To Make The Most Of Your MBA Experience, Step Outside The MBA Bubble

At a time when everyone from prospective students to business leaders is debating the ROI of an MBA, I can give you firsthand the definitive yet consultant-like answer: it depends. You get what you put into it.

If you come in solely focused on recruiting, you will more likely than not get a job, though nothing is guaranteed in this job market. If you come in treating it as a two-year vacation, there are plenty of parties with frosty beverages to keep your social calendar full but also way cheaper and less tedious ways to go about partying.

Most MBA professors and alumni will tell you that the MBA is about growth, both professional and personal. If growth is to happen, then we must step outside of our comfort zone. We do it once by leaving our jobs and coming to school, but we must do it again and again throughout the two years by doing things outside the MBA bubble as well.

Kuan-lin F. Liu

When I started as a full-time MBA student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in the fall of 2024, I did what most of my classmates did. We fed on all the nuggets of wisdom the second years had to provide about recruiting, social life, and school. Not knowing any better and wanting to succeed the way they had, we followed in their footsteps, sometimes too closely. Somewhere along my first year, I started to rebel against that. As someone who has always been fiercely independent—or a “lone wolf,” as I was called as a kid—I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing. I didn’t want my whole life to revolve around what Chicago Booth had to offer.

Stepping out of the MBA bubble for me meant starting my LinkedIn content creator journey, which is now one year strong. During the summer between my first and second year, while interning for a startup, I started posting on LinkedIn. Some of what I posted was about the MBA, but I also shared my observations about AI, marketing, and the state of work—all things I care deeply about, had experience in, or was also learning in real time. Through posting, commenting, and reaching out, I was able to connect with people beyond Booth and beyond Chicago, from founders in London to community organizers in Seoul.

It was through becoming a LinkedIn content creator and seeing everything people as young as college and high school students were doing and building that snapped me out of the MBA hamster wheel. As I watched people outside the MBA bubble launch projects, build communities, and experiment in public, I realized I would rather spend more of my time doing things than applying for yet another title or position within the MBA ecosystem.

What started as a side quest during the summer changed the way I approached my second year at Booth. I became even more intentional about the things I was saying yes to on campus, knowing that every yes meant a no to something else whether at Booth or beyond. Of course, I continued to nurture my relationships with my peers and cultivate my very own Booth network, but what I realized was that I’d have a lifetime to continue to grow this network because once a Boothie, always a Boothie.

If my experience with my alma mater Dartmouth College is any indication, I know I’ll be able to reach out to a random Boothie in the future and reminisce about TNDC or bidding for classes while asking for help on something. What I wouldn’t get back was the time I had to connect with people outside the program, people whose doors were open to me because, as an MBA student, I had something to offer and little to ask for in return.

One of our biggest advantages is our status as an MBA student. People want to know what we’re learning in class. Founders want us to work for them (sometimes for free). AI companies want us to try their products. It would be a shame to waste that leverage by limiting ourselves to our respective MBA networks.

Earlier this year, I took a call with a Booth admit. At the end of our conversation, I told him to think about this question: If nothing you want from the MBA comes to be, will it still be worth it?

The question wasn’t meant to scare him. It was meant to prepare him for the increasingly competitive world we find ourselves in as MBA students. Getting into an MBA, even an M7 program, does not guarantee you a job. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll get to take all the electives you want. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll get that student leadership position you had in mind.

If all these things out of your control don’t go your way, what can you do to make your MBA experience worth it?

For me, it was posting on LinkedIn, which led to me serving as a Lovable ambassador, and later, to participating and volunteering at tech events. For my friend Mark, it was regularly attending the opera and other shows Chicago’s art scene had to offer. As for you, it may be something entirely different, something waiting for you to discover.

Instead of waiting for the opportunities your MBA program serves up on a silver platter, you can do things that don’t require an application, without anyone’s permission. You can create your own opportunities.

While going through orientation at Booth, I published a piece with the Admissions Office’s The Booth Experience blog about combating FOMO as an MBA student. My advice then was to learn to say no to protect our peace and time. My advice now is similar. Learn to say no to protect your time and to devote that time to something beyond the MBA.

The true ROI of the MBA comes from what we do with the freedom and flexibility we are afforded within these two years. It comes from the things we do within the MBA community but also beyond it.

During my time at Booth, I stepped out of the Hyde Park-Loop bubble, and because of that, I’m richer for it.

Kuan-lin F. Liu is an incoming management consultant and writer who recently graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with High Honors. His work explores the intersection of AI, strategy, and storytelling.

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