Chicago Booth School of Business has officially opened its application for the 2026 intake, and with it comes an intriguing update to their essay prompts. ARINGO is here to help you understand these changes and prepare strong applications that stand out. Booth’s commitment to understanding the holistic applicant is evident in this year’s questions, particularly the innovative new image-based essay.
Chicago Booth MBA Application Deadlines:
- Round 1: September 16, 2025
- Round 2: January 6, 2026
- Round 3: April 2, 2026
Note: Booth has intentionally set minimum word counts for the main essays, encouraging applicants to use their judgment regarding length. This offers a valuable opportunity to delve deeply into your experiences and aspirations.
Essay 1: Your Goals and Booth’s Role (250-word minimum)
How will the Booth MBA help you achieve your immediate and long-term post-MBA career goals?
This is a classic “why MBA, why Booth” essay, but with a crucial emphasis on your specific career aspirations. Booth wants to see a clear and logical connection between their program and your professional trajectory.
Key Points to Consider:
- Specificity is paramount: Don’t just state vague goals. Clearly define your immediate post-MBA role and target industry, and then articulate your long-term vision.
- Connect the dots: Explicitly link Booth’s resources, curriculum, faculty expertise, centers, and student organizations to your goals. Research specific courses, professors, and programs that will equip you with the skills and knowledge you need.
- Show, don’t just tell: Instead of saying “Booth’s finance program is great,” explain how Booth’s Analytical Finance concentration, for example, will provide you with the quantitative rigor necessary for your desired role in investment banking.
- Beyond the classroom: Consider how Booth’s vibrant community, leadership development opportunities, and career services will contribute to your success.
- Research, research, research: Demonstrate a deep understanding of Booth’s unique offerings. This essay is a test of how well you’ve done your homework.
Essay 2: Values and the Booth Community (250-word minimum)
Chicago Booth appreciates the individual experiences and perspectives that all of our students bring to our community. This respect for different viewpoints creates an open-minded environment 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. The photos below represent some of the values described above that we uphold at Chicago Booth. Select one and share how it resonates with one of your own values.
This is the most significant new addition to the Booth MBA application this year. It’s a fantastic opportunity to showcase your personality, values, and how you will contribute to the Booth community beyond your academic and professional achievements.
Probable Reason Behind the New Image Essay:
- Assess cultural fit and genuine self: Beyond academic prowess, Booth seeks individuals who will thrive in and contribute positively to their collaborative and diverse environment. The essay helps gauge if an applicant’s values align with Booth’s ethos, providing a window into their authentic character.
- Encourage authentic self-reflection, bypassing AI limitations: By asking applicants to connect a visual prompt to a personal value, Booth prompts deeper introspection and a more genuine, nuanced response. This format makes it significantly harder for applicants to rely on generic AI-generated content, forcing them to draw on unique personal experiences and emotions that AI currently struggles to replicate convincingly. It’s a strategic move to ensure the “human” voice shines through.
- Showcase creativity and communication: The essay allows applicants to demonstrate their ability to think abstractly, connect seemingly disparate ideas (an image and a personal value), and communicate their insights effectively in a unique way.
- Broaden the scope of “fit”: Instead of just looking at professional experience, Booth is explicitly looking for individuals who embody their core values of open-mindedness, curiosity, collaboration, and a willingness to take risks. The image prompt offers a fresh lens for this assessment.
How to Approach the Essay – Which Image Will You Choose?
Let’s analyze the provided images and discuss how you might connect them to your values. Remember, the key is to choose the image that most authentically resonates with a value you genuinely hold and can illustrate with a compelling personal story.
Image 1: Cheering Crowd at an Event. This image evokes energy, collective enthusiasm, and shared passion.
- Resonating Values: Community, shared success, team spirit, enthusiasm, support, belonging, celebration, collective achievement.
- Possible Story Angle: How you’ve contributed to a vibrant team environment, celebrated collective victories, or found belonging in a passionate community. You could discuss how you rally others around a common goal.
Image 2: Individual Engaged in Discussion/Learning. This image suggests active listening, intellectual curiosity, thoughtful engagement, and perhaps mentorship or a learning exchange.
- Resonating Values: Curiosity, intellectual growth, active learning, open-mindedness, critical thinking, mentorship, seeking knowledge, thoughtful debate.
- Possible Story Angle: A time you challenged your own assumptions, sought out diverse perspectives, engaged in a deep intellectual discussion, or demonstrated a commitment to lifelong learning.
Image 3: Diverse Group of Individuals Smiling/Interacting. This image highlights diversity, inclusion, connection, and joy in shared experiences.
- Resonating Values: Diversity, inclusion, empathy, cross-cultural understanding, collaboration across differences, building bridges, fostering connection.
- Possible Story Angle: Experiences where you’ve learned from people with vastly different backgrounds, championed inclusive environments, or built strong relationships within diverse teams.
Image 4: Group Posing with a Large Check (New Venture Challenge?). This image clearly points to entrepreneurship, innovation, teamwork towards a tangible outcome, and the thrill of launching new ventures.
- Resonating Values: Entrepreneurship, innovation, risk-taking, ambition, problem-solving, creating impact, teamwork in a venture, celebrating achievement.
- Possible Story Angle: A time you took a calculated risk, led an innovative project, contributed to a startup, or overcame challenges to bring a new idea to fruition. This aligns perfectly with Booth’s strong entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Key Points to Consider for Essay 2:
- Authenticity: Choose the image and value that genuinely speak to you. Don’t pick an image because you think it’s what Booth wants to hear.
- Personal Story: The essay requires you to share how the photo resonates with one of your own values. This means backing up your chosen value with a concrete, specific personal anecdote or experience.
- Again, Show, Don’t Just Tell: Instead of simply stating “I value collaboration,” describe a situation where your collaborative spirit led to a significant positive outcome.
- Connect to Booth: While the prompt asks about your values, subtly linking how this value would manifest within the Booth community can strengthen your essay. How will your open-mindedness or entrepreneurial spirit enrich the Booth experience for others?
- Impact and Reflection: Reflect on the impact of your value on yourself and others. What did you learn from the experience you’re describing?
Optional Essay & Reapplicant Question
Optional Essay (Maximum 300 words): Use this space strategically to address any ambiguities in your application (e.g., a gap in employment, a lower-than-expected test score with an explanation) or to share crucial information that doesn’t fit elsewhere but highlights your unique candidacy. Do not use this as an opportunity to reiterate points covered in other essays.
Reapplicant Question (Maximum 300 words): This is your chance to demonstrate growth and continued commitment to Booth. Reflect on what has changed in your perspective, experiences, and goals since your last application. Highlight new skills, accomplishments, or insights gained. Explain why Booth remains the right fit for you now.
Chicago Booth‘s MBA application is designed to identify individuals who are not only academically strong and professionally accomplished but also possess the personal qualities and values that contribute to a vibrant and collaborative learning environment. By thoughtfully addressing each essay, conducting thorough research on Booth’s programs, and allowing your authentic self to shine through, you will significantly enhance your chances of securing a spot in this prestigious program.
Ready to make your Chicago Booth application stand out? Contact us for a free consultation and let us help you craft a successful application that gets you accepted!
