Darden

I actually had a pretty good impression of Darden's alumni base in San Francisco. They were able to get 20 alums to show up to their reception for about 40 perspective students. They ranged from recent graduates to people who had been out for quite a few years and they seemed to be fairly enthusiastic about their experience with Darden.

Contrast this with UCLA's highly disappointing reception where they were only able to get 4(!) alums to show up for a reception in SF for 80+ people. You definitely didn't get the feeling that the alumni association was strong in this area - and I would imagine that San Francisco has the 1st or 2nd highest concentrations of Anderson grads anywhere in the world. It's a good thing that I know the school and I don't need to base my opinion on their pathetic showing.

This message prompted me to get a better understanding of just how remote Charlottesville is. It really doesn't bother me how far it is from the next big city. It does concern me whether a school has access to flights to destinations that are important to me.

What I found is that there are no direct flights between Charlottesville and any of the San Francisco area airports (same with Cornell, Tuck & Duke). It seems that Charlottesville has the fewest number of flights with 1 stop as well.

Chicago seemed to be the best served (no surprise) and cheapest of any of the destinations I'm considering. New York also has a lot of direct flights and reasonable pricing. Philadelphia has good prices, but fewer direct flights. Detroit is also well served, especially from Oakland (my airport of choice).

So, I'm starting to think that Cornell might be a better choice as a school in this range (not as selective as others in the elite cluster) than Darden. How cold could it possibly get in Ithaca? I'm definitely applying to Duke though - there's a lot less chance of snow there than any of the elite schools outside of California.

It is funny how I began to consider all environmental/surrounding issues around the school. Af first, the only thing that I considered was the quality of the program itself.

Then, the reality hit me really hard! I have a 3yrs old kid and a wife who is not active in finding new friends.

After serious discussion with my wife, I realized that any place that is too cold will not serve us well. I would love to go to Haas, but the cost of living will kill us. Therefore, my list is getting smaller and smaller as time goes by.

Duke sounds like a perfect place for me, too. Cornell gets really cold. Since I supported many of key customers in Update NY, I know the area really well.

Here is my list (I reckon that I need to remove 1 or 2 from the list)
Wharton - Perfect!
MIT - too cold
Michigan - too cold, they killed us for 8yrs in a row. So why not join 'em?
Cornell - too cold, but I need a backup school
Duke - Perfect!
Virginia - Boot camp scares me, but it will be all right
Yale - Interested in Non-profit.

Whats wrnog with Kellogg or Chicago? Too cold?

Those schools are AWESOME.
I just don't think they want me. haha
In fact, Wharton and MIT are bit stretch for me.
Obviously, it is not practical for me to put 4 ultra elites on my list.
Who knows? I might replace MIT with Chicago or NW.

Pelihu,

I should have elaborated a bit on what I meant by remote. The reason I mentioned the distance to DC is that Dulles is the nearest major airport (Jet Blue has frequent flights to OAK). I would much rather drive the 2 hours to IAD and fly direct for a few hundred bucks than spending 10 hours flying out of CHO for several times as much.

Darden's remoteness is one of the biggest things I like about it. Personally, I would hate to go to school in a big city.

There is nothing wrong with remoteness per se. However, some students need more convenient contact with the prospective employers.

I think in the end it's such a personal decision.

I'm getting married next year and my first year of marriage is already going to be a major adjustment with graduate school and possibly a new city where my wife would have to come without a job (and I cant say the opportunities in Charlottesville are bountiful).. Throwing in an 80 hour work week just makes things even worse, especially if hte city is small and there's little for her to do on her own.

I'm also a big proponent of "its not what you know, its who you know". For me, honestly, business school is 40% what I learn and 60% networking. Being somewhere where extracurricular activities would be huge burden on top of the courseload just doesn't lend itself to the kind of relationships I want to cultivate. Arguably, the 80 hour week forces me to make those relationships with those in my study group, but I can do that with a 50 hour week and time left over to make other relationships through other activities.

I have heard from one of my recommenders who attended Chicago GSB that the networking aspect is very highly overrated.

Go figure I heard from my recommenders also GSB grads it was huge ...

I guess that just goes to show you how everyone has a different opinion of the experience. My contact said he went hoping to meet people to network with and found most of them just trying to get contacts out of him. Of course everybody will have something different to share, just like the people who spoke to you about Darden had different things to say then the people I have met there. At the end of the day you need to make your own mind up through the experiences you have on your visits and through research.