Haas vs Kellogg - MBB

Question

Hi All

Fortunate enough to be accepted into both these wonderful schools! Super excited for either as they were 1A and 1B for top choice, but that just makes the choice harder!

My goal is to do MBB and then exit into healthcare, preferably biotech or digital health. My target work office after school is in the Bay Area. This is where I am conflicted as Haas has the proximity advantage, but Kellogg has a solid alumni base in SF along with it being a consulting powerhouse. Both schools in my opinion are very strong healthcare programs as well.

Culture wise I have met people from both schools and visited both campuses. I think I like Evanston a bit more, but I can see myself fitting in very well at both schools (I like both cultures pretty equally).

I think normally DAH/DAK would be the deciding factor, but since they are virtual this year that complicates things.

souvik101990 · Answer

You can very easily recruit for SF/Bay area offices out of Kellogg. For consulting, Kellogg is the powerhouse and second to none. Haas, while an amazing program, would not offer nearly as many consulting opportunities as Kellogg. If you wanted to do tech or startups, on the other hand, I would probably answer differently.

MBAApply2022 · Answer

Future Haas student here. I think I would go Kellogg, given the same scholarship consideration, as they are a powerhouse in consulting. I would recommend reaching out to current students at each though - I went to DAH in R1, and for what it's worth, I met probably 10 students going into MBB and every single one of them was going to the Bay Area office, so it's definitely doable, but Kellogg would offer more optionality within consulting placement nationally and IMO offer a higher likelihood of getting a MBB interview (after which everyone is on an even playing ground from what I have heard), all else equal. On a side note, as an FYI, Deloitte is apparently really strong in healthcare consulting as well, so I would definitely consider them when trying to pivot into consulting (and they have second year tuition payback if you join their consulting practice). If technology is an option that you might want to pursue immediately post-MBA, that would obviously even Kellogg / Haas out a bit more. Have you reached out to both asking for money?

bb · Answer

Congrats on your admits AmhfMBA ! I will second and third the suggestions for Kellogg if you are looking at MBB/consulting. Recruiting on campus is generally stronger in Kellogg than in West-coast schools and opportunities more plentiful. More chances at least.... if you are looking at consulting, start preparing for interviews, networking, and on campus events. Make sure you can do presentations, cases, and just have some good answers to think on your feet when thrown to the wolves , I mean friendly recruiters

ENGRTOMBA2018 · Answer

My ‘unbiased’ vote for Kellogg as well

That being said, look into Kellogg’s winter immersion program which I did back in winter 2018 that was a great experience of living and working in SF for a quarter. This is how Kellogg is trying to further it’s footprint on the west coast. DM me if you have any particular questions. I’m also in consulting and can guide you with your questions. Posted from my mobile device

AmhfMBA · Answer

Thank you all for the helpful responses! It seems this thread leans towards Kellogg. Based off a review of initial employment reports, it seems like the Kellogg alums in SF should be similar to the Haas alums due to sheer numbers. Would I be wrong in thinking the two also have similar outcomes in healthcare/tech in SF in case consulting doesn't work out?

bb · Answer

If you are looking for startups and smaller Bay Area healthcare companies, you likely would be better off being on the ground at Haas and networking since they are not a part of a formal recruiting process at any school.... but that is something you can also do from Kellogg vis organized recruiting trips or just on your own. What do you feel BananaNation?

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

ENGRTOMBA2018 · Answer

Fair points  bb  but one thing that most of the folks recruiting forget about is that tech and HC focuses recruiting at startups won’t be easy either way even if you are networking daily. What you need is access to alumni bases that you can logically leverage. This is the biggest draw in favor of Kellogg over Haas. My 2 cents.

MBAApply2022 · Answer

If you decide to go the healthcare tech route, Haas is probably better for that than Kellogg. You would be able to visit the start-ups at any point and could do local coffee chats with all of them by taking the BART for 30 minutes. It's definitely possible from Kellogg, but you would likely have to do semi-frequent treks to San Francisco and there will likely be more leg work on your end (you could also probably do calls via the phone, but you are not going to get as good a feel for company culture). This is obviously contingent on wanting to stay in the Bay Area as Kellogg would have more pull in other parts of the country. If you go to the alumni pages of each on LinkedIn (Type Kellogg School of Management and then click Alumni tab) and then type in companies that you may be interested in joining, you can get a feel for how many alumni from each school are at each company. This will be pretty important as they will be the ones you will be doing initial outreaches to when recruiting.

Re: alumni base in SF, from full-time programs, they are probably placing similar amount of students in SF post-graduation, but the key difference is that Haas also has the exec / part-time programs whose graduates are pretty much all staying in SF (another 350 / yr with 50%+ coming from the tech industry). Berkeley as a whole also obviously has a massive alumni base in the Bay Area, particularly in tech.

With all that being said, from what I have heard, pretty much everyone who wants consulting gets it from top schools, although many will go to other consulting firms than MBB.

Re: alumni base in SF, from full-time programs, they are probably placing similar amount of students in SF post-graduation, but the key difference is that Haas also has the exec / part-time programs whose graduates are pretty much all staying in SF (another 350 / yr with 50%+ coming from the tech industry). Berkeley as a whole also obviously has a massive alumni base in the Bay Area, particularly in tech.

With all that being said, from what I have heard, pretty much everyone who wants consulting gets it from top schools, although many will go to other consulting firms than MBB.

BananaNation · Answer

Kellogg provides unmatched opportunities in consulting recruitment, though I am curious to see statistics of Kellogg students recruiting into MBB vs getting MBB offers to better understand their effectiveness and level of competition for each place.

I agree with  ENGRTOMBA2018  to an extent, alumni base is important in facilitating your networking, but I do not believe that Kellogg has a bigger network in the Bay Area than Haas. Most of Haas grads stay in the Bay and we have a large cohort of Evening & Weekend MBA's (900 students over 3 years) who work in the Bay full time and are very much engaged in Haas network, so I doubt you will find many schools with a bugger alumni network in the area. However, if you go to other locations like East Coast then Kellogg will probably have an advantage.

If you want to get a job in a start up, then the best way is to 1) physically meet people who work in the company, and 2) offer to work for them part time. Happy to chat to you and answer any of your questions over the call, DM me and we can arrange something.

Haas vs Kellogg - MBB

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