Columbia vs. Kellogg for general management

The question is what kind of company you want to work for in general management? Corporate recruiting is very diverse, and the opportunities available at each school are very different. A better ranked school does not necessarily translate into easier shot at a corporate job for a specific company/industry.

In general if you want to stay in NYC for school and work, I do not see any obstacles in landing a job in general management.

just saying, the two people voting for Kellogg are both Kellogg admits and one of them dinged by Columbia...just saying.

and the part that 'Columbia has more of a commuter feel', is not true. I've met some of the most passionate and supportive students/staff at Columbia.

Everyone's perception is different. I had 4 good friends go to CBS while I was in NYC and they all said the same thing. It was not a great student body overall, they had a nice time with the clubs and activities they got involved in, but at the end of the day they all continued to spend more time with our group of friends than their b-school folks. It may be an out lier case, but that is what I have seen from personal experience.

You will get passionate/helpful people where ever you go, it just comes down to the right fit. Fit being broadly defined including job, student body, clubs, experiences, etc.

Zurich--Where are you headed?

Hi goalieman, CBS actually, my decision was mostly based on location Hopefully it will all work out fine!

Hey guys, might be a little late chiming here, but just came across this so thought I'd put in my 2 cents. I'm a first year at CBS.

Jambi, congrats, tough decision! I would say your best bet is to talk to students in the general management club at both schools. No one can really give you insight into the school other than current students, even alums are a little out of touch since different companies may recruit etc. I recruited for marketing at CBS, so wasn't looking to do consulting or finance and there were plenty of people with similar goals to me. Obviously less than at a Kellogg, but I thought this was a plus because I felt like it allowed me to stand out a little more with recruiters. I have many friends going to work at companies like Google, Apple, LinkedIn, etc. techy type companies and I know quite a few people interested in Energy, so I'm sure there are opportunities. I would reach out to the Energy and Tech clubs as well.

Just a note on the community, the CBS community has exceeded all of my expectations. It is really tight knit. We may not all live near each other, but since we don't live right on campus, that means we spend all day there vs. going home to our respective apartments. I was from NYC before school and I can tell you I've seen my friends twice since starting school in August. Most people prioritize bschool stuff, we all know we are only here for two years and they go by FAST!

I'm only speaking to CBS here because that is the school I have experience with. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. Good luck!

mgg234 - you're far too intelligent (and now an "Expert" on this forum?) to make such an egregiously biased comment like this - it doesn't help anyone and doesn't add to your credibility (especially because you were dinged by CBS...). You know that Kellogg isn't unilaterally better than Columbia (and Columbia isn't unequivocally better than Kellogg). The two programs (as do each of the M7s) both have their own competitive advantages - Kellogg is superior in marketing (and in fact the best in this field), but Columbia is vastly superior in the upper echelons of finance (Columbia has a stronger presence than Kellogg in the most elite private equity positions and across various hedge funds, primarily due to its Value Investing Program). An applicant would choose Kellogg for marketing and Columbia for finance. One's not better than the other.

Also, your statement on the fact that Columbia is for those who don't get into Wharton is also blatantly false - I got into Wharton and Columbia (my dad's even a Penn alumnus and pushed hard for W) but I ended up choosing Columbia because I want to enter the world of hedge funds. A previous poster, zurichs, apparently also got into Wharton but chose Columbia over W. So that makes two of us in this extremely small sample size. Ultimately, there is cross-pollination across all of the M7s outside of Harvard + Stanford.

As for the original poster's inquiry, I think Kellogg and Columbia would place equally well in tech roles. I personally have undergraduate classmates at both schools who are interning at Google & Amazon and I don't think one has an advantage over the other. However, if your goal is getting any general management position, Kellogg may place better simply due to location in the midwest. I cover Industrials clients in investment banking and a lot of our clients are based in the midwest (Deere, Honeywell, etc) and I would imagine there is a greater concentration of F500 clients based there for typical leadership development programs. I may be completely off base though so as a previous poster noted, definitely reach out to current students at both schools.

Lastly, I personally found the CBS community to be incredibly inclusive and awesome. The school openly acknowledges that its culture was maybe a bit spread-out and not as cohesive 3-4 years back, but the school's administration is smart and has tried extremely hard to address this. 1) a cluster system with small learning teams with whom you spend a LOT of time for your core curriculum 2) new $600MM building arriving in next 3-4 years (fueled off the $100mm donation from Kravis and $100mm donation from Perelman) and the larger new $7.0BN Manhattanville campus in the next 5-7 years that is supposed to bring a new med school campus, new SIPA campus (as well as other schools) and a lot of brainpower concentrated in one area so that there can be interdisciplinary research + interaction

Kellogg.

@ak1802 - you know nothing Jon Snow . For GM they both place well but Kellogg probably has the edge nationally (not internationally). I'd give Kellogg a slight nod in Tech and Energy, but only because a higher percentage of their class is interested (you can place from either school easily - I did for VC in energy tech, and also had offers from tech companies and energy business management roles pretty easily). The community knock on CBS isn't real - we just don't live in a suburb without much else around so yes there are a lot of fun things to try out not at school and you don't spend as much time insulated on campus in negative temperature. Internationally and in non-GM/Marketing roles, CBS seems to have a slight edge.

Overall rankings etc. schools will bounce around a bit. Both schools have a ranking boosts in their future simply by virtue of a new campus and "new outlook!" (thanks Booth, way to kick off a spending trend on useless sh*t), it won't change anything really - each presents a fantastic avenue, and I've found that there really is a unique advantage to being in NYC in terms of access. I chose CBS over Kellogg pretty much for that reason - in the end I knew my experience while in school would be stronger in that city with that network.

@mgg234 - little bitter I see.

Columbia is Columbia. Go for it!

Kellogg will give you a better General Management education and Columbia will give you better access to General Management jobs (less competition, diversity at firms).

I am a graduate of the University of Chicago MBA program. I also attended Northwestern U as an undergrad. I love both schools. Since I work in finance and accounting, Chicago was the right MBA program for me. I believe that the Chicago program is more academically rigourous, based on discussions with professors who have taught at both schools.

I would like to point out that UofC probably has a higher acceptance rate because their application is self selecting. In other words, the application is so demanding that people who aren't really interested aren't going to fill it out.

Hi guys, just bumping this thread. I was also accepted to both CBS and Kellogg and trying to choose based on general management education and recruiting opportunities. I have experience in bulge bracket banking and PE, so was leaning towards Kellogg to learn marketing/gen. mgmt. but my wife really wants to be in NYC closer to her family (we're currently abroad). I think doing something in general management, a startup, or even starting a search fund would be awesome.

What do you guys think? Will Kellogg help me round out my skill set better than CBS, whose reputation is for being finance-heavy?

Thanks!

AbhiJ - can you elaborate on this? What do you mean?

As someone living in NYC, I disagree with this. Nearly everyone I've spoken with views Columbia more highly than Kellogg. Kellogg is seen as more of a regional Midwest school with a focus in marketing and limited prestige compared to Columbia.