Booth vs. Cornell $$$$

Question

Admitted to both Booth (no money) and Cornell (full scholarship) with a short-term goal of probably recruiting for IB. My longer-term goal is to break into asset management or PE, which would be much more likely out of Booth than Cornell both immediately post-MBA and longer-term.

My debate is whether to pay full tuition at Booth and probably have some better options in some industries I may move to, or Cornell and pay nothing while likely getting the same post-MBA position. How much will the prestige of Booth matter after my first job, and is it worth the investment?

Leadership · Answer

wabo22 .. Many congratulations to you. Full scholarship

I am not an expert in any of these schools and hope some other users will suggest you better. Full scholarship is a big saving

Note: I have created a poll in your post to let others user to quickly suggest you.

Businessconquerer · Answer

Cornell is ivy

JohnJohnJ · Answer

Cornell being close to New York City... You have the same opportunities that anybody at Booth would have. 
Sure, you’ll have to try a little harder... but you’ll do equally well at Cornell.

Don’t go by the rankings, US News and Business Week and FT make money by creating this false perception through rankings.

Posted from my mobile device

wabo22 · Answer

This getting to be much more split than I thought with Booth gaining ground...and I feel more conflicted than ever regardless

Tough choice to come!

bb · Answer

In terms of your question about the value of the MBA after your first job, it definitely diminishes the further away you from graduation. As you progress through your career, you increasingly rely on your network and your performance of the company you’re at. The most critical contribution of your schools brand is during the vulnerable time after graduation. One could say that you could an amazing job out of Harvard and let’s say average out of Johnson but then both of those people could theoretically get an amazing job #2 a year later. That’s not exactly correct or the case since your first job will have a bearing on your second one and you school brand will have a bearing on your first job.

It’s very hard to value schools. I have put together a topic about the value of a top 10 NBA trying to put some framework around valuations and welcome feedback about it. https://gmatclub.com/forum/value-of-a-t ... 13365.html

Per my own table, I think it’s a good value trade getting a top 20° for free versus a top 10 at full sticker price. Of course I was building the table purely theoretically without my feelings in my life on the line

it is a very hard decision and I would love to hear what you decide. I don’t think anyone can fault you for picking either program. Tons of people are paying full price of booze and they’re extremely happy to be admitted and a number of people awake enough to get scholarships.....

Good luck!

Posted from my mobile device

it is a very hard decision and I would love to hear what you decide. I don’t think anyone can fault you for picking either program. Tons of people are paying full price of booze and they’re extremely happy to be admitted and a number of people awake enough to get scholarships..... Good luck! Posted from my mobile device

wabo22 · Answer

Thanks for the helpful thoughts!! One other question I had (perhaps better to post in another forum)--anyone know if it's at all feasible to get any scholarship/financial aid from Booth, either leveraging my Johnson scholarship or just generally? I'm 50/50 now but even a small scholarship from Booth would shift things a lot.

Is it possible to say "I have a full scholarship somewhere else, really want to go to Booth but even a 10% scholarship would help a ton?" What's the best way to go about it if so?

Is it possible to say "I have a full scholarship somewhere else, really want to go to Booth but even a 10% scholarship would help a ton?" What's the best way to go about it if so?

bb · Answer

Hi. I just posted a separate topic (after replying to you here) about scholarship negotiation ideas and success stories: https://gmatclub.com/forum/negotiating- ... 12949.html Good Luck! BB.

jessepinkman · Answer

it's certainly worth a shot, worst thing that can happen is they don't offer you a scholarship. it really depends on how they view yield vs cornell and how much of the scholarship pool has already been allocated

Chen3chen2 · Answer

Might be biased here since I'm a Cornell student. But if you research on the employment stats, Cornell's IB placement is as good as many M7 school. I'll definitely go with a full-scholarship.

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mradamsmith · Answer

Cornell's IB placement might be the most overblown thing going in the MBA realm. You'll get an IB position from either place, though your access and breadth of opportunities will be higher at Booth.

However, if your goal is moving to PE post IB, these two options couldn't be further apart. Booth alum are littered among PE/AM shops all over the country, and without post-MBA structured recruiting for PE, these are who you will need to network with for ad hoc opportunities.

I get the $ is hard to turn down, but if your goal is truly PE this shouldn't be a close call, take Booth. If your goal is simply *any* IB job, Cornell will give you the opportunity.

