Ross vs Darden vs Tuck Vs Stern

Any current students/ admitted students from ross/stern would like to add in their thoughts? That would also be helpful. Thanks.

I would aapreciate comments from other fellow applicants. Keep your votes flowing also

Take a look at Stern's latest employment reports, compared to those of 2010-11.
It looks like consulting recruiting is growing on the expanse of I-Banking.

It makes sense and sits well with what you were told during your interview.

https://www.stern.nyu.edu/portal-partner ... /index.htm

Thanks for pointing this out.


[quote="freetz"]Take a look at Stern's latest employment reports, compared to those of 2010-11.
It looks like consulting recruiting is growing on the expanse of I-Banking.

It makes sense and sits well with what you were told during

Take Darden: its case method is closer to cases you need to crack for your interviews in consulting.
Take Stern if you really want to work in NY.

Why you applied to Tuck , if you dont like it??

Choose school based mainly on what industry you want to work in. If you want to in financial services go to NYU without a moment of hesitation. Consulting - Tuck. Tech - Ross/Tuck. Decide on which industry you would rather work go, decision of school becomes easy.

Have you made your decision? Where did you end up?

hello everybody

I liked the inputs on this thread a lot so request all the members here to advise me.
I'm an Indian male (but NOT an IT pro)... I'm an Electrical Engineer having approx 5 years of experience in the heavy Manufacturing and Power sectors.
GMAT: 720
TOEFL: taking in October-2016 end
High School: 91.3%
Grad (Engineering): 73.4% (we're not awarded the CGPA stats)
Extra-curriculars: Theatre, literary events winner since long, school captain

Actually, I have just started researching US b-schools. My post-MBA goal is to enter Management Consulting.
I have following queries:

1) I'm really confused about schools, recruiters, stats etc. I don't know much about the USA. So can anyone help me out in my strategy for applying to the schools.

2) I'm planning to apply for Kellogg, Darden, Ross, Tuck, NYU, Sloan. Can anyone please suggest me a preference order or something like that so that I may have a starting point.

3) What are my chances of getting a scholarship from any of these colleges since I would be really needing it and it can be a big deciding factor for me.

4) At what point of time do we know about the scholarship decision. Is it before or after the final offer acceptance deadline? I mean, in case I accept the offer and submit the fee only to know at a later stage that I have not received any scholarship, then I would be stuck since I'm very low on finances.

Please help me out since the Round-2 deadlines are fast approaching and I'm not much aware of US b-schools

Thanks and Regards,

Abhishek

I would pick Darden.

I don't see many people talking about Ross, so I'll try to supply some information about U Mich to give you a perspective about it. I just got into Ross (yay) and already spent 5 years at U Mich earning a bachelors and masters in engineering. That being said, I will try to be unbiased in my info, and I do understand there are better MBA programs (if I get into one I'd go to it as well).

First you need to understand how strong your preference is for one location/post-MBA career over another. I'd be nice if you could please specify you preference and how sure you are of each (I saw plan B as consulting, plan C as tech, but how strongly do you feel about each). All that being said, here are some things to consider about Ross and U Mich in general:

Pros:
Diversity of employment: Out of all the school you listed, diversity of employment is best at U Mich. Because it performs well (mostly top 10) in all categories of education, it gets the best recruiters from nearly every industry (tech, consulting, industry, etc.). If you are unsure of what you'd like to do, this can be a huge plus. This doesn't just go for which company, but also which location you want. If you want the east coast, the other three schools are better, but Ross still places well on it. In the Midwest and West, Ross has them all truly beat and places on par in most other places (maybe not as well in the south as Darden). The other three schools don't offer the same employment diversity as Ross, but do place on par or better in consulting (except NYU, which is more financially focused).

