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What path would you take if you were in my shoes?

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aspiring2023xyz
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P.S. Saw you restructured your post a bit or perhaps I have a memory issue :angel:

I don't know why people would scoff at Sloan or CBS compared to Booth and Kellogg. Yes, Kellogg got at the top of the US News fishy rankings a few times and Booth had been there too but I feel US News' pain - it is hard to evaluate a school completely and say this is a top program and this one is slightly lower.

Each program shines and excels in their light. Booth has been a finance focused Wharton-stocker while Kellogg robbed of all finance opportunities was looking towards Tech and really excelled in marketing aspects of Tech. Many claim it is the best program for PM (don't confuse that to mean you get hired into PM).

On the other hand Sloan has a huge international brand name recognition due to the parent institution.

I would say Columbia is the least blingy but plays somewhat hard to get and also somehow I find it less talked about program? I can't explain why since it is a strong and large program. Perhaps that's the NYC base that it leverages and has enough applicants that it does not need to scour the rest of the country or world to be super engaged by folks. I don't see it often in MBA Fairs and other places though it did attend the random MBA Tour in March 🤷‍♂️

P.S. I would not necessarily lose sleep over it. I don't think Columbia students do :lol:
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P.S. Saw you restructured your post a bit or perhaps I have a memory issue :angel:

I don't know why people would scoff at Sloan or CBS compared to Booth and Kellogg. Yes, Kellogg got at the top of the US News fishy rankings a few times and Booth had been there too but I feel US News' pain - it is hard to evaluate a school completely and say this is a top program and this one is slightly lower.

Each program shines and excels in their light. Booth has been a finance focused Wharton-stocker while Kellogg robbed of all finance opportunities was looking towards Tech and really excelled in marketing aspects of Tech. Many claim it is the best program for PM (don't confuse that to mean you get hired into PM).

On the other hand Sloan has a huge international brand name recognition due to the parent institution.

I would say Columbia is the least blingy but plays somewhat hard to get and also somehow I find it less talked about program? I can't explain why since it is a strong and large program. Perhaps that's the NYC base that it leverages and has enough applicants that it does not need to scour the rest of the country or world to be super engaged by folks. I don't see it often in MBA Fairs and other places though it did attend the random MBA Tour in March 🤷‍♂️

P.S. I would not necessarily lose sleep over it. I don't think Columbia students do :lol:

bb!
First of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH for both replies. Honestly, getting your input feels like a huge honor... I haven't used this forum too much (given the last minute applications and the scattered brain), but your legend is sung everywhere. It's incredible how much impact you've created for people's careers and lives.

Secondly, I saw your first reply and had so many thoughts I wanted to follow up with to get more of your input / wisdom. Short on time, silly me just clarified "entrepreneurship" and added that school comparison question that's been coming up since I started asking around for opinions and input. I thought I'd come back later for a more extensive write-up in response to your 10 super helpful points, but you beat me again :P I'll still do that later, and really look forward to (and appreciate) anything you have to share.
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Thanks! Congrats again on admits and thanks for putting thoughts into it. It is a pleasure to see a nice post and hopefully help with the decision. I am checking it out.

1. I would say that recruiting for Tech, consulting and any mass-hire industry is likely going to be circumstantial differences. You won't get hired because of CBS or dinged because of Sloan so it hardly matters

2. The only difference in hiring will be based on niche hiring or networking and networking is very very much driven by chance and opportunity. Places like VC like to see relevant experience - IB/PE/etc. I would say it is hard even if you are a knight Hennessey scholar at GSB. If you don't have the right background/demonstrated ability, raw chances are bad since many other applicants do and the best shot is going through a referral/network but an alum won't vouch for you unless they really know you so having lots of sloan or cbs alums in a particular firm/industry may not matter if you never have the time/opportunity to get to know them and build a relationship.

One idea that one of the MSx folks did was connect with some of the alums while they were making their choice and deciding, asking alums what they thought about the program and about his choice of industries/etc. My understanding he had a lot of alums open up their calendars and willing to help make the decision. After attending, it is easy to potentially call the same folks who talked to you 6 months ago and say "OK, you got me into your program, now it is time for you to help me out with an internship since you said it was going to be easy..." basically guilt them into it but you know what I mean - you build your network way early!

