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Booth |   Columbia |   
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boothvscbs
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Booth vs CBS for Tech IB in SF/NYC 19 Dec 2014, 20:22
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Hi Guys,

I'm lucky to have been accepted into both programs. I'm sorry to create yet another thread on booth vs. cbs but does anyone know which school has better network in the Bay Area? I'm a mgmt consultant trying to transition into IB (PE later down the road). My top targets are tech groups at GS/MS preferably in bay area, but if that doesn't work out then i'd be perfectly happy with NYC.

Question to those who are saying Booth and CBS are equal for banking: based on latest employment reports, GS hired 15 from CBS and only 7 from Booth. MS hired 10 from CBS and only 5 from Booth. Isn't that a significant difference? Sure you have CS/Barclays/Citi and others that pick up the slack to make the numbers equal but isn't CBS placing better at top tier banks? Or is it that more people try to shoot for banking at CBS?

Thanks!
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HealthcareMBAGuy
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Booth vs CBS for Tech IB in SF/NYC 19 Dec 2014, 20:27
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boothvscbs
Hi Guys,

I'm lucky to have been accepted into both programs. I'm sorry to create yet another thread on booth vs. cbs but does anyone know which school has better network in the Bay Area? I'm a mgmt consultant trying to transition into IB (PE later down the road). My top targets are tech groups at GS/MS preferably in bay area, but if that doesn't work out then i'd be perfectly happy with NYC.

Question to those who are saying Booth and CBS are equal for banking: based on latest employment reports, GS hired 15 from CBS and only 7 from Booth. MS hired 10 from CBS and only 5 from Booth. Isn't that a significant difference? Sure you have CS/Barclays/Citi and others that pick up the slack to make the numbers equal but isn't CBS placing better at top tier banks? Or is it that more people try to shoot for banking at CBS?

Thanks!
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Columbia's class size is twice the size of Booth's so those numbers shouldn't be surprising. I'm a Bay Area resident and IMO Booth has the stronger brand out here
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boothvscbs
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Booth vs CBS for Tech IB in SF/NYC 19 Dec 2014, 20:56
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boothvscbs
Hi Guys,

I'm lucky to have been accepted into both programs. I'm sorry to create yet another thread on booth vs. cbs but does anyone know which school has better network in the Bay Area? I'm a mgmt consultant trying to transition into IB (PE later down the road). My top targets are tech groups at GS/MS preferably in bay area, but if that doesn't work out then i'd be perfectly happy with NYC.

Question to those who are saying Booth and CBS are equal for banking: based on latest employment reports, GS hired 15 from CBS and only 7 from Booth. MS hired 10 from CBS and only 5 from Booth. Isn't that a significant difference? Sure you have CS/Barclays/Citi and others that pick up the slack to make the numbers equal but isn't CBS placing better at top tier banks? Or is it that more people try to shoot for banking at CBS?

Thanks!

Columbia's class size is twice the size of Booth's so those numbers shouldn't be surprising. I'm a Bay Area resident and IMO Booth has the stronger brand out here
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Thanks for the reply, HealthcareMBAGuy. You're right, CBS class is significantly larger (750ish vs. 530ish). But here's the deal: I don't care how big/small the class is. Knowing myself, I'm pretty sure I'd be 12-18th on the list. Meaning that there would be around 12 to 18 candidates who would have better profiles than me or can interview better than me etc. That's just how it has been all my life. I'm usually right around the 90th percentile, so i don't know how much the tail matters (sorry for being so statistical haha).
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Booth vs CBS for Tech IB in SF/NYC 20 Dec 2014, 02:23
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boothvscbs
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boothvscbs
Hi Guys,

I'm lucky to have been accepted into both programs. I'm sorry to create yet another thread on booth vs. cbs but does anyone know which school has better network in the Bay Area? I'm a mgmt consultant trying to transition into IB (PE later down the road). My top targets are tech groups at GS/MS preferably in bay area, but if that doesn't work out then i'd be perfectly happy with NYC.

Question to those who are saying Booth and CBS are equal for banking: based on latest employment reports, GS hired 15 from CBS and only 7 from Booth. MS hired 10 from CBS and only 5 from Booth. Isn't that a significant difference? Sure you have CS/Barclays/Citi and others that pick up the slack to make the numbers equal but isn't CBS placing better at top tier banks? Or is it that more people try to shoot for banking at CBS?

Thanks!

