Meet The Chicago Booth MBA Class of 2017

Jonathan Coffey

University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

 Hometown: Lincolnshire, IL

Undergraduate School and Major: Georgetown University, Finance and Accounting

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Nasdaq (Lead/Director, Corporate Strategy); Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Analyst, Financial Institutions Group, Investment Banking Division)

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE? If you’re very disciplined, you can do a self-study program. If you are an adult with a full time job, a prep course can be helpful to snap yourself into a studying-mindset.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply? The best insights I got were from people who already had MBAs. What did they like/dislike about their programs? What were their impressions of graduates from other programs? I think it’s important to find the right cultural fit.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? Be true to your story and ambitions, not what you think anybody wants to hear. If you can be honest about your motivations, first-and-foremost to yourself, the essays, interviews and recommendations all fall into place.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? I really like the flexibility of the curriculum and the opportunities offered by the lab courses, but I was really swayed by the Boothies I’ve met over the course of my career.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? I want to get hands-on in product development by participating in the New Venture Challenge, and embed myself in the local VC/Angel community.