Anderson ($$$) vs Ross

MBAschooled –
Thank you very much for your input. I think you highlighted a great point, which is that I CAN and I believe I WILL have an excellent experience at Anderson. Brentwood is a great area and it does seem like there is great camaraderie amongst the students. Knowing this, I am currently leaning towards Anderson at the moment. It’s just my gambler’s mentality of “what if?” with Ross that is causing me to hesitate at the moment.

Angelfire –
To answer your questions:
I have visited both campuses and I think they are both beautiful. I like Ross because it feels more collegiate and has a world-class b-school facility; however, I do like that Anderson doesn’t have undergraduates at the actual business school, and that the facilities are dedicated to MBA students.

I do feel more at home with Ross just because I have visited many times, and each time was with friends who went to Michigan for undergrad. I always went during the perfect time during the early fall for really fun tailgates/football games, but I think I am maybe not really mentally wrapping my mind around how cold it will be in the winter (especially for an Arizona native!).

In contrast, I have only been to UCLA on my own for my interview and an admissions event, and never really had any UCLA students or alums to really show me a good time. I also tried to see lots of other parts of LA during my visits, which was miserable because it required a ton of driving around in the god-awful traffic. My hope is that if I go to Anderson, I will not have to deal with moving around so much in condensed areas because I will be living in Brentwood and staying close to campus and the surrounding areas for the most part. I think I will also come to appreciate all the things that LA has readily available to offer.

The last thing I would say is that Anderson’s events definitely aren’t as polished and refined as Ross’, but I do believe the actual strength of the underlying programs are comparable. That’s why, despite my emotional attachment to Ross, I see going there and forfeiting $60k as a bit of an “irrational” decision.

Final piece of info here: I plan to finance my MBA almost entirely from student loans. That means basically $140-150k for Ross vs. $80-90k for Anderson. Assuming a payback period of 10 years and a conservative interest rate assumption of 6.8%, my monthly payments for the next 10 years will be as follows:

Ross: ~$1,600-$1,700/month
Anderson: ~$900/month

Although I know $60k doesn’t sound like too much in the grand scheme of things, it is actual hard to imagine foregoing all that extra $$ in monthly installments for a DECADE following b-school.

Bottom line: I know I am in a good situation and that there is no “wrong” decision. But I am an analytical/rational decision maker and I want to make sure I gather as many facts and relevant data points before making my ultimate decision. If anybody else has any thoughts or input, please let me know!

Thanks so much again guys. I appreciate the guidance.

This is a touch decision because they're peer schools that will offer nearly identical opportunities. If no money was involved, I would absolutely give this to Ross hands down due to your strong preference. Turning down 75%+ of tuition at Anderson just seems like a bad idea given they're peer schools. The main question should be what do you want to do post-mba more? Consulting or tech? Also, where do you want to live? I would try narrowing that down because your preferences are way too broad to make this decision easier. You listed about 3/4 of the entire country as market possibilities. Ross will give you the broader network since Andersons' is more consolidated in CA, not to say Anderson students can't leave California/west coast, I just don't think they want to. Something else to note is Ross seems more like a national school while Anderson seems more like a regional school (from placements). Given all of the reasons above/below, I would pick Anderson due to the amount they're giving. The same opportunities are there; it just seems the students haven't taken advantage of it due to their own preferences.


Placement in tech: wash (Anderson may place more, but I'm giving that due to its proximity to SF/given preference)
Placement in consulting: Ross (Like Anderson in tech, I think this is just a given preference of Ross students)
Placement into San Francisco/Seattle: surprisingly a wash (Ross places very well on the west coast)
Placement into Chicago: Ross
Placement into Texas: Michigan (barely)
ROI: Anderson
Location: I haven't visited Ann Arbor yet, but when I visited Anderson, I mainly stayed around the Brentwood area. Traffic sucked.

I voted for UCLA.

Now to more details:
-You lean towards Ross due to your recollection of memories, friends, and other feelings. Believe me you will have such good memories at both schools. This is psychology, man, nothing else.
-Money does metter. You have done your calculations and have seen that Ross is almost double more expensive, should you pay for a DECADE more ? I would not.
- Rankings almost equal.
- Long term high tech beats consulting. Just give me few name of super rich high tech enterpreneurs and consultants. You have got the idea.
- You will not regret it. Simply because if you choose A route you will never ever know what would be if you were to choose B route.

hope this helps!

Hey guys,

Thank you for all of your input. After some more soul searching and what seems like endless conversations with friends, family, and alumni at both schools, I have decided to enroll in UCLA Anderson for Fall 2015. I felt that despite my emotional inclination towards Ross, the offer from Anderson could not be beat as I will ultimately find all of the opportunities I am looking for there and more. I truly believe that my next 2 years at Anderson will be overwhelmingly positive and life changing, and I can't wait to get started.

For any other Anderson admits reading this, send me a message so we can link up before the fall semester begins!

Thanks so much again everybody. And GO BRUINS!!!

I was gonna vote for UCLA but I see you have already picked it. I think its the best decision and you'll definitely don't regret it as brand and/or job opportunities wise there isn't much of a difference between these two schools. So ya best of luck buddy.

BTW an off topic question. I was reading one of your older posts, did you apply with 690 or you improved your score?

Thanks!

BrainFog - Thank you very much. I applied with my newer score of 720, which I feel like contributed heavily to UCLA making me their generous scholarship offer.

Its 2016 now, and the class of 2018 has wrestled with similar dilemmas. I was eager to solicit opinions for my case on gmatclub, but eventually ended up finding mostly enough data points from students/alumni. I'm sharing my comparison here, hopefully I'll get to know if I'm awfully wrong on something or atleast this would help other peers/juniors. If I realize there is hardly any visibility for this here, I'll probably create a thread.

1 such recent comparison:
fuqua-vs-ross-vs-anderson-210481.html

Profile:
coming from hi-tech, my goal for MBA is to learn business skills which will help me when scaling my future venture. I intend to join tech Product Management (PM) right out of MBA, and come back to India in <5 years to start my tech venture.

I've split comparison table into pics

1 UCLA v/s Ross

2 UCLA v/s Ross

3 UCLA v/s Ross

4 UCLA v/s Ross

Really tough decision here! Both options are honestly great, I would say however that the money feels to me as too great pass up given the relative similarities of the programs. So I'm going with UCLA here!