Ross v. Stern

Hi all,

I have been lucky enough to be accepted at these two programs. Price would be the same (except higher cost of living in NYC of course).

I have lived in NYC for the last six years and have worked in nonprofit consulting. I want to pursue management consulting. I will shoot for the big 4 but would likely be happy at a smaller firm as well. I am also interested in environmental and social impact, and while I don't necessarily expect that those will factor into my first job out of business school, I do think they will factor in longer term.

Ross
-Very solid approach to consulting track
-Strong presence of environmental and social impact related opportunities
-MAP seems wonderful, a chance to travel AND complete a substantive, 7-week consulting project as opposed to some of the fluffier travel opportunities at most schools [I will definitely take advantage of one or two fluffier opportunities as well though]
-Network seems very supportive and enthusiastic
-Where people go after graduation is quite varied (Chicago, Seattle, NYC, and SF all have at least 10% but nowhere has more than 21%), which is both a strength due to potential variety and maybe also a weakness (no one location where Ross is king)
-Ann Arbor seems fine, I'm not in love with it

Stern
-It's in NYC! I'm pretty tied to this city. On the one hand, a break doesn't sound bad. On the other, I will likely want to be in NYC post-school.
-In-semester internships and networking with companies in NYC are opportunities that won't exist in the same way at Ross
-Environmental and social impact opportunities are certainly there but don't seem as ingrained as they are at Ross
-I get the impression that the consulting track is ever so slightly weaker than at Ross, but it's probably functionally about the same?
-Being in a big city, it seems like more people have more of a life outside of business school, which I kind of see as a weakness in terms of network strength and trying new things (could be tempted to fall back on the friends/support system that I already have, although having that support system is a nice thing of course- hard to say if this is a positive or negative I suppose)

Basically, I'm fairly confident about the education and career support at both schools. I don't need to stay in NYC for school, but want to have the option to be there afterwards.