mba2020throwaway
Hi everyone,
I am having trouble deciding between Stern with $60k scholarship and Ross with no scholarship. Planning on recruiting for consulting so I'm leaning towards Ross at this point. I think the total cost will be about equal for both schools considering the scholarship + high COL in NYC. Also given that Stern is a commuter school and a lot of people attending Stern are native NYers, plus the fact that I don't drink, I'm worried that I won't be able to develop deep relationships at Stern. Don't have a preference where I end up after school but think it would be cool to be in NYC for a couple years.
TLDR heart says Stern, brain says Ross.
Stern
Pros
+ have always wanted to live in NYC, good opportunity to experience the city without having to commit to a FT job there
+ $60k scholarship makes total cost about the same as Ross
+ Stern Consulting Corps seems equivalent to Ross's MAP in terms of experiential learning
+ more international recognition if I ever decide to work outside the US
Cons
- MBB not as strong
- worried about making friends given commuter vibe + not drinking
- harder to recruit outside of NYC (not sure if true or not)
Ross
Pros
+ stronger MBB placement
+ wider placement in terms of geography
+ reputation carries more weight / better network
+ MAP project is positively regarded by alumni I've spoken to
+ start legacy? my dad got his MS at the engineering school, not sure if that is significant
Cons
- college town
- colder than NYC
- Michigan is not as recognized as NYU internationally
Hello, fellow Redditor,
Consulting is pretty strong at Ross, and MBB hired a lot of folks from class this year. The $60K scholarship can even things out, depending on how you choose to live your life, but the COL in Ann Arbor can be as low as $1,500 per month (rent+utilities+living) if you are frugal, while at NYC it will easily be around $4,000 so basically the different sets you back by $60Kish so overall the money is fair game.
That said, Ross has beefed up its game for a while now and I would not go to Stern just to live in NYC. There will be plenty of opportunities to do that as a non student. Consulting is better at Ross and there will plenty of tier 2 firms (EY etc.) recruiting at Ross but not at Stern, however you can get interviews through networking.
I agree with a lot of your pros and cons, but Michigan is a bigger brand internationally, and everybody screams "Go Blue" who go there.
The MAP thing is cool at Ross, but I do not think that should weigh into any of your decision choices, which I hope you make purely on a recruitment perspective. Living in NYC will give you a lot more opportunities to network with more than just consulting, and geographically a lot of Ross recruiting gets concentrated in Chicago and Seattle/SF in consulting and tech roles.
So that is all the information I wanted to give you, but if you just ask me for my honest opinion - you should go blue.