Stern vs. Ross (no scholarships)

Question

Admitted to both and having trouble choosing. Aiming to work in a narrow area of private equity following business school (currently work in another very competitive area of finance; not a banker). Neither school has many students go into PE, but they each have had some successes. I went to a top 5 undergrad, so brand is important (or not diluting my current brand).

Decision is whether the better culture and diversity of experiences and career options at Ross outweighs potentially easier networking for recruiting at Michigan. My aim in bschool is not only to achieve my career goal, but learn to think in new ways from students with completely different backgrounds from me. I want an academic experience while building a community. No preference on location; I like New York, but could like Ann Arbor as well.

Ross Merits:
*Better culture with a tight knit community. Probably more fun environment.
*More diverse community in terms of career backgrounds and career aspirations. 
*Better operational classes, which is something I am very interested in. 
*Big network to work from.
*Large graduate school network with top ranked other programs. 
*Better across the board recruiting in other industries (like big industrial leadership development programs) if PE doesn't work out
*Cheaper
*The admissions department is fantastic! Admitted students weekend was great and the whole school seems really enthusiastic. Does that organization follow through to the whole program or is it an aberration? You can tell the school really cares. Career development office got me all the info I wanted. 
*Students seem more honest and down to earth

Ross Negatives:
*Most recruiting will be self-driven and might need to travel a lot to NYC
*Decent classes, though no huge star professors. 
*Unclear how committed students are to academics

NYU Positives:
*Great finance department
*Location makes it easy for recruiting on my own (though not an established path and career office can't help)
*Some famous professors. Is the education in the classroom better?
*Is the top level of the student body smarter?

NYU Negatives:
*Being in big city kills the tight knight culture
*Too many finance/consulting kids (often have attitudes) and career office not good at many paths
*Expensive
*Less diverse student body in terms of backgrounds
*Some students don't take learning that seriously
*Admissions department is not helpful and seems disorganized. Won't help answer simple questions directed towards career office. Does that reflect the school as a whole? Admitted students events clearly inferior.

mradamsmith · Answer

This is a really tough call, and you are dead on with the pros and cons. Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but it seems like there is a strong pull for you to get the genuine "MBA" experience which Ross overs more than NYU. This means exposure to various industries, a community where you'll make life long friends/contacts, and a general enthusiasm about the school (and parent institution). These factors were high on my list too so I totally get it.

That being said, your goal of PE is the only genuine wrinkle. Michigan offers fewer contacts in this space even compared to peers (Duke/Yale/Darden/Tuck) so curious how much PE is really life or death for you (sorry if you applied, didn't see schools listed). As you mentioned, NYU will give you a leg up based primarily on the ability to network more broadly and frequently. However, given the low odds of landing PE out of either, I guess the question is this: if you know going in that you won't get PE, would you still enjoy Stern? The most likely scenario is no PE, so maybe operate under that assumption rather than the (slightly) increased odds from NYU, but NONE of the qualitative factors that are leading you to B school to being with.

In regards to brand (or dilution) I don't think that's a factor here. Splitting hairs between the two and you'll find plenty at either who went to top undergrads.

Good luck!

sorrowhill9 · Answer

I definitely think being in NYC is going to give you a leg up in pursuing PE opportunities. So i vote for Stern.

ram7 · Answer

This is a great dilemma to have. Being someone who actually has these two similar offers, I'm qualified to answer this. When I had to choose between these two schools I primarily compared the brand value, placements, and close-knit community. Measuring these factor, I was able to zero in on Ross because my post-Mba goal is consulting and Ross is better at it.
However, in your situation, the answer has to be different. Based on my research NYU stern is arguably much better in finance. So if you are sure that it would be your preferred line of work (be it PE or any other subdomain) I would strongly encourage you to join stern. But if you are still in doubt Join Ross because other than Finance Ross is better than Stern in every other domain.

tracktime · Answer

For what it is worth, I decided to go to Michigan Ross and decline the offer from NYU Stern. Not an easy decision, though and I think it necessarily has to be a personal decision that takes into account your background and what you want to get out of school (if you solely care about getting your first job, the answer might be different than preparing for a lifetime of learning, work, and relationships).

