners, receptions etc')
The school helps with training for the interviews, the consulting group is very active and helpful and tons of 2nd years and prior consultants are also helping out (it is a very supportive group)
then it is going to the interviews, and
hoping you did well
To: Kristen – Chicago
Hi Kristen
Thanks for being here today!
There's a common problem that most of us israelis come across at one point or another – I'm talking about the grade conversion issue. Is there a universally acceptable way of converting grades from the israeli scale of 0-100 with a passing grade of 56 into the american letter scale?
Thanks!
To: msarfaty
Hi Moshe
As an Israeli – would you say there's something about Chicago that makes it especially appealing to us, israelis? If so, what is that?
Thanx!
To: Assaf Wand
I'll take a moment to expand on Assaf's note that we are ranked Number One for Career Services. In the 2004 Business Week Rankings, recruiters rated graduates from Chicago GSB the highest of all Full-Time MBA Programs.
To: All
For example I am completing my concentrations in Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management and Finance
I honestly think that although the school is not marketed as a pure general management school- this is actually its core strength
General Management (in my humble opinion) is deep understanding of every aspect of the business and the ability to tie all of the fields together and to be able to challenge and create norms
I think this is exactly what the GSB educate students for
To: gavrile
Although Chicago has a reputation of a finance school, it is very strong in the marketing, startegic and general amangement areas.
About a quarter of last year's class is now working in consulting positions.
To: mba_il
I think that coming from Israel, a very argumentative place, the culture of the GSB of debate and challenging other opinions is exactly what is going on in a standard Israeli management meeting
In addition this specific enviroment requires a certain level of confidence, which we as Israelis (for some weird reason) posses
To: Shtota
Regarding converting grades from the Israeli system for our application process:
We have students apply from dozens of countries each year, many of which have different grading systems from that which we use in the U.S. There is no easy answer as to how to convert grades; however, our Operations team is well-versed in "translating" them for the Admissions Committee. We will look at other comparitive factors, such as percentage of students who passed a course, class rank, etc.
As for the process for actually converting the grades, drop me an email ([email protected]) and I can go over the process with you, since each undergraduate program is different. This way I can answer you specific question.
To: Shtota
Another point: In most Israeli schools, grades are not normally distributed (as they are in most schools in the US).
To: Kristen – Chicago
I recently visited Chicago GBS, and I was very impressed from the new
I actually have two questions:
1. How does Chicago GSB view candidates with a previous MBA?
2. Chicago GSB is viewed primarily as a Finance school. What does Chicago GSB has to offer to someone who wants to major at Marketing?To: All
Kristen, the Chicago GSB has become more popluar among Israeli applicants in recent years. Do you have any rough estimate as to how many Israelis you may accept this year?
To: All
Guys, following a question on this… you want to click "refresh chat" at the bottom of this page, not the "refresh" button in the explorer button bar…
To: Kristen – Chicago
I have another question regarding the application procedure.
I understand that an interview is required prior to sending the application essays. Can you elaborate on this subject?
Can I still ask for an interview before the first round?, and if so am I required to apply before the first round? or can I apply in the second round as well?
Thanks,
Gabi
To: Gilam – aringo
550 of course :-)
To: Gilam – aringo
We never have a pre-determined number of students in mind, it really depends on the applicants themselves. We look at the applicant pool in a very broad sense. This year our first year class represents 44 countries!
Personally, I'm thrilled to have twelve students from Israel this year. But, they were admitted based on the excellence of their application overall, not because there is a certain number we are hoping to have in each class.
To: mba_il
I think Assaf has made a very good point referring to our "argumentative" nature.
Chicago is cultivating an environment of debate to further develop discussion. You can deffinetly see the level of confidence of Israeli students as an advantage. This also goes to recruiting.
To: boazcn
Marketing-
The school has a more analytical approach to marketing (which recruiter loves)
In addition Marketing is one of the most popular concetrations of the school
And lastly, the school has a very impressive cader of marketing professionals both from the industry side and from the academic side- the Marketing faculty had grown from 5 professors 5 years ago to 13 today and is considered to be one of the most respected marketing faculties in the world
To: boazcn
I'm glad you had a great visit!
To answer your questions:
1. I review applications of candidates with previous MBA's frequently. Additionally, 23% of the first year class posess graduate degrees of some sort. The most important message to convey in your application is WHY another MBA; what will it lead to that your prior education has not? Why now and what you will contribute are also important.
2. In regards to Marketing, it was one of the areas I studied at Chicago GSB (along with Strategic Management and Statistics). Many firms recruit on campus regularly for brand management, marketing research, and business development.
I found that I was very close to my fellow students who were studying marketing and really enjoyed learning about marketing from some of the amazing faculty at Chicago GSB.
To: Kristen – Chicago
Kristen, Assaf, Moshe – I am a bit dead-locked on the childhood hero question in your essays. How am I to approach this essay? Any tips/advice?
Thanks!
To: boazcn
Boaz,
Regarding your second question – Chicago faculty is ranked #1 in the number of publications per faculty member. That is to say that the marketing department (hence, the marketing education you'll get here) are of the cream of the crop among B-Schools.
