Booth vs Haas ($$$)

river has this right - the obsessive people who apply to business school worry about the difference between school x vs school y. There is no argument that would make me take Chicago over Haas with full tuition with that profile.

I did some grad work at Haas when I was doing grad studies at Berkeley, and I'm heading to Booth in the fall with some change. That said, I'm bias towards Booth, but if I was in the poster's position, I would choose Haas. I know plenty of people that came form the program who are in very intersting finance positions. There may, however, be a regional bias, from Haas, you can nab finance positions in CA without much issue...if you want to be on the east coast, Booth will likely win hands down...additionally, the large IBs will recruit much more heavily from Booth.

That said, $100K is a ton of money and Berkeley is one of the greatest towns on the planet. I'd go to Haas without the least bit of reservation. In the end, you're the one that's getting hired, not the degree on your resume. Differentiation at Haas (in particular in finance) will be much easier than at Booth, so you would likely have an edge during on campus recruiting.

Congrats and good luck!

Craig,

what did you choose? how has it turned out? I would love an update.

I am a potential MBA starting this fall 2011. I have been accepted at Booth and I just received an interview invite to Haas. I'm really interested to hear how your story turns out.

Also, I work in a PE-related function right now for a publicly-traded software company right now. Any tips on getting that full-ride to Haas ?

LOL.... No S***...... Booth graduates a truckload more students than Haas so that fact is pretty apparent, but you are speaking in so many hypotheticals. Too many "if's", the scholarship is absolute and I know A LOT of IB's and once you get in if you are not bustin' you tail, you can get past up by a tier 2 let alone another top 10 mba co-worker. Definitely go to Haas.

First of all, congrats! This is a tough decision indeed. Besides the money factor, if the main reason you'll be going to Booth is that it is stronger in finance, remember that things also change when you get to b-school. Unless you are 100% committed to PE no matter what (and perhaps even then), you may decide that you want to do something else after your MBA. Especially at a place like Haas, with Stanford next door and the whole Silicon Valley thing, you may end up at some startup that you really like or a company you yourself start! (esp since Haas is very entrepreneurial)

Also, there are probably lots of mid-tier PE firms on the west coast that you could network with and target....for which you may even have less competition than if you were at a school like Booth or Wharton.

$100k is a LOT of money, especially when compared to nothing. In fact, one good way to help you decide is to call Booth and tell them about your full ride, if they pitch in at least $40k or so, then it may become easier for you to decide to go to Booth.

Best of luck!

Booth for me, but my financial situation may be different as I have most of my tuition already saved up.

I wouldn't go from a Globally recognized top tier to a regional (US level elite) especially if you do intend to goto another country. The ranking bias abroad is much more significant unfortunately.

First off, tell booth about the hass offer. they're a very generous school typically. update them on your progress since your application (bs if you have to) and ask them to reevaluate you for a scholarship. then come back to the forum and let us know what happened. otherwise, now i see hass as the easy conclusion. take the pretax 200k they;re giving you and make it YOUR JOB to find what you want. you'll have less people competing for finance there as well - albeit for less opportuniities perhaps