The toughest decision of my life... HBS vs Booth (full-ride)

I think the alumni and students above have given a good perspective from the other side of life - the realities post graduation.

The only fields I think HBS has significant leverage is PE. It is almost like a closed shop and brand or connections really matter to them - they like one of their own. VC in Boston perhaps, but certainly not the west coast. HF are in the most part guys who didn't even get an MBA, so it is difficult to say.

With your career path, as others have wisely noted, the lack of debt will be a big difference to you. It might even give you an edge when considering opportunities - you aren't looking for the highest salary to meet your loans, but are looking for the best opportunity that may involve a cash sacrifice for some time. The programs are all really similar - I know rhyme and I have laughed about the lack of distinction a bit. You will meet people who can't add up at both schools and will wonder why they are there, you will meet some of the smartest and sharpest people in your life as well.

The Booth opportunity sounds really interesting, and for the field you are in shares the same level of access to firms. But you will be able to have more fun at Booth, because going 20k into debt to have a riot isn't like adding another 20k onto 100k.

I suppose the only difference is whether you will wish you had gone to Harvard when you are older. Honestly, I very much doubt you will. I am not bothered by the fact I never applied to H/S/W, purely because they didn't work for where my life was at and where my family needed to be. OK, maybe I wish I had applied to Stanford, because the weather and lifestyle out there is awesome. But in the most part, it really doesn't matter and I have never felt my education is inferior to that of any of the so called "top tier" firms.

By way of reflection, a year out of school and I have recently been laid off and am on a job search. So far I have had one person mention my MBA, because he was an alumnus. No one else has even mentioned it - it is there on the sheet of paper, it is in the past and just assures them that I - most probably - am not an idiot.

Finally, the whole commuter school thing that applicants seem to create is the biggest pile of crap I have ever seen. It is as though there is some belief that living in a hamlet would build a bigger sense of "community". You all head to the same fricking building, you all have cell phones to arrange stuff. Where you live really doesn't matter unless you want to be a peeping tom or a stalker. People are well wired up to move around, be contactable and have an experience beyond living on each others toes.

I am confident Booth has an excellent atmosphere.

If you like sitting in a room, drinking beer and deriving Pi to 314 decimal places.

But at Harvard you will hear people talking about who their parents are and who they know more than about themselves, so.....

Ignore the stereotypes. Visit the schools again. Meet the students. Take time over your decision to support your own mind. Once you have done that, I expect you will go to Booth. But wherever you go, you will go with the peace of mind that you really thought things through.