Hi all,
Long story, feel free to skip down to tl;dr if you're just voting in the poll and I'll assume it is based on brand recognition.
I think I have already made up my mind on this one but thought I'd kick it out to get a little more feedback.
Pre-MBA Industry: Non-"hot" tech (think ERP, Telecommunications, personal computer manufacturing etc)
Pre-MBA Function: Finance/Strategy
Post MBA I'm tossing up between two directions:
Option 1: Bleeding edge tech
Post-MBA Industry: More interesting tech such as R&D related environments think: Cyber-security, AI, Nanotechnology
Post-MBA Function: Same as Pre-MBA but maybe with a little more product design & marketing feedback.
Ideal company: Palantir/GoogleX
Option 2: General Management responsibility
Post-MBA industry: Will take pretty much anything, but would probably lean towards tech where I can have an informed opinion
Post-MBA Function: Management responsibility, success would be measured by # of staff (entirely OK with front line staff management) and size of P&L directly under my control.
Ideal Company: GE
Lastly location; I don't have any preference as long as people speak English. I've lived on both the west coast of USA as well as in London for a couple of years a piece, I do have a small preference for USA in terms of a place to study in for the next couple of years, but overall I could easily do either.
OK now for the schools
Haas
--------
+ Casual culture, less interested in where you (used to) live/what you dress like and more interested in what you're doing.
+ Tech environment, lots of opportunity to take advantage of SV as well as Berkeley engineering schools/programs.
+ Experiential learning; opportunity to do 1-3 hands on courses to launch a company or product, or to do real world consulting.
- electives are heavily tech focused
- recruitment is weak in non-tech related areas e.g. finance (i.e. non-tech IB), CPG, media, manufacturing etc.
- heavy bay area alumni focus, non-transferable network if I want to leave the US west coast.
- Berkeley is a strong name, without a doubt. Haas though not as much I feel.
- Classmates are heavily US centric. Much less intl work experience.
+/- a building in the middle of the overall campus => interactions with other schools, but also competing for services with undergrads.
+/- smaller overall size 240 @Haas vs 400
LBS. Might know a greater percentage on a closer level, but less chance of meeting people who I'll really connect with (just assuming that a larger school gives you greater options to find someone/some people you really get along with)
LBS
----------
+ Study group locked in the for the first year. Speaking to a few current and recent students, it gives you circa 30% chance of making 6 best friends for life with another 50% that you'll just be good friends.
+ Great conferences, AfricaConference, TEDxLBS, Global Leaders Summit
+ Strong recruiting environment, but primarily for intl channel/marketing roles i.e. roles that local customer knowledge is the key priority. If you were growing your non-North American office LBS would definitely be a recruiting spot
+ Strong intl Network after MBA and during it views of people from across the world.
- Alcohol reliant social culture (not 100% true but at least more so than Haas)
- Region based social structure e.g. LatAm folk hang out with spanish speakers and Europeans tend to hang out with Europeans.
- Noticeable GMAT difference 690 vs 720 some indication that admits are slightly less capable. Arguably offset that most don't have English as a mother-tongue. However, if you accept that justification you have to accept you'll need to wade through poorer communications to hear the good ideas your classmates have.
+/- in central london, lots more to do than Berkeley, but separated from the larger university.
A point on brand: Say you wanted to go work in Japan; from people I've spoken to it seems that LBS and Haas are neck and neck and that generally in terms of intl ranking LBS would just beat out Haas given the greater variety of career opportunities LBS provides compared to Haas in areas like Asset Management, PE, Luxury retail, and I've heard it argued a small advantage in MBB consulting (assuming again a location neutral recruitment like Japan ). Any views on this?
Final point regarding cost. I'll be paying full sticker in either option and as far as I can tell it looks like they are pretty much equal.
$105k USD for Haas vs $101k USD for LBS in terms of tuition and around a
10% cost of living difference, which I can probably get close to parity being over at Berkeley (using CPI exl Rent shows SF to be 6% cheaper). Any new/different info in this area is greatly appreciated.
tl;dr In short, I feel like the choice boils down to:
Option 1 is heavily biased towards Haas, and option 2 is materially biased towards LBS.
Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated especially, if you can provide the context/source around your thinking.
thanks!!