Columbia's class size is twice the size of Booth's so those numbers shouldn't be surprising. I'm a Bay Area resident and IMO Booth has the stronger brand out here

Thanks for the reply, HealthcareMBAGuy. You're right, CBS class is significantly larger (750ish vs. 530ish). But here's the deal: I don't care how big/small the class is. Knowing myself, I'm pretty sure I'd be 12-18th on the list. Meaning that there would be around 12 to 18 candidates who would have better profiles than me or can interview better than me etc. That's just how it has been all my life. I'm usually right around the 90th percentile, so i don't know how much the tail matters (sorry for being so statistical haha).
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For the comparison purpose you may want to subtract 200 J-term students from the CBS class, who are not seeking employment. In this case class sizes are pretty equal.
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Booth vs CBS for Tech IB in SF/NYC Updated on: 22 Dec 2014, 15:07
Originally posted by luckyseventy7 on 20 Dec 2014, 14:46.
Last edited by luckyseventy7 on 22 Dec 2014, 15:07, edited 1 time in total.
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I think you can't go wrong with either. a simple linkedin search for IB associates in the SF bay area search shows plenty of results from both. there were more results for columbia when I did the search, but there may overlap with columbia undergrads. whereas when searching booth its only referencing the grad school. too lazy to go through all the data

Searching for just MS/GS IB associates in the SF bay area I saw both schools represented too.

it seems to me at least geographically, it would be slightly easier to network in the bay area from chicago as opposed to NY. Columbia would have a much bigger advantage for NY groups.

personally, I'd choose based on culture/fit given how close opportunities are coming out of both, unless you're dead set on maximizing for your career goals
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Booth vs CBS for Tech IB in SF/NYC 20 Dec 2014, 21:25
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I think you can't go wrong with either. a simple linkedin search for IB associates in the SF bay area search shows plenty of results from both. there were more results for columbia when I did the search, but there may overlap with columbia undergrads. whereas when searching booth its only referencing the grad school. too lazy to go through all the data

Searching for just MS/GS IB associates in the SF bay area I saw both schools represented too.

it seems to me at least geographically, it would be slightly easier to network in the bay area from chicago as opposed to NY. Columbia would have a much bigger advantage for NY groups.

personally, I'd choose based on culture/fit given how close opportunities are coming out of both, unless you're dead set on maximizing for your career goals

full disclosure - I worked in NYC IB, currently doing tech/finance stuff in bay area now, and will prob be attending booth next year
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You really can't go wrong. At this point, you just pick the school that you feel more comfortable with!

I also echo the point about J-Term inflating the CBS denominator. While there are exceptions, the vast majority of J-Termers are either sponsored, family business, or entrepreneurs. Also, of those who *do* recruit, it is mostly for consulting because of the way banks hire, J-Termers aren't really even considered.

Also, finance is technically "down" at CBS (35% of the class entering finance versus a historical of ~50%). However, it's not because of lack of recruiter interest, but because of lack of student interest - there's been a huge shift to consulting and investment management. Last year, pretty much everyone who wanted to do IBD got a job at a good firm. Unfortunately, probably only half of those who wanted to do consulting or IM did. So from a supply and demand perspective, CBS might be a good choice.

From a Bay Area perspective, it does seem like Booth and CBS are pretty similar. If you had a Haas accept, I'd wager it'd be better to be there for recruiting purposes, but given it's NYC versus Chicago, it doesn't really seem to matter.
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Booth vs CBS for Tech IB in SF/NYC 21 Dec 2014, 01:10
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snw2010
I think you can't go wrong with either. a simple linkedin search for IB associates in the SF bay area search shows plenty of results from both. there were more results for columbia when I did the search, but there may overlap with columbia undergrads. whereas when searching booth its only referencing the grad school. too lazy to go through all the data

Searching for just MS/GS IB associates in the SF bay area I saw both schools represented too.

it seems to me at least geographically, it would be slightly easier to network in the bay area from chicago as opposed to NY. Columbia would have a much bigger advantage for NY groups.

personally, I'd choose based on culture/fit given how close opportunities are coming out of both, unless you're dead set on maximizing for your career goals

full disclosure - I worked in NYC IB, currently doing tech/finance stuff in bay area now, and will prob be attending booth next year

You really can't go wrong. At this point, you just pick the school that you feel more comfortable with!

I also echo the point about J-Term inflating the CBS denominator. While there are exceptions, the vast majority of J-Termers are either sponsored, family business, or entrepreneurs. Also, of those who *do* recruit, it is mostly for consulting because of the way banks hire, J-Termers aren't really even considered.

Also, finance is technically "down" at CBS (35% of the class entering finance versus a historical of ~50%). However, it's not because of lack of recruiter interest, but because of lack of student interest - there's been a huge shift to consulting and investment management. Last year, pretty much everyone who wanted to do IBD got a job at a good firm. Unfortunately, probably only half of those who wanted to do consulting or IM did. So from a supply and demand perspective, CBS might be a good choice.

