Poll: Booth vs Tuck

Question

Hi all!
I have a good but nevertheless very hard dilemma to resolve; maybe you can help me with that.
I’m lucky to be admitted to Chicago Booth and Dartmouth Tuck with the equal scholarships and I really love both and can’t decide.
Each school has big advantage for me and I can’t decide which one is more important for me:

1. Booth is more prestigious, offers better brand recognition, especially outside of US (I’m from Russia and although I hope to stay in the US after graduation, there is a risk I will have to return at some point because of visa or something else).
2. Tuck offers much better and cheaper lifestyle. I have family and small child and for them living in beautiful Hanover will be absolutely amazing in terms of health, outdoor lifestyle and will also be quite cheaper than Chicago. I would also really enjoy communal MBA experience and super-tight community – something I will miss out on in Chicago.
My career goal is to switch to management consulting or tech as a plan-b. So, chances of getting into MBB is the most important factor, but from what I hear and see these schools are fairly equal in that regard. Tech may be better at Booth though.
What do you think? Would appreciate your advice and thoughts.

Thanks!

bkhu · Answer

i vote booth. mostly because of the options you will have post graduation. tuck places 50% of graduates north east. booth places well all over. internationally, booth is recognized more because it is a bigger class and has a bigger alumni base. also, chicago is really cheap for a big city and has a lot of amenities you won't find in Hanover. just my $0.02.

brockr1 · Answer

Thank you, bkhu.

Guys/Gals, any other thoughts please?
Also edited initial post to add a poll

jessepinkman · Answer

Biases aside, Booth is the obvious choice here. Booth is Top 5/M7 while Tuck is a solid Top 9 school, there's a definite prestige/reputation difference between the two. Booth will place marginally better into MBB, especially offices outside of the northeast, and does significantly better in other areas such as Tech.

While Hanover will be cheaper than Chicago, Chicago is a relatively affordable city compared with NYC, SF, and Boston. Additionally you'll have a lot more opportunities within the city of Chicago when it comes to networking, in-year internships, and cultural experiences. I can't speak to the community at Tuck, but the community at Booth is actually quite strong. 65% of us live in a 5 block radius in The Loop and there are tons of opportunities to get close with your classmates and develop strong bonds. If you had a significant scholarship at Tuck, I think this would be a tough decision but given equal scholarship at both I think taking Booth is the easy choice here.

brockr1 · Answer

Thank you,  jessepinkman .
So you are saying that while Booth is believed to be a commuters school, there's still a strong community and students meet a lot outside of classes, right?
You mentioned in-year internships, could you elaborate on that? Do you refer to the famous PE lab course or there are some other opportunities available?

PsychGuy17 · Answer

I visited Booth last February and it felt like a commuter school. I stayed for a couple days with my best friend (who was a first year at the time) and was constantly seeing him meet people for the first time. Despite Booth students living in the same radius, they were still spread in various apartment buildings (which are not close to the Booth classes btw). I determined it wasn't for me since I was looking for a strong sense of community. I visited Tuck last April and had a totally different experience. Everyone pretty much knew each other and I determined that was the type of community I wanted.

Booth is a stronger brand than Tuck. I won't deny that; it's a fantastic program. I just think that most will agree the community isn't as strong as a Ross, Kellogg, or Tuck's. As you can see I was admitted to some of these places and denied to some so this is genuine. Booth, to many, is not synonymous with community from a geographic (living) standpoint as well as because the program is almost entirely individualized. The non-existent core makes it harder have that strong community feel like some of it's peer schools. Overall though, I think you need to visit both (if you haven't already) and see which one is a better fit. However, it is important here to evaluate fit because both Tuck and Booth can/will get you to the same place if your goal is MBB. I would only say definitely Booth if you wanted to do something in the realm of Finance/Private Equity. Visit and speak to more students for more perspective.

jessepinkman · Answer

There's definitely a very strong community here despite most people not living on campus. I never really understood the logic that if people take a train instead of walk to class that there's automatically no community. Between classes, random walk (pre MBA international trips), career tracks, clubs, etc you will develop a very strong network and there will be more to do than you possibly have time for. We have ~600 students per class (compared to 281 at Tuck) so it's pretty natural that you aren't going to know everyone and will be constantly meeting new people (a good thing in my opinion). I just checked my LinkedIn and I have 330 current Booth students as connections if that's any indication of the amount of people I at least know by face/name. This is probably fairly representative of the average Booth student if I had to guess. There are tons of opportunities for in year internships, lot's of difference lab classes which are an amazing experience (https://www.chicagobooth.edu/programs/f ... emics/labs). Additionally there are always tons of companies/funds in Chicago looking for part time help and internships are easily accessible in practically any field you're interested in. A great way to try out a few different jobs and/or bolster your resume when trying to make a career shift. I feel very strongly that having access to a major city is an enormous advantage and there's a reason why every school in the M7 is located in/around a large city.

aerien · Answer

I'd visit both schools, with your partner, if you can. The environments / locations are very different no your family's life will be night and day for two years.

In terms of careers, you can't go wrong either way but I personally would lean towards Booth for its strong placement in consulting and tech as well as the breadth of geographic reach.

