Hi
sahai613,
Thank you for your post, and congratulations on the great results! My personal opinion would be to go with Notre Dame (Mendoza). You are right to request that Minnesota (Carlson) reconsider, but even if they matched (or topped the Mendoza offer by a little bit), I would go with Mendoza. If you were to get into Vanderbilt, Dallas, or Utah with similar offers, I would still go with Mendoza.
(And I say all of this even though UC Davis offered you a little more money and the TA position. Besides, at most schools, you can usually apply to become a TA or GSI once you get there; feel free to ask Mendoza, but it's usually not something you have to declare in advance.)
Even though Carlson and Mendoza are typically only separated by a few spots in the rankings, and with all due respect to Carlson, Notre Dame is a national brand that places well into various corners of the finance industry at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Carlson is great, but its reputation and recruiting are more concentrated in the Midwest (~80%). Mendoza is also considerably more finance-oriented, with 37.5% of graduates going into a finance or accounting function, compared with Carlson's 14%.
I encourage you to continue to crowdsource opinions (as I am only one!), but if it were me personally, and if it helps relieve any of your stress, I find the choice to be pretty clear : )
Best Regards,
Greg