From a Bay Area perspective, it does seem like Booth and CBS are pretty similar. If you had a Haas accept, I'd wager it'd be better to be there for recruiting purposes, but given it's NYC versus Chicago, it doesn't really seem to matter.
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thank you all for such insightful feedback! I'm pretty much leaning towards CBS for its location, value focused curriculum. I was comparing classes at both schools and Booth's curriculum is pretty much entirely quant focused. Although when you look at value focused funds / PE firms, both schools seem to have fairly well represented alumni, so I guess the type of classes you take doesn't really matter..

My other fear is what if I decide to do something other than "finance in NYC" someday. Booth has better ranking and seems to have much better recognition than CBS in pretty much everything besides finance. Should I take that into consideration (even though I'm 100% set on IB at this point)?

By the way, QiuYidio, I was worried about that 50% to 35% drop in finance recruiting when I saw it in employment report. Thanks for clarifying that it's student driven!
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Booth vs CBS for Tech IB in SF/NYC 21 Dec 2014, 01:28
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QiuYidio
snw2010
I think you can't go wrong with either. a simple linkedin search for IB associates in the SF bay area search shows plenty of results from both. there were more results for columbia when I did the search, but there may overlap with columbia undergrads. whereas when searching booth its only referencing the grad school. too lazy to go through all the data

Searching for just MS/GS IB associates in the SF bay area I saw both schools represented too.

it seems to me at least geographically, it would be slightly easier to network in the bay area from chicago as opposed to NY. Columbia would have a much bigger advantage for NY groups.

personally, I'd choose based on culture/fit given how close opportunities are coming out of both, unless you're dead set on maximizing for your career goals

full disclosure - I worked in NYC IB, currently doing tech/finance stuff in bay area now, and will prob be attending booth next year

You really can't go wrong. At this point, you just pick the school that you feel more comfortable with!

I also echo the point about J-Term inflating the CBS denominator. While there are exceptions, the vast majority of J-Termers are either sponsored, family business, or entrepreneurs. Also, of those who *do* recruit, it is mostly for consulting because of the way banks hire, J-Termers aren't really even considered.

Also, finance is technically "down" at CBS (35% of the class entering finance versus a historical of ~50%). However, it's not because of lack of recruiter interest, but because of lack of student interest - there's been a huge shift to consulting and investment management. Last year, pretty much everyone who wanted to do IBD got a job at a good firm. Unfortunately, probably only half of those who wanted to do consulting or IM did. So from a supply and demand perspective, CBS might be a good choice.

From a Bay Area perspective, it does seem like Booth and CBS are pretty similar. If you had a Haas accept, I'd wager it'd be better to be there for recruiting purposes, but given it's NYC versus Chicago, it doesn't really seem to matter.

thank you all for such insightful feedback! I'm pretty much leaning towards CBS for its location, value focused curriculum. I was comparing classes at both schools and Booth's curriculum is pretty much entirely quant focused. Although when you look at value focused funds / PE firms, both schools seem to have fairly well represented alumni, so I guess the type of classes you take doesn't really matter..

My other fear is what if I decide to do something other than "finance in NYC" someday. Booth has better ranking and seems to have much better recognition than CBS in pretty much everything besides finance. Should I take that into consideration (even though I'm 100% set on IB at this point)?

By the way, QiuYidio, I was worried about that 50% to 35% drop in finance recruiting when I saw it in employment report. Thanks for clarifying that it's student driven!
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One other thing to consider is that CBS has easy access to school-time internships. I'm doing an internship at a VC fund right now, and as a relative newbie to the field, what I'm learning blows my Intro to Venturing class out of the water. Also, the faculty and speakers we have access to are unreal. Mark Zurack, a pre-IPO GS partner taught my Capital Markets class. Bruce Greenwald taught my Strategy class. Peter Thiel and Al Gore were on campus this semester for a round table. The list goes on. I'm sure Chicago can boast of similar things, but still some more data points you may want to put into your comparison. They WL'd me so I didn't have your luxury of researching both :)

Oh, I should probably note that the finance drop is also administration (and probably admissions) driven. After the market collapse, I think CBS realized the folly of being so tied to Wall Street. There seems to be a pretty concerted effort to add East Coast Tech to the association cloud when thinking of Columbia. I was very surprised by the number of classmates launching startups, as well as the resources they are putting in front of us. They're by no means "there" yet, but that definitely seems to be the push.

In terms of reputation... my personal opinion, and I'm sure others will disagree, is that after your first job or two, it doesn't really matter what school you came from - with the exception of Harvard and Stanford. You're not going to be known as "the Columbia MBA" or "the Sloan MBA". (Hopefully), you'll be known as "the GS VP" or "the McKinsey Director". Given your use of the word "some day", I figure that's far enough in the future that your accomplishments will outshine your MBA.