When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment, but are also committing to becoming part of a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school.
Each year, Chicago Booth students can choose to take part in one of more than 25 trips abroad (and one domestic trip to Alaska), called “random walks,” as an orientation to the school and a way to kick-start their MBA social lives. Three to four second-year students organize each of the weeklong excursions, which take place toward the end of August each year. Because students organize these trips, they can become quite specialized—for example, in the past, two trips have been offered to Belize, one for singles and one for couples. As trips fill up, they become “suspended” to allow admits from Round 2 time to sign up. Still, students who have their hearts set on a particular destination would be wise to sign up as early as possible. And those who have not set their sights on any particular destination can elect to join the “mystery trip,” for which the participating students do not find out where they are going until they get to the airport. (In 2011, the “mystery trip” was to Barcelona, Spain, and Dublin, Ireland. The 2009 “mystery trip” destination was Jordan, and in 2010, it was Portugal.)
For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Chicago Booth and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.