B-school's battle royale: Where will the GMATClub superstar nervousgmat go? ps, nervous, I hope I mentioned your current offers correctly.

I am under the impression that the pay will be the same no matter where you get hired from- for the same position and company? Does it depend on industry/function?

I think river is partly right. You can probably negotiate with a little more leverage from K than from Duke. But, I dont think career switchers would be able to negotiate that much. If you are a career switcher into CPG, Kellogg or Duke - you wouldnt be able to ask for more since your prior experience doesnt count for much. But, if you are a marketing guy and then you went to Kellogg and then you had a great marketing internship, there is a possibility that you can negotiate more aggressively. In nervous's case, I dont think K would give her more leverage during negotiations. OTOH, her peer network within marketing may be better at K. That's why I say, go to Kellogg.

From what I have heard GM, marketing, and things like that are more open for negotiation. I was led to believe that salaries can be different, bonuses and relocation certainly can be different. I talked to an MIT alum who said he upped his comp package by as he put it "over 30%", also even managed to score a better position. It was a position he was pretty uniquely qualified for though, so he had a lot of leverage but said its fairly common for people to get 10k more or something along those lines. A lot of MC firms will give the same offer of something like 120k, with 30k of bonuses, no matter who it is (unless you are going to be at a higher level). The big banks tend to have salaries that are more level, bonuses at the end of the year can vary greatly though and folks with prior experience may be hired into higher levels.

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27 Mar 2008, 15:03

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Nervous, I voted for Kellogg because if you end up going to marketing, I think Kellogg is a perennial #1 in that category and will give you the extra push you may/may not need during your first couple of years out of b-school.

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27 Mar 2008, 18:23

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riverripper

Alright I will go beyond my original post and explain my reasoning more since I am not really a rankings guy

Great post river, but who was it that told me "how can anyone turn down a UE school with $$ for an Elite school?" (paraphrasing)

But yes, Nervous cannot go wrong with any of the UE/Elite schools, especially Kellogg/GSB/Duke. I'm sure we can get Aau to come here and throw in her opinions too. :wink:

EDIT: oh yeah, one more thing about the whole more competition/less competition thing. If you think of it this way, within the first five years of getting out of Kellogg, when the school name matters, if you ever switch jobs within marketing), the Kellogg name on your resume + taking classes from the top marketing professors at Kellogg will get you a first interview with any firm's marketing department. So you may have competition while you're in school for on campus recruiting, but afterwards, if you don't like your job, switching companies within marketing will be a lot easier with Kellogg's name attached to your resume. Just a new thought.

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I am attending the BDW this weekend. I hope that after this event I will be able to figure out which school is the best fit and which school can give me more opportunities in the career I want to pursue. However, the latest slide in Duke's rankings concerns me a little; especially the 85.9% employment 3 months after graduation. I hope that USNews made an error in the report as Duke's employment report shows a figure of 91% or so.

Aau, any insight on this?

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I voted Kellogg....

1) K's reputation in the marketing world is unquestionable and you wanted marketing
2) You want to move away from Finance and Chicago's reputation is highest in finance not marketing

But frankly..don't let the money sway your decision too much. Money comes and goes but the university name on your resume stays forever....make it count.

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28 Mar 2008, 18:29

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Again, I voted for GSB. :lol:

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29 Mar 2008, 13:27

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I voted for Duke, but honestly if you want to do marketing I think either Kellogg or Duke would be an excellent choice. You have some great choices that much is certain.

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nervous -

hope you're having fun at BDW! Give me a call if you want to get coffee or something.

I don't know much about the rankings bit - that # working percentage seems low to me. The most recent employment report is here: https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/career/recrui ... report.pdf, showing two sets of statistics:

90% had received job offers within 3 months (88% at graduation)
87% had accepted offers within 3 months (82% at graduation)

Maybe this is where the hoopla is coming from? In other words, some students had offers that they either hadn't accepted yet (some firms give very long offer deadlines) or they had offers, but decided not to accept in favor of continuing the search or surfing in costa rica or whatever.

Nervous, here is what I will tell you, and i mean it most sincerely:

You are one of those people who will get where you want to go no matter where you go to school. You'll see the same companies at all of those schools, and you'll get offers. If 1 in 10 or 15 or 20 doesn't land a job by graduation, it doesn't matter. You won't be one of them.

Go where you want to be. Go where you feel at home.

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31 Mar 2008, 19:50

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skaballet

I voted for Duke, but honestly if you want to do marketing I think either Kellogg or Duke would be an excellent choice. You have some great choices that much is certain.

ska,
did you enjoy the BDW weekend? Did it help you in your Ross vs. Fuqua decision-making process? :-)

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aaudetat

Nervous, here is what I will tell you, and i mean it most sincerely:

You are one of those people who will get where you want to go no matter where you go to school. You'll see the same companies at all of those schools, and you'll get offers. If 1 in 10 or 15 or 20 doesn't land a job by graduation, it doesn't matter. You won't be one of them.

Go where you want to be. Go where you feel at home.

Aau,

Thank you for your confidence in me! I feel at home every time I go to Duke...
I am still sending my deposit to Kellogg tomorrow to buy me some time

I wish I could make a final decision already!!! :twisted:

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Well, your avatar says that you've more or less made the decision already. Congratulations!

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mNeo

Well, your avatar says that you've more or less made the decision already. Congratulations!

I sent in my $1,000 check today... I also realized today that I've never had to send a check in the amount of $1,000 in my life!

mNeo,
I will probably switch my avatar 10 times before I finally decide where the heck I'm going to go!!!

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nervousgmat

mNeo

I sent in my $1,000 check today... I also realized today that I've never had to send a check in the amount of $1,000 in my life!

I bought my wife's engagement ring with cash. That was interesting. I'd never (and have not since) held so much cash in my life.

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nervousgmat

mNeo

Well, your avatar says that you've more or less made the decision already. Congratulations!

LOL, you've never bought something worth more than $1K?

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rhyme

LOL, you've never bought something worth more than $1K?

I have, with a credit card. But you know how the credit card psychology works. You don't really notice or think about it. Writing a check is a completely different story!

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While I was studying in Russia I had to pay my tuition in cash...We would go into a closed room with the bulgalteria and count it out bill by bill. The scary part was carrying the money from the bank to the school!

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Having a mortgage really desensitizes you to writing large checks. Nervous the cost of all your trips, applications, and admit weekends would make up the difference between Kellogg and Duke by now haha.

You may find this to be a useful post (I know on BW its shocking).

https://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1450&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=73673

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Wow, river! That's a great post. Thank you for directing me to BW (I never thought I would actually say something like this!) ;-)

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