JohnJohnJ · Answer

I was in a marketing class where the professor who was the ex CEO of an electronics company said that the best way to sell anything, is by creating a sense of fear
There is enough data available which suggests while Booth, Harvard, Stanford get you into PE, there is a lot more data which suggests that good IB gets you into PE. Done fall for the fear

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

I agree - going from IB to PE is not a common or "normal" path and  JohnJohnJ  - you should stop suggesting it, as it is inaccurate. You can do some research on the % of people who move/transition from IB to PE and it is a small number - about 20% at most. 1 out of 5... that's not great at all! That's Ok as a detour after Bschool if you don't make it to PE, and have to to IB, but you should never go there if you have a chance of a straight path.

JohnJohnJ · Answer

BB, while you are the expert on this website, I’ll back my argument with data.

Looking at BlackStone’s team https://www.blackstone.com/the-firm/our-people
It looks like everybody who did not start in PE after MBA, went to BlackStone post IB experience.

I can see the same looking at LinkedIn profiles of people working at other PE firms.

On a related note - people “transition” if they’re interested, not everybody is interested or “transition”ing to PE

Asset management opportunities are the same at both schools,
Dont drink the Kool aid

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Appreciate your push back!

It is always good not to drink the coolaid and have data. I have not examined BX until now and that page will take a while to go through... it is a large firm. One thought, however is this - nobody argues that it is impossible to go from IB to PE, but the fact that there are a few IB's (10 or 100) is hard to use as a data point since we don't know the size of the IB pool... meaning, did 100 IB applicants apply to BX and all got 100 offers or did 100 apply and got 10 offers? It is a different ratio. In other words, your argument/date don't really dispute the point that mradamsmith and I brought up that only 10-20% of folks get into PE from IB. Let me know if I am off. I would also throw out there that IB is not for everyone. It used to be a fairyland but then it got ruined with reality in 2008. If someone who really wants to go to PE has to go through IB and they don't have their heart in it, it will be hard for them to perform at the top level. My gut would say that Top IB performers are offered PE position and everyone else either stays at their IB place or gets cut in favor of younger/cheaper folks. Could this be the case? B.

souvik101990 · Answer

I’d personally pick Booth over Johnson because of the incredible brand value and post MBA opportunities that dwarf any school in the top 15-20 category.

Scholarship is a great short term benefit but I don’t think it matters a lot with the long term finances in place. However I am an international student and the probability of ‘hacking it out after graduating to get a job’ is a lot lower for me and I ended up leveraging on campus opportunities a lot more.

kmwantstogoschool  is a current student at Booth and will probably have better perspectives.

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JohnJohnJ · Answer

People also have an inherent bias because of the rankings, I woken suggest you should evaluate a school independent of rankings.

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souvik101990 · Answer

I wouldn’t call it a bias as much as primary filtering. It’s also the reason why most people would pick MBB over EY/PwC.

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kmwantstogoschool · Answer

Hey, just like any other school, I have seen/heard of cases of people negotiating scholarships with Booth with varying degrees of success. There is honestly no downside to trying.

I can only speak to IB/PE/AM recruiting at Booth:
IB - very structured, lots of opportunities, ~95% of Boothies trying to get IB internships meet with success and many have multiple offers. The schools support system and traction is excellent and opens doors in banking from London to NY to Palo Alto and of course Chicago 
PE - The recruiting is not super structured but opportunities are myriad. There are PE rockstar professors like Steve Kaplan who are willing to help students find a gig, there is an official PE/VC Lab course every year where you can land an internship, The Polsky Center for entrepreneurship also supports PE recruiting. All of this in addition to the existing school support systems. The only hitch is if you’re an international and need work authorisation, PE firms typically don’t sponsor. 
AM/IM - Similar to PE

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kmwantstogoschool · Answer

Also want to urge those thinking about banking to have a Plan B in place. A return offer at the end of the summer is not a given in banking and you have to be mentally prepared to pivot/re-recruit. I don’t know enough about banking to tell you why this is, is it a cyclical thing or something else, but it is what it is. So you want to look at recruiting for IB + Plan B and then make a decision based on the schools performance overall!

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Booth vs. Cornell $$$$

Booth vs. Cornell ($$$)

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