The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (branded as Chicago Booth) is the graduate

business school A business school is a higher education institution or professional school that teaches courses leading to degrees in business administration or management. A business school may also be referred to as school of management, management school, s ...

of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, a

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Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 Nobel laureates in the Economic Sciences, more than any other business school in the world. Notable Chicago Booth alumni include

James O. McKinsey James Oscar McKinsey (June 4, 1889 – November 30, 1937) was an American accountant, management consultant, professor of accounting at the University of Chicago, and founder of McKinsey & Company. Biography McKinsey was born in 1889 in Gamma, ...

, founder of

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;

Susan Wagner Susan Lynne Wagner (born 1961) is an American financial executive. Wagner is one of the co-founders of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation, where she was vice chairman and chief operating officer. BlackRock is ...

, co-founder of

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; Eric Kriss, co-founder of

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;

Satya Nadella Satya Narayana Nadella (; born 19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American business executive who is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman. B ...

, current CEO of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

; and other current and former CEOs of Fortune 500 companies such as

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Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American company specializing in intelligence, AI, and digital transformation. It is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washing ...

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, Chevron,

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, Dominos,

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, Morningstar,

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, and

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History

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business traces its roots to 1898 when university faculty member

James Laurence Laughlin James Laurence Laughlin (April 2, 1850 – November 28, 1933) was an American economist and professor at Cornell University, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago, who helped to found the Federal Reserve System and was "one of the m ...

chartered the College of Commerce and Politics, which was intended to be an extension of the school's founding principles of "scientific guidance and investigation of great economic and social matters of everyday importance." The program originally served as a solely undergraduate institution until 1916, when academically oriented research masters and later doctoral-level degrees were introduced. In 1916, the school was renamed the "School of Commerce and Administration". Soon after in 1922, the first

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

program was offered at the school. In 1932, the school was rechristened as the "School of Business". The School of Business offered its first

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

(MBA) in 1935. A landmark decision was taken by the school at about this time to concentrate its resources solely on graduate programs, and accordingly, the undergraduate program was phased out in 1942. In 1943, the school launched the first

Executive MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

program. The school was renamed to the Graduate School of Business (or more popularly, the GSB) in 1959, a name that it held till 2008. In 2008, alumnus David G. Booth (MBA 1971) gave the school a gift valued at $300 million, and in honor of the gift, the Graduate School of Business was renamed the "University of Chicago Booth School of Business". During the latter half of the twentieth century, the business school was instrumental in the development of the

Chicago School of economics The Chicago school of economics is a Neoclassical economics, neoclassical Schools of economic thought, school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago, some of whom have constructed and populari ...

, an economic philosophy focused on free-market, minimal government involvement, due to faculty and student interaction with members of the university's influential Department of Economics. Other innovations by the school include initiating the first

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

program in business (1920), founding the first academic business journal (1928), offering the first Executive MBA ( EMBA) program (1943), and for offering the first weekend MBA program (1986). Students at the school founded the National Black MBA Association (1972), and it is the only U.S. business school with permanent campuses on three continents: Asia (2000), Europe (1994), and North America (1898). On April 15, 2025, following a gift of $100 million by alumnus Konstantin Sokolov (MBA 2005), the school's Executive MBA program was renamed the "Sokolov Executive MBA Program".

Campuses

In Chicago, the Booth School has two campuses: the Charles M. Harper Center in Hyde Park, which houses the school's full-time MBA and Ph.D. programs, and the Gleacher Center in

downtown Chicago ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district (CB ...

, which hosts the part-time Evening and Weekend MBA Programs, Chicago-based Executive MBA Program, and Executive Education courses. Chicago Booth also has a campus in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, a short walk from

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

, hosting the EMBA Program in Europe and Executive Education classes. Lastly, Chicago Booth has a campus in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, located in the Hong Kong Jockey Club University of Chicago Academic Complex.

Academics

Chicago Booth offers Full-time, Part-time (Evening and Weekend) and Executive MBA programs. Starting in the 2024–2025 academic year, Booth intends to offer a Master in Finance and Master in Management degrees for recent college graduates who studied humanities, arts, social sciences, biological sciences, or physical sciences in college, and are interested in jobs that value business-oriented skills and knowledge. The university also educates future academics, with graduate programs offering the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in several fields. In addition to conducting graduate business programs, the school conducts research in the fields of

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

quantitative marketing research Quantitative marketing research is the application of quantitative research techniques to the field of marketing research. It has roots in both the positivist view of the world, and the modern marketing viewpoint that marketing is an interactive ...

, and

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

, among others. PhD graduates include

Cliff Asness Clifford Scott Asness (; born October 17, 1966) is an American hedge fund manager and the co-founder of AQR Capital Management. As of June 2025, ''Forbes'' estimated his net worth at US$2.9 billion. Early life and education Asness is Jewish a ...

and John Liew, who co-founded money management firm AQR, and Ross Stevens, who founded Stone Ridge Asset Management. In April 2023, Stevens donated $100 million to support Chicago Booth's PhD program, which is now named the Stevens Doctoral Program.

Honors

Chicago Booth grants "High Honors" to the top five percent of the graduating class and "Honors" to its next 15 percent, based on GPA averages of all MBA graduates from the previous academic year.

