Sloan Vs Booth - brand and network

Question

Both Sloan and booth are top notch MBA programs with specific strengths, and arguably come in the top 5 MBA school. However between the two programs, which school has a stronger brand name and stronger alumni network?

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jessepinkman · Answer

booth

eysh · Answer

Can you please elaborate? It seems that internationally mit is stronger

bb · Answer

Yes. Among general masses, MIT as an overall institution is better known than University of Chicago. So your uncle or may know MIT and not U of Chicago but the employers hiring you would likely know both and aware of rankings.

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Mo2men · Answer

In which environment are you talking? international or domestic? I cab argue that MIT is better brand than Booth but inside US, I think that both are almost equal, with Booth higher in ranking. Both have strong alumni inside US but MIT has wider alumni outside.

stonecold · Answer

MIT all the way.
Much Stronger brand name internationally.

Outside the US-> Many people have no idea what U of Chicago is.
And most know MIT.

In the US the situation might be different.

But I would always choose MIT here.
ALWAYS.

Best
Stone cold

KS15 · Answer

MIT as suggested above.

maas · Answer

This shouldn't even be up for discussion! MIT brand wins in brand hands down. Sloan will always be one of those business schools that no matter the ranking it will still be in people's desired list. (More people apply to Sloan than Booth, and that says a lot since Booth has the highest acceptance rate of the M7 and Sloan one of the lowest). 
Sloan is one of those b-schools that is always mentioned as "MIT Sloan", and not simply because it wants to take advantage of the MIT name, it is because Sloan is REALLY a part of the broader university and MIT lifestyle. Other bschools are a lot more separated from the parent university (pros and cons from that). So if you are a Sloanie, you really are a part of MIT.

TXanonMBAhopeful · Answer

If anything, the fact that MIT must always be mentioned before Sloan suggests that people might not immediately know what Sloan is unless you mention the parent institution. Regardless, it's certainly up for discussion given Booth is higher ranked in all of the MBA rankings, and this post is focused on MBA brand - not overall university brand, which I would agree goes to MIT. For that reason, MIT has the edge internationally, but I don't think it's clear cut in the US, especially among people in the know.

KiloGee · Answer

MIT has the stronger overall University brand, but Booth takes it for MBA. If you look at the successful alumni from both, you will find more mega fund founders, billionaires and CEOs from Booth. I haven’t met anyone who has been accepted to both and chose Sloan.

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eysh · Answer

When I had to make the decision a few months ago, I chose Booth

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mikekudos · Answer

After visiting both campuses, talking to Students, Booth is clear winner. I chose Booth over Sloan too. MIT may have a bigger brand but only for tech. Booth has noble laureates, central bankers and a larger alum community. Booth just got a noble prize too, and looks like rankings are picking that. Booth is tied number 1 with Harvard in US News 2019.

maas · Answer

I picked Sloan over Booth. In fact, during my Booth admit weekend visit last year (Booth First Day), three of the six people I got paired up with ("admit weekend core team") ended up picking Sloan over Booth. Both great programs. But I know a lot of people that chose Sloan over Booth, and with the big discrepancy in acceptance rates (Sloan 11% vs Booth 23%), it could be said that a lot of Sloanies got into Booth, and not a lot of Boothies got into Sloan.

mikekudos · Answer

Haas has acceptance rate almost same as Sloan, at 12%, Wharton has acceptance rate of 19.6%. Still most people choose Wharton over Sloan/ Haas.

mbanyc8 · Answer

Don't think this is true. When I visited Sloan for my interview I met a TON of current students that had gotten into Wharton and chose Sloan. Honestly Wharton seemed like the school with the heaviest overlap. It just depends on what your post-MBA goals are but both have an extremely prominent reputation internationally and domestically (obviously) with MIT winning for tech/entrepreneurship and Wharton for finance.

Haas vs. Wharton I would agree with your statement - Haas' low admission rate is driven partially by the small class size, the relatively cheap in-state tuition and the fact that there are extremely limited options for going to a top-10 school in California (GSB, Haas or bust).

whippersnacker · Answer

I'll be choosing Sloan over Booth. I've met many, many Wharton/MIT dual admits and Booth/MIT dual admits this weekend who are leaning hard towards Sloan as well.

Of course, none of these people are interested in finance and general management, just entrepreneurship / tech / and product design and management. Sloan is a no-brainer choice between the two.

bb · Answer

Here is an overlap of number of applicants applying to Sloan and other schools. There are 186 applicants applying to Sloan and HBS out of 475

swbluedevil · Answer

I totally understand the premise of your question, though there might be better criteria besides overall program brand name / strength of the alumni network if you are trying to choose between these two schools.

As an example, what industry are you interested in? Whether you are interested in finance or tech will likely lead to different answers.

bluegt · Answer

I have lived in Asia for most of my professional career so I will give my 2 cents.

MIT Sloan - Stronger brand generally, the general population is more aware of it and recognize 'MIT' as a good school.

Chicago Booth - Stronger brand in key business centers such as Hong Kong (Current UChicago/Booth Campus) and Singapore (former Chicago Booth Campus). Better branding for the MBA and EMBA. Stronger reputation in Consulting/Finance circles.

As others have said, depends on your goals but if you are looking at Management / Finance / Consulting roles and a potential move to Asia in the future, I would recommend Booth over MIT.

Arro44 · Answer

Very interesting discussion and I think the answer really depends on your country of origin and your goals; as a European I would always choose Sloan over Booth because the brand name of the wider university.

Apart from finance/consulting, the majority of people in Germany (including folks in large companies) is unaware of U of Chicago and would not be able to distinguish it from U of Nebraska, U of North Dakota or U of Hawaii in terms of prestige. (Very similar problem when it comes to U of Virginia Darden btw.)
Whereas MIT is one of the very few US-Schools (among Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton) that is widely known and admired.

When it comes to potentially being forced to work back in my home country due to not getting an H1B visa, it is not possible to seperate the brand of the b-school from that of the wider university.

Just my two cents.

Cheers,
Chris

Sloan Vs Booth - brand and network

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