Booth vs Wharton

Question

All,

I was fortunate to receive offers from both schools with solid scholarships (Wharton's 50% > Booth's).

My career path for the future is relatively unique albeit with a focus on finance (plan is after a few years in the states I'd move to an EMEA country).

I'm fully aware that I'll be doing all the heavy work for recruiting with my own network and willpower (which I've started) so I'm not putting much of an emphasis on either school's OCR.

What I care about is:
1. Strength of curriculum (particularly data analytics, economics, statistics, and public policy) 
2. International perception (give my desire to work in an EMEA country, I'm aware of extra emphasis placed on pedigree)
3. Application of programming languages

From my visits I *loved* the culture of both schools, the curriculum flexibility, and Booth's curiosity / Wharton's go-getter vibe. Plus I kept "ooing" and "aahing" at the professor line-up (rock stars!).

I mean Wharton seems like the winner here given the add'l aid (and my co-workers have assumed it's where I'll matriculate) but I can't stop thinking about Booth.

If anyone has thoughts on this please let me know.

Much appreciated!

bb · Answer

Congratulations! Fantastic job getting into 2 great schools!

Wharton is usually the "easy" choice many take. I am typing on the phone so don't have access to the latest job and placement reports to see who has a larger network in EMEA. Something to verify potentially. My guess would be Wharton due to gov contracts to train employees.

Having known people from both programs/schools, I feel Wharton would fit your needs/goals somewhat better as it is a de facto finance school and has probably slightly stronger lineup of professors that teach some unique classes. Keep in mind you always have a bidding system for classes so you don't always get what you want (right away at least). The name is likely better known and the fact that it is often brought up in the same sentence as Stanford and Harvard will count in MEA region.

Wharton student body also seems to be more focused albeit perhaps less diverse while Booth has an entrepreneurship center and new venture challenge, etc and sometimes tries to get away from the pure finance school while Wharton seems to embrace it. Perhaps I am a bit set in my views? Yes, I know Wharton has a great negotiations program/class set.

I know it is hard to pick sometimes between two great choices and having to reject one.

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mrteacher · Answer

I'm in a similar boat as I absolutely love both schools.

I think you should go to both Welcome weekends because they are 1 week apart. And then if you are leaning towards Booth, at least see if they will match. If your request comes off as you are serious about committing to Booth but $$$ is the sole factor, I do think Booth's AdCom will be willing to match Wharton's offer.

FunkFreed · Answer

It is a good problem to have but what you've said makes sense to me. When you say less diverse, did you mean from a career or nationality perspective?

bb · Answer

Yes, future career perspective. Wharton will d finitely be very diverse in terms of backgrounds and nationalities with the class size they have.

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FunkFreed · Answer

First and foremost, congrats on your acceptances!

That's a good point, I already had decided to attend both Welcome weekends but I hadn't thought of trying to have Booth match the $. What did you love about Wharton / Booth?

FunkFreed · Answer

Understood, thanks!

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

I like both schools a lot, but Booth is more known for a collaborative culture than Wharton. However, as much as students like the flexible curriculum at Booth, I am a big believer in core curriculum. That is what marshals the power of an MBA vs. an MS in Finance.

One of my 2014 clients received a $50K scholarship from Kellogg MMM and he used that as leverage to negotiate $50K from Booth (in round 3, no less.) Kellogg countered for $60K but he chose Booth. So I have to believe they would do something similar for Wharton. Incidentally, Kellogg countered for $60K but he chose Booth.

Good luck, you will have a great experience at either, I believe. 
Farrell

FunkFreed · Answer

Thanks for providing a real-life example of leveraging scholarship offers. Hopefully the same occurs in my case.

AMM47 · Answer

Hello- I am in a similar situation between Wharton vs. Booth, except Booth offered more $$ than Wharton in my case. All else equal I would probably choose Wharton but the money would make a big difference in my life and therefore may be a deciding factor. Does anyone have any tips as to how I should approach Wharton to ask for more $? e.g. Who to contact (I don't have the name of anyone specific in admissions to email), how to approach the ask, etc.?? Thank you!!!

bb · Answer

Looks like this person was in a similar situation a year or two ago - you may want to reach out to them to see what they ended up doing: wharton-vs-booth-195094.html

FunkFreed · Answer

Wanted to give an update. I decided on Wharton. After I went to its Welcome Weekend, Wharton snuffed out all the love I had for Booth.

I was really impressed by the get **** done attitude of the current students. In addition I got along so well with people there that I already had my roommates by the end of the weekend.

I felt the school was tailor made for me. A place where you can really maximize the experience if you have a go getter personality given the significant resources, student body size & diversity (gender, racial, AND experience), and brand.

So the student body, the amount of ways to get involved in campus, the strength of the network particularly in the EMEA area (secured an internship for the summer prior to matriculation), and finance/public policy/analytics courses, this became a no brainer. And then when you add the near full tuition waiver....

VeritasPrepDozie · Answer

I'm a little late but was going to chime in pro-Wharton here given your international plans and with the money included it would be tough to turn down. Ultimately these things come down to personal fit so I'm glad you went to the admit weekend and made a decision based on fit!

Booth vs Wharton

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