Family wise, you'll have to see if you want to be in a more urban environment - potentially living in a newer construction high rise apartment building in Chicago vs a small house likely with a backyard in the woods. Each has their appeal and people tend to be drawn towards one or the other -- especially when partners and kids are involved. The Tuck partner club is *extremely* tight knit. If your partner wants to be well integrated into the MBA community, tuck is a great option for that.

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Flyte · Answer

This is patently untrue when it comes to MBB. Tuck routinely places a higher proportion of the class into MBB than Booth does. Class of 2015 and class of 2016 both were approximately 25% to MBB for Tuck. You will receive interviews at either one for MBB. In my class for instance, if you had a pulse and were normal in chats you received an interview invitation from MBB. For instance of our 280 person class, over 110 interviewed with McKinsey on campus. As for being predominately in the Northeast, yes many went to the NYC and Boston offices (two of three hardest MBB offices to get into, in addition to SF). We also sent people in my class alone to MBB in: Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, and SF in the U.S. Internationally, we sent a ton internationally as well including off the top of my head: London, Madrid, China, Singapore, and Australia.

So, Tuck places a significantly higher percentage of each class into MBB than Booth, and frankly just as internationally, if not more so.

EDITED TO ADD: I neglected to mention the partner factor. Tuck is quite unique from a partner standpoint as well, Tuck Partners (TPs), are fully integrated into the community. They take classes with us, join and lead clubs, and a number end up working for Tuck or Dartmouth. From an integration standpoint and being tight-knit (in a large part due to our location) Tuck is rather unique among all MBA programs out there. Further, from a closeness / tight-knit perspective, in terms of alumni and community engagement, over 72% of living Tuck alumni donate every year, second place tends to be Stanford GSB, generally in the mid to high-40%s along with SOM. Booth is at 18%. Food for thought.

aerien · Answer

Don't want to derail this Tuck v. Booth convo, but chiming in to say that the SOM stat mentioned above is a bit of an older one. For the 5 most recent graduating classes, alumni donations are at an average of over 88%. Taking all classes, we're at over 52% of alumni donating this year. Tuck, we're coming for ya

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brockr1 · Answer

Hello  Flyte , thank you for your input.
Tuck sends greater percent of class to consulting (36 vs 28 for the class of 2016), but of course it could be in part due to students preferences (finance is 20% vs 36%), so it is really impossible to understand the real chance of getting into consulting judging by this statistic alone.
Do you have any ideas how to estimate % who get into consulting among those for whom it was 1st priority, not among the full class as in the employment report?

As an insider, could you please also comment on tech sector (it is my plan b). It is generally agreed that Booth is better for tech than Tuck and nobody challenges that. But both schools send 16% of class into tech (see 2016 employment reports). So what is the difference?

Flyte · Answer

In the end if you want to do consulting and are capable of carrying on normal conversations (and focused, select your offices early on and try to network pre-application with people from your top two or three offices), you will get interviews at all three of MBB at Tuck. Further, due to our bid system if you can guarantee yourself an interview if say you only receive invites from two of the three. As to how many received offers who were interested in consulting, I don't have those statistics, but everyone I know who was 100% set on consulting in my class received consulting offers. Outside of MBB, Tuck is Parthenon's top school (Parthenon was founded by Tuck alumni and is the top paying management consultancy by far), we also had people go to OW, Strategy&, Monitor Deloitte (one of only three MBA programs that gets you aligned straight into Monitor - HBS and Sloan being the other two), ATK, LEK, and IGS. Further, we also had others target and go into the top innovation consulting firms (such as Innosight and IDEO). Additionally, we had loads go to internal consulting / strategy roles at a range of top companies (Under Armor, Google, Nike, etc).

Regarding tech, I have never heard nor is it "generally agreed" that Booth is better than Tuck for tech. Again we had quite a few people going to big tech (Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM Watson, Microsoft), as well as high-tech manufacturing / space companies (SpaceX, Raytheon, Digital Globe, etc), and of course a wide array of start-ups. Additionally, a few people did their own start-ups at Tuck via the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network. One of them who started his first-year, was immensely successful and acquired two weeks ago.

Seeing as you are Russian, have you spoken to any of our Russian alumni? One of my Russian classmates is at a great start-up in the Bay Area and I could put you in touch if you can PM me your details, regarding tech recruiting.

Flyte · Answer

Drop me a line when you guys are averaging 97% for the last five graduating classes

But, seriously, I love what SOM is doing in terms of their expansion, wider university integration, and interdisciplinary coursework. If I hadn't gone to Tuck, I would have accepted SOM's offer!

HiLine · Answer

Tuck and Booth are very different schools. Tuck is a deliberately small program that has a fiercely loyal alumni base. The location of the campus actually brings students closer together, strengthening the bond they have with each other and with alumni. From what I've heard, Tuck, like its bro Dartmouth College, is pretty fratty. Booth has a big-city campus which gives students a lot more options for networking, social life, and travels. So it depends on whether you prefer a close-knit community or freedom of choice. There are advantages to either.

And since you have a family, location may be more important than prestige of the school.

And since you have a family, location may be more important than prestige of the school.

Poll: Booth vs Tuck

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