“The appointment of Raghuram Rajan and Axel Weber to the G30 is further recognition of their stature as leaders in the field,” Sunil Kumar, Chicago Booth dean, said in a statement. “It also shows that Booth’s faculty influence is growing even stronger in the public debate over key issues affecting the world economy.”

G30 Chairman Jean-Claude Trichet expects the Chicago Booth professors to make valuable contributions to the intellectual life of the international group. “I am pleased to have these two outstanding individuals among our membership,” he said in a statement. The group also includes Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England and other senior participants from public and private sectors and academia.

Rajan, who is currently teaching courses at Booth in international corporate finance and the theory of financial decisions, is also an economic advisor to the Prime Minister of India, a senior advisor to Booz and Co., BDT Capital, MCAP and a member of the international advisory board of Bank Itau-Unibanco in Brazil. He took a leave of absence from Booth from 2003 to 2006 to serve as chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

Weber, who taught an MBA course in banking at Booth earlier this year, was previously president of the Deutsche Bundesbank and a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank. He is also a research fellow at several economic institutes including the Center for Economic Policy Research in London, the Center for Financial Studies in Frankfurt and the Center for Financial Research in Cologne.  

For more details on Rajan and Weber’s appointment to the G30, click here. For the full G30 membership, click here.

Groups such as the African American MBA Association (AAMBAA), Hispanic American Business Students Association (HABSA), Armed Forces Group, Chicago Women in Business (CWiB) and Gays and Lesbians in Business (GLiB) have all signed on to participate. On select Thursdays and Fridays each month through the course of the school year members of these and other school groups will be available to chat with visiting prospective students and answer questions over lunch in an informal setting. These lunches will align with the general Daily Campus Visit Program schedule, and prospective applicants who register for lunches with affinity student groups will automatically be registered for a full campus visit as well, including a class visit, information session and building tour.

For more details about the schedule of these new lunches with student affinity groups, click here. Prospective applicants with additional questions about campus visits are encouraged to contact Amy Hung, assistant director of admissions, directly at amy.hung@chicagobooth.edu.

Booth students took the top spot in this year’s CNBC’s MBA Face-off Challenge.  The portfolio competition allotted teams from eight leading MBA programs with a fictitious $1 million budget each and challenged them to gain the best returns.  Booth’s 10-person ultimately gained an average portfolio of more than $1,237,00.  The team had bested the second-place finishers from Johnson School by over  $118,000.

Thanks to the gift of alumni, a new scholarship for Indian students is available at Booth.   Students who live primarily in India at the time of receiving the award are eligible to apply for this scholarship.  Those who successfully secure the scholarship will be known as Akhtarali H.Tobaccowala Fellows in memory of the Booth MBA ’52 graduate.  The scholarship is a gift of Booth MBA ’82 Rishad Tobaccowala and his sister in memory of their father.

After nearly completing his year as dean at Booth, Dean Sunil Kumar gave an interview about Booth and it’s role in the University of Chicago.  Kumar emphasized Booth’s collaborative relationship with other parts of the university.  He also noted that Booth’s approach to education would not change due to the economy.  Kumar finally gave some insight regarding his ongoing strategic review of the global programs offered by Booth.

In a post yesterday to the Booth Insider, the school’s MBA admissions blog, Associate Director of Admissions Carrie Lydon shared these and other updates regarding the waitlist process. The applications of candidates who accept the offer to become part of the waitlist will be considered for admission again as part of Round 2 and will receive an updated decision on March 21st, the final decision date for the round. “We will try to make a final decision by that point, but there is a possibility that you could remain on the waitlist through Round 3,” Lydon wrote.

Chicago Booth has introduced the new waitlist enrollment form in an effort to give candidates the opportunity to decide what is best for them while helping the Admissions Committee better understand who is genuinely interested in remaining on the list. The form is in no way binding, though, and candidates who have indicated they wish to remain on the list can withdraw themselves at any point by emailing admissions@chicagobooth.edu.

