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The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (also known as Chicago GSB) is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and a major center for research in business. It is considered one of the world's leading business schools. Chicago GSB’s main campus is located in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago, IL, USA. The new Hyde Park Center building opened in the Fall of 2004. * The school's Gleacher Center facility is located in downtown Chicago.

Chicago GSB graduates hold leadership positions in for-profit, non-profit, governmental, and academic institutions throughout the world.

Chicago GSB is one of the few top-tier business schools not named for a benefactor. While it is recognized for the excellence of its graduate business programs in general, the GSB's reputation is particularly notable in the fields of finance, economics, quantitative marketing and accounting. It has been consistently ranked as a leading program in these disciplines among graduate schools of business by BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

Chicago GSB differentiates itself from other business schools by virtue of shaping future business leaders with the following traits: a quantitative approach to business, from strategic management and marketing to finance and economics; a balanced teaching method which incorporates case study, lecture and simulation where each is appropriate, placing equal emphasis on theory and practice; its global reach with MBA student exchange programs and permanent campuses in London and Singapore; an entrepreneurial culture, which involves students in every aspect of the School's decision-making process; and its fundamental curriculum, which emphasizes the application of fundamental critical thinking to a constantly changing business landscape.*

In 1943, Chicago GSB pioneered the extension of the MBA curriculum to working executives in the middle of their careers, becoming the first school in the world to provide the Executive MBA (EMBA) program. As a result, the School has been widely credited with popularizing various extension programs within the business world, such as the evening and weekend programs, as other business schools have followed suit in creating their own executive education programs.

Programs

Chicago GSB offers Full-time MBA, Executive MBA, Part-time MBA, and Weekend MBA programs. The 2004 full-time class is comprised of 1088 first and second-year students. Chicago GSB also offers a part-time MBA program with identical curriculum, faculty, and classes to the full-time program. The part-time program is domiciled at the GSB's Downtown Chicago campus, but students in both the full-time and part-time programs may register for classes at either the Hyde Park Center or the downtown campus. The school also offers Executive MBA programs in its permanent campuses in Chicago, London and Singapore.

The full-time program at the Hyde Park campus and the part-time programs at the downtown Gleacher Center permit students to choose electives from the very beginning of their program of study. This is in contrast to other top-tier business schools, which impose a cohort or learning team system that includes a pre-determined order of coursework. Thus, Chicago GSB differentiates itself from other programs by providing students with the flexibility to construct a program of study that is tailored to their needs and can be as broad or deep as they choose. There is only one required course for full-time program students: LEAD (Leadership Effectiveness and Development)*, which students take in their first quarter at the GSB. LEAD focuses on the fundamental skills of leadership: motivating people, building relationships, and influencing outcomes.

Students can elect to pursue one or more of the following areas of study (concentrations):

Regardless of the areas of study, the GSB confers only two types of degrees at the masters level: the MBA and the International MBA.

Students & Culture

Chicago GSB graduates are reputed to be excellent critical thinkers who also develop team leadership skills through student-led groups, and the School is particularly renowned for its rigorous and challenging culture.

Chicago GSB culture emphasizes rigorous analytical thinking before executing a deliberate plan of action, through cooperation and detailed attention to facts. Much of Chicago GSB’s reputation for excellent critical thinkers is driven by the School’s distinguished list of academic luminaries, including six Nobel Laureates and the new business research conducted at the school.

Many aspects of Chicago GSB student life, from admissions decisions, to admitted students weekend, to orientation week, to the annual conferences and events that the School hosts, are organized and led by students.

There are currently over 60 student-led activity organizations *, ranging from career-focused groups to social and community service organizations.

History

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business was launched by Edmund James, former director of the Wharton School, in 1898 as the second-oldest business school in the United States. The School was chartered as an extension of the University of Chicago’s founding principles of “scientific guidance and investigation of great economic and social matters of everyday importance,” as echoed by founding president William Rainey Harper. Chicago GSB is considered as a first mover in many areas of business school education:

  • First business school to have a Nobel laureate on its faculty (George Stigler, 1982)
  • First business school to have had six Nobel Prize winners: George Stigler, 1982; Merton Miller, 1990; Ronald Coase, 1991; Gary Becker, 1992; Robert Fogel, 1993; and Myron Scholes, 1997
  • First and only business school to have campuses on three continents (in Chicago, London, and Singapore)
  • First business school to initiate a PhD program in business, 1920
  • First academic business journal is founded, 1928
  • First university to grant a PhD in business to a woman, Ursula Batchelder Stone, 1929
  • First program to educate hospital administrators, 1933
  • First Executive MBA (EMBA) program for experienced managers, 1943
  • First to offer EMBA program in Europe and Asia
  • Dean George P. Shultz develops first minority scholarship program at a business school, 1964
  • Chicago GSB students found the National Black MBA Association, 1972

Ranking and Reputation

Chicago GSB's MBA programs have been ranked as follows:

Full-Time MBA Programs

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "University of Chicago Graduate School of Business".

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