Arizona State University vs. Thunderbird

Question

Which is the better school? I live in the Phoenix area and Thunderbird is regarded by locals as the more prestigious school. However, the full-time program at Arizona State University is much more selective in terms of GMAT, GPA, etc. Any thoughts???

javaexe · Answer

Hi
I live in phoenix too and am a MS graduate from ASU. This is from what I have heard from others mostly and might not be totally true.

Thunderbird is real good for International Business Management program. ASU is known for its Supply Chain management. Other programs are decent in ASU. So depending on what you want to do you may want to decide.

Shiva

kaiser · Answer

Thanks for the info Shiva. I know the job market is really bad in Phoenix at the moment. However, do you know what area/s would be good to go into if I would like to stay in the Phoenix area upon graduation? One would imagine that ASU caters more to the local job market than Thunderbird, however, I can't be sure. I also don't know the right people to ask. Is Supply Chain Management in high demand in the Phoenix area or does ASU just happen to have a strong program in that specialty? Also, do you have any recommendations for local internships?

javaexe · Answer

Yes the job market right now is bad all over the country and Phoenix likes to be one of the top on such things. I am actually an IT major and have been in that field only. So I am not sure which one will give you better options. As you mentioned I too am imagining that ASU caters more to the local job market than Thunderbird. Given that you are from Phoenix area, you might want to visit ASU and talk to some of the current students. I did that with the schools I am applying to and it did gave me additional insight on the college. Not sure of local internships too ... Sorry couldnt be of much help here.

Ralphcuisak · Answer

Hi,

W.P Carey is a program I have researched a lot and can talk about at length. It is great for supply chain definitely and some local phoenix firms do take up people for internships and if you are a local(not an international student), it shouldn't be a problem. Another update is that W.P Carey has tied up with Thunderbird for recruitment activities so if you have an interest in Supply chain and lots of other courses that are good at Carey, Carey should be a better choice as you have access to Thunderbird recruiters too now. Also, I am not too sure about Thunderbird but Carey is definitely a top 30 school on the rise so that would definitely help in everything.

Kudos if this helps

kaiser · Answer

Thanks for the "blast from the past"! I did end up choosing ASU over Thunderbird and even had the opportunity to work on an eye-opening project for Thunderbird's career services office...yes, that's correct, they asked for a group of outside students from ASU to do an analysis of the marketing/branding issues being experienced by Tbird's career services office. It was priceless when they ushered us in a conference room, gently pushed the door shut and began to describe the problems created by not being selective in admissions and accepting anyone with a warm pulse and the ability to pay full price tuition. For this project we even conducted some focus groups and heard about recruiters being shielded from the masses and provided with only a handful of superstars to choose from, while the majority of the study body (especially the international students) experienced severe difficulties in finding an internship and/or job post graduation. T'bird clearly does a pretty good job with the external branding of its renowned international business program (despite the fact that pretty much all business done these days could be considered international). One Indian student eloquently summed up his buyer's remorse after choosing T'bird by stating "I thought I was buying a Ferrari when all I got was a Ford Focus".

In any case, I will say that the supply chain program at ASU is the only B school program in the Phoenix metro area that will shoot you to the stars even if you're the worst in your class and despite the fact that the subject matter is fairly fluffy IMO. I ended up choosing the more rigorous finance program at ASU, which although rewarding intellectually, did not shoot me off to New York as the next Wolf of Wall Street. If you want to come to Phoenix, particularly if you're an international student, just suck it up and go to ASU and study the practical, but somewhat less glamorous field of supply chain (i.e. operations), logistics (i.e. shipping and receiving), procurement (i.e. purchasing) and negotiation (i.e. working for a corporate behemoth while leaning on your little guy vendors by cutting their margins and stretching their payment cycles, while they say nothing because you have five other little guy backup vendors waiting in the queue). Ok, this concludes my advice for the day...

Ralphcuisak · Answer

I noticed the date of your post after putting in my response but it does help to be proven right. Very well put response, good sir! I wish you luck for the future.

ElaineSchmidt · Answer

Yes, I completely agree with you.

alimahdavan · Answer

I heard the same thing from Thunderbird alumni.

DesertWiggles · Answer

Hi,

Time for another blast from the past.

I am from The Valley and was first admitted to Thunderbird with a partial scholarship and assumed I would go there because I love their focus on internationalism: I want to do business internationally post-master's, particularly in or with China after studying Mandarin in high school and college.

I also applied to W.P. Carey and liked the program but figured if I went there I'd want to make it as close to Thunderbird as possible.

Yesterday, I got offered a full-ride to W.P. Carey and now I am conflicted: this seems like too good of an offer to pass up but Thunderbird feels like a better fit (W.P. Carey may offer a more well-rounded education though).

How should I proceed with my final decision-making process?

Thank you.

Arizona State University vs. Thunderbird

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