Booth ($$$) v. Wharton

There is no way Wharton is worth $100k more than Booth. No. Freakin'. Way.

Unless Penn is willing to negotiate, you should def take the money and enjoy the Windy City!

Congrats for both great schools

I agree with you, If Wahrton is your dream. Graduating from school with less burden is awesome option for your life though. It seems Booth likes you and offered this huge amount.

Good luck

I continue to struggle with this. I am trying to quantify the decision as much as possible but it's a hard pull. I have narrowed it down to the following positives for each:

Wharton
- Brand name (I am currently in finance and intend to work internationally where it holds sway)
- Placement (Wharton has better non-IB finance placement)
- Established older alumni base
- Proximity to NYC
- Classmates (maybe I am wrong, but I get the feeling that Wharton has a lot of people who just missed out on Harvard/Stanford)
-Warmer

Booth
- $$$
- Active young alumni
- Amazing professors
- Amazing city - it's a cheaper NYC

I feel that whatever decision I make it, I will regret it. Either I regret spending a lot for marginal gains, or I regret losing the placement bump and network of Wharton. I had been completely swayed to Booth, but my roommate contextualized that the difference is less than 2 bonus cycles... And now I am lost again.

Given your thought process, go to Wharton. The $100K will be forgotten in the long run.
The reason is... you'll have greater regrets if you go to Booth, than if you go to Wharton. $100K is just that... $100K. Its not the end of the world money.. and you'll be able to afford it overall. You only do an MBA once.. go to a place which will satisfy you the most.

Personally, I'd have chosen Booth.. but that's because I have no fascination with the Wharton name.

Thank you! Could you expand on your reasons btw? Any additional information would be helpful!

I'm assuming you want me to expand on my reasons for preferring Booth over Wharton?
- my post MBA goal is consulting which I'd get a shot at with both Booth & Wharton
- $100K
- I don't have a huge personal fascination with Wharton brand.. not sure exactly why.. maybe the quant heavy/non-collaborative atmosphere perception has influenced me.. and also that it has a huge class size (~850)

In case you were asking me to expand more on my reasoning behind why you should choose Wharton -
- you work in finance, and seem to prefer the Wharton brand much more over Booth
- you are right, Wharton may be tad bit better with non-IB finance recruiting
- you will definitely regret your decision to join Booth specially since the $100K benefit will not be apparent in daily life.. and you'd always be wondering.. "what if"..

Basically, chances of decision regret are much higher if you choose Booth, and comparatively much lower if you choose to spend $100K extra and join Wharton..

I think you should only consider Wharton if what you want is not readily available at Booth, namely opportunities with select hedge funds, venture capitals funds, and private equity funds. That's not to say you won't get in through Booth (a handful of my classmates of mine at Yale got into Bridgewater and KKR; though I'd say they're exceptions not the norm), but you'll maximize your chances at Wharton.

With the exception of raising your own search fund, if working at a buy side firm is not high on your list, you should take that scholarship money.

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Thank you for providing both explanations, I meant the former but the latter was helpful as well. I think together they have helped me refine the question. Namely, what is the difference in placement immediately out of the MBA. Two years post-graduation, the brand difference is negligible at best, but recruiting efforts can vary widely. For consulting and IB, the difference in recruiting in null. However, I do not want to do either of the two.

I am currently in PE and looking to transition to impact investing. However, I would like to maintain PE as my fallback if impact investing does not work out. Wharton has a better program for both of these, but how much better is the question? $100k better? Urg...

Which is exactly the issue, I am currently in PE looking to switch to impact investing, and I feel wharton is stronger at both.

i had several friends at wharton and the impact investing / PE opportunities are more or less the same between Booth and Wharton. If you were dead set on PE and were deciding between booth and HBS/Stanford, I think this would be tougher but Booth at 100K less is a no brainer here.

Really? Wow that's interesting. Perhaps the Wharton name still holds more sway amongst applicants in the finance industry because that's not the general perception. It is supported by the stats however:

Wharton: 9.4% full time PE&VC
Booth: 7.1% full time PE&VC

Wharton tends to get more applicants coming in with PE/VC backgrounds given its proximity to NYC which is the best predictor of getting a PE/VC job after business school. This is largely anecdotal but given a comparable incoming background, there is little difference in post-school outcomes between Wharton and Booth.