Poll:Cornell with $$$ Vs Kellogg with no $

Kellogg

We’re going into a recession, companies are scaling back hiring, cutting internships and reducing on-campus visits. The first schools to be cut are the ones w/ weaker rankings, alum ties and less of a historic recruiting presence. In this case, that’s Cornell.

Yes, getting all the $$$ at Cornell is great and graduating w/ little to no debt is great too. But what does it matter if you graduate without the job you want? Your first job out of b-school is the most important. If you end up going to Cornell and can’t get placed, you’ll be just another unemployed / underemployed MBA grad with a T15 MBA degree that no one is going to care about compared to m7 grads.

Congrats Dreamer! I think it is a better question for FuturePM91

My initial response would be based on the Johnson's employment reports and it looks like they have 2 out of 3 MBB's recruiting on campus and sent a respectable 27% (72 people) into consulting last year. Kellogg slaughtered it with 165 people going corresponding to 40%.

That is not a guarantee however, and you will be competing with the rest of your classmates because even at Kellogg there are folks who did not get in and it is even tougher for international applicants since not all firms hire. Would you be able to out-perform 80% of your international classmates in interviews, networking, and drive? You have 6 posts on GMAT Club, 2 of which are in this topic so it is hard to tell but you seem to have achieved an awesome GMAT Score.... but can you ace interviews, etc.

80%of tuition - not a small amount. Are you able to pay full tuition at Kellogg? Would you be able to borrow that?

Another thing - Kellogg has the STEM and Johnson does not (at this time that is) https://gmatclub.com/forum/top-stem-mba ... 13573.html. I am still leaning a bit towards the safety of Johnson's scholarship but ever so slightly.

JohnnyBlaze does make a good point that strong school brand names perform a lot better during hard years but that's again not a guarantee of performance but just better chances. How bullish are you about yourself?

Thank you for your feedback... I understand the points you mentioned but I have a CFA and FRM and I am currently in a corp fin profile. That makes me lean towards choosing Cornell slightly.

Do you think this makes sense now? I believe in 2 years, if situation doesn’t improve that much, I can still leverage this and get into corp fin or IB.

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Thank you, bb.

I agree with your points and being an international student, I am not sure how much bullish can I be. And in this scenario, graduating with less debt is the best I can get.

Just to add one point, I am about to get Canada PR. Does that change your opinion on this?

Regarding your point of how much bullish am I, I have always been under confident in life. Academically, I have been among the toppers but I guess MBA is different and that is why I am in this dilemma of choosing between Kellogg and Cornell.

Otherwise, I would have definitely chosen Kellogg.

On a side note, I have started negotiating with Kellogg on scholarship. I know they won’t match at all but how much can I expect at max?

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Kellogg usually doesn’t match any scholarship if you didn’t get it with your admit especially if you’re an international student! I think what ppl discount is that with everything getting scaled back by COVID-19, having plans B, C and D will have to be thought about as well. Kellogg just because of its M7 pedigree, will open up a lot more doors for you.

I recruited for IB out of Kellogg and you have to decide before you start your MBA whether you want consulting or IB as you can’t do both. IB process starts as the first one, just a few days after you start your MBA. You can’t say IB is your plan B. As to your CFA/FRM, these designations will only make it difficult for IB for you as even BB banks have started to scale their intnl recruiting down unless you bring say FIG or Industrials etc expertise. If you do choose Cornell for IB, expect yourself to show upto NY every week or other week to network starting September. This isn’t the expectations for students at Kellogg as it’s not easy to fly to NY every week as Kellogg has Wednesday off instead of Friday (@Cornell).

If money isn’t an issue for you to borrow, go with Kellogg. DM me if you have additional questions.

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Thank you.
Got it.
But why would you say that CFA/FRM will make it difficult for me to recruit for IB?

This is more anecdotal than anything. I was told my multiple MDs in BBs that they want to see that you (as an incoming Summer or FT Associate) someone who can "taught". With advanced degrees and certifications, it only becomes difficult for you to show exactly that. If you can, with utmost confidence, show them that you can 'unlearn' effectively, dont worry about my point on CFA/CRM above.

Super helpful.
Thank you...

Congratulations Dreamer136 on amazing results.
Let us know your final decision

Kellogg

I think you should set your goal first. If you're targeting MBB consulting, then go to Kellogg; it's a different tier. But for finance, Cornell is pretty solid and you can save a lot of money.

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trying to get in both IB and MBB would be brutal (if not impossible) due to the demanding nature of the recruiting for each. Unless you weren't going to class...

... so ... and I don't know the answer here ... does either school have strict grade non disclosure policy? If so, you MAY be able to get away with recruiting for both.

IMO, you'll need to choose a direction before you pick a school ... one will be PLAN A and you'll need to pick plans B-R (!) ... and possibly consider the fit of either school for your backup plans.

Personally, I would take the huge scholarship and commit to outwork and out networking everyone at Cornell.

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Hi everyone,

Thanks for your reply. Just wanted to let you know that between these two I had decided to join Kellogg.

But finally, I have decided to join NYU Stern. They offered me full ride after waitlisting. And between full ride at Stern and no money at Kellogg, TBH it was no brainer for me as an international student.

NYU even offered me a deferral with full ride but I decided to join this year instead

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That's TREMENDOUS news and a SPECTACULAR outcome for you.

Congratulations!

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I concur! This was a no brained for you! I’d take a full ride from Stern over no money from Kellogg all day, every day and twice on sundays! Congratulations!

voted for kellogg

Hi, just wanted to closeloop and let everyone know my final decision. So, between Kellogg with no$ and Cornell with80%$ (even though they offered 100% later) , I went ahead and chose Kellogg.

But as I was making the decision, I was also negotiating with Stern and Stern also gave me Aswath Damodaran full scholarship. May be I was lucky during that time as other people were deferring their admission a d since I already informed the schools that I would be attending the school.

And finally it came to Stern 100% $ vs Kellogg no $ from Cornell 80% $ vs Kellogg no $. I finally decided to attend Stern and honestly I am happy I did that. I would have got the same recruitment outcome had I attended Kellogg instead of Stern and with almost $150k more debt.

P.S: during this whole process, Kellogg didn’t budge. My assumption is that since they didn’t allow deferral till last moment and they admitted a lot of people, they didn’t have any incentive to give me money. At last, they wanted people to back out because of the bigger batch size and they offered deferral, too! But that didn’t help.

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