Ross ($20k)/Rice ($120k)/Mannheim($7.5k)?

Question

A bit about me: I am an ORM from India with 7 years of work ex. I have got admits at full time MBA program at the 3 mentioned B Schools. My long term ambition is to get into sustainability consulting at MBBs, and later establish my own sustainability focused company. I'll be heavily relying on loans for my studies. I need to make a decision in 48 hours. 
 
If cost was the only factor, Rice would be an easy choice. But students there told me placements are weak right now. And >50% of international students expect to go back after MBA. They also said most opportunities stay in Texas and are heavily in energy roles. Rice’s sustainability ecosystem also feels less developed than Ross. 
 
Ross a solid consulting and sustainability focused school. I really liked the culture too. It seems to have a mature sustainability and consulting ecosystem. 
 
Mannheim is Germany’s top business school, but I’d start German from zero. In the EU, sustainability roles are strong, but consulting without fluent German is very hard, so I’d likely need to change my plan. But good thing is no H1B stress, more time to find a job, and better work life balance, which supports my startup goal. 
 
If you ask me, I badly want to go to Ross. But almost everyone I talked to advised against it. Please advise what should I do.

-_-anulomufa-_- · Answer

I was in a similar situation and decided to go with Ross (against another EU brand) for the following reasons:

- As per my conversations with the current students and alumni from the EU school, EU market currently is worse than US and on top of it, cracking the market without a B2 level proficiency in any European language is close to impossible
- Consulting pipelines in Middle East (a preferred geography for internationals in EU schools) have dried up recently
- My European School's brand recall and it's alumni density in India were (a bit) lower than Ross, hence it wasn't the best option to open multiple doors in India in case I decided to return
- Ross being on the higher side of cost makes it a risky bet, but at the same time Ross also gives me the best shot at my short term goals and thus my preferred long term professional trajectory
- I also wanted to leverage the two year time frame of an MBA program to dabble with other possible career paths, which is something that Ross gives me

Now I totally get why people are advising against Ross. Things arent rosy in the US market and internationals are struggling quite a bit. Still personally, I went for higher-cost optionality and upside vs the lower-cost financial safety given this was gonna be my only shot at an MBA.

I know very well that this is not going to be an easy decision and honestly there's no "right" answer here. Happy to chat more on this.

Jarvis07 · Answer

Thanks a lot for the response. DMed you, please check.

Ross ($20k)/Rice ($120k)/Mannheim($7.5k)?

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