Kellogg ($$) vs. Booth (no $)

Thank you both for your comments. They are helpful, but making the decision more difficult

bb, just to clarify, the Kellogg scholarship is $70K, not $150K. Still a lot of course!

Thank you - i see it now in the second line. It changes things a bit but not sure that much.
On the flip side, I can tell you that as a potential home buyer in Seattle, $70K is a drop in a bucket when it gets to buying a home (biggest investment of our lives). It is about the starting price of a Tesla (the cheap model) and while it may be somewhat of an impulsive decision to scratch off $70k, but in the grand scheme of things, over the next 40 years of your career, I doubt it will make a huge change, mostly because none of us are disciplined enough to save it and stash away through retirement.

It's completely insane to take Booth over Kellogg, if Kellogg is giving you a half scholarship (I'm biased of course since I LOVE Kellogg...but I'd give similar advice to anyone choosing between any 2 of Kellogg/Booth/Columbia/MIT). Recruiters in general view Booth and Kellogg as exactly the same. Apple and Nike took over a dozen Kellogg students each last year, many more than Booth. There's plenty of academically focused students at Kellogg....There's a reason we get so many MBB offers. People at Kellogg are just able to do well in school AND be fun/social (You'll notice our GMAT is pretty much exactly the same as Booth's). Being socially awkward doesn't make you more academic or intelligent. You shouldn't be adverse to fun also..I've had a great life prior to business school, but the amount of fun I've had in the last two years has vastly exceeded my expectations. The friends I've made here and experiences I've had have been beyond amazing.

First of all congrats on having two fantastic options to choose from. I wanted to chime in and say that from my experience, people at Booth are definitely not awkward/anti-social and the culture is very close knit. While we don't live on campus, 65%+ of us live in a five block radius in the loop with the majority of us living in one building (MPP). You don't really get to experience this part of Booth life while at First Day but living in MPP is like living in a dorm and the great majority of people who opt to live in MPP are very outgoing and social. If this is something you desire in your MBA experience, I'd recommend living there and you will have no shortage of people to hang out with. Are all 600 students at Booth like this? Of course not, but every single student at any school isn't going to be super social or outgoing. On the whole, I've found my Booth classmates to be incredibly impressive, diverse, humble, and well rounded.

On the school leadership/administration, I can tell you from my interactions that the administration (especially Deans Kumar and Kole) have a ton of excitement and love for the school and put in a ton of work to continually improve Booth and the experience of the students. While rankings only mean so much, the fact that the school has risen up to #2 on this years US News ranking is a huge testament to the fact that the hard work put in by the administration is being recognized by the stronger applicant pools as well as the broader business community. I've also found that the Booth alumni I've reached out have been incredibly supportive and I have had a 100% hit rate so I wouldn't worry about that being a weakness of the Booth experience at all. On the tuition point, you will end up paying for 20 courses (+LEAD which you don't pay for), but can take up to 23 or 24 for no extra charge (I would reach out to admissions to verify the exact number). The only difference is that you pay more in the semesters you take 4 vs 3 courses but after paying for the 20, you can take up to the maximum at no additional charge.

I would also encourage you (if you haven't already) to look through Booth and Kellogg's career reports to see an accurate report of where students ended up. Apple hired 8 Booth students and 6 Kellogg students based on the most recent career reports so I'm not entirely sure where the previous poster got his information from.

While money is certainly a factor that shouldn't be ignored, I think given that you are sponsored and you're in the fortunate position of having a good amount of savings, it makes sense to go with your gut here and choose based on fit. You can only get your MBA once and I personally don't think choosing a school solely because of a lower cost is the best way to go, especially when your post makes it seem likely that you will return to consulting for 2 years post MBA.

Either way, you can't make a wrong decision here but I wanted to share a bit of my perspective. Best of luck and feel free to pm me with any questions.

I'm basing my number on the class of 2016, which isn't reported yet. You can go to the internship part of our employment report to get a good estimate (although Apple did a ton of full time hires too).
Not everyone at Booth is anti-social but their is a definitive culture difference. We have battle of the bands in Chicago, and Booth has 1/4 the attendance we have, for example. Same for the basketball game versus the two schools.

If your gut is telling you Booth, I say go with your gut. See if you can leverage your Kellogg $$ with Booth to see if they'll give you a matching offer (or close to it).

And to echo bb, congrats on your solid post formatting. I should give you kudos just for that.

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to say I really appreciate the time you all spent to think about my situation and respond to it. The different perspectives were definitely helpful with the decision.

And the decision... though it was incredibly difficult (and nerve wracking) to turn down the scholarship at Kellogg, I ultimately felt that Booth was a better fit for me (e.g., I was more excited when I thought about matriculating at Booth versus Kellogg). Again, thank you for the help!

Wow. That was a tough decision - thank you for coming back posting the final resolution. Congratulations on your choice and best wishes for the next stage of your MBA journey.

BB


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