Is Wharton worth the full sticker price over a full ride at Yale SOM?

Business school is the last 2 years of freedom/fun/lack of responsibilities you will have before you retire or since most of us will not retire until our health fails, basically your last chance of freedom and amazing experience before you die. You are welcome to doubt or ignore this statement but ask any alum - it is true. You will have a mortgage, house payment, 401K, kids in school, parents to worry about. You will never be able to take a 3-week careless trip to Brazil or fly around the country like crazy on a "recruiting" trip that happens to stop in Miami, LA, Vegas, and Bay Area to make it look better. OK I am probably exaggerating it a bit but mortgage, loans, family, constant work pressure - you won't get free time ever again. Not that you will take most advantage of it. Most us wasted it while at Bschool not knowing it was the "good time". The pressure to find a job and recruit after school, financial pressures, and fear will suck some of the life out of you and non-stop classes, group projects, etc will make 6 hours of sleep a decadent experience... but you will have unforgettable and life-changing experiences.

About not having loans and pressure - that's going to make you feel a lot better when things suck and you get dinged at job application #99... and your argument is of course, at least I am not paying for it. Worst case, I will just go back to my old job or smth like that. This does provide you with backup options and excuses but it also makes you less desperate and less likely to do what you never before imagine yourself doing - that only comes out of desperation and a lot of the success is reached out of desperation or fear so in some way making it a cushy experience, you will deprive yourself of some of the desperation and therefore growth but frankly, I am not sure that's such a bad thing. I guess what I tried to say is that there are always pros and cons to either choice and not so clear cut so to speak.

As to Wharton, I think you do have a much bigger and more interesting class. Many countries send their best and brightest (or family members of a questionable official) to schools such as HBS and Wharton. You get exposure and access to an extremely capable and diverse class. On the flip side, I can tell you that I am yet to meet someone who was happy with all of their classmates. Most of the reviews we get, people complain (openly or not openly) about the quality of their classmates. This is not because schools recruit bad students (that's true everywhere) but mostly because people expect to be everyone better and nicer than themselves and also they don't take the time (they don't have enough of it) to get to know many of their classmates. It takes time to learn that a rough and rude person sitting next to you in a classroom is actually an Olympic athlete or an actor or a harvard law/med school drop out, etc. Most people attending MBA are pretty amazing - just have to see their sides. This is true of Yale as well. There will be amazing people there too - think of yourself taking a scholarship vs. Wharton.

Final thoughts - I often suggest to look at W vs. Y as Risk vs. Reward. Obviously you will have a lot of classmates in Yale who will pay full price. You will have the same folks in Wharton. It is not like they will be set back or losers or somehow will never recover. They will and the way money works, it is not about how much you make but rather about how much you save. If you save $200K by going to Yale and then have more trips, nice place to live, and buy a Tesla model S at graduation, well, you are now at the same place. Controlling spending is easier if you don't have anything to spend - this is a personal dilemma. I am guessing as a financial background person, you are quite responsible and likely know this side of the story as well.

Good luck with your choice!

Update:

I chose Yale, but it was a tough decision.

Wharton ended offering me an additional $30K through the HCM program (which I was accepted to in a roundabout way), but ultimately I didn't think the ~$150k - 170k difference was worth it given my goals. I am interested in pursuing entrepreneurship / EtA and while Wharton would have been nice for that, the thought of paying student loans in this interest rate environment was just something I didn't want looming over my head, especially considering that I need to minimize burn rate with my goals.

(Even worse, I didn't want to be distracted by the easy money of consulting/banking to repay loans and derail my real career goals)

It's a little hard to compare Yale v Wharton after the fact, but here are some thoughts:

Pros for Yale:
- Based on past rates, consulting / finance placement is similar (in terms of % of offers in top companies)
- This year is really bad for recruiting though. So had I gone the conventional recruiting routes, having a ~$150K hole in my pocket would be worse
- Classmates are not only smart but friendly. Yes there are personality conflicts like in any group, but overall culture is friendly and collaborative.
- It's more financially inclusive. Clubs do not require a fee to join, and events are reimbursed as long as you open it to the overall SOM community. Club dues/budget is not really an issue. You also get 10 days of paid academic travel (i.e. you sign up for an international experience and everything but the flight is covered)
- This is probably true for W as well, but SOM really cares about course feedback and have made significant improvements since feedback from last year.
- The health insurance is phenomenal. Just about everything is covered for $0 copay (as long as it's in the Yale Health ecosystem). I've been seen for just about every tiny thing and it's great to not consider putting something off because "it's not a big deal and not worth the cost"
- Partners are consciously included. They can audit many Yale courses (including outside of SOM) and can attend many of the events.


Cons for Yale:
- Niche interests like mine would benefit from a larger class size. There are ~6 people at SOM who are committed to EtA, and it would have been nice to have more seriously interested people
- Despite great interview performance, I was turned down for a small PE internship because I didn't attend HBS/GBS. Wharton wasn't mentioned, but I wonder if going to W would have edged me in. Either way, it was one internship opportunity; there are more
- I really liked Wharton's pre-MBA online course on writing your Life Mission Statement. Yale does not have any programming like this. They used to have a leadership program but it was shut down some time ago.

- Not sure if Wharton is better, but Yale's career counseling is really only equipped to handle consulting/finance. At the very least, W separates their counselors into different industries, which to me implies specialist knowledge/connections.


Ultimately the worth of either program depends on the outcome, so maybe I'll check back in