As an incoming “Boothie”, we have the opportunity to go on a Random Walk trip.
Random Walks was founded in 2001 with the goal of giving Chicago Booth students an opportunity to meet and bond with future classmates before the rigors of the MBA program begin. Through the collaborative efforts of Booth students, administration, and their travel partners at WorldStrides ISA Custom Programs, Random Walks has grown into the most successful pre-MBA travel program in the United States.
To be quite frank – these trips come with pretty hefty price tags, but according to the students that did not attend a random walk – they all deem it as their biggest regret. So, instead of traveling all summer, I saved my money to go on a Random Walk trip.
Each walk consists of 4 current students and 10-15 incoming students on average. These trips are legitimately all over the world. Here’s the list this year:
• Argentina
• Austria & Hungary
• Belize
• Brazil
• Chile
• China
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Ecuador
• Estonia & Latvia • Greece
• Guatemala
• Iceland
• India
• Indonesia & Taiwan
• Italy
• Japan Couples
• Malaysia & Singapore
• Morocco
• Mystery
• National Parks (USA) • New Zealand
• Panama Couples
• Peru
• Slovenia
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• Thailand
• UAE
• Vietnam
So yes, basically the entire world.
I originally made my top 5 list, and was really excited about the idea of going to South Africa, or to my originally planned summer destination – Thailand. But then I realized that I haven’t had the pleasure of exploring much of the world yet, so it didn’t really matter where I traveled to next. So, I took a chance and chose the unicorn Mystery Trip.
Everyone Keeps Asking Me
Well when do you find out where you’re going?! How do you know what to pack?
Here’s how this works:
- Our mystery location will be revealed once our entire crew arrives at the airport this Saturday.
- We know that we are traveling to two countries, and that they will not be any of the countries on the list above.
- We have received an overview, a few specifics and packing list. Here are the highlights:
- sneakers. Real sturdy sneakers for some type of athletic activity
- water-shoes (or sneakers you don’t mind getting wet)
- bathing suit
- jeans that can get dirty
I’ve done some serious investigative research and think I’ve narrowed it down to a few solid choices, which I’ll share on Saturday.
Where do you think I’m headed? We know the two countries are far, and are located somewhere on the other side of the world. This spider graph and this beautiful map above that I made of all the places that students are currently traveling to, are all that we have as guides.
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