woomba wrote:
How committed are you to pursuing luxury goods retailers and are you OK with not working in NYC if you go into CPG/MC?
If you want to pursue it and/or deadset on staying in NYC, Stern is the obvious choice.
If you've made up your mind that you will most likely take the CPG/MC route, both Booth and Ross will serve you equally well, and its up to you to decide if you would rather take the higher rankings or the money...I personally don't think the career opportunities would be all that different between the two schools for the areas that you want to focus on, but I'm sure some will disagree with me.
Generally speaking though, I would say that the more geographically flexible you are the more Booth/Ross comes into play...the vast majority of NYU grads stay in the New England area and this impacts the offices/roles that on-campus recruiters will show up for.
thanks for your thoughts, woomba. you're right, if i do cpg/mc then booth/ross are the better route. so i guess the question is whether i go directly into luxury retail or take an alternative path before transitioning...and that's really what the issue is. admittedly, i don't know all that much about cpg or consulting, but i know the skills are really transferable. however, while i know it can be done...i'm not sure how easily. and i think i'd have to be at the top firms/companies (p&g, mbb). my impression for consulting is that it's a really good way to break into just about anything...i've done some asking around and at most places you start as a generalist and may not have much control over what projects you want, so how can i guarantee that i work on any retail projects in order to make the move? and i'm guessing the offices that are in fashion capitals (nyc, paris, la, etc.) would be likely to have more retail clients/projects...but those are also the most competitive ones to get hired into.
i'm very flexible about geography and which route i go and while i won't say i'm dead set on luxury, it's definitely my career goal for now. i think a lot of people change their minds in bschool and that's something that worries me as well. i don't need to be in nyc, but considering that's where most of the fashion/luxury companies are, that's likely where i'll end up once i'm in the industry.
since the industry is a nontraditional mba career path and they generally don't hire that many mba's, they don't really come to campus to recruit. i can forget it at ross, barely have a chance at booth i think, but considering where stern's located, it's significantly better in that regards compared to any other school.
for cpg, i'd be targeting p&g and l'oreal because they both have luxury/prestige divisions and have beauty brands which i think ties in well (vs. snacks, detergent, etc.). ross/booth would be good for p&g, but stern/ross for l'oreal. and while mbb recruits about twice as much at booth, than both ross and stern...i think i still have a chance to do either at stern. stern has a good presence at l'oreal and i think has similar mbb stats compared to ross (hard to say since stern isn't very transparent in their employment reports). plus i think if i really do transition later, there will be many more people in my network who are already in the industry because of the location/specialization/interest. and because it doesn't recruit traditionally, they don't really start looking until spring so i could potentially search for that and cpg/mc.
in the long run, i feel like the money will be about the same...if i go to stern, i'll be saving $100k on tuition, but i'll be working in a lower paid role in a super expensive city. if i go to ross/booth, i'll be doing cpg/mc and making more money and probably somewhere in the midwest with a considerably lower cost of living.
sorry for my long posts...and thank you all for your help!