My own selection

Question

Dear all,

Please, let me share with you my selection of the universities. Feel free to do any comments/suggestions you may have.

I thought it's better to concetrate my efforts in 6 schools. Therefore, I've chosen 2 ultra elite, 2 elite and finally 2 transelite:

1 Kellog Northwestern
2 MIT Sloan
3 Michigan
4 Berkeley
5 USC (Marshall)
6 Carnegie Mellon

My goal after the MBA is general management/strategy, specially in the industrial sector.

what do you think?

Regards

riverripper · Answer

Its a solid list with a bunch of great schools. One thing to realize is... Haas may be considered an Elite but it and Tuck are about as difficult to get into as the Ultra-Elites. Overall those schools would be good fits for your goals. Best of luck with your apps. I suggest going for your top schools in R1, that gives you the best shot.

agold · Answer

I would personally only put 1 TransElite on your list, 3 Elites, and 2 UEs.

JohnLewis1980 · Answer

At the beginning I had the same thought, but I couldn't choose between MIT and Kellogg. So, I definitely think that the required effort for one ultra-elite school would be valid also for the other one. Thanks a lot for your point of view

kryzak · Answer

this is an old thread, but JohnLewis, terp meant you can keep MIT/Kellogg (2 UEs) and remove either USC or CM and add another Elite on there, like UCLA (good at GM) yet still not as difficult as the UEs to get into.

River is right about Haas and it's admit rate, but I'm glad to see you applying. let me know if you need any help.

lepium · Answer

I think it's too broad a selection. Get someone to give you (the OP) a feel of what your odds are and then focus on 5 - 8 schools in that range, for eg: 4 UEs and 2 Es or 3 Es and 3 TEs, etc.

L.

JohnLewis1980 · Answer

Hi all,

Many thanks for your points of view, they are very useful for me.

@kryzak: you're right. I read bad. I'll review my list again, just in order to include UCLA on it. Thank you again.

Best regards

rhyme · Answer

You are missing chicago

JohnLewis1980 · Answer

yes, I know, I had the doubt of not including Chicago in my list, but finally, I decided not to include it.

Mainly, because my idea is to include just 2 UE schools, and it seems that Kellog and MIT fit perfectly with my requirements. Other reason is becasue it seems that Chicago is very strong in finance, and finance is not actually my goal.

Relating UCLA, which I mentioned before, it's the same, it seems that school is "focused" on finance (and please, take focused with a graint of salt)

Anyway, thanks for your comment rhyme

agold · Answer

UCLA, like Southern California in general, is very diversified as far as interests/industries/career paths go. There are lots of people who want to go into Tech, General Management, Enterpeneurship, and Entertainment at UCLA. I believe Finance makes up less than 20% of placements - although it is a strong Finance program.

lepium · Answer

I have a question about that comment: is the fact that the admission rates at Tuck and Hass similar to those of Ultra-Elites an indication that they are about as difficult to get into as Ultra-Elites?

I have read people theorize about it, but I have not seen any conclusive evidence. The analyses on this issue typically cluster into the following contradictory categories:

1) Assuming that both Tuck and Haas have similar applicant pools to those of Ultra-elites, the admissions rates are a good indication of admissions difficulty.
2) Assuming that the applicant pools to both Tuck and Haas do not match precisely those of Ultra Elites, even if they do overlap to a certain extent, getting into either Tuck or Haas is slightly "less hard" than getting into the Ultra Elites.

It doesn't matter to me at this stage, but I guess that collectively analyzing the issue may yield some useful information to the poster's (and other applicants) questions.

L.

riverripper · Answer

Judging by the students and alums I met from Tuck and reading through their resume book...I must say overall they seemed about on par with what I saw at MIT, Chicago, and Kellogg. I think its a much more self selecting crowd and their tiny class size relative to other programs means they can cherry pick people. Their stats are similar to many of the UEs, not just the entering stats but also their placement.

That said living across the state I am glad I decided not to apply. Looking back I am amazed I ever considered two years in Hanover. Its a great school but has too many limitations. Size means you are close with classmates but also means fewer electives. Also the though alums are helpful if you want a random industry or unusual post MBA career its going to be tough finding many to reach out to. Most of all its location is great if you have kids and your wife/husband doesnt work either by choice or lack of a visa but it could definitely negatively impact many peoples careers living there for two years.

pelihu · Answer

Well, I'll agree with you that the applicant pools for Tuck and Haas do not match those of ultra-elites, but I'm not sure I agree with the conclusion that you draw in choice number two. If the applicant pools at Tuck and Haas do not precisely match those of ultra-elites, then entrance could be either more or less hard.

Let's take Harvard as an example. I'm quite sure that Harvard get more "Hail Mary" applications than any other school. Applications from people who are completely unprepared, from people who know little about the type of qualifications it takes to be a competitive applicant at a top school, from people who just want to give it a shot, and so forth. Certainly, every top school draws "stretch" applications, but I'd bet my underwear that Harvard draws a multiple of Kellogg, Chicago, or any top school (other than Stanford perhaps). In other words, some portion, perhaps 5%, perhaps 25% of the applications are literally no shot straight to the recycling bin types from people that frankly are not legitimate candidates. Other schools simply do not have the same magnitude of throw-away applications to boost admissions rates.

Now, Harvard is a silly example of course, because I do believe that along with Stanford, Harvard is measurably more difficult to get into than other ultra-elites; however preconceived beliefs should not influence how statistics are interpreted.

sonibubu · Answer

How is UCLA's placement into big 3 consulting firms? I've heard its strength is finance.
I'd love to apply there, but I'm looking to go into consulting.

kryzak · Answer

soni, you might want to pm "socalconsult" to see if he has good info on top 3 consulting placement. He's a current student there (actually, he may have just graduated too).

good discussion, lepium, river, and pelihu.

I would also partially agree that Haas and Tuck probably do not get as many (% wise) of the top applicants as HBS or Stanford (and probably Wharton), but just from talking to many students and admits from this year, most people who applied to Haas also got into one of the other UEs (MIT, Kellogg, Chicago, Columbia) and were having a hard time deciding between Haas and the other schools. I would say based on my small sample of a dozen or so people I met at Haas and Kellogg admit weekends, 50% chose Haas and 50% chose Kellogg in the end. The stats were somewhat similar (again, very small sample) with choosing between MIT/Haas and Chicago/Haas. I didn't meet that many Columbia/Haas applicants, probably because the two schools specializes in very different things and have very different culture.

Thus it's very hard to tell based on the info we have whether Haas and Tuck are truly as competitive as the UEs to get into, but I think both schools also have their "quirks" when it comes to picking admits due to their small size and off-the-norm cultures, which may add to the difficulty of getting in.

Just my 2 cents.

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