[SOLVED] CBS vs. Booth vs. Kellogg vs. Wharton WL

1 - Congratulations on the admits! Very impressive!

2 - My sketchy attempts at helping ...


Northwestern
3t - USNWR MBA Rank
? (not in top 12) - Finance Specialty Rank
? (not in top 12) - Accounting Specialty Rank
? (not in top 12) - Entrepreneurship Specialty Rank
3 - Management Specialty Rank
8.7% into PE & VC

9 - USNWR JD Rank (overall)
12 - Business Law Specialty Rank (peer assessment rank = 4.1)
12t - Contract Law Specialty Rank (4.2)
3t - Tax Law Specialty Rank (4.3)
3% into private industry (JD only stat)
18% into private industry (JD/MBA only stat)

Chicago
3t - USNWR MBA Rank
2 - Finance Specialty Rank
5 - Accounting Specialty Rank
? (not in top 12) - Entrepreneurship Specialty Rank
? (not in top 12) - Management Specialty Rank
8.1% into PE

4t - USNWR JD Rank (overall)
7 - Business Law Specialty Rank (peer assessment rank = 4.3)
1t - Contract Law Specialty Rank (4.7)
7t - Tax Law Specialty Rank (4.0)
2.1% into private industry (4yr avg)

Columbia
8 - USNWR MBA Rank
4 - Finance Specialty Rank
? (not in top 12) - Accounting Specialty Rank
? (not in top 12) - Entrepreneurship Specialty Rank
? (not in top 12) - Management Specialty Rank
9.2% into PE, LBOs & VC

4t - USNWR JD Rank (overall)
1 - Business Law Specialty Rank (peer assessment rank = 4.8)
1t - Contract Law Specialty Rank (4.7)
10 - Tax Law Specialty Rank (3.9)
0.7% into private industry

....................

Knowing what very little I know, and if tax law is your primary interest, I would go to Northwestern. Otherwise, pull out a coin and flip over the other two ... probably making sure the coin is weighted to favor Chicago a bit.

And I can strongly see how having a JD elevates to the Partner level more quickly, especially if you are ever going to be lead on raising your own fund.

Always kellogg

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I'm in a similar situation to you as an existing PE professional looking to reenter the industry post-MBA (just in a different location/different fund). If I were you, I'd just look on LinkedIn to see which school has more alumni at the firms you want to work at and in the city you want to be in. Not being from the U.S., I don't have a good idea of which would come out on top. Would appreciate if you have any thoughts to share on my poll too. All the best!

Talk to students in both programs at each school. Also considered these 3 programs. Am at CBS. The people were 100% the reason. It was between Booth and CBS for me personally (didn't jive with Kellogg folks at all) and I couldn't be happier. That said, CBS is not for everyone.

PE/VC is well represented at CBS. Great connections. Obviously the JD program is pretty baller here too. Cannot speak for the other schools, but I doubt you'd regret choosing any of the three - and CBS is awesome.

Look to reach out to someone at CBS in the Hermes program. There will be JD/MBAs there very willing to chat with you.

Congrats on your success.


ETA: the person up there that ranked specialties and put ? for CBS specialty rankings didn't seem to figure out we don't have specializations at CBS. You get an MBA - what you want to do with it is up to you.

Hey everyone! Quick update - wound up getting off the waitlist at Wharton (fortunate enough to say I went 9/10 on acceptances!) and narrowed the choice down to Wharton and Booth. Settled on Booth for a number of different reasons:

1. Gelled much better with the UChicago crowd and all the current students and alums I talked to also spoke effusively about the school. The Whartonites spoke of their experience in positive terms, but always included one or two conditions ("I liked my experience at Wharton but...). To that end, alot of the Wharton students spoke very negatively about the school and its decision to go virtual. Felt a bit too sharp-elbowed for me.

2. I'm originally from the Midwest and am attracted to the region long term.

3. In case the JD/MBA program doesn't work out, I'd like to stay on the private equity track. I viewed Booth as the slightly better finance school, although both schools are obviously fantastic. I realize this is probably contrary to what a lot of people suspect, but some of my research suggested Wharton's success in placing kids in PE has more to do with the type of student/background it attracts than anything else.

4. I think Booth is slightly more ascendant in the rankings and, while I have a tremendous amount of respect for Whartonites, I don't buy into the idea that Wharton is on the same plane as HBS and GSB (and thus on a different plane from UChicago). I don't think the rankings, acceptance rates, job placements, post-grad salary stats, nor any other data points (other than the East Coast and Ivy League affiliations) support the idea that Wharton should be considered entirely separately from the other b schools that aren't HBS and GSB.

5. Situational factors - Wharton announced fairly early on that they were going fully virtual for the entire year. UChicago has at least pretended to be going back to ~50% in person classes. I had a Wharton student reach out to me when Wharton made its announcement and beg me to go to another school, claiming that Wharton "didn't treat its students right."

6. Forgot to mention one thing - I was super attracted to Booth's bend toward academic / research and its healthy balance between the case method and traditional teachings. I think Booth has three Nobel laureates on staff (and got a 4th last week). This isn't to say I'll be lucky enough to get into a class or lab with one of the laureates, but I've sensed, as I've registered for classes, that the school's ability to attract Nobel-level talent has begotten a chain migration of sorts; many of the younger professors are doing very interesting, cutting edge-type research.