Tepper (No $) VS Schulich ($) for a career in Management consulting

Question

Hi Everyone,

ANY INSIGHT WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED !

I have got the below admits and am really confused as to what I should choose. I would greatly appreciate any help.

1) Tepper (no Scholarship)
2) Schulich (30K Scholarship)

I have an engineering background and have been working as a consultant in the environmental/sustainability sector for the last 5.5 years. I would like to switch careers and pivot into strategy consulting post MBA.

My major concerns include
1) Budgets/ Financing (especially given that I am an international student and loan options are very limited)
2) School Brand
3) Consulting Opportunities available

bb · Answer

Congratulations on your admits! Fantastic job!

I think the biggest choice you have is which country you want to be after you graduate from your MBA?
That's the biggest defined choice. As to consulting, Tepper is better and more students go into Consulting but I feel the US consulting market is much bigger too. Tepper reported 30%+ consulting placement.

Douae · Answer

US is definitely more attractive for me. No thinking needed there

I know that Tepper reported +30% consulting placement VS only 15% reported by Schulich in 2020. I'm also worried that the ROI for the Tepper program wouldn't be as interesting for me compared to Schulich ( the cost for Tepper is 193K total against 113K - 30K scholarship for Schulich) I'm also looking at high rate loan options. I don't know if profiles like mine (International + no previous experience in management strategy consulting) should expect lower starting salaries or more difficulties finding interesting job opportunities post MBA. Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Obviously, if you cannot find a way to finance the loan, then it’s likely not an option. But you also should take it to consideration the salaries and tax as you get in the US versus Canada. Canada salaries tend to be lower which is in part why the business schools charge less too.

Faster consulting, it is trickier for international’s since not all companies recruit H1B applicants. However, I thought that since you had environmental consulting under your belt, that should give you and advantage while recruiting for traditional consulting jobs. The key aspect in the consulting recruiting is getting through the interviews and having strong presentation skills. This can be tricky for non-native speakers... so Plan B is recommended. As a matter of fact, some business calls during interviews ask applicants about what the Plan B would be if they cannot recruit for their primary goal and that is because things do change and things sometimes don’t work out.

Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Ultimately no school can guarantee you a career in consulting. So I will give you more opportunities but ultimately it’s up to you in the consulting company.

However, there are a lot of differences between US and Canada. US is more difficult to get a work visa but Canada has lower salaries. Canada also does not put as much impact on your business degree in employers prefer more experience candidates. Do you have brand names on your resume? If not it will be an issue and potentially a bigger one in Canada.

ENGRTOMBA2018  may have a much more accurate perspective 😇

Posted from my mobile device

ENGRTOMBA2018 · Answer

Hi bb,

Thanks for tagging me. I completely agree with all of your points of differences between recruiting in Canada vs USA. I think all the points should push you towards accepting an offer from Tepper as that will give you a lot more opportunities in Consulting than Schulich as Tepper is a top 20 school in USA, thus providing you means to recruit for almost all of the bigger offices of consulting companies (that are all in USA!). Canadian offices are usually smaller and more focused wrt industry or functional choice while USA offices provide you a lot more flexibility.

That being said, what is your plan B as consulting recruiting is very competitive at ALL schools so for Plan B as well, Tepper wins hands down, especially when it comes to decent to high-paying jobs post MBA.

Yes, Canada makes it easier to get work visas but that comes at a few disadvantages when it comes to recruiting, namely, much lower salaries (120K CAD vs 150+ USD starting salaries in consulting for average levels to give you some clue) and a lot less fluid recruiting as its a smaller recruiting pool in Canada. 30K CAD in Schulich isnt such a big amount in the grander scheme of things that it sways you away from Tepper.

TLDR: my vote for Tepper for ease of recruiting, better/global brand name and better salaries.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regenerate · Answer

If you've not decided, the two links in my signature block below might help. If you have decided, we'd love to hear.

Tepper (No $) VS Schulich ($) for a career in Management consulting

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