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Ohio State Fisher (full ride) vs. Penn State Smeal (full ride) 25 Dec 2017, 20:38
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Brazilian / Italian candidate who is seeking a career transition from communications to international business (sales or business dev / management consulting).

Due to the current visa policy in the US, my backup plan is to find a position in Europe as I hold dual nationality.

Which school would be a better choice?
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stonecold
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Schools: Boston U '20 (M)
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Ohio State Fisher (full ride) vs. Penn State Smeal (full ride) 25 Dec 2017, 21:13
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jordan2020
Brazilian / Italian candidate who is seeking a career transition from communications to international business (sales or business dev / management consulting).

Due to the current visa policy in the US, my backup plan is to find a position in Europe as I hold dual nationality.

Which school would be a better choice?
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Why not Rotman?
I see you got into Rotman school.

If so, it would be best option.
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Ohio State Fisher (full ride) vs. Penn State Smeal (full ride) 25 Dec 2017, 21:21
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jordan2020
Brazilian / Italian candidate who is seeking a career transition from communications to international business (sales or business dev / management consulting).

Due to the current visa policy in the US, my backup plan is to find a position in Europe as I hold dual nationality.

Which school would be a better choice?


Why not Rotman?
I see you got into Rotman school.

If so, it would be best option.
Show more

I only got a small scholarship offer from Rotman. Unfortunately I can't make such an investment at the moment.
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stonecold
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Schools: Boston U '20 (M)
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Ohio State Fisher (full ride) vs. Penn State Smeal (full ride) 25 Dec 2017, 21:24
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stonecold
jordan2020
Brazilian / Italian candidate who is seeking a career transition from communications to international business (sales or business dev / management consulting).

Due to the current visa policy in the US, my backup plan is to find a position in Europe as I hold dual nationality.

Which school would be a better choice?


Why not Rotman?
I see you got into Rotman school.

If so, it would be best option.

I only got a small scholarship offer from Rotman. Unfortunately I can't make such an investment at the moment.
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Got that.
I would go to Fisher with my eyes closed.
Although Penn state is a great program and is extreeeeeemly difficult to get into, Fisher is a much stronger brand.

Best
Stone
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Mo2men
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Ohio State Fisher (full ride) vs. Penn State Smeal (full ride) 26 Dec 2017, 18:09
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jordan2020
Brazilian / Italian candidate who is seeking a career transition from communications to international business (sales or business dev / management consulting).

Due to the current visa policy in the US, my backup plan is to find a position in Europe as I hold dual nationality.

Which school would be a better choice?
Show more

Congrats for both schools.

I advise you to go to Fisher, although I love state collage as visitor. :-)

As matter of fact Fisher has path in international business and you can create your own path from rich electives which Penn state lacks . Also, you would live in a city where you can access and travel to other locations. Although Fisher is not management consulting feeder, you have small window for opportunity, compared to Penn state which is known as powerhouse for supply chain and students as told during my mba class visit, consider Fisher their rival.

That being said, I doubt that any of them carry any weight internationally. Both are regional American schools. Canada would be better for you if you can afford.

Is GMAT presented in you profile the final GMAT you used to apply to both schools?

Good luck
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jordan2020
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Schools: Rotman '20 (A$) Desautels '20 (A$) Smeal" 20 (A$) Smith '20 (A$) WP Carey" 20 (D) Urbana-Champaign '20 (A$) Fisher '20 (M$) Carroll '20 (WL) Merage '20 (D)
GMAT 1: 610 Q42 V33
GPA: 3.3
Schools: Rotman '20 (A$) Desautels '20 (A$) Smeal" 20 (A$) Smith '20 (A$) WP Carey" 20 (D) Urbana-Champaign '20 (A$) Fisher '20 (M$) Carroll '20 (WL) Merage '20 (D)
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Ohio State Fisher (full ride) vs. Penn State Smeal (full ride) 26 Dec 2017, 19:20
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Mo2men
jordan2020
Brazilian / Italian candidate who is seeking a career transition from communications to international business (sales or business dev / management consulting).

Due to the current visa policy in the US, my backup plan is to find a position in Europe as I hold dual nationality.

Which school would be a better choice?

Congrats for both schools.