Research and learning centers

The school promotes and disseminates research through its centers and institutes; the most significant ones are: *Accounting Research Center *Applied Theory Initiative * Center for Decision Research *Center for Population Economics *

Center for Research in Security Prices The Center for Research in Security Prices, LLC (CRSP) is a provider of historical stock market and investable index data. CRSP is an affiliate of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. CRSP maintains some of the largest and mo ...

*Chicago Energy Initiative *Fama–Miller Center for Research in Finance * George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State *

Initiative on Global Markets The Initiative on Global Markets (IGM) is a research center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in the United States. The initiative supports original research on international business, financial markets, and public policy. The I ...

*Michael P. Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation *The

Becker Becker () is one of the German-language surnames, along with Bäcker and Baecker, that derive from the root, which refers to baking. The surname began as a name for a baker (and thus his family). In northern Germany, it can also derive from th ...

Friedman Institute for Research in Economics * James M. Kilts Center for Marketing *Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation

Rankings

Chicago Booth was ranked #1 by both ''Forbes'' and ''The Economist'' in 2019. '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranks Chicago Booth in 2022 and 2023 as the #1 business school in the United States. ''U.S. News'' also ranked the school's executive MBA program #1 and its part-time program #1 in the U.S. In 2019, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' ranked the school's full-time MBA program as #1 globally. ''The Economist'' also ranked Chicago #1 each year from 2012 to 2016 and 2019. The Financial Times Rankings 2019 awarded Chicago Booth third place in Open Executive Education. Poets and Quants ranked the school #2 in their 2019 ranking.

People

Faculty

The Booth school has 177 professors, and includes Nobel laureates

Eugene Fama Eugene Francis "Gene" Fama (; born February 14, 1939) is an American economist, best known for his empirical work on portfolio theory, asset pricing, and the efficient-market hypothesis. He is currently Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Servic ...

and

Richard Thaler Richard H. Thaler (; born September 12, 1945) is an American economist and the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2015, Thaler was p ...

and

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and 30 individuals workin ...

Kevin M. Murphy. Other notable economists at the school include

Luigi Zingales Luigi Zingales (; born 8 February 1963) is an Italian academic who is a finance professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His book '' Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists'' (2003) is a study of "relationship capitalism" ...

and

Raghuram Rajan Raghuram Govind Rajan (born 3 February 1963) is an Indian economist and the Katherine Dusak Merton Miller, Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. Quote: "I am an Indian citizen ...

, and former Chairperson of the

Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the president of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...

Austan Goolsbee Austan Dean Goolsbee (born August 18, 1969) is an American economist and writer. He is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Goolsbee formerly served as the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Boo ...

, who is currently on leave as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Alumni

The Chicago Booth Alumni has a community of over 49,000 members and is supported by 60+ alumni clubs worldwide. Alumni include

Jon Corzine Jon Stevens Corzine ( ; born January 1, 1947) is an American financial executive and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from New Jersey from 2001 to 2006, and the 54th governor of New Jersey from 2006 to 2010. Corzine ran f ...

, Peter G. Peterson, Philip J. Purcell,

Todd Young Todd Christopher Young (born August 24, 1972) is an American politician, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran serving as the senior United States senator from Indiana, a seat he has held since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Young previou ...

Howard Marks Dennis Howard Marks (13 August 1945 – 10 April 2016) was a Welsh drug smuggler and author who achieved notoriety as an international Cannabis (drug), cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases. At his peak he claimed to have been sm ...

, Megan McArdle, John Meriwether, and

Publications

Chicago Booth currently publishes three academic journals: *'' Journal of Accounting Research'' *''

Journal of Law and Economics ''The Journal of Law and Economics'' is an academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. It publishes articles on the economic analysis of regulation and the behavior of regulated firms, the political economy of legislation and leg ...

'' *''

Journal of Political Economy The ''Journal of Political Economy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. Established by James Laurence Laughlin in 1892, it covers both theoretical and empirical economics. In the past, the ...

'' (with the Department of Economics)

''Chicago Booth Review''

''Chicago Booth Review'' is a magazine devoted to business research, particularly research conducted by Chicago Booth's own faculty. In addition to covering new findings in finance, behavioral science, economics, entrepreneurship, accounting, marketing, and other business-relevant subjects, the magazine features essays from Chicago Booth faculty and other academics. It is published quarterly in print and several times a week online. ''Chicago Booth Review'' is the most recent of several successive vehicles Chicago Booth has used to convey its intellectual capital to an outside audience. Starting in the 1960s, the school published the Selected Papers series, a collection of articles written by faculty members or excerpted from faculty speeches. In 1997, Booth launched ''Capital Ideas'' () as a separate newsletter featuring articles about faculty research. That subsequently evolved into a quarterly magazine, which in 2016 relaunched as ''Chicago Booth Review''.

References

External links

*
Guide to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Records 1935-1976
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago Booth School of Business, University of

University of Chicago Booth School of Business The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (branded as Chicago Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest ...

Booth School of Business Rafael Viñoly buildings Universities and colleges established in 1898 Booth 1898 establishments in Illinois M7 business schools