Duke ($$$$$) v Booth ($) v UCLA ($$$)

Question

Goals: 
ST: Go abroad via one of the MBB Consulting firms
LT: Grow at MBB- partner track

All that is important to me is to land at MBB- which one to choose!?

Duke: Named scholarship- full tuition
UCLA: Fellowship- 75%
Booth: 10K merit

Thoughts?

Psyched · Answer

If MBB is your goal, any of those schools would suffice. Duke is a core recruiting school for MBB in that region, so I would take the money and run!

That said, there is an element of prestige that comes with going to Chicago Booth. Top 5 vs. top 15. Since the recruiting chances will be almost the same, the question is whether the prestige is worth $110K?

MacFauz · Answer

Created a poll and voted Duke... There is a prestige difference between Booth & Fuqua, but IMO not worth 110k.. Unless you've got rich parents and 110k is pocket change for you, I'd say go to Duke...

CheeseNcrackers · Answer

That's a great question, and I guess I'll leave it up to my fellow gmatclub-ers.... is the prestige worth $110K?

westsidah408 · Answer

I would co-sign the call to Duke. Booth is a great school and I would've voted for Booth without the full ride at Fuqua (also a named scholarship which boosts the resume). MBB firms recruit at Duke as well but you should probably confirm that they will recruit for international offices out of Fuqua as well (from my understanding this should not be a problem).

Congratulations for getting into 3 great schools and all with fellowships!

Congratulations for getting into 3 great schools and all with fellowships!

gentlejack · Answer

Poets and Quants analyzed LinkedIn profiles ( https://poetsandquants.com/2014/01/17/where-top-mbas-work-in-consulting/2/ ). Maybe it is not very scientific, but it shows that quite a few people at Duke work for MBB afterwards (and, if you trust the numbers, it is no big difference compared to Booth if you consider the smaller class size). For me, that would be enough to take the money and go to Duke.

MBAUnderDOG · Answer

Ask Booth is they can increase the fellowship. I'm sure they wont match the full ride, but they could close the gap. If they cannot increase it, I would go to Duke.

brandon432 · Answer

I'm not sure I follow your math. Duke's class size is ~75% of Booth's, but the link you provided shows 245% as many MBB'ers from Booth. Last year, there were 23 full-time MBB'ers from Fuqua vs. 80 from Booth. 29 vs. 60 for interns. All of this is in spite of Fuqua having half as many students pursuing finance. Fuqua is a phenomenal school, but Booth clearly has the edge according to OP's "MBB or bust" metric. Whether that advantage is worth $110k, I couldn't say.

mgg234 · Answer

With a named fellowship you can probably nab one of the MBB positions, but you do run the risk of it being in a **** office (e.g. Atlanta).

Kellogg was my top choice (I also want to do MBB), but if Duke gave me a full scholarship, I'd probably have gone to Duke.

But ya, first step, see if Booth will give you more money, because I'd choose Booth once the difference was only $60k or so.

gentlejack · Answer

Sorry if I was not clear on that, Booth is surely placing better by looking at the numbers. But it is not the case that only a handful students make it into MBB at Duke, so it is actually possible to go that path. I even read the argument somewhere around here that it might be easier to be stellar at a lower ranked school, which might help one to get the best offers there.. Well, I guess nobody can really tell what advantage one would have at one school over the other, as nobody did the MBA at both schools, but the difference in cost is undeniable.

kingfalcon · Answer

For what it's worth, Duke did not appear to do very well in internship recruiting for MBB Atlanta this year. Also, to defend Atlanta a little bit, the Atlanta offices (and Southern offices in general) for all the firms consistently rank near the top of worldwide happiness and work-life balance rankings.

MacFauz · Answer

I don't know if asking for a scholarship from Booth citing the Fuqua one will work.. Booth are (is it "are" or "is") not known to match scholarships even from peer schools..

brandon432 · Answer

This is an interesting question and one, I agree, that no one has a definitive too. My take: a candidate's abilities, augmented by only 1 term of an MBA program, are likely to be very similar to matter where he/she attends school. If you are good enough to get MBB offers at Fuqua, you would be good enough to get MBB offers at Booth (or HBS or wherever). In other words, the difference in offer rates between schools reflects the number of qualified candidates at each. I don't really buy that it would easier to be a big fish in a small pond. Just my $0.02.

I haven't heard of it working, except for schools that are clearly peers or better. That said, it can't hurt to ask. I haven't heard of any revoked offers due to bargaining. In the US, "Booth is." In the UK, I think "Booth are." Not British, so I can't really be sure.

I concur. I have friends going to 2 of 3 MBB's in ATL either for FT or summer, and they'd run circles around me.

Finally, if you want to go abroad, ask around to see whether that is an option for MBB'ers at Fuqua. My impression from several campus visits was that only candidates from top-10ish schools have unlimited geographic flexibility. Other schools only see regional recruiting.

asimov · Answer

Going to international office is possible from Fuqua, typically is students going back to their home country, or country with significant living experience. After starting, it's possible, but not easy, to move offices. One of my classmates was accepted into BCG's ambassador program after 1 year at the firm, and got an assignment in Europe.

jc1764 · Answer

Re Atlanta office - there's definitely no shame in working for the Atlanta office vs. the more "prestigious" NYC/SF offices at MBB. Lots of big name partners are going to places like, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and Jacksonville (in FL so they can live in west palm or ponte vedra) and pay small state income taxes. I was at a top 5, though not MBB, MC firm in the NYC office and worked on high profile projects with tons of consultants flying up from Atlanta. The reality of being a consultant is that you're travelling mon-thurs so you're rarely in the city in which you live. A lot of the NYC/SF consultants I worked with kind of lamented paying NYC/SF rents when they were doing a project in Chicago or Dallas. Plus if you're at a Duke, the chances of getting into the Atlanta office may be slightly higher than if you're trying to get into the NYC office which is flooded with HBS/CBS MBAs. Just a thought, seems like you've got no bad options though, congrats!

hailmary · Answer

If you were going into PE/VC, I would have said Booth, but in this situation, you should save 110k and pick Fuqua.

And, you can recruit for international offices from Fuqua. For Class of 2014, people went to Bain's London, Mexico City and Seoul offices.
Source: https://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/b ... ool_id=213

And, you can get a job at any domestic office. For BCG, 4 students went to DC, 3 went to Chicago and 1 went to NJ.
Source: https://www.bcg.com/join_bcg/oncampus/fu ... rsOnCampus

I was at BDW and heard that recruiting was much better for class of 2015. We will see when the numbers come out.

seekingmba123 · Answer

I vote Booth

Duke ($$$$$) v Booth ($) v UCLA ($$$)

Duke ($$$$$) v Booth ($) v UCLA ($$$)

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