Michigan Ross vs NYU Stern vs INSEAD(reapply)

Question

Hi All

I have been admitted to Michigan Ross and NYU Stern. Post MBA I want to enter into strategy Consulting. Currently, I'm Confused about which college to join. Between NYU and Ross, I believe Ross is a better college but somewhere I'm not satisfied with the brand value it carries. To put all of this in Context I applied to all M7 colleges, Got interviewed by Chicago and Columbia but was rejected. I do not have an option to wait an entire application year but I see INSEAD has a January intake where I could apply and based on various rankings such as Financial times it does match with few M7 colleges in terms of brand value. Please guide me if I should join Ross this year or give it a shot at INSEAD. Is INSEAD really better than Ross as claimed by various rankings? If everything being equal I would prefer a 2 year MBA over I year.

Few Stats about me:
GMAT: 750(Q49, V42, IR4, AWA4)
TOEFL: 114
Currently, work in Morgan Stanley as a Project Manager in the technology side of the bank.
Post-MBA Location: Wanted US but because of H1B visa risk not hell-bent on that. I'm open to any geography.
Indian Engineer from non-IIT college

Please help me make this decision

P.S I also have offers from McGill Canada(40% scholarship), Queen's Canada(40% scholarship), and HEC Paris but have chosen Ross over these. Feel free to comment if you feel I haven't weighed them properly

stoiczoan · Answer

Hello my friend. Congrats on the admission offers! It's a good problem to have.

1) Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. So does "B-school prestige" in most cases. It is hard to compare INSEAD vs Ross/Stern directly without considering the individual factors. Based on two application seasons I feel both will have similar caliber of candidates (even though INSEAD is very international because of its location).

2) Your goal is strategy consulting. Getting into top 6-7 strategy consulting firms will not be easy at any of these schools. But I believe if you prepare well, you will land a handful of interview shots. Once you get the interview call, you compete with everyone applying to that office.. the school doesn't matter. What matters is your performance in the case+behavior interviews.

3) I'll strongly recommend that you do a 2 year program, and therefore choose between Stern or Ross. Having internships and a longer time frame helps in amount of job opportunities (2 shots at strategy consulting recruiting), and also in networking+forging strong relationships with classmates.

4) I understand that "Ross" does not have that "prestige" position in your brain because we don't hear about Univ of Michigan or Michigan Ross in India (like we do Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT). NYU has a little bit higher recall as a brand because of being in NYC. However U of Mich has a pretty strong brand across US (for various reasons - great univ, strong college sports etc) and Michigan Ross is very well respected as a business school in the industry. Having a rich benefactor like Stephen Ross has also given them a lot of funds to keep doing good stuff.
Honestly, if you think you have the caliber to get into strategy consulting if you were at Booth or Columbia, you should be able to get it at Ross as well. Ross grads are doing cool things across sectors and have a reputation of being hard-working down-to-earth people.

5) While deciding between Ross & Stern, think about the following - 
-- staying in NYC (international city) vs Ann Arbor (college town)
-- Stern folks live all around New York.. Ross folks stay close to each other and school so spend more time together

6) Have a back up option for post-MBA career goal. Not everyone gets consulting (huge amount of luck is involved as well). Your 2 year experience can be much more than just getting a job. You will grow in many different ways depending on the choices you make.

cxa0897 · Answer

This is going to come off harsh, but put your need for prestige aside and look at the facts. You are already accepted to two schools with solid MBB+ recruiting. You are not accepted into Insead yet, and seeing how you were rejected by every m7, Insead is certainly no guarantee. What will you do if you turn down Ross and NYU and then get rejected at Insead?

Go to Ross if you want to live in a smaller city, go to NYU if you want to experience NYC. If you work for it and play your cards right, you'll get a consulting gig out of either.

Go to Ross if you want to live in a smaller city, go to NYU if you want to experience NYC. If you work for it and play your cards right, you'll get a consulting gig out of either.

billionaire · Answer

Hello ram7 Congrats on all admission so far

I would certainly prefer Stern over Ross.

And I have some rankings to support that. You have mention FT rankings, however Stern (25. globally) is better ranked there than Ross (28.): https://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolra ... nking-2019 Bloomberg also agrees with me, Stern is ranked as 14. in US and Ross is 19. : https://www.bloomberg.com/business-schools/2018/ Bloomberg rankings is based on survey of 26,699 MBA students, alumni, and recruiters in 2018 about their goals and experiences, as well as compensation and job-placement data from each school.