I advise you to go to Fisher, although I love state collage as visitor. :-)

As matter of fact Fisher has path in international business and you can create your own path from rich electives which Penn state lacks . Also, you would live in a city where you can access and travel to other locations. Although Fisher is not management consulting feeder, you have small window for opportunity, compared to Penn state which is known as powerhouse for supply chain and students as told during my mba class visit, consider Fisher their rival.

That being said, I doubt that any of them carry any weight internationally. Both are regional American schools. Canada would be better for you if you can afford.

Is GMAT presented in you profile the final GMAT you used to apply to both schools?

Good luck
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Thank you for sharing your insights.

As mentioned above, I understand that Canadian universities (I got partial scholarship offers from Rotman and McGill) could be better fits but it is a financial impediment. As an international MBA candidate in the US, I am aware that it will be challenging to overcome the H1B visa situation and land a full time job + seek jobs in Europe throughout the program in case things don't go as planned. That's why every international applicant should create their own strategy considering various scenarios and use that to leverage their own performance on the essays and, most importantly, the admission interviews. Here's my two cents on the matter: https://www.topmba.com/jobs/career-tren ... ba-jobs-us

And yes, that was my final GMAT score. I got a 590 on my first try, then improved to 610 on my second try. I understand that it can be a bit surprising considering the offers that have been made, but fortunately many universities truly use a holistic approach to review the applications. In my opinion, if you are not from an overrepresented MBA applicant group (e.g. India), there is no need to worry so much about having a GMAT score below 700 depending on the schools that you are targeting. I'm sorry, that's a discussion for another post!
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Ohio State Fisher (full ride) vs. Penn State Smeal (full ride) 27 Dec 2017, 04:16
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And yes, that was my final GMAT score. I got a 590 on my first try, then improved to 610 on my second try. I understand that it can be a bit surprising considering the offers that have been made, but fortunately many universities truly use a holistic approach to review the applications. In my opinion, if you are not from an overrepresented MBA applicant group (e.g. India), there is no need to worry so much about having a GMAT score below 700 depending on the schools that you are targeting. I'm sorry, that's a discussion for another post!
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Hi jordan2020

Thanks for your reply. But actually I was not clear for my question. I meant to tell you that this score could not help you in applying to consulting firms like MBB and big 2nd tier. You need to be at least 700 to get opportunity for interview. I have friends in schools suh KF who have 670 but they study for GMAT during their first year to apply for consulting companies. I think you have good time before the start of the program.
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Joined: 18 Sep 2017
Last visit: 30 Apr 2018
Posts: 5
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Location: Brazil
Schools: Rotman '20 (A$) Desautels '20 (A$) Smeal" 20 (A$) Smith '20 (A$) WP Carey" 20 (D) Urbana-Champaign '20 (A$) Fisher '20 (M$) Carroll '20 (WL) Merage '20 (D)
GMAT 1: 610 Q42 V33
GPA: 3.3
Schools: Rotman '20 (A$) Desautels '20 (A$) Smeal" 20 (A$) Smith '20 (A$) WP Carey" 20 (D) Urbana-Champaign '20 (A$) Fisher '20 (M$) Carroll '20 (WL) Merage '20 (D)
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Ohio State Fisher (full ride) vs. Penn State Smeal (full ride) 27 Dec 2017, 08:26
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jordan2020

And yes, that was my final GMAT score. I got a 590 on my first try, then improved to 610 on my second try. I understand that it can be a bit surprising considering the offers that have been made, but fortunately many universities truly use a holistic approach to review the applications. In my opinion, if you are not from an overrepresented MBA applicant group (e.g. India), there is no need to worry so much about having a GMAT score below 700 depending on the schools that you are targeting. I'm sorry, that's a discussion for another post!

Hi jordan2020

Thanks for your reply. But actually I was not clear for my question. I meant to tell you that this score could not help you in applying to consulting firms like MBB and big 2nd tier. You need to be at least 700 to get opportunity for interview. I have friends in schools suh KF who have 670 but they study for GMAT during their first year to apply for consulting companies. I think you have good time before the start of the program.
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Hi Mo2men,

Oh now I see your point. I am not sure if it would be worth the effort to retake the test (with no guarantees that I would achieve 700+ score considering my nonquant background) because landing jobs in consulting can be extremely difficult if you are not attending a top 20 school. That being said, the fact that Fisher offers an international business major (and Smeal does not) will probably be a key factor on my final decision as this is my desired career field. Career Management's counseling will be very important for me.