Found myself in an interesting situation recently, and am curious if anyone else has had a similar experience. Also wanted to share my thoughts in my decision making for anyone else who might have a comparable choice to make one day.
8 year Army veteran committed to living in CA (or at least West Coast) post MBA, initially was planning to recruit for big tech companies, but now considering a more general approach to industry and marketing as a primary function.
I applied to the 4 main programs in the state, R1 waitlist from Haas, R2 admit from Anderson and Marshall, and R2 ding from GSB. Eligible for 100% of G.I. Bill so tuition is covered at public schools and USC offered $$ which met the difference.
I went to both admit weekends and was very impressed with both programs. Ultimately chose UCLA, started connecting with classmates, lined up 2 great roommates and just finished a very frustrating housing hunt and verbally committed to a lease for a great townhouse starting in 2 weeks.
Suddenly Haas calls (July 16); says I'm the last person they're going to let into the program (maybe she phrased it differently); and to put a deposit down in 9 days if I want to come.
I plan to stick with UCLA (99% sure) for a number of reasons:
- Already in a SoCal state of mind (have a great living situation sorted, don't want to bail on people just to be scrambling to find something in the Bay Area, plus would ultimately rather live in a big city for my MBA instead of next to a big city, thus L.A.>Berkeley for me)
- The schools seem very comparable in terms of resources and opportunities. Sure Berkeley has a slightly higher reputation, but my target companies recruit at both, I think my background and undergrad institution will get my foot in the door regardless of which UC I go to, now it's up to me to do the work and land an internship/job.
- Have already begun the pre-work for UCLA, paid for pre-orientation trips, and have G.I. Bill money set to go to UCLA (not sure how hard that is to switch last minute)
Curious if anyone else has found themselves in a similar situation? Not just getting accepted off the waitlist after paying a deposit somewhere else, but getting that admit 1 month before orientation starts and you're already full steam in another direction? Thoughts on my situation? Seems silly to uproot everything for a 7-8 spot jump in someones ranking, so I think I'll just consider the Haas admit bragging rights at this point and enjoy the beach and sunshine
*throwing a poll on here for kicks
OK so you applied to all good schools in Cali.
And you got accepted in all of them, except for Stanford.
That goes for business school and overall for university.
Now you explained clearly why you prefer UCLA over Berkeley and it is perfectly reasonable to me, especially that you want to live in big metropolitan area/city like L.A.
Your already made some commitments.
I personally would go to Berkeley.
Having said that, I would be perfectly happy to go to UCLA as well.
Hope UCLA will do the trick for you.
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Updated on: 25 Jul 2019, 16:42
