Owen vs. McComb?
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02 May 2018, 14:47
Trying to decide between UT & Vandy. There's some monetary assistance for both, but I'm not including as I don't want that to skew any feedback. Hopefully the long term benefits outweigh the short term extra cash in the wallet that will be blown at bars in Austin or Nashville anyways. Partially kidding.
A few things to consider that might be unique to my upcoming decision:
- My goal is to end up back in OKC, where I grew up (cool with Dallas/Houston/Austin short-term).
- Career goal is to start or purchase an oilfield services company (current Director of Corp Dev for a services company in Houston & plan to grow my future business via M&A).
- For those (probably all) not familiar with Oklahoma's economy, 1. it's dominated by Oil & Gas, 2. a majority of the people making plays in the industry are local and went to OU/OSU or didn't attend college at all, so it's highly relationship/work ethic/just get out there and get the damn job done driven. Point 2 is changing for the better, but that will take decades to materially shift.
- Most Oklahoman's don't associate Texas as a top 20 MBA program. When I say I'm deciding between the two, they call me a trader for UT and then say "wow" with a face-pop when I say Vandy, which most associate as a top program due to their prestigious, somewhat 'foreign' overall reputation. Everyone is blown away when they hear that UT has a significantly better program than SMU.
- I work with a lot of PE firms and have spoken to quite a few about summer internships (if nothing else, it'll further develop my M&A/opportunity recognition skills), so that's a possible short term route post-MBA. Most have said I can't go wrong with either and that they'll hire from both.
- I've visited both schools and was absolutely blown away by UT's brand new facility, the amount of students walking around/collaborating and the resources they'll be able offer locally/regionally. I was surprisingly underwhelmed with my trip to Vandy (I saw more people in UT's new Rowling Hall than I saw on the entire Vandy campus, and I like that), but was impressed with how well the first year students knew each other and interacted during the class I sat in on.
Long story short, to me, McCombs is the gold standard in Texas and the resources and connections available for someone wanting to stay in the area and work in O&G are probably second to none. But, to the people I'll be working with/competing against/interacting with in OKC, Vandy holds a significantly more amount of weight, even if that isn't justified by actual program standards, and the connection base there will be on a national scale, which, to me, has its pros and cons. Curriculum and all other things considered, I'm very excited about both. I wouldn't have applied if I didn't think the school was set up for what I want to learn/gain from a program.
Basically everyone that I have reached out to regarding this decision has mentioned the good things about both schools and then said they're not sure which one they would attend. I know it's 100% my decision, but some of the smartest/most respected people I know can't provide an edge to one or the other, so here I am.
Thanks in advance for any feedback received!