Intern
Joined: 16 Apr 2015
Posts: 46
Given Kudos: 12
Concentration: Strategy, General Management
GMAT 1: 730 Q48 V41
Cornell Vs Duke
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16 Mar 2016, 06:21
Hey everyone - I was recently admitted to both Fuqua and Johnson and could use some help/insight into the two programs.
Career Interest: Consulting/General Managment Rotation
Personal Interest: Sustainable Business/Social Enterprise/Sustainability
Location Preference(in no particular order): D.C., Boston, Chicago, Bay Area, Seattle. Open to NYC, less so to South East/Texas.
Desired Culture: Collaborative, immersive, supportive, etc.
Duke Pros:
- Excellent placement among top tier for consulting
- Great team culture
- Marginally stronger brand (although this stuff can fluctuate among this tier pretty quickly)
- Breadth of recruiters
- Placement Locations - Duke seems to place pretty equally across different regions of the US and internationally.
- 40% international student body
- Airport 15min away - the Durham airport is a huge asset, both in having recruiters come to campus and ease of travel to interview, go on treks, and so on...
Duke Cons:
- No sustainable business focus (with the exception of the energy one)
- Not driving distance from family
- Facilities - I wasn't blown away by these and didn't like how it felt removed from the rest of the university, even if it is a 10min walk.
- Southeast placement - there have been comments that a lot of the MBB placement's have been at offices in cities like Atlanta or Houston.
Cornell Pros:
- Their SGE program has a great reputation and the head is very respected
- Immersion learning - I really like this, especially with the opportunity to do the SGE immersion
- Location: I loved Ithaca, driving distance from family, amazing campus, very much a college town.
- Experience: feel this would provide more of the immersive, almost undergrad type of experience I want.
- Alumni - Great alumni base, student's have been very responsive
- Although known as a Finance school, it still places well at top consulting firms (especially when you take into account the smaller percentage of the class working towards that career)
- Ivy Brand - not a game changer for me, feel like this is more of an undergrad thing personally, but it's a plus. Maybe someone can comment to the pro of this?
Cornell Cons:
- Weather - NC vs NY
- Breadth of Recruiters/on campus recruiting - I think location and size of the school hurts this.
- Less of a team focus, I think the small class size makes up for this, but I like the cohort and Clead team set up at Duke.
- LOTS of change going on: Focus on Cornell Tech, College of Business, new Cornell Dean soon, turnover within the admin at Johnson, etc. I definitely think the CCB and Cornell Tech will be a huge asset in the future, but there are always growing pains...
- Placement: I would gladly come back to New England, but NYC is less of a draw for me. Cornell places heavily there. I would consider it in the short term.
- Library - wasn't impressed with this. It was very small, but the university has some awesome ones - so maybe that makes up for it.
Other thoughts:
- Most recent rankings have Duke ahead of Cornell and it seems the general consensus is that Duke is marginally more respected. Is there truth to this among employers?
- One of the things I struggle with is weather Cornell's SGE immersion is strong enough to trump Duke's consulting placement, and visa versa.
- Tuck was my top school originally, absolutely loved it and I think Cornell is the next best thing for that type of experience.
- It feels like Duke has more of the recruiting/job placement that I want and Cornell has the experience. I truly think I would enjoy both programs. They fit the experience I want, but just in different ways.
Lots of information, but definitely interested in hearing people's thoughts/opinions. Are Cornell and Duke peer schools or is Duke a tier above Cornell? Would I be naive to pass up the opportunity to go to Duke?
Thanks!!