k-rag wrote:
I am choosing MIT Sloan.
I considered all the advice, including that from rhyme and lepium. In the end it is the focus of the E&I that really attracts me to MIT Sloan.
Thinking to the future my thoughts were: "After all is said and done, will I regret not having what the OTHER program had to offer."
With Wharton, I would have that lingering thought "What if I was in the E&I right now?". Sloan is strong enough in all other aspects that I don't think I will miss too much the other way.
Addressing rhymes' question 5 - to be honest, in terms of getting an education focused on new ventures there is simply nothing like E&I. It is so much more than just e-ship classes and the b-plan competition, it is hard to know where to start. Several collegues who had Wharton as an option felt similarly that Wharton's entreprenuership track is great, but really seems to be shadowed by the finance heavy aspect of the school. Sloan feels more entrepreneurial.
From the VC-track perspective, this is a gamble. From limited datapoints out there, it seems the E&I is already fostering huge VC/Student interaction. Years and decade down the road, if E&I flourishes, then there will be disproportionate # of startups coming from Sloan (more so than even now), making the Sloan network stronger in that space. Speculative gamble, but one must make big bets to win big. In poker parlance, "we are deep and I'm calling a gutshot for implied odds".
This was such a hard decision, as the Wharton brand and network is so strong. In the end, as with any M7 caliber school, I don't think I'm giving up much with Sloan, and particularly in tech specializations, I think I will be better off. In terms of network, I'll have not only MIT Sloan, but MIT. In addition, I really felt more at home with the MIT Sloan crowd.
Thanks GMAT Club for all the help through this journey. I'll definitely be back here to lend perspective once in school.
k-rag:
I just ran across this post (4 years later!) and am in roughly the same boat. Can you provide some input on how your choice panned out, if you would do it differently, etc etc. Now it is the GC members looking for advice from you
.