In terms of Culture/Community - I am kind of mixed and pessimistic about judging it. What determines the culture?
I feel that's sometimes the school can influence and sometimes that's something the students define/influence and it is driven by perception and driven by people. etc. E.g. I am sure the Ross culture may have changed once Sujin left last year and there was another leader/other priorities identified. I can say that any bschool will have pros and cons and things that are dumb and annoying. But in a program with 900 people who are choosing between CBS and Sloan, you are probably not the only one making that choice and you are not the only one getting admitted and it is not like one school attracts jerks or party folks and others attract only nerds. These are perceptions and I would not worry about perceptions since you will connect, make friends, make enemies, etc in all programs.
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Congratulations on your admits! Here are some scattered thoughts/ideas from one scattered brain to another :lol: Good luck deciphering!
I am a bit conflicted with my recommendation and have a few questions (below as well)

    1. When you say entrepreneurship, what exactly do you have in mind? It is great you have been in a startup already but H1B can be tricky a barrier for a startup to hire an international candidate. Though perhaps I am not thinking correctly what you mean by entrepreneurship so correct me here if I am off.
    2. Startup pay tends to be stock-loaded and not cash-rich most of the time, so lower debt would be helpful though I don't think paying $1,500 vs. $2,000 per month is going to make such a difference
    3. Sloan is expensive as well and I think tuition is one of the most expensive... 😇
    4. Sloan/MIT brand is strong among non-MBA's and may help a tiny bit. I also feel lots more startup programs are available at Sloan/MIT than Columbia - is that just me?
    5. Consulting/Sponsorship. I am hearing lots of rumblings in this space (you probably do more than I do as you are more connected) so not sure if this will be put on hold for some reason if things get really tight but it does not seem you are considering it anyway.
    6. Reapplying seems to be somewhat of a distraction. This has to do with the way schools invite people to interviews. It happens so fast after the application deadline that AdCom don't have the time to read the applications before inviting you to interview.... They sort them and clearly yours got sorted into the wrong pile. That means your low-level work did not even get evaluated appropriately... and means they did not like something or some combinations of something. Sorry. On a flip side, it just has to click - we have had a GMAT club member from Ukraine get into GSB in R3 with a 680. She was pretty impressive and all things considered highly desirable for the class. She got an interview invite in R3 before even having a test score. Sorry 😥
    7. How do you plan on recruiting? What would be the ideal world? A startup comes on campus? (is that realistic?)
    8. If startup does not come on campus, how would your recruiting be different at Sloan vs. Columbia vs. GSB?
    9. I have heard a bit more about Columbia being more commuter program with people living all over the place. I am not sure how seriously I would take it. In these programs there are hundreds of people and it hardly matters if half of them are commuters. There are still lots of people and opportunity with other folks.
    10. Columbia is super strong if you wanted to be in NYC long term and would help with opening quite a few connections. Where do you see yourself in a few years? Bay Area? Europe? MEA? Asia?


Let me know your thoughts and happy to drill down further.
P.S. Sorry, have not voted yet.
Thx.
BB

Following up as promised
1. Entrepreneurship = trying to found my own company or co-found in a space I'm really interested in! It's an itch I really want to scratch (how I ended up at a seed stage startup in the first place -- want to learn the ropes). I know that comes with a slew of challenges post MBA for someone on a visa (I'd call it almost impossible...), so I mostly want to use the MBA itself to test out the (co)founder path. If anything comes out of it, I'll try to continue on that path and figure visa out along the way. If that doesn't work (statistically likely outcome), I'll likely just go back to vanilla tech.

2. By referencing $1,500 vs. $2,000, are you comparing the CBS half-ride vs. Sloan no money on a monthly basis, and implying that the half-ride on a monthly basis doesn't move the needle as much? Sorry if I'm being dense here; I think I wasn't expecting to see precise numbers.

4. Your impression resonates with me -- I just think MIT is a phenomenal place for entrepreneurship (second only to GSB). But it does seem like CBS is trying to catch up... Does anyone have deeper insights here?

