Fuqua vs Foster: What factors to decide on?

Hi,

I am an International with a background in Tech and Business. I have a B.Tech degree and worked in Engineer/Development role and then pivoted to a more managerial role in a small Agricomodity Firm (Helped in digitization efforts, so was connected with tech).

My Post-MBA Goal (Declining order of preference)- 1. Tech PM (Think Amazon TPM, Goggle PM) 2. PM (Think Microsoft PM, Amazon PM) 3. PMM 4. Other roles in Tech

I have talked with some current students and was told my background was technical enough to apply for Tech PM. I would still love to hear more perspective on this from others on this forum as Tech places more value on relevant experience than collage brand. I am not sure if my work experience is relevant or not as I didn't hold any PM position. Also, The firm I am currently working in has a PM role and I have internally applied to it, Will that be useful?

I have asked Foster for more scholarship and was told I will hear about the decision by March. I am currently leaning more towards Foster even without the scholarship and below are my reasons for it. Let me know if I am going about this the right way. Would appreciate people poking holes in my decision making.

1. My post-MBA Goals

Now, Foster places really well in Tech and will offer me the same opportunities as Fuqua. I can't make sense of landing the same role, in the same company and with the same pay but paying a premium for it via Fuqua. If its just Tech, I don't think Foster loses to Fuqua in any sense.

2. Network

Now Fuqua has ~400 Daytime MBA students each year compared to ~100 at Foster, so Fuqua has that Bigger network advantage over Foster and since Fuqua places really well in a lot of industries, the breadth of opportunities you will get from networking will be more. But a quick LinkedIn search for Foster Alum and Fuqua Alum in Microsoft, Amazon and Google will show you Foster has ~2300 Alums compared to Fuqua's ~980. If you are in Tech, which anyway cares more about your work, Foster will provide a bigger network than Fuqua and add in the small class size at Foster, the number of Alums to reach out to per student is way more.

3. People

Now more on the subjective matter and based solely on my personal experience, I found Foster students to be more reachable than Fuqua.
During my Application+Interview phase I was able to connect with(Video call/email chat) 5 students and 2 replied and then ghosted (reached out to 14). I thought that might change after I got admitted and even after mentioning I am an incoming candidate, I was only able to connect with 2 students after reaching out to 6. I understand they are in the thick of recruiting and may reply after some time (It has been 2 weeks). This is only my experience and I may have reached out at the wrong time. Also, the people I did connect with were very kind and helpful, so I am not generalizing them as a whole but only comparing my experience. I also don't think the number is too bad to begin with but comparing to Foster is where I am driving my conclusion from. At Foster during Application+Interview phase I reached out to 10 people and connected with 8. After admission I was able to connect with 4 more after reaching out to 5. I also re-connected with 4 people I had reached out to in application phase as they were more than willing to have another call with me to discuss anything I was curious about. Again this is very subjective and it will vary, so don't take my experience as a fact about the schools.

4. Location

Both Seattle and Durham seem like nice cities. As an international, I never paid much attention to cities while applying and even after admission, I hadn't put a lot of thought into. But I do have some connections to Seattle as one of my friends lives in Seattle and my uncle lives in Surrey and often visits Seattle. Now, for the Tech scene, Seattle is obviously a strong location. But I'm not sure how much emphasis I should put into this as Fuqua also places a lot of it's students in Seattle for Tech. I guess if I really want Tech and Tech will eventually lead me to Seattle, it makes sense to be in the city but again I am not sure exactly how important that is or how much should I value location. I'd love to hear more about location advantage from people on the forum. How much will it matter for Tech recruiting compared to being in Durham?

5. Financials

Now, I won't consider only the tuition as I will have to finance all the expenses through loans as I have lil to no savings ( I know I should have known better and saved!!). I don't have a US co-singer and current interest rates on Discover, Prodigy are insane (12% APR). I will most likely take loans from local banks as interest rates here are lower and my parents can act as co-singers to get better interest rates.
So the 2yr total costs are (considering scholarships, internship(tech) and monthly expenses for a good MBA experience (source: current students)):
Fuqua ~190K vs Foster ~100K --- ~90K difference ( *cough cough* sorry the number is tough to swallow)

Now, I am not sure I buy the 90K difference will not matter in the longer term. Sure, it will depend on person-to-person but I feel it will unnecessary add to the stress of MBA and ,maybe not true for everyone, will hinder you from performing your absolute best. For me, I feel if I went to Duke, I will have the pressure to secure a high paying job and might force myself into consulting (not dissing the industry but I don't think its for me) or feel devastated if I don't get Tech PM in Big Tech (FAANG) whereas in Foster I feel I can keep my focus only on Tech and even if I don't get Tech PM in Big Tech, I can still explore other options in Tech without worrying too much about debt (still will have to worry somewhat). Also, I feel life after MBA will be more restricted if I took 190K in loans. I would have to live more conservatively for at least 3-5 yrs (just guessing) with the ever-looming H1B sword over my head.


TL;DR- Fuqua vs Foster. Am I looking at the right factors for making the decision between the two schools? Or What other factors should I consider in my decision making?