Intern
Joined: 16 Feb 2019
Posts: 25
Given Kudos: 1
Location: United States (NY)
Concentration: Marketing, Entrepreneurship
WE:Marketing (Hospitality and Tourism)
Kenan-Flagler (no $) vs Smeal (full ride)?
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22 Mar 2019, 11:25
Deciding between these two schools and pros & cons before making a decision. UNC was a stretch school that I somehow got admitted to (while others that I thought were safer bets did not even interview me). I will be enrolling as a domestic student interested in either Brand Management for P&G, Mars, J&J, General Mills or another F500, or a rotational program at ABInbev or General Motors.
UNC is the clear winner in terms of schools. I applied through The Consortium so will be eligible for Orientation Program to meet employers that are outside UNC's recruiting sphere. The brand is much stronger, better on-campus recruiting, STAR program, alumni network better connected, program has a superior academic backbone, superior professors, and much bigger school with the more diverse student body. Smeal is a bit of an odd duckling since Penn State is such an undergrad-heavy school. I'd imagine my 2 years will be somewhat awkward especially from a dating standpoint as the vast majority in the surrounding area are 10 years younger than me, while UNC has Raleigh just a 30-minute drive and I'm sure all the schools like Duke cross-pollinate (figuratively and literally in this case). Smeal also sounds like a bit of a battle in terms of recruiting since it's so small.
At the same time...it is hard to pass up a full ride vs. approx 140k in expenses and lost stipend. That's a giant difference.
I thought this would be an easy choice, but I'm not so certain. Is there a point where it's better to accept the debt than take a full ride, and is this that point of difference?