Tepper ($) vs Johnson ($$) vs McCombs ($$$)

Question

Hello everyone - first post on here.

Looking for some perspectives - which of the three schools for an international applicant interested in a Product Management role in Tech (Pre-MBA: Software Developer).

What do you think?

webster7 · Answer

How much scholarship exactly did you receive?

aidmit · Answer

singh29 , You have the problem of plenty and it is a good problem to have. All the 3 schools have descent tech recruitment.
Johnson has a better brand reputation in US among the 3 and hence would be my top pick for an international candidate. Looking only from tech perspective, Tepper is the best of your choices due to the parent university, CMU. MCCombs is very close to the above two schools in terms of ranking and recruitment and hence ,depending on the scholarship, could be a good aternative.

If I were you, I would look up the Linkedin profile of alums from these schools from my geography to get a sense of their career trajectory.

Hope it helps!

bb · Answer

Congratulations on your admits!

If you look at the historic rankings of all the schools, you will see they are very close together over the last 12 years (image at the bottom) Data source: https://gmatclub.com/forum/mba-rankings ... ml#p770991

I feel that as international in my best interests it would be:
1. Get the best job opportunity with on-campus recruiting
2. Minimize costs due to loan/APR rates for internationals
3. Reduce risk (How will you pay off the loans if you don't get H1B?). No school can guarantee this but some schools/programs do offer STEM extensions and opportunities. Tepper may be one of them so may McCombs. Sometimes they offer an add-on semester that makes you STEM-qualified. I would ask current students from your country about that and get connected with them ASAP.

I feel a full ride from McCombs is the best of the 3 - between employability in Austin with all the tech companies there. I feel every tech company has a satellite office there too. They are not HQ but they have presence and they have hiring needs including MBA level. I think you will be hard-pressed to get a better ROI among the 3. It may be a diff situation if you were heading for MBB where Johnson may have an edge due to their Ivy League status but product management and tech is a pretty darn good fit with McCombs.

https://www.builtinaustin.com/2018/09/0 ... ing-austin (slightly dated and does not include a few new moves such as Apple that announced new office in Austin last week https://www.statesman.com/news/20181214 ... mazon-path )

Congrats on the scholarships too!

Attachments

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singh29 · Answer

Thank you guys!

Just a clarification - McCombs scholarship is around 50% of tuition and rest are proportional to the number of $ signs.

You make an excellent point regarding the financial risk which is still there in the case of McCombs since it is not a free ride (I wish!). Talking with people I have got the feeling that Cornell has a better brand and network internationally (outside the US) compared to the other schools - how much truth do you think is there in this statement?

bb · Answer

I think neither Johnson, Tepper, or McCombs are well known outside of the US. 
Cornell is likely the most well-known brand out of the 3. Carnegie Mellon may be somewhat known due to their Physics and Math research but unlikely.

P.S. Usually the $$$ indicates full scholarship, $$ is 50% and $ is like 25% or less. So I have assumed McCombs was a full ride. It changes things somewhat.... putting Johnson back on the drawing board.

VPGMAT · Answer

With No full scholarship from McCombs I would agree with bb's last post. Btw even with a full tuition, there is nothing known as a free ride since you have to cover living costs , which many people ignore and it can be substantial (it may vary between 25k to 50k or even more, depending on the location and duration of the program). Many mba programs don't give TA opportunity and corresponding allowance as MS programs do.

Anyways , Cornell actually makes a lot of sense in your case, since I assume you are an Indian. Cornell has a better brand value in India as compared to the other two. But still talk to current alumni in India in order to gauge the level of effort it took them to land a job.

Moreover, consider the worst case scenario of not landing a H1B for work visa and then take your decision. The H1b lottery system doesn't take into consideration your MBA college, even if it is HBS or Stanford.

Nikhil · Answer

Tagging current McCombs student  mrsonmax  for his/her inputs.

Maupassant9 · Answer

I doubt that Johnson is that big a name in India that you drop the scholarship from McCoombs. Coming from India, I can safely say that unless you are going to M7 or Yale/Fuqua, school's rank is not going to make much of a difference with recruitment back in India. You will have to compete with candidates from IIM ABC and ISB, and Johnson in anyway isn't going to give you any major edge.

IIMs and ISB have a strong alumni base here and it's unlikely that they would believe you to have a superior brand or education. Recruitment will be majorly driven by personal networking and your alumni base in India. So, if anything you should research about it is the presence of MBAs of these schools in India in the positions you want to work in.

In my case, I picked Owen because senior management in Medical device industry/ Pharma in India has a solid presence from Vanderbilt.

Choose wisely. Money will matter when you will be flying to NYC/San fran/ Chicago for networking.

Tepper ($) vs Johnson ($$) vs McCombs ($$$)

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