As in past years, Chicago Booth’s Admissions Committee invites waitlisted candidates to send relevant updates regarding their candidacy, to be added to their files for consideration as part of future rounds. “The content and format of an update is entirely up to you, but ideally the materials you provide should add insight into your qualifications and strength of fit with Chicago Booth beyond what was presented in your original application,” Lydon wrote. Updates can be submitted via the “Upload Materials” section of the Applicant Status Page.

New this year, waitlisted candidates can also upload a 90-second video for the Admissions Committee. “In the age of digital media, we recognize that video is a common tool of communication, and want to provide any interested candidate with the opportunity to use it,” says Lydon. Here, too, the content is up to the candidate. Videos can be uploaded via the “Portfolio” section of Applicant Status Page. All updates must be submitted no later than March 1st.

In her post, Lydon stressed that this year’s Round 1 was a very competitive one and that the Admissions Committee was simply unable to accept every qualified applicant. “While it likely wasn’t the news you were hoping to hear, if you received a waitlist notification, please know that the waitlist is a good place to be!” she wrote.

To those who do decide to accept a place on the Chicago Booth waitlist, best of luck from all of us here at Clear Admit. Don’t forget that you can share your experiences and learn from those of others on the Clear Admit Wiki.

Though open to any prospective applicants looking to learn more about life at the school, tomorrow’s chat will also focus on the specific resources and support CWiB provides to Booth women. Panelists will include first- and second-year students from a range of backgrounds pursuing a diverse array of career paths. For a full list of panelists and their bios, click here.

To take part in tomorrow’s one-hour chat, click here. To learn more about Chicago Women in Business (CWiB), click here.

Students who receive the scholarship will be designated Akhtarali H. Tobaccowala Fellows, in memory of the 1952 graduate of Chicago Booth who was a director of Tata Group, chairman of Voltas Ltd., a unit of Tata, and founder of Impact India. 

“My sister Moeena Iyer and I are delighted to make this gift in memory of our father so more students from India can learn from the world class Chicago Booth faculty,” Rishad Tobaccowala said in a statement. “Our father believed strongly in the power of education and we feel the same way.” A 1982 graduate of Booth, the younger Tobaccowala is now chief innovation and strategy officer for VivaKi, the digital media unit of Publicis Groupe.

Scholarships will be available to students in Booth’s full-time MBA program whose primary home is in India at the time the scholarship is received. Prospective students can apply at www.chicagobooth.edu. 

According to the school, 83 students from India are enrolled in Booth’s full-time MBA program this year, and 527 students from India have attended the program since 2001.

“India sends the most students to Chicago Booth of any country other than the U.S.,” Chicago Booth Dean Sunil Kumar said in a statement, adding that scholarship support is important to the school’s efforts to attract the best and brightest candidates. “We are very grateful to the Tobaccowala Foundation for its generous gift,” Kumar said.

To learn more, click here.

“I interviewed with a recent Booth graduate on campus. Before the interview, as anticipated per the Clear Admit wiki, there were current students making casual conversation with potential candidates. They were extremely pleasant, and I would strongly recommend making the most of the conversation as it will both relax you before the interview and prepare your mind for the upcoming interview. The interview began on time, so I would suggest being at least fifteen minutes early to converse with current students.  My interview began with the interviewer giving me some background on herself and then prepping me with the fact that it would be a blind interview. Then the questions began as follows: Walk me through your resume. (There were no follow-up questions throughout the resume conversation, so be prepared to go without interruption) Why MBA and why now? (I used this as an opportunity to also explain why Booth) How would you plan to contribute to Booth as a student? Tell me about your leadership style. What is one area of weakness you would like to work on regarding your leadership style why earning an MBA? Discuss a time when you had to manage a difficult team or teammate. How did handle that experience? You have had a lot of success in the past. How do you handle failure? Is there anything that we have not covered that would like to point out, on or off your resume? Do you have any questions for me? The interview lasted for about 35 minutes. I do not know if it was a coincidence, but I appreciated that my interviewer had a similar background to me, which helped me quickly develop a rapport and also kept me from having to explain some of the industry terms I used working through my resume.”

