UNC (No Scholarship) Vs Kelley (50% Tutuion Fee)

Question

Hi Everyone,
I am an Indian Male Engineer who graduated from IIT Bombay and have been working as a Senior Product Manager in one of India's top 5 Startups ($10B valuations). I have almost 6 years of experience (3 in Category management and 3 in Product) and Post-MBA, I plan to continue working in the Product Management domain preferably in big tech companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft.

I have an admit from UNC with No Scholarship Vs an Admit from Kelley with 50% Scholarship i.e. a difference of $90K in total cost.

Looking forward to your suggestions.

bb · Answer

Congrats on your admits!

I think Kelley wins with the scholarship.... I don't know that there is that much difference between the two for your career goals.
This is my back of napkin evaluation (super rough and crude) but most tech jobs are on the west coast and Kelley sent 26 out of 201; UNC sent 41 out of 287 or that is 13% vs. 14%.

There will be new stats and new info available via US news in about 2-3 weeks that will reflect the pandemic situation (not sure how relevant that will be in 2 years though)
Meanwhile, both schools offer a STEM OPT so I would probably save $$$ and head to Kelley but curious what some experienced UNC and Kelly folk sthink

woody93 or ankurgupta03 ?

Unfortunately, I do not have a good Kelley contact ... which is a bit concerning...

woody93 or ankurgupta03 ? Unfortunately, I do not have a good Kelley contact ... which is a bit concerning...

amitiitb · Answer

Thanks, BB for your input. Completely in sync with what you just put forward. 
Waiting for other folks to share their view

ankurgupta03 · Answer

Hello, First off, congratulations on the admits.
Even though I am from UNC, my first impression would lean towards Kelley because of the 50% scholarship.
I had a similar decision to make betweek Tepper with no scholarship and UNC with scholarship and I went to UNC.
50% scholarship is a lot of money and can definitely provide you some relief in the future.

As bb said, there is not a huge difference between the tech recruiting figures of both schools.
Moreover, tech recruiting is hardly on campus. For most of the companies that you have mentioned and a lot more, you have to network and make your own path. I am not sure what will happen when you join the school but in my days, I believe most of the schools planned a west coast trek for networking.

You should connect with some one who went to Kelley and check wih her/him too about Kelly to make a more informed decision

You can also try negotiating for more scholarship with UNC. Worth a try.

Again congrats ont the admits.

woody93 · Answer

Just want to clarify as a current 2Y MBA at UNC - OP mentioned Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. I want to clarify that they ALL recruit on-campus at UNC, not true that they do not come on campus. In addition to those 3 I mentioned, we have a ton of on-campus presence from Cisco, Dell, FaceBook. There are others, but these are the big ones. Of course, not all will come and OP will have to network as well.

amitiitb · Answer

Thanks @ankurgupta93 and  woody93 . 
I am almost certain to choose Kelley over UNC because of the Cost. Tech recruitment is moving a lot towards virtual mode and Pendamic just accelerated that trend. 
Will update my decision here

Regenerate · Answer

If you've not decided, possibly the links in my signature block below might help.

If you have decided, we'd be curious to know where you're heading!

UNC (No Scholarship) Vs Kelley (50% Tutuion Fee)

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