Moved to an appropriate forum.

id vote for ross... michigan does have the largest alumni base in the world

we need pelihu in here
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I guess I have a unique perspective. I'm currently at Darden, of course. While I was at law school at Michigan, I took an entrepreneurship course at Michigan business school that served as the basis for the business that I launched and ran for about 4.5 years. I wouldn't say that I know the MBA experience at Michigan, but I do have some knowledge about it.

From a recruiting standpoint, I think Michigan has the edge in terms of consulting and general management recruiting, but Darden holds the edge in finance. Darden does have a very rigorous program, and sometimes I envy the folks at Michigan, which I believe has one of the more relaxed programs around; but the rigor of the Darden program does seem to generate respect among recruiters. After going through the early part of recruiting, my opinion on this subject is that if a given person is at either of these schools, their recruiting success will extremely similar; it will be more up to the individual than the school. If you're a star, recruiting will be a breeze at either place; if you are a laggard (for whatever reason), one school will not have meaningful advantages over the other.

Both schools have collaborative student bodies, but Darden has a well-deserved reputation for having among the most tightly knit student and alumni groups. Both schools have great extracurricular programs. The Wolverine Venture fund is among the best of its type for VC activities, and Darden Capital Management is among the best for portfolio management / hedge fund activities.

Darden definitely has the edge right now with facilities. The physical building is awesome, and combined with the country-club like surroundings, it's tough to beat. I think Michigan is scheduled to complete their new facility next year, and when it's ready it will surely be one of the very nicest. Virginia has better weather, and let's be frank the metro areas near Ann Arbor (Detroit, Dearborn, etc.) are very bad and getting worse. Michigan has a huge advantage (to me at least) of Wolverine home football games. Michigan has better access to a fairly major airport in Detroit (about 45 min. away). Charlottesville has an airport, but it's small and Dulles is about 1:45 by car.

If I had to make the decision, it would probably come down to many of the factors that people have already mentioned. Weather, extracurricular activities, which metro area I'd rather be near, which students I'm personally more comfortable with, and which teaching and learning style suits me best.

Just a note, Darden had a slip in the rankings about 3-4 years ago when they expanded their class size just as MBA apps hit a low point - the result was poor yield and lower scores; I think something similar happened at Duke at around the same time. From a score and yield perspective, they have largely recovered and have averages on par with other elite schools this past year. I think Michigan is a great schools and deserves its popularity. I believe both schools are solidly elite schools for the foreseeable future (other than Yale they have the biggest endowments of any of the elites).

28 years is avg age
about 28% international

http://www.bus.umich.edu/RecruiterInfor ... ba2009.htm

Just wanted to say that I think it's great that everyone can have a discussion on this without resorting to denigrating a particular school. It really shows the high maturity level on this forum.

From the research I have conducted, I didn't see much of a link between Ross and Detroit. Their placement reports indicate large amounts in Chicago (and surprisingly SF). Maybe current students can provide more anecdotal advice though.

Thanks a lot for such a good post. I m considering both schools this yr...and this was really helpful...
iAqua4