In the end, I decided Michigan would likely provide a better business school experience from a cultural standpoint, provide a better exposure to a wider array of backgrounds and future career aspirations, and is a program that's trying harder to improve and is much more transparent. The advantages I was able to find from NYU Stern was that it is likely slightly easier to recruit for finance jobs because it is located in NYC and thus easier to set up coffee chats, it has a larger alumni network in finance, probably has a better/more well-known name in finance (a friend at a successful investment firm said he'd look at a Stern resume but not one from Michigan), and maybe it has some better finance professors. I don't think viewing business school as just a route to a job is the right approach for me. That is just one element and frankly, I don't care to be around people that are solely focused on careers, either. The career offices can't really help that much in any niche field as it is, so I knew I'd mainly have a self-driven process no matter where I went.

In my weighing mechanism, I knew getting exposure to people with different backgrounds from me (engineers, factory managers, CPG marketers, etc.) was really important and I wasn't sure I'd get a ton out of being in an environment where everyone wants to just do banking/consulting/tech (which seems to be the case at NYU Stern from their career report, but also a lot of schools). It seems Ross has a much wider array of recruiting from top tier global companies outside professional services (for example, one major global industrial company only accepts applications from MBA students from HBS/Booth/Kellogg/Ross for its elite leadership development program) and Ross was one of the 5-7 schools on the recruiting list for many other companies (Stern was absent in nearly every case). Is that a function that recruiters prefer Ross students or that Stern simply is not a productive recruiting ground because of a lack of student interest? I don't know, but interesting either way.

As someone from the finance industry, I am going to business school mainly to round out my skillset in areas outside finance (even though I ultimately want to go back to the industry), so it probably made sense to go somewhere where there will be lots of student to learn from with experience outside finance. In my research, I also came to understand that it is wrong to consider Stern a "finance" school. Stern is an investment banking school in terms of career outcomes. They are very different and Stern seems to have only minor representation/recruiting in finance outside investment banking or corporate finance. Considering I have 0 interest in investment banking (and had offers for banking roles in post-MBA level positions in the past), Stern's reputation as a "finance" school was probably not very relevant to my situation. Maybe Columbia and Wharton are more deserving of that reputation?

To answer some of the prior questions and to help people in the future: I get the sense a small handful of students (maybe 1-4) successfully recruit for PE from both Ross and Stern in any given year. Didn't seem one was actually more successful as it really comes down to the individual candidate, if they are qualified, and if they are willing to put in the work. A prior poster mentioned Michigan having weaker recruiting or connections in PE than Tuck/Darden/Yale/Duke: not sure I'd agree except on Tuck. I looked at Duke carefully and their recruiting didn't seem very great either (maybe even worse than Michigan?) and frankly, didn't feel great about the school. I also felt Darden was similarly a step behind in recruiting, though I loved the case method and intense academics. And based on a friend that was a recent SOM graduate, they aren't very successful in PE either. From speaking with friends in the industry, unless you're at HBS/Wharton/Stanford, it is a tough, tough road and just determined by the individual candidates.

As an aside: try to get the underlying data from schools or students on their career reports (not specific about these schools). Some is classified differently than I'd expect, which might lead to some skewed perceptions...

JohnJohnJ · Answer

There are two ways to get into PE.
1. First job after MBA in PE
2. Work in IB for a few and then go to PE

Now, go to blackstone’s (worlds largest PE) website. They have a list of all their employees and where they went to school. That should tell you what school will get you that job in PE.

I know the answer to this question and the choice is kind of obvious-but it’ll be nice if you could read it up.

You want to be in a school that’s strong in finance to get that’s PE job 
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Stern vs. Ross (no scholarships)

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