To see more MBA admissions interview reports, check out the Clear Admit Wiki – a free resource with hundreds of real, documented interview experiences from b-school applicants. Also, if you’d like to help your fellow applicants by adding your experiences, please send us your interview field report and we’ll post it to the wiki. Finally, if you’d like even more helpful hints and detailed analysis on how to ace your interview, check out our line of Interview Guides, which demystify the most common questions asked by the leading programs and offer step-by-step guidance for a successful interview.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Clear Admit Wiki and best of luck to those undergoing admissions interviews!

Booth has announced its five 2011 Siebel Scholars.  The winners’ professional experiences span the industries of consulting, investment banking, marketing and engineering. Each second-year student who wins the scholarship received $35,000 in tuition support.  The Siebel Scholars Program also comprises Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, U Penn, the University of California Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, the University of California San Diego, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Tsinghua University.

The Chicago Booth Marketing Group’s Sixth Annual Marketing Conference was held October 19.  This year’s title was “A New School of Thought,” and the first keynote speaker was Bill McComb ’87, the CEO of Liz Claiborne.  Those attending the conference were also able to avail themselves of one of two panels: “Innovating in the New Economy: Tapping into Your Entrepreneurial Spirit” or “Turning Consumer Insights into Marketing Results.”  Michael Osanloo ’96 served as the second keynote speaker.  The President of Grocery at Kraft discussed Kraft’s acquisition of the Cadbury line and also the split facing the company.

A new report released by the Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index shows that only 23 percent of those Americans surveyed trust the U.S.’s financial systems.  Luigi Zingales, the Robert R. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at Booth, co-authored the report.  The report also indicates that about two thirds of Americans believe creating new jobs should be prioritized over reducing the deficit.  Each quarter, the Financial Trust Index assesses the public’s trust in its financial institutions.

Prospective applicants to Chicago Booth, Columbia, Harvard, INSEAD, Kellogg, Stanford and Wharton need to look no further for a comprehensive, at your fingertips resource that is helpful at all stages of the MBA admissions process.  Whether you are just beginning to research target schools, crafting application essays, preparing for an admissions interview or making a final decision about where you attend, the Clear Admit MBA Guide Apps are a valuable and time-saving resource.

Each of the seven MBA Guide Apps includes 30+ pages of objective information covering student demographics, academics, special programs, student life, career services, admission and financial aid among other things.  The convenient “Notes” feature allows you to record your thoughts as you peruse each page of the guide.

If you’re an MBA applicant who wants the benefits of the Clear Admit School Guides with the convince of being able to read them anywhere, the School Guide Apps are for you!

Visit the iTunes Store today to download the MBA Guide Apps for the iPad and iPhone!

The Chicago Booth School of Business, ranked number one last year, fell to number two in this year’s ranking. Harvard Business School also slid, from fourth to fifth place. Switzerland’s IMD ranked highest among European MBA programs, coming in at number three. Rounding out the top five schools is the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, which made an impressive climb from 11th last year to fourth this year.

It seems there are more rankings of MBA programs with each passing year, and each employs a different methodology to arrive at its list of top schools. The Economist asks students about why they pursued an MBA and weights corresponding data according to what students say is important. The categories considered and their corresponding weighted importance are: opening new career opportunities (35%); personal development/educational experience (35%); increasing salary (20%) and the potential to network (10%).

For the first time this year, the Economist published its rankings in the print edition of the magazine as well, along with a range of interesting articles about the MBA degree. For the full ranking of the top 100 schools, with further data and analysis and a full methodology, click here.

As always, those of us here at Clear Admit encourage prospective applicants to use this and any other ranking as one of many resources when determining which MBA program will be best suited to meet your individual needs and goals.