ace312 wrote:
Hello,
I am in a bit of a bind here. I have been offered a scholarship with 60K scholarship towards my tuition at Cox (BW ranking -29, Average starting salary 87K, Placement: b/w 70-80% 3 months after graduation) at the same time my admit from McCombs (BW ranking -17, Average starting salary 98K, Placement: 95% 3 months after graduation) has no scholarship.
A little background here, I am an international applicant in my early 30s looking for an operations/strategy role in Oil and Gas. My backup plan is to pursue a consulting role at Deloitte, PWC or E&Y. Post-MBA I do not mind staying in Texas.
Now, I did not get to attend preview weekend at McCombs however I was impressed by my future classmates at Cox. However, the GMAT average at Cox (640) is much lesser than McCombs (690). I feel my classmates at McCombs would be of a higher caliber and I could learn from them vs an average experience at Cox. Also, when it comes to case interviews I think I would be better prepared at McCombs vs Cox because McCombs is a feeder school for Deloitte and a lot of my classmates would be preparing for a role in consulting. However, some of my friends disagree. They say I have much better chance to shine and be noticed at Cox by recruiters than be just average in large class at McCombs.
However, in spite of all these positives, I am looking to take a 95K loan with 14% interest from a foreign bank if I end up going to McCombs. My payments post MBA will be anywhere b/w 1500-2000$ per month, which is a substantial amount. Given my post-MBA goals I am not sure if such a substantial investment is worth it at this point in my life and career. My last option is to forgo both schools and apply next year to M7 schools but not sure if I should wait given my age. Please give me your insights and thanks for reading, much appreciated!
My two cents would be McCombs barring any immediate financial concerns. If your debt laden/have pressing concerns that might make the debt burden clearly prohibitive in the future, that might change it. However applying to an M7 next year is never a given, the financial issue won't change, you'll be a year behind and McCombs has as good of a route into O&G as anyone.