Booth vs. Darden vs. Fuqua EMBA

Question

Hello GMAT Club, mostly a lurker here. I'm a 37 year old marketer at a consulting firm (outside the Big 4). Currently in the midwest and long term looking to advance to a senior marketing role in tech but would consider B2C if it was at a company like Patagonia. Prefer to stay in midwest unless a dream job came along. I'm also a gay woman. LGBTQ community isn't a huge factor for me with an EMBA program but would have been for sure if I was younger and going FT.

I was just admitted to Booth, Darden, and Fuqua EMBA programs and am having trouble deciding. Company sponsorship ranges from 6-8% tuition and I received $10K from Booth and Fuqua. I knew going in that EMBA scholarships are modest if at all. I have about $75K cash I'm willing to part with and the rest will come from loans. I'm likely to receive a promotion mid-program which I'd apply to school.

Appreciate your input!

Booth 
- Most expensive school of the bunch
+ Quant heavy - marketing is becoming so data driven this would definitely expand my skillset
+ Global focused - residencies in London & HK
+ Location - 1 hour flight or 6 hour drive. My sis lives in Chicago so I'd have a free place to stay and see her and her growing family
- Classes held 2x a month in person Fri-Sat (quite a bit of travel = increased costs)
+ Rigorous program - My undergrad performance wasn't stellar (first gen/immature) and I feel like this is my chance to prove to myself I am capable of performing at a higher level 
- Seemingly the least diverse cohort of the group 
+ Rep in Chicago

Darden
+ Case method
+ Location - an hour flight for me or 6 hour drive (would fly often but maybe a drive once in awhile and visit friends there/do a couple of camping trips at Shenandoah)
+ One global residency
+ Classes held in person once a month and virtual weekly
- Middle of pack cost and no scholarship $
+ Really diverse cohort
+ In person once a month, rest virtual

Fuqua
+/- Location - direct flights are seasonal (2 hour drive from CLT where my company has a larger office/half of my team and my boss are located so I can probably finagle a few free flights)
+ Classes held in person once a month and another Saturday virtually
+ Cost - least expensive of this group
+ Diverse cohort
+ Decent rep in tech but I assume that's primarily for FT 
- Global residency is optional and additional fee

Regenerate · Answer

I'd ask the Adcom at each if it'd be OK to talk to someone in career services at each school.

Exclaim your situation to each one of them, your goals (including your dream job) and ask for their assessment as an insider of what Darden (or Booth or Fuqua) would mean to your longer term career goals.

While this is GMATClub's ranking of FT programs, there may be a few data points that help you get a glimpse into how the market assesses an MBA from each school and how the administration thinks about building a cohort.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmatclub-off ... 35846.html

Good luck!

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bb · Answer

Congratulations on your admits. Fantastic job!

First of all, it would be awesome if you could convince your employer to sponsor your education. The reality is that for them it’s pretax and for you it’s after-tax. Even if your employer reduces your salary buy $100 and pays that for tuition instead, that would be equivalent of you spending only $70. The reason executive programs are more expensive, is because originally they were designed to be sponsored by employers.

Cast of the choices, probably a bit of a question as to the goals you have after the EMBA. Are you looking for promotion within your company, looking to find a new job, or relocate or perhaps who knows in the current environment. The sad reality off today.

I would give booth a little bit more credit oh and a bit more weight in your choice due to the full-time rankings and also size of the program. It is by far the largest of the three with a wide range of alumni and prestige. Not to say that Fuqua or Darden how far behind but neither has been ranked with in the top five in the past 10 years or ever.

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you evaluate diversity? I am just curious, not being critical or picky or anything like that. Honestly I have assumed that most executive MBA programs a pretty unexciting in terms of diversity so just curious where are you were looking.

PS. Just for my personal curiosity. Did you end up taking EA or GMAT or none of the above?

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websponge · Answer

bb  Thanks for the reply!

Given the current economic environment I'm not super confident I'll be able to secure full sponsorship. I thought the tax benefits were capped at a much lower amount? Someone else at my firm is going to one of the schools I was admitted to, I'll connect with them and see if they secured sponsorship. I'm willing to pay a lot out of pocket but I feel need to be confident that I'll significantly increase my salary over the next 5-10 years to make it worthwhile.

As far as goals are concerned, I'm pretty confident I can gain a promotion with the next year or so. I'd apply any salary increase directly to tuition/loans. Long term though, I don't think there's much room to grow beyond another promotion at best and that's if my boss is promoted. My sister lives in Chicago, so I'm definitely willing to move there which is another reason Booth has the edge. There are so many CPG/eCommerce and tech companies based there or have a huge office.

re: diversity, I mainly looked at the class profiles. When I originally looked at Booth, gender split was closer to 80% men to 20% women. Darden/Fuqua had a higher % of women. Also, both Darden & Fuqua had more D&I questions on their application. Not sure if that ends up having an impact on class profile but was surprised that Booth didn't ask similar questions. It's not a huge deal, but all things being equal might have tipped the scales.

I took the EA. I originally planned on taking the GMAT but was scoring poorly on practice exams and couldn't find the time to thoroughly prepare. I bought the 4 month TTP package and it took a month to just get through 3 chapters. I do think overall the EA is easier, especially with the quant questions more business oriented.

FinanceMan · Answer

just now
First off, congratulations on your admits! Booth, Darden and Fuqua are phenomenal schools!

I am a current MSQM: BA student at Duke (Fuqua). I was like you and I had a less than stellar undergrad (3.1 GPA) and then I did an MBA at a small state school here in Oklahoma. I opted for my program because Dean Boulding and others claim the MSQM is a more technical MBA essentially. I have similar core business courses (strategy, marketing, account and finance) but my other courses are made up of analytics courses such as Programming for Data Analytics and Visualization, Empirical Analysis of Business, Applied Probability and Statistics, etc.

I do not know much regarding the EMBA program but a friend of mine who is a Senior Program Manager at Amazon is currently in the EMBA program and he loves it nearly as much as I love my program. If you have any questions relating to Fuqua, I would do my best to answer!

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Booth vs. Darden vs. Fuqua EMBA

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