7.8. If (co)founding a startup doesn't work, I wouldn't necessarily recruit for early stage startups and don't expect them to come to campus. I'll probably focus on vanilla tech through normal campus route, and try to do my own networking / searching for cool startups that align to my interests.

10. Hah, to be transparent, I don't know if I can see myself in NYC in the long run... My hypothesis is that I'm more suited to the Bay Area lifestyle, but that could be due to availability bias. This is partially why CBS has a big draw -- I do want to test out living in NYC.


To summarize where my head is at now:
If money were equal, I'd have leaned very slightly towards Sloan, though not for very tangible reasons, and it already kind of bums me out not to be able to try out the NYC life.
Because money is not equal, I'm kind of leaning towards CBS, but I'm worried a decision made based on money wouldn't be a sound decision.
I'm precociously putting too much emphasis on the two admit day coming up because I feel super torn based on existing information...

Any advice, bb, or anyone else who's open to offering wisdom?

For the few folks who voted, if you don't mind, what drove your decision?
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When you said you were "conflicted about your recommendation" -- what did you mean?
And, any thoughts based on some of the additional clarifications above? Thank you...

If anyone else has thoughts, please share!
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Hi! Sorry I missed your reply.

Front of my conflict comes from the area you’re planning to pursue. If you’re planning to start your own business, money is going to be tight. I’m sure people have hit it big and strong out of business school and had money thrown at them, but in most cases, money will be less cars commodity so having a smaller student loan will be helpful.

Many people who start their own ventures, start them while having a full-time job or potentially while being active at school and once they get a better sense of how the business performs, they make a choice of quitting their job or keep running it in parallel or perhaps looking for a different job all together.

PS. When it comes to entrepreneurship, business school can give you a number of benefits such as some time to get your thoughts together, time to experiment, potentially cofounders, potentially test your ideas and gain knowledge and confidence. At the same time, when it comes to venture capital and people who would be investing into your company, Would not give money simply because you have gone to a business school. I feel like a business school can help give you a reputational cloud but I don’t think they would be that much difference between Columbia and Sloan. If you’re not particularly gunning for one of the Sloans incubators or an industry or a fund that operates with Sloan alarms, I think either program would fulfill your needs.

In terms of reapplying, I think it would only make sense if you got a bigger scholarship. Or even getting into Stanford, would not write you a blank check or immediately get to you people to throw money at you. It’s possible but I feel like they would throw money at you not because of Stanford but because of your idea or you personally.

PS. For one of my finance classes I had a professor who used to be an investment banker and a VC for one of the big funds in Asia. He always said that he invested into the team and the people. The idea was a secondary and it needed to check out but it’s always possible to present things better than they are or two be blindsided by another competitor working on a similar idea in secrecy so it was more important to invest into a good team by his opinion. That way if one idiot failed, they could still recover and produce at least something and perhaps something even better than the original idea. Funny enough, he is least favorite company that pitched to him was apparently one that had hired a former McKinsey consultant turned Harvard MBA who was recruited into the company because of his Pedigree And the fact that he was well spoken and looked good on paper. The final straw was when he found out that the newly recruited CEO had flown into Asia in business class. Apparently that was a big no-no for him in terms of smart money usage and so he did not invest into that company. It’s super helpful to hear stories like that and helps you pitch your company better. But there are also a lot of uncertainties and many businesses take a different turn. It’s helpful to have a Plan B just in case you decide that your business needs a bit more time to develop and figure out and in case you decide to take a job out of business school and work on your business in parallel. I’m hope I’m not muddying up the water but if you ask me for making bets on what’s most important, unless there is some kind of a strong dependency on the Sloan infrastructure and start up resources which I did not quite get that sense from you, and I assume you’ve done your research with the current students and the admissions team and all the pre- Admissions calls and events they’ve been doing, in that case I feel the biggest resource for you would be money and so choosing Columbia or reapply for Stanford or bigger scholarship elsewhere as I don’t think Haas is going to be giving you all that much besides a location and that’s only so valuable.

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Thank you BB! Appreciate the detailed, thoughtful advice
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Thank you BB! Appreciate the detailed, thoughtful advice

My pleasure and don’t hesitate to push back or question anything either. I also will come additional opinions and very country to mine are most welcome 😇

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