Hi community! Can anyone please provide inputs on choosing between Kellogg and Wharton for Operations focused EMBA? My career has been mostly in Operations / Supply Chain and I would like to decide between one of these schools. I feel that Wharton has a slight edge in terms of brand globally, but I would like to base my decision on alumni contacts /networking within Operations Management area.

Appreciate your inputs,

Interesting question.... ops management has not been a big industry but it is definitely needed. Is this Philadelphia and Evanston campuses or alternate?

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Hello bb, thanks for the reply. I am considering Wharton philadelphia and Kellogg @ Evanston campus. Any inputs, considering alumni network and general strength in Ops Mngmnt?

I'm happy to chim in. Both schools have prominent professors who have their interesting contribution in the field. In my professional view, Kellogg has slightly upper hand. Even Kellogg spread their learning beyond formal education to executive program.Let me know if you want more details.

Mo2men: Thank you for the input. My decision really rests on two factors.. Operations Alumni/Network and Global brand. Both are excellent schools, but I just feel that Wharton maybe slightly higher on Global brand. Is the Operations Alumni/Network better than Wharton? If so, why do you feel so? Any quick thoughts/data points?

Hi sameerm22

You are right about Wharton. I do not argue against it. There is no solid data though. I just presented professional view from technical view only. But again the alumni of Wharton is much larger. The important advice to you is to also to think what complement the supply chain file such as data analytics, marketing, finance.

The alumni base you can tap into at Wharton is much larger than that of Kellogg, which is a big factor when deciding on Executive Education. Your networking will mostly come from your class/cohort and then outside of that, you can connect with fellow grads from other Wharton programs. If I were in your situation, I would go for the Wharton program because I believe it is more prestigious as a business school as well as the parent university alongside the fact that the alumni base is much larger.
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I have not attended either of these programs but frankly any other executive MBA program. I would start reaching out to the current students to help you with the decision. This will give you your first opportunity to network and potentially connect you with some awesome people in the Ops management. It’ll also give you a taste of what networking will be like over the years. This should be a pretty straightforward and safe informational interview exercise. I think it will also be enjoyable and will provide you the number to need to meet a variety of people. I would look at It as an awesome opportunity esp now that you have time And not burdened by classes or applications or some thing else.


As finance man mentioned, EMBA programs Usually do not include recruiting as a component of the program. While Kellogg does invite all of the part-time and executive students for their recruiting events, and does not limit participation like some other schools such as Haas I think, the value in you attending these events is probably not that meaningful. Most of the positions will be targeting people in their late 20s in the early 30s with limited experience compared to your background.

Kellogg does have a pretty good grip on the executive education. They have partnerships with Canadian, UK, Hong Kong, and a variety of other business schools. That’s a pretty massive machine With a strong global reach. Is that of value to you?

Your biggest source of networking and opportunities will be a classmates and in particular your cohort. The tricky part with tapping general MBA or especially undergrad alumni network, is that by the time they are in a comparable or decision-maker shoes, it’s probably been 20 years since they graduated.

I would also consider the location since these programs tend to appeal to people regionally and folks tend to stay in the same area so my guess would be Kellogg would have more executive alarms in the Midwest and Wharton on the east coast.

PS. Wharton is one of the top three and definitely has the feel of that in terms of selectivity and brand. And they also have a bigger program and that is valuable.

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Thank you very much all. I will take some of the steps that bb mentioned and talk to school's alumni. Very helpful to get your thoughts. Thank you again and thanks to this GMATClub community through the process.

my uneducated opinion says wharton