Chicago Booth MBA Essay 1# How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals? (250-word minimum)
Profile: Miss. C
Profile (Background): Miss C, with strength in deal origination and portfolio company management in Europe in the healthcare and IT industries wants to build her network in the US and Asia and facilitate deals in the Energy industry
Essay Approach: “Why Booth MBA?”
With a Booth MBA, Miss C wants to expand her influence beyond Europe and dive into deals in the energy industry. She also wants to gain exposure to the Asia market, where the next decade of deals would originate. Although she aims to refine her financial acumen, the value of a Chicago Booth MBA is not just technical. By focusing on the infrastructure and the energy industry, a Booth MBA would offer the brand visibility to expand her expertise beyond thematic origination efforts.
Essay Planning
Problem: The applicant has worked only in boutique IB and PE firms, where the leadership followed thematic deal sourcing.
Problem (Explained): For this MBA Essay, I had to prioritize experiential learning with global themes, beyond AI, as her experience in thematic deal sourcing has pigeonholed her into a specialist capable of only finding deals in healthcare and IT.
Feasible Goals: Private Equity with a global PE giant.
Short-term Goal: Gain exposure to signals of PE stalwarts and peers with long-term thinking to find winners in diverse markets and not just themes set by PE firms.
Long-Term Goal: To build a generalist and a strategic perspective to find partners, entrepreneurs, and deals in emerging and niche markets to work on a dedicated fund.
Booth’ Strength: Booth’s strength in attracting a diverse group of investors, consultants, and technologists. With a generalist perspective lacking, the diversity of the class will help Miss C expand her perspective from multiple functional and industry perspectives. A strong Finance curriculum will help her relook at her foundational understanding of accounting, deal sourcing, and finance concepts as a strategist.
Opener: I wanted to capture the applicant’s involvement in the latest funding cycle in growth industries.
Strategy: The strategy is to show her current interest in Asian markets and highlight the gap in exposure, which was evident when the leadership didn’t pursue her recommendations.
Sample Booth MBA Goals Essay #3: Boutique PE to Large PE Deals (630 Words)
I have worked on medium-sized M&A deals and PE funds. When we closed deals left over by large PE funds and found two winners, I recognized the importance of structured thinking and patience in supporting entrepreneurs through several setbacks. With focus and determination, we took advantage of even the weakest levers in deal-making. However, the biggest challenge in boutique firms is access to deal flow. With a Chicago Booth MBA, I want to transition to a large PE fund where I would have the freedom to go beyond thematic deals.
To identify the next winning investments...
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that supports curiosity, inspires us to think more broadly, and take risks. At Booth, community is about collaborative thinking and learning from one another to better ourselves, our ideas, and the world around us.