Intern
Joined: 05 Dec 2009
Posts: 38
Given Kudos: 16
Concentration: Job Acquirement
Schools:Duke Class of 2012
Re: Calling all UNC Kenan-Flagler 2010 applicants
[#permalink]
31 Jan 2010, 19:19
I think it matters also what type of $$ they're giving you. A few points:
-if the dollars are part of a fellowship of some sort (Falls?, premier?) then that's a huge step up when speaking with recruiters. You'd get your name in some fancy fellows-only resume book and alums would take notice of that.
-even if the dollars aren't attached to some fellowship, it still speaks highly of you to future employers that UNC would give you that type of cash
-Grad school, and Duke in particular, are not cheap. Your ROI from UNC will be much higher initially, considering your costs will be incidental compared to tuition at Duke. You must obviously weigh this against the expected higher income from a Duke MBA (otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation), but I don't believe the differential would be high enough to justify choosing Duke - the qualitative difference is not the same as UNC with $$$ and say, H/S/W.
-with the $$ you'll be saving, you can take part in a ton more extras, like every int'l trip, career trek, etc.
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Other things to consider: if you've visited the Duke campus, you know that the school's facilities are brand new and fantastic. That said, do you remember which bar(s) or night scene everyone goes to? Yeah, me neither. They're pretty much out in the middle of the woods and Fuqua Friday's is pretty much the consolidated night scene. KFBS, on the other hand, has free buses to Franklin Street and Chapel Hill's great nightlife.
Durham, though, does have Durham Bulls ball park, Ninth street, and is a lot closer to Raleigh's nightlife.
Seriously, you're not going to go wrong either way. But I do encourage what BB said: spend some time at both schools during admit weekend (they're not the same weekend, right?) and get as much a sense as you can about the culture of both places. What place just feels right to you?
Congrats on having to make this decision - let us know how it turns out.