HBS vs GSB vs Wharton Lauder

Congratulations on your admits. Thank you so much for putting your thoughts down and give me a sense of what matters to you. That’s helpful to understand where your mind is and your priorities. I can imagine, three people could easily argue why each of these three schools is the best for them and they would not be wrong 😂

We do have one rule for this sub-forum, that’s extremely crude and maybe even stupid but it goes something along these lines, if you get admitted to Harvard, go to Harvard 🤦‍♂️

All right, that was a pretty crude answer but simple answers tend to sometimes cut through some of the noise. I think you have some fantastic opportunities and it will be hard to make the wrong decision. But… that’s not a very satisfying answer to know that you did not make a wrong choice. I would like to point out a few items on your list that are a bit of a noise. First, all of these programs are huge in size. They will be extremely diverse. You will have pretentious people and super humble people and super loud and super quiet. I know sometimes we make conclusions and have certain impressions based on our experiences but I can tell you that all of these programs will have extremely impressive and accomplished individuals who will push you. You may think that Harvard is pretentious but that is incorrect. You may think that Wharton is a party school but that is also incorrect. Those are generalizations that may be partially correct but they’re not absolutes. During the first two weeks in business school, everyone go posture and everyone will be the biggest jerk they can be. I cannot explain why this happens but it happens in every school for the first two weeks everyone puts on a show and they’re all puffed up. Two months later, everyone is a kitten , the masks are off the pretenses are off and you’re working towards a common goal of finding jobs. Having a European background, and going to US school, I was kind of disappointed with my American classmates. A year later, I learned that while they were loud and it seemed like they were partying, that was more of an image than the reality and they actually studied hard, were smart, and were super kind. Bottom line, I wouldn’t worry about Harvard or Wharton image per se. I think you’ll find at least a few hundred people who will be similar to your views and perspectives at any point in time. You’ll have more than ample pool friends and like-minded individuals, whatever your mind is.

In terms of brand name recognition for Stanford, especially outside of the US, I could also argue it somewhat of a noise… first of all, while it may not be a household name in Europe and your store clerk or your cousin may not be intimately familiar with it, for your venture capital team will know it’s quite well. Second, the power of the school is the brightest and most important first year after graduation. 3 to 4 years later, or even two years later, you are relying on your professional Netwerk and your work connections. It’s kind of card and a bit awkward to start pinging alarms if you’ve graduated a few years ago. It’s not weird and you will have people respond to you but it’s just a little awkward and you would have a much stronger response if you connected through your professional Netwerk that is more recent. So I would not worry about Stanford’s name in Europe per se.

My primary focus would have been on finding a job after graduation. I venture capital being still somewhat concentrated in bay area, you do have some first dibs going to Stanford and leveraging their connections, their network, professors, etc. Do you mean advantage is being on the ground and Near the money. However, if you are going to recruit off-campus and on your own in a fair fight, I doubt there’s much of a difference between Stanford or Harvard. Many of your classmates at both programs would have been admitted to both. Some of them may have very strong feelings why they would only go to Stanford and others would have Very strong feelings why they’re happy they did not go. Sam may be conflicted and wishing they made the other choice. By the way, something to prepare you to, as you will be disappointed which ever choice you make. That is a human nature and even at the best of the best, things will fall short of your expectations and you will be disappointed with something. so keep your expectations low.

At the end of the day, as conflicted as I am to break my own crude rule, I can see you recommending Stanford. It would be easy to connect with local venture-capital alums. I know mania quite open and as long as you’re not wasting their time, they will be happy to help you out. By the way, I believe we have done some analysis about where people go if they had a choice between Harvard and Stanford. I will try to dig it out and post to link here. I’m on my phone so it’s a little bit hard to copy paste 😬

PS. The final piece of my novel, what we are looking and considering right now in terms of how Harvard or Stanford or Wharton impacts your trajectory and why it is so hard, is because chance, luck and uncertainty probably count for 75% of the outcome so we’re kind of basing your choice based on 25% of certainty and among those 25%, 20% are exactly the same among both programs and it’s really the 5% out of 100 that we are dissecting here. I’m not saying this to indicate this is not useful, simply indicating why it is so hard and perhaps agonizing at times. Again, awesome job!

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