BC Carroll ($$$) vs. McDonough sticker

Question

I saw a few related posts with similar schools, but not this exact choice.
 My background 
- 6 yrs asset management, want to stay in a related industry
- live in New England, prefer to stay here but will move for unusually good opps
- current total comp: ~$85k

Schools 
- Admitted to BC w/ about 55% scholarship and graduate assistantship offer (~$3k/yr, 5-10 hrs/wk)
- McDonough, no $

Primary question: does McDonough prestige & national network outweigh regional strength of BC for grads targeting finance in Boston?

- Short-term concern: 1st year post-MBA total comp is much higher for McDonough than BC ($45k on average) but this is probably skewed by consulting/IB jobs in high COL cities (NYC, SF), and the signing bonus
- Long-term concern: Does BC ultimately mean lower earnings growth over time given job & location prefs?

I have access to no-interest loans so cost is still an important factor, but makes the McDonough sticker price less daunting.

Anyone else make a similar choice to this? Would welcome any and all insight

Businessconquerer · Answer

Primary question: does McDonough prestige & national network outweigh regional strength of BC for grads targeting finance in Boston?
If Finance and IB is your Area of interest, I must highlight that McDonough would be the Next best option right after Cornell in US news rankings. Seriously, it has a great dominance in IB and Wall street. I cannot appreciate Georgetown enough on that. Substantial alumni base trumps any other school when it comes to your goals.
Cost of living in Boston is higher than a few neighbourhoods in DMV area- Dupont circle cost being the highest (Pardon the spelling mistake)
Caroll is a good school too and I will not say anything against the school but Alumni size is relatively low. Looking at their employment stats, I can certainly say this one thing that you will need to work harder than you would at Georgetown. (Not to say that companies will hand pick you from Georgetown)

- Short-term concern: 1st year post-MBA total comp is much higher for McDonough than BC ($45k on average) but this is probably skewed by consulting/IB jobs in high COL cities (NYC, SF), and the signing bonus
You're looking at Finance roles so I am certain that this won't be an issue. If you read the detailed employment report, you can expect an overall compensation of at least a 140k +, assuming the Post Pandemic world pays fair wage(the 200k + figures are mostly the premium jobs you spoke of)
- Long-term concern: Does BC ultimately mean lower earnings growth over time given job & location prefs?
Over time, it will be you who ultimately defines that. The brand is for life- meaning, you'll see a higher response rate from your own school's people. And in job switch and role changes, such factors do matter a lot. But ultimately, post-MBA, you will make a network of your own and is mostly up to you to flex as much as you want.

Insider secret- At one point you would want to settle at a particular location, so these factors stop counting and you look at stability more than money.

If you want to reach out to me for a session on producing a strong reason to Georgetown to consider a 740 - finance profile for at least a 50k scholarship, I can help you for free. Georgetown has a scholarship reconsideration process much like all other Universities and my suggestion is to never stop asking for more.

gmatexam439 · Answer

Hi  eluded ,

Congratulations on your admit. I too received an admit from McDonough with a 50% scholarship but I declined the offer. A few things I considered before making the decision:

1. Would I really want a huge loan being an international student immediately after the MBA? Let's agree the US is not so stable nowadays at least due to Corona and recently ended Trump's leadership.

2. In your case there is a big difference between the brands of the two universities. In the short term, brand matters a lot while in the long run, what you learn at the workplace matters.

3. The location where you want to be - Boston. Are you absolutely sure that you don't want to be at any place other than Boston? Boston College would be very regional while McDonough would surely open doors to various places.

At the end it all boils down to your personal choice! Good luck mate.

bb · Answer

Congrats on your admits! There is a little bit of chicken and the egg with the salaries. On one hand, the school ads some aspects to the salary bump and what graduates can expect. On the other, higher-ranked schools tend to attract higher-performing applicants who tend to get paid more pre and post MBA. Which if you were making $80K pre-mba, you probably not going to take $100,000 after and will ask for more and naturally you will either get it or move on to another job. The other side is that the school attracts certain employers on campus and the higher the rank, the more employers are usually able and willing to come and offer better paying jobs vs. people networking and recruiting off-campus. Third, there is also cost of living as you said but in general a higher-ranked school will push you and elevate you to a higher salary level just via peer pressure. When your peers get a $150K offer, you will likely push back on the $120K and cite the general salary levels in your class. I did that

and it worked and I got my offer bumped up. Unfortunately there is no clear way to separate these 3-4 different factors and tell which one is personal and which one is school-dependent. Here are some salary figures for both progrmas you can see the min/max and also average and by US and International. It kind of depends on what you think and what you believe. You can check the max/min ranges. As to the decision. I would pick BC Carroll if it were full ride, I would take it. with 50% it is a bit of a mix, maybe a bit leaning towards McDonough. mcdonough-salary-report.png boston-college-salary-report.png

eluded · Answer

BB, this is helpful general & school specific info, thanks a lot. Where did you get this data? I'd love to look at these figures over the last several years to get longer-term estimates for salary, job placement, etc. Figures here suggest much lower job placement rates and proportion of students with signing bonuses than the schools' employment reports would suggest.

BC Carroll ($$$) vs. McDonough sticker

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