OLIN-WASHU ($$$) vs ROSS (no $)

My vote would go to Olin. With due respect to Ross, its one of the over-rated school in Top 15. It had an acceptance rate of > 40% couple of years ago.
If Finance is your goal, close your eyes and head to Olin. With 110k you can take a Masters in Finance/Quantitative Finance from Olin along with your MBA and spend 2 years in comfort. Poets and Quants had released salary 20 years after MBA and Michigan rated lower than Emory, in-fact it was among the lowest among Top 20-30 MBAs. You can also write that you received full ride from Olin on your CV . If it was a school that supported without US Cosigner loans. For example if it was Tuck/Cornell then you could have chosen that.

This decision should be based on your financial capacity. If you have to take out loans for the degree I might be tempted to say Olin; disclosure I am an Olin MS Finance grad. But Ross is a better school than Olin. Ross 40% acceptance was just an anomaly this year. It doesn't signify anything important that you should take into consideration. 83% is a pretty good rate. Just saying your post MBA goals are finance/consulting does not really help evaluate anything. If you give a detailed view of your background and post MBA goals then it would a lot easier to evaluate.

But just looking into this with the information provided. I would try and get some money from Ross using the Olin money as leverage. If that does not work out then it kinda shows that you are valued more at Olin than Ross. Being a top candidate at Olin I think would have more clout/same clout as a middle of the pack candidate at Ross.

Other things to consider is the network of these two schools. Ross wins by large margin here. I went to Olin, I think it has a great network but nothing close to the Big10 powerhouse. Now, people tend to disagree how important your schools network is after you land your first MBA job. But in my experience it has come quite handy from time to time.

This is a very tough decision. I would normally say to go with Ross since its higher-ranked and a very strong program (no offense to Olin), but $110K is a huge difference. I would definitely try to chat with someone from Ross, leveraging the Olin offer.

My feeling on this situation specifically and the money/prestige argument in general (full disclosure, I will be attending Olin this fall).

To me, top 15-30 B Schools are similar enough that 110k is just too much of a difference between any two. Let's just say you take exactly 110 out in loans and are paying 5.41 interest (that's current Grad Plus rate for US students). That means a monthly payment of almost $1,200 for 10 years with over 32k in interest attached. The lower COL in STL for the 2 years in the program makes the actual difference around 150k.

Olin has strong placement rates (79/96) and they reported a median finance salary of 100k (91,700 average) a consulting median of 107.5k (same for average) plus a 100k median for industry finance (98 average) for the Class of 2013. With that loan, considering it comes out of post-tax income, you'd need to make at least 20k more per year with a Ross degree just to break even with the debt. In addition, many Olin finance grads get jobs in St. Louis (which isn't paradise IMO) with companies like Edward Jones and that low COL could make it even harder to bridge the difference with your Ross degree.

And even if you can break even short-term, by the time you get out of debt in, say, 2026 how much will the difference between Ross and Olin in 2014's rankings matter to your career prospects? Olin is doing everything they can, including two new buildings, to make a push into the top 15-20 over the next decade - while the self-fulfilling prophecy these rankings create makes it hard to move up, there's a chance the gap between these programs in the future (when it actually matters to you personally) won't be as wide as it is now.

I have a Big 10 undergrad and can vouch for UM's network and reputation in the Midwest, plus watching football at the Big House would be a sweet perk. But unless something changes in your situation, I don't think this is all that hard a decision.