I believe you consulted only US News rankings where they are almost tied, difference is one place: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-sc ... a-rankings Yeah INSEAD is good school for consulting, I am not sure I would choose it over Stern but I do understand why is appealing to you. It would certainly work better for Europe employment than US. Canadian schools are ok, HEC also, but American counterparts are better choice, there I agree with you, except if Canada/Europe are not your proffered choice for working upon graduation, due to easier visa/immigration paths. You will have best position for recruiting from NYC. Period. My vote goes to Stern here

Good Luck with decision

football123 · Answer

Hi,

It’s a very personal decision. If you want to stay in the US long term, either Ross or Stern will get you to where you want to go. If you want to live anywhere in Europe, Insead is the strongest brand out of the lot - Stern and Ross won’t really be recognised here and you won’t have the alumni network. I would prefer a two year course over a one year course, but again you might be different. And lastly, if you don’t mind delaying for another year, you could go again next year for M7 (perhaps go all in with a great admissions consultant).

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JohnJohnJ · Answer

Employment reports published by the business schools is the only reliable source of data, they’re audited (I think by KPMG) and they’re validated by MBACSEA. Data published by US News, FT, Business Week, 3 year data, 10 year data, etc…. is self reported sample data which can’t be validated and has no traceability.

Look at the employment reports. 
For strategy consulting - Insead is the best, better than Stanford/Harvard/Wharton.

Between Michigan and Stern, Stern has a higher % of interns and graduates going to MBBs

My vote is for Stern, your probably of being a solid consulting firm is higher with Stern than Michigan.

People use M7 and ivy to create an artificial exclusivity, nobody has seen M7-just heard of it. It’s the employment reports that matter and nothing else!

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JohnJohnJ · Answer

Look at their employment reports.

The only challenge here is that schools include sponsored students in this list too. So look at the number of interns as a percentage of the total class size going to MBBs or other strategy consulting firms.

I know Insead sends a large portion of their graduating class to MBBs. But per 2018 employment reports, Stern may be sending a few more than Michigan to MBBs. But, the difference is minor so either are a good pick for Consulting.

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ks2305 · Answer

I would not suggest INSEAD over either of these schools even if you had an offer from them, unless 1) cost of the MBA is a major concern for you, and 2) you are heading back to the same industry OR already have solid contacts and a pathway to consulting and just need the MBA tag. Both these factors seem to not apply in your case. If they do, please read my response with a pinch of salt.

INSEAD has done a great job of marketing itself over the years as a global school, and the diversity in the classroom is truly amazing, but at 10 months it is a rushed course and the career outcomes are not nearly as good as the top 15 US schools and even LBS (which offers an equally diverse community and a 21 months course wherein you can transition more comfortably into consulting). INSEAD places disproportionate weightege on international experience (even if that's there by virtue of your parents having lived in different countries when you were a child rather than you making an active effort towards gaining international experience), and I don't think that's a true reflection of one's capability and intellect.

The FT rankings are really inconsistent: you will see schools jumping or falling 10+ slots y-o-y and it is hard to believe that any program could get that much better or worse in that short a time frame. You also have not so great schools like CEIBS ahead of stalwarts like Booth, MIT and Kellogg; Oxford Said ahead of Tuck and Stern. If you compare the class profiles, global prestige, career outcomes and pedagogy, these US schools beat CEIBS/ Said hands down. You will find multiple such exceptions in the FT ranking. While I feel comparing the US schools to Asian and European ones is like apples to oranges, but since FT is doing it anyway, it must be pointed out that they are doing it wrong. FT is a European publication and their methodology is inherently biased against the US schools.

If I were you, I would choose Ross/ Stern in a heartbeat over INSEAD. Ross if you want a close knit community and are inclined towards tech, Stern if you want to live in NYC and are inclined towards consulting/ finance. The consulting outcomes at both schools are similar. If you look at the career report, the Stern numbers  MBB  tend to be lower than Ross, but then again - there are fewer people applying to consulting firms at Stern vs Ross (more than 25% of the class goes into finance). While uMich is greatly respected in the US, the NYU brand value trumps Ross globally. Since you are from a non-IIT college, you might want to factor that in and have one name on your resume which is immediately identifiable even in India. That won't affect career outcomes, but certainly will earn you some brownie points in coffee table conversations!

Michigan Ross vs NYU Stern vs INSEAD(reapply)

What should I choose

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