To: gavrile
Gabi,
The process is that applicants must request the interview about three weeks prior to the deadline for which they plan to apply. All of these deadlines are posted on our website at http://chicagogsb.edu/fulltime/admissions/deadlines.aspx. For example, the interview request deadline for the Round One application deadline (November 12) was Friday, October 22nd. You may still request the inteview today via the website http://chicagogsb.edu/fulltime/admissions/scheduling.aspx, but it now cannot be guaranteed that we will be able to review your application in time to reply for the notification date for Round One (which is January 21).
One nuance of the interview process is that the interview must be requested by the interview request deadline, but may be conducted either before or after the application deadline, depending on if you interivew on campus or with an alumnus, as well as the schedules of you and the alumnus (if applicable).
To: mgafni
Honestly, and Kristen will hate me for that
This year's questions are bizzare, write something that you think is representative of yourself, break the mold a bit, write something with some humor that will express your true self- use it as an essay to diffrentiate yourself by your charm, creativity and humor
Sorry- I stated the obvious and didn't help
To: Assaf Wand
Hi Assaf and Moshe, thank you for joining us!
How would you estimate the ratio of international students in Chicago GSB? Do you feel at home there, as a foreigner? And how does the city of Chicago contribute to the experience, from your point of view?
To: mgafni
I'll be happy to help you off-line.
Just a thought though – think about the message of your selection sends to whoever reads the essay. What does it say about your (your values, aspirations etc.).
There is no "right" answer.
To: mgafni
Sure. One of the important features of the application to Chicago GSB is that we really want to get to know you and what is important to you. Certainly "why an MBA" and "why Chicago GSB" are important. But so is understanding your values.
The question regarding the childhood hero is just one way we have to learn more about what you value, what is important to you and perhaps how you have grown and changed (or stayed the same).
To: Kristen – Chicago
Kristen, I have a very technical question about the applications:
I've seen people refer to "10 millions" as "10M", but some others refer to it as "10MM". Is there a right way to do this? Is this distinction important?
Thank you.
To: mba_il
International students constitute one third (!) of the student body and there people from 44 different countries.
You will feel at home wherever you'll find friends and this has much more to do with personalities tahn with nationalities.
Chicago is great. Anyone who ever visited or lived here will attest to it. We have student living in all parts of the city. There is always something to do, somewhere to go and who to meet.
To: Assaf Wand
No, I don't hate you for mentioning that our essay questions are unusual! We know it and we do it on purpose. There are so many aspects of someone's personality that go into knowing if they are going to be successful and happy at Chicago GSB. We have "unusual" questions to dig deeper, to understand better. Additionally, the creative questions give our applicants more ways to express themselves in their own voice.
To: mba_il
I think that officialy the GSB has something like ~ 35% international students, but unofficialy I think it is a lot higher
Tons of Indian people in particular and people from all over the world did their undergrad studies or worked in the US prior to Business school- they are not considered to be pure international students in the numbers- hence the atmosphere is even more global than the high numbers to begin with
As for Chicago- this is one of my greatest surprises- I was skeptic, pessimistic and afraid of the town- but it is a great, cosmopolitan town with tons of stuff to do, and relativly cheap
In addition- winter wasn't that bad (or let me rephrase it- as bad as other east coast place) but I am actually going to an exchange program in Australia in Sydney over the winter (summer there) so maybe I am not the right person to comment on that – btw- this is another great option the GSB offers
To: Kristen – Chicago
Kristen, Assaf, Moshe – can you tell us a little bit about potential scholarships for strong Israeli applicants at Chicago? Thank you very much.
To: embiej
No, to my knowledge, either is fine, but I see the "M" most often.
To: All
To elaborate about the option of doing a quarter abroad:
The IMBA program gives the students an option to do a full quarter (3 courses) as exvchange students in one of over 30 business schools around th eworld.
For people interested in working ina global environment and in buisnesses with cross-continent affiliations, tis is a great opportunity to get exposure to other cultures and to the way businesses are managed and conducted in other places.
To: Kristen – Chicago
Kristen, I'd like you to know we all really appreciate your participation in the chat!
As a typical prospective student, I, too, have the eternal question – what, in your opinion, makes Chicago GSB different from other top 10 schools? Is there any single quality that really makes it stand apart from the rest?
Thank you!
To: Gil340
Scholarships,
I specificaly received the Neubaeur scholarship for entrepreneurs and a part scholarship of the Seibel scholarship so I can attest first hand that the school gives some scholarships.
Scholarships are mostly merit based and less need base. However, the school have a great financial aid office which offers a full loan (up to $125K), with no co-signers and also for international students (quite rare)
hope it helps
To: Assaf Wand
To expand on the question regarding International Students, an "International Student" is someone who requires a visa to study in the United States. So, having studied or worked here in the past actually doesn't determine student status. The number for the first year class is 33% international students, which means that they are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
To: All
Well, our allocated 1 hour is over so quickly! I apologize to all those whose questions remained unanswered due to our time constraints.
Kristen, Assaf and Moshe – thank you so much for taking the time to answer the questions… you have done a wonderful job!
In the name of the Israeli International MBA Association, aringo, and all Israeli applicants, thank you.
Gilam
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