Alumni: The alumni I'd put second to Tuck in terms of sticking together and 1st in size according to your list. The U Mich alumni network is huge (Ross obviously not as much, but that isn't as big a deal when you have 400k plus alumni in toto (thats what they say anyways, I'll try to verify)) I'll admit I don't know many people from NYU or Darden, but the ones I do know don't talk about their alum the same way as Michigan (and from what I hear Tuck) alum do. Some say a more competitive feeling at those schools (especially NYU because of the nature of financial) hinders the bonding (I'm more than willing to hear a varying opinion on this). I know many Mich alum (including myself) who go out of their way to give Michigan first crack at jobs and it's a very collaborative school in general (this culture you should learn about at each school, do you like collaboration or competition). Also, all major Big 10 schools exhibit this, but U Mich is one of the best. I've traveled for weeks at a time and met Michigan alum who yell out Go Blue in every single city I visited (this is not an exaggeration, it did happen and continues to). Tuck also offers an excellent alumni experience (focused around the business school at least), and should not be discounted.

Placement Stats: The stats for Michigan are really only second to Tuck in my opinion (by 1%!!!) and doesn't completely cover the whole story with regards to internships (the released stats from all the schools are similar (note a few percentage points difference literally correlates to approx. 10 people from the schools) so read them as you will). Having studied statistics in school and for work, I'll say the employment stats when they get this close to 100% start to mean nothing with the sample sizes being used. Anything above 95% is essentially chance unless the school is bigger than 400 people (I'm willing to hear a counter to this). For internships: Michigan usually has school from August to end of April. This means for internships we get first crack at a lot of companies because we need to interview earliest. This helps on a competition levels as well as gives you an extra month of interning at some place compared to rivals. Take this as you will. For consulting, Tuck places best, followed by Mich/Darden, followed by NYU. Location and educational diveristy also plays a key role in who you will work with at a consultancy. NYU consultants work much more on the financial side, Tuck and Darden are more diversified than NYU in that regard and Michigan is the most diversified in regards to consulting specialty because of its home in a tech heavy small city and near the auto manufacturers and Chicago.

Neutral:
City of Ann arbor: It's not a big city, but its one of the largest college towns and certainly one of the best all around (other rankings agree on this). This is more a preference thing, but I was never bored at the university or in the town. It has excellent food selection for a city its size and plenty of entertainment within 5-20 minutes from campus (walking or driving). Detroit is there, but I never really went that much (no reason). It's part city, part forest so acts as a good mix if you like urban or other life. Everyone in the city loves the school and it constantly is rated one of the most educated cities/towns in the country (it shows). Art and culture were widely available, and the clubs cover every sport or desire one could have. I won't even get into football (and hockey) at the school. I put all these under neutral because this depends on preference more so than being good or bad.

Student body: Before choosing Michigan I got into other great engineering school ranked higher on almost every conceivable list. I visited the school and fell in love with it. One of the best parts is the people. They are extremely kind and down to earth (I come from SoCal, the complete opposite in some regards). Educationally they cover a wide range, but I rarely felt anyone was incapable of quality work and many were definitely far ahead in prowess. The school prides itself on diversity and it shows. The state of Michigan makes it hard to diversify the school more (this is based on the laws governing it), but the school is extremely warmhearted to all walks of life. The school definitely leans liberal (probably second to Berkeley), but it does not mean it is one track in its mindset. The main constant seems to be people accepting one another for their differences and intellectual prowess (some online articles may say Ann Arbor is anti-this or that, but it's simply not true).

Location: This is highly personal in regards to where you want to end up. Your other three schools are on the East Coast; Michigan is just south of the great lakes.

Negatives:
Weather: Yeah...if you like 4 seasons, this place along with the others is excellent. If you hate snow and slush, run.

Ranking: Tuck is clearly ranked higher, Darden about equal, and NYU below. Personally I think rankings between these don't mean as much (they are all roughly 7-15) and that part of the rankings are based on selectivity which doesn't directly correlate with how good a school is at making its students better. If Harvard had lower selectivity, but produced the same quality student they do now, they'd be ranked lower, which seems off...

I've tried to provide a good rundown of the school, but of course can't cover everything. In my opinion, if you are set on consulting and the east coast, darden and tuck are your better bets hands down. They are equal or stronger in those areas and you even have money from one. If you want tech or a job further to the west or are not sure about what you want in a job/location, Michigan and Ross offer better opportunity at the expense of $$$ and a small bit of your chances of getting into consulting. NYU, from what you seem to have stated, seems the weakest of the 4. Hopefully others can put in their 2 cents (especially from the other schools on the list so comparison is easy). Good luck deciding and congrats