Anderson($$$) vs Haas for MBB consulting

Question

Hi everyone,

I know that there was a lot of discussion of UCLA and Haas, but I did not find anything regarding the MBB consulting placements of both schools. Employment reports are of little help, since both schools don't separate MBB vs other consulting firms’ placements.
I was accepted to two schools:
 UCLA with 80k scholarship
Haas with no scholarship

I am an international student from Canada and I work in investment management. Post-MBA I would like to switch to a MBB consulting firm (1st choice) or to a product management role at a big tech company(2nd choice). Location is not very important as long as it is in the US, but California (where both schools mostly place) seems like a good option after cold Canada. I will also need a visa sponsorship and am I aware that Bay Area companies (vs SoCal companies) are more likely to offer one.

My main questions: 
 Do I have a  substantially higher chance  to join MBB consulting / big tech firm from Berkeley than from UCLA?
Is brand value / network of Berkeley substantially higher than those of UCLA over the span of a career? So virtually, is it worth forgoing 80k of scholarship to go Top 10 school vs Top 20?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated..

bb · Answer

Hi and congratulations on your admits!

Haas >> Anderson.

Anderson does not have great on campus recruiting and I have heard of international applicants having a hard time converting offers. 
In general MBB's don't linger on the west coast as much as they do on the east coast but Stanford and Haas get the love and much better on campus recruiting than Anderson.

If you are going to Tech or MBB, I think Haas is meaningfully better. Being in the bay area, you can recruit right there without a 6-hour drive. You will have access to network with the FEMBA students, what I would call US strongest FEMBA program. As the international student, I would probably err on the Haas side (if you can say that) to give you as much help as possible with recruiting (though I feel Canadians have more Visa/work options than EU or Asians and are at a better spot since they are familiar with culture, language, etc). Yet if you are drowning in undergrad debt perhaps it is a diff perspective

Congrats on your admits!

P.S. Is $80K scholarship around 50% of Tuition?

TorontoMBA · Answer

Hi bb,

Thanks a lot for the reply - so quick!

80k scholarship is around 67% of the total tuition fees, which is a significant amount. UCLA and Berkeley have similar fees and expenses.

It is true that Canadians are eligible for the TN status, but the list of eligible occupations is very restricted. Hence, one of my concerns is that I will have to come back to Canada and get paid in Canadian dollars. In this case, the scholarship would be helpful. But it is hard to know beforehand.

I did a quick search on LinkedIn, but it surprised me that neither Berkeley nor UCLA placed well in MBB or big tech (maybe I did not search properly) and it appears that
the jobs students got from UCLA and Berkeley were pretty much the same: 2nd tier consulting, smaller tech companies..

I read thoroughly your article "Value of top 10 MBA" and had a look at your decision matrix.
Based on your immense experience, do you think that it is justified to pay 80k more for the Berkeley brand over long term?

bb · Answer

It is always hard to make these calls. It was easy to write that post in the vacuum but every situation seems to be so different and money scarce.

We don’t have a good Haas presence on GMAT Club to figure out if Haas has MBB on campus recruiting. It is still a competition for MBB though.

The folks I know fro Haas worked for a variety of great companies. One did take a 2nd tier consulting company job but it was a good deal.

I am somewhat jaded about LA in general - I don’t feel it is a great MBA job market especially for an international person who won’t get sponsored at Raytheon or aerospace companies.

LA is Entertainament industry ( Disney, universal, etc) and some mid and small business jobs. There is Snap, for now that is.

I would see if Haas AdCom can connect you with other Canadian students or alums to get an idea of opportunities and also ask them about on campus recruiting.

Take a look at GMATClub School Reviews meanwhile.

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Anecdotally, I was doing research on tuck a year ago And found a few people who work for Accenture or Deloite and seem to have gone back based on their LinkedIn profile. That seems pretty silly to me until one of the alums clarified that all the guys going back to second-tier consulting companies were actually sponsored. He knew them personally. That’s when I stopped trusting LinkedIn as much.

