Chicago Booth’s Martinelli on Extracurriculars

Thursday’s posting on The Rose Report blog offers advice regarding extracurricular activities from Rose Martinelli, associate dean for student recruitment and admissions at Chicago Booth School of Business.

Booth is looking for a history of involvement, writes Martinelli, not just a simple rundown of activities. “This is a chance for you to move beyond a simple list to helping us understand your contributions, leadership, time commitment and motivations for getting involved,” she explains.

Involvement in community service varies culturally, so the Admissions Committee is really looking to see more of you as a person–what you do when you’re not working, the interests and passions you have that make you unique.

In perhaps the most comforting tidbit from this post, Martinelli says, “If you think this area may be a bit light for you, don’t worry.  As I said earlier, this is just one of MANY components of the application and we take each person’s unique circumstances into consideration in our evaluation.”

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