Tuck or Yale SOM

Question

Hello,

I'm in the great, but incredibly difficult position of choosing between Tuck and Yale SOM as an international applicant, with a $10k per annum greater scholarship at Tuck (but trying not to use that as a factor as I consider the difference is small in comparison to the overall cost).

Plan for post-MBA career is consulting (ideally MBB), in New York or Boston, and I would be a career switcher from finance.

I have visited both campuses and although I loved them both, the greater size of New Haven and the Yale campus are a big attraction to me.

My main pros of each:

Tuck 
> Strength in consulting
> Greater number of MBB alumni in most locations
> Overall strength of alumni network
> Considered the stronger program in the US (?)

Yale 
> The Yale brand, particularly as an international applicant 
> Greater number of MBB alumni in New York (at least according to my own LinkedIn research)
> Yale/SOM campus and New Haven
> Energy/excitement on campus, particularly with the recent rise in the rankings

I'm really struggling with this decision and would appreciate any advice!

Thanks in advance

VeritasPrepDozie · Answer

I would go with Tuck. It is the better program, with a better reputation in consulting with strong ties to the cities you have an interest in, ivy league reputation and one of the best MBA alumni networks around, plus they are giving you some money.

aerien · Answer

Based on your post to me, you seem to be leaning SOM but are concerned about the overall reputation of the program vs Tuck's.

At both schools, you'll have great access to consulting recruiters at all the major firms. I posit that perhaps percentage-wise you'll see more of Tuck students end up in consulting firms in Boston, whereas at SOM you may see a bit of a wider range across NY, Boston, SF, Chicago.

What it comes down to is where you'll feel you get the most out of your experience in business school. You list the Yale/SOM campus and New Haven, as well as the energy on campus, in your positive category for Yale. What did you like about it? Did you get that same feeling when you were in Hanover? Which would you prefer? That's a personal decision.

PM me if you want to connect with someone at SOM in consulting.

Flyte · Answer

Both are good programs, but for consulting, particularly MBB, Tuck is significantly ahead of SOM. On average between 20-25% of Tuckies go to MBB (for 2014 for instance Yale placed under 8% into MBB). Further, Tuck is THE target for Parthenon (the highest paying consulting firm, founded by Tuckies) and it is also one of only two MBA programs where you can enter straight into Monitor at Deloitte rather than general S&O straight away.

While SOM does place into MBB it isn't on par with Tuck's placement.

As to the quoted comment from aerien, politely this is not true. From my class alone we have people going to MBB all throughout the US (NYC, Boston, DC, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, and San Francisco) as well as internationally throughout Asia, Latin America, and Europe (including being the best represented MBA program at McKinsey London). Numbers and percentage-wise there is a significant gulf between Tuck and SOM for consulting.

If you have any questions on consulting recruiting at Tuck, please feel free to PM me, happy to talk offline.

aerien · Answer

Only a (perhaps too strong) posit based on what I've seen -- obviously you would know better since you're actually at Tuck, @flyte!* This is why you (general you, GC-reader) should take everything with a grain of salt ... and do your own research, while you're at it

And indeed, Tuck consulting placements are quite impressive across the board. *Sticks to talking about SOM since that's the only school I've been to.

Tuck or Yale SOM

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