You may be surprised to know that Chicago is making inroads into an area that its crosstown rival dominates: marketing. Through the James M. Kilts Center —named for the Chicago Booth alumnus who was formerly CEO of Gillette and Nabisco — Chicago Booth offers students 17 marketing classes (compared with 26 finance classes). In particular, Chicago Booth is growing its experiential opportunities in the marketing field, with students taking part in marketing management labs (semester long consulting projects) recently at Abbott, Barclays and Honeywell. Further, professors in the department saw opportunities for increased practical involvement and created “hybrid” classes in “Marketing Research” and “Consumer Behavior” that involve a lecture component but also allow students to work on shorter-term consulting projects. Students can sign-up for an alumni marketing mentor, take “day-at” visits to major marketing firms and more. While Kellogg’s reputation for excellence in marketing is firmly intact, we have to assume that the folks in Evanston are occasionally glancing over the shoulders to see if Chicago is gaining any more ground.
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