Simon 2012 - Calling all Applicants

I am an R3 applicant. Received a scholarship of $30K. Any one from India who is heading to Rochester this fall ? Any idea, how far is rochester from New York city? How good are the career prospects post MBA for finance/ consulting?

Thanks for sharing. FYI, it takes around 7 hours from Rochester to NYC by train.

Hey guys,

how are you doing ? How many of all those admitted students actually decided to attend Simon this fall ?... I am in .

I would most probably decline the offer. Albeit the administration of the school is really a wonderful one. Liked it so much.

how was the scholarship weekend? did the administration increase your scholarship? if so, to how much? i'm still undecided about the offer. what other b-schools are you considering?

Hi, I didn't attend the event. I got an offer from another school, and while Simon asked if they can do anything to keep me in their raw I realized that they cannot. Even with a full scholarship I would not change the mind.

Why cannot you decide? Unless you were accepted by a top 20 schools, I think full funding at Simon is a pretty good idea.

which other school did you get an offer? i also have other offers from other b-schools in the same tier/cluster as simon, but the other schools are located in much better areas--better weather and more importantly many more job opportunities. i agree that the administration is among the best i've encountered.

Fuqua. The location is as well not a good one. A friend of mine was accepted by UCLA. I don't think that I would have changed Duke for UCLA based solely on the location of the school. Though, they are almost from the same cluster.

Wow, congrats! Duke (Fuqua) is a great business school. With a business school such as Fuqua (trans-elite/elite tier/cluster), location does not matter because top firms across the country, especially management consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, Bain & Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, etc.), will come to Fuqua and recruit aggressively. Therefore, the location of Fuqua does not matter as much in terms of job opportunities.

On the other hand, most non-top 20 schools are regional schools where most of the school's quality job placements are generally limited to certain geographical regions (usually close to the area of where the school is located). Although not impossible, to get a quality job offer beyond the regional area would be unusual.

Did Fuqua offer you funding? Regardless, congrats again on your amazing accomplishment!

Wow navra ... Duke is an amazing school. Congrats for your admission. All the best.

Rwbaut, may I know what are the other schools from which you have an admit? Even I have offers from other schools BU & Olin. However I am more inclined towards Simon as it is one of the best schools in Finance & Marketing, areas of my primary concentration

Thank you, I appreciate your congratulations. I can say that behind any amazing accomplishment stands no less amazing efforts. However, I somewhat risked in that rather than applying to 5-7 schools I have narrowed the target extremely and invested great in only my application to Duke. For example, being an international student I visited Duke twice. I think this has played some role in the decision time. I didn't have a strong profile to begin with. So compensated poor profile with passion, loyalty and good research. Haven't heard on funding matter yet. I performed quite bad during interview - weak language skills. So I'm not overly relied on good if any funding.

What schools are you choosing among?

[/quote]

Wow navra ... Duke is an amazing school. Congrats for your admission. All the best.

Rwbaut, may I know what are the other schools from which you have an admit? Even I have offers from other schools BU & Olin. However I am more inclined towards Simon as it is one of the best schools in Finance & Marketing, areas of my primary concentration[/quote]

Thank you Sravan. My congratulations with your funding at Simon. It's quite above average. Even with Duke's admission I was still very attracted to Simon. Really fell in love with their hospitality, the way they invest in students. Top 20-40 schools have to compete fiercely to attract and retain strong applicants, and, it seems to me, Simon is doing great in this respect.

Among other schools, I am also seriously considering Georgetown (McDonough) and USC (Marshall). While Simon is a highly ranked program in finance, please keep in mind that this high ranking is largely due to its faculty publication and research production in the field of finance, not due to its job placements of MBA students into top banking/financial services firms. This is why Simon has consistently placed its Ph.D. Finance graduates into top 20 b-schools' tenure-track faculty positions, although MBA graduates are generally not placed into coveted Wall Street investment banking or investment management positions. Instead, the vast majority of finance jobs that Simon MBA graduates get are corporate finance positions with Fortune 500-1,000 companies (i.e., Xerox, Kodak, Bausch & Laumb, Paychex, etc.) near the school's geographical area.

I agree. Simon's hospitality and the way they invest in students is second to none. This is one of the main reason I am still considering Simon. At the end of the day, it's important to go to a school where you feel comfortable, and where you will get the support and attention you need to achieve your goals.

I've got to say that it's a tough choice. I heard much about Georgetown, the location is surely great and it has many schools that are extremely selective, though, admittedly, not its business school.

Does anyone know when R4 result will come out? Do we have to wait until May 15? I interviewed with them two weeks ago. Thanks.

They reply on a random basis. It's not necessarily that they will inform only on May 15. The deadline for deposits for R2 applicants is April 13. Some of admitted people would accept the offer, others would decline it. So they might update you on your case next week once they become more aware of the number of candidates who would enroll. I received my answer on the third business day after interview, so you can receive it on any coming day.