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05 Nov 2012, 11:33
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Hi everyone...
I'm applying next year and I'm doing my research now for Top 10 schools and wanted your honest opinion on the opportunities at each school. For clarification, I used the GMATClub rankings,so that includes Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, Columbia, MIT, Haas, Tuck, Kellogg, Stern.
I did a quick evaluation of the top employers at each school (when data was available) and it seems like all the big guns in consulting (MBB) and banking (GS, MS, etc.) take a fairly high percentage of the classes at every MBA program. I mean McKinsey alone took over 10% of Columbia's last class! In fact, even the distribution of class by job function was pretty similar (surprising to me, as I would have thought a Wharton would index much higher in Finance than a Kellogg might). The exception I noticed was with Stanford, where a crazy amount of people went into entrepreneurship.
So my question is, aside from culture and teaching methods, is there a lasting benefit between going to one school versus another in the top 10? Beyond welcoming any free response that the board might have to that question, I also have a few theories which I was hoping people could either affirm or reject...
a) Is there difference in the long tail in terms of career opportunities between schools? For instance, as many PE shops and VC firms run quite lean, they hire less people and would therefore not show up on the top employer surveys. Would the long tail show that they hire more often at a Harvard than a Booth?
b) Is the network created at any one of the schools really that much more beneficial than another? Does anyone really believe the overall quality of applicants at one school is in some way greater than the overall quality of applicants another school in the Top 10?
A lot of these questions arose from reading this board. I see how badly some people ONLY want to get into Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton, and I just have to wonder to myself... is there any evidence for the benefit? Does it really matter? If you are one of those people, can you please provide some insight into why only those schools?
Also, I'm compiling reports and stats into one Excel spreadsheet and then cleaning it for easy filtering and analysis. Will share that once I get it to a pretty-enough point.
Thanks!
I'm applying next year and I'm doing my research now for Top 10 schools and wanted your honest opinion on the opportunities at each school. For clarification, I used the GMATClub rankings,so that includes Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Chicago, Columbia, MIT, Haas, Tuck, Kellogg, Stern.
I did a quick evaluation of the top employers at each school (when data was available) and it seems like all the big guns in consulting (MBB) and banking (GS, MS, etc.) take a fairly high percentage of the classes at every MBA program. I mean McKinsey alone took over 10% of Columbia's last class! In fact, even the distribution of class by job function was pretty similar (surprising to me, as I would have thought a Wharton would index much higher in Finance than a Kellogg might). The exception I noticed was with Stanford, where a crazy amount of people went into entrepreneurship.
So my question is, aside from culture and teaching methods, is there a lasting benefit between going to one school versus another in the top 10? Beyond welcoming any free response that the board might have to that question, I also have a few theories which I was hoping people could either affirm or reject...
a) Is there difference in the long tail in terms of career opportunities between schools? For instance, as many PE shops and VC firms run quite lean, they hire less people and would therefore not show up on the top employer surveys. Would the long tail show that they hire more often at a Harvard than a Booth?
b) Is the network created at any one of the schools really that much more beneficial than another? Does anyone really believe the overall quality of applicants at one school is in some way greater than the overall quality of applicants another school in the Top 10?
A lot of these questions arose from reading this board. I see how badly some people ONLY want to get into Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton, and I just have to wonder to myself... is there any evidence for the benefit? Does it really matter? If you are one of those people, can you please provide some insight into why only those schools?
Also, I'm compiling reports and stats into one Excel spreadsheet and then cleaning it for easy filtering and analysis. Will share that once I get it to a pretty-enough point.
Thanks!
I think the answer will vary depending on the goals and objectives of the person you ask.
If you just want to learn hard skills like accounting, finance, etc, it doesn't really matter too much. Most business schools teach the same core business subjects, which honestly you could learn by taking some evening classes at your local college. Beyond that, some schools may have a particular specialty, research center or professors which align perfectly with your goals, but obviously that requires you to know what you want out of school in the first place. Personally, I agree with Sloan's philosophy that business school is an opportunity to explore different options and many people change their minds once they get into business school.
However, what the top schools give you is network and get you through the front door. If you want to get even more granular, yes there are some small companies and firms that only recruit at Harvard and Stanford or some other subset of their own choosing. However, I'd say this is more due to resources rather than intentional. Sending people to recruit takes a lot of time and resources and if they're not going to get much out of a trip, then they won't send someone. So if a company doesn't recruit at your school, it's up to you to reach out to them. This is very common, and many of my friends got their jobs/internships this way.
In terms of long term benefits, I agree with this post: 3-years-post-mba-a-reflection-141207.html. In the long run, a Wharton or a Harvard degree will get your foot in the door. Or with a Tuck degree, you'll be able to cold call any alum and be welcomed with open arms for a chat. But after that, you have to prove yourself, and people don't really care where you got your degree, and care more about you doing your job well.
and yes, there will always be people who only want to go to Harvard, Stanford etc. I could see that if you live in a particular region why a certain school's name will carry more weight. For example, in Asia, Tuck is virtually unheard of, but everyone there knows Yale. But any top school, as I'm sure you know, will give you great opportunities, and the key is to just pick the one that is right for you.
Just my $0.02.
If you just want to learn hard skills like accounting, finance, etc, it doesn't really matter too much. Most business schools teach the same core business subjects, which honestly you could learn by taking some evening classes at your local college. Beyond that, some schools may have a particular specialty, research center or professors which align perfectly with your goals, but obviously that requires you to know what you want out of school in the first place. Personally, I agree with Sloan's philosophy that business school is an opportunity to explore different options and many people change their minds once they get into business school.
However, what the top schools give you is network and get you through the front door. If you want to get even more granular, yes there are some small companies and firms that only recruit at Harvard and Stanford or some other subset of their own choosing. However, I'd say this is more due to resources rather than intentional. Sending people to recruit takes a lot of time and resources and if they're not going to get much out of a trip, then they won't send someone. So if a company doesn't recruit at your school, it's up to you to reach out to them. This is very common, and many of my friends got their jobs/internships this way.
In terms of long term benefits, I agree with this post: 3-years-post-mba-a-reflection-141207.html. In the long run, a Wharton or a Harvard degree will get your foot in the door. Or with a Tuck degree, you'll be able to cold call any alum and be welcomed with open arms for a chat. But after that, you have to prove yourself, and people don't really care where you got your degree, and care more about you doing your job well.
and yes, there will always be people who only want to go to Harvard, Stanford etc. I could see that if you live in a particular region why a certain school's name will carry more weight. For example, in Asia, Tuck is virtually unheard of, but everyone there knows Yale. But any top school, as I'm sure you know, will give you great opportunities, and the key is to just pick the one that is right for you.
Just my $0.02.
Dbalks
Joined: 29 Jul 2011
Last visit: 10 Aug 2013
Posts: 214
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 7
Status:Disbelief! The Countdown Begins
Affiliations: CFA
Concentration: Finance, Economics
Schools: Johnson '15 (M)
GMAT 1: 600 Q45 V28
GMAT 2: 670 Q44 V39
GMAT 3: 750 Q49 V42
GPA: 3.5
WE:Accounting (Insurance)
05 Nov 2012, 12:09
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yeah, like Stanford has a techie rep if you want to work on the west coast. But all are great schools. Cant go wrong with any, its all about fit