Posted from my mobile device

Posted from my mobile device

lingx073 · Answer

Hello bb, can you elaborate on that point? I am actually applying to Anderson and from what i have heard they have a stellar career center (Parker). I was under the impression that recruiting at Anderson is highly appraised. Thanks for your insights.

dominationstation · Answer

I was in literally the exact same position. I had an $80k offer from Anderson and no $ from Haas. I would say both schools are incredible - both their career centers and their cultures. You can get PM roles from both schools, but Haas is definitely strong for MBB. I would spend some time reflecting on which culture you resonate more with.

TorontoMBA · Answer

Hi dominationstation,

Would you be able to share which school you selected eventually and why?

Thanks a lot!

Posted from my mobile device

dominationstation · Answer

1) Tech focus (silicon valley is in our backyard) 2) my family and GF are in the bay area 3) Cultural fit - I grew up with blue and gold in my veins (my dad went to Cal, and I grew up going to Cal football games all my life) I wrote about the decision in detail here: https://www.mbajourneys.com/interviews/jason-yee Also DM'd you, we can hop on a call. Jason

TorontoMBA · Answer

Simply wanted to share some additional data and ask for your views.

I reached out to career management centers (CMC) and students both at Berkeley and UCLA.
I was very disappointed with Berkeley CMC - they simply ignored me even though I am an admitted student with a Berkeley ID. 
UCLA CMC exceed all my expectations - I got all the statistics/details requested, without any sugarcoating. 
Student response rate over LinkedIn requests was around 50% for both schools.

Two findings were shocking to me ( highlighted in red ):

Consulting placements overall 
UCLA :  only 50% of students looking for consulting (around 90 per year) job get something - UCLA CMC data 
Berkeley : pretty much everyone who searches consulting job gets something - Berkeley student data

MBB placements 
UCLA: 10-12 students per year (excluding sponsored) - UCLA CMC data
Berkeley : half of students going to consulting get MBB - Berkeley student data

International students placement 
Both UCLA and Berkeley place pretty bad international students into consulting, with MBB being hardly attainable for an international
It appears that only one international student from UCLA got MBB consulting in the last few years (even that student lived
in the U.S. and attended U.S. universities)
Students from both schools said that getting MBB jobs at their countries of origin was quite easy

Placements in California overall (not necessarily consulting) 
UCLA : places very well in Los Angeles but  recruiting for San Francisco becomes already challenging  (UCLA student data)

Overall verdict:  
Even full-ride at UCLA does not justify going there with the consulting career goal UNLESS one plans to return to home country post-MBA. The risk of not getting anything in the US is very high

I would love to hear if someone has other data or can highlight the flaws in this quick analysis (the one flaw I see already - it's not right to fully rely on Berkeley student data)

lingx073 · Answer

I think for MBB recruiting Berkeley is better than Anderson. But as an internationally student, it is going to be hard either way. If i were you, i would go Berkeley and network really hard. A lot of companies are not sponsoring internationally students like they used to. So you must really really stand out.

blackpearl23 · Answer

TorontoMBA  
I am in the exact same boat as you. 
What did yo u decide and what your experience? Can you kindly share.

Thanks!

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

West coast schools are not that great with consulting placement. The more focused on tech just because that’s who mostly hires there and local jobs available.... consulting has also been a pain with people getting burned out faster than usual... many consulting firms are understaffed but aren’t willing to expand and hire more people. That is what’s happening now so potentially that creates some opportunities in the future. Not sure if that will stretch out all the way to years out.

Personally, was how crazy things have been, cash in hand is always nice.

blackpearl23

TorontoMBA
I am in the exact same boat as you.
What did yo u decide and what your experience? Can you kindly share.

Thanks!

Posted from my mobile device

Personally, was how crazy things have been, cash in hand is always nice.

variantguy · Answer

I see that you've also gotten into Kellogg. If consulting is your goal, that's hands down your best option - neither Haas nor Anderson come remotely close. As an international, recruiting MBB from Anderson would be the toughest.

Anderson($$$) vs Haas for MBB consulting

Anderson($$$) vs Haas for MBB consulting

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