McCombs Vs. Georgetown

Question

Hello all, I have been accepted into McCombs and Georgetown. Both schools look great. Any thoughts on which is the better school? The salaries from each school look comparable. I am interested in working on the west coast or in the northeast. Georgetown will be a good gateway into the northeast whereas McCombs looks like a reasonable gateway into the west. Tough decision!

GyanOne · Answer

I would recommend McCombs over Georgetown. Not only is it better ranked but it is also a better recognized name on account of being part of UT Austin.

BSchoolTastic · Answer

Thanks for your two cents!

purpleshirt · Answer

Congrats on both acceptances! I'm in a similar boat with Tepper vs. Georgetown. Is scholarship money in play for you? If not, I'd recommend McCombs for better rankings and name recognition. As a current DC-ite, it is EXPENSIVE living in DC.

BSchoolTastic · Answer

Congrats to you on both acceptances as well. No scholarship money in play at either school. I am leaning towards McCombs but considering both options strongly. Thanks for your input.

SuitUp · Answer

Let me give you my two cents from the perspective of a current MBA student. McCombs > Georgetown if you don't really care where you want to work after you graduate. If you want to work in the Northeast, Georgetown is a no-brainer and I mean it. I know a couple of McCombs MBA alumni and both loved the program. One of them wanted to work in the Northeast and the other one in California. Both had a very tough time finding a job where they wanted. There was not much networking going on for those two regions (that's not to say that you are not going to be able to find a job in your preferred region, it will just be much harder). Both McCombs and Georgetown are regional schools and do not have a super strong pull outside of their respective regions. If you want to work on the west coast, McCombs will probably give you a better shot.

BSchoolTastic · Answer

Thanks for the feedback! It's very helpful.

texasexpat · Answer

I'm going to agree on the geographic sentiment.

Realistically, outside of the top 7(10?) schools, there is a lot of regional focus associated with the schools.

Go to Georgetown if you want to end up on the East Coast. First, for recruiting (local), second, the alumni network will be more concentrated on the East Coast and will be more of an asset there, and less so if you move away from the area.

For McCombs, replace "Georgetown" and "East Coast" with "McCombs"/"Southwest" in the sentence above.

For example, I applied to Texas and am planning on matriculating there because I want to stay in Texas. I know someone else who received acceptances to both Duke and McCombs, but ended up at McCombs because of the strength in Texas.

I used to live in Northern Virginia/DC, and when I was there (this is a few years ago) Georgetown was an up-and-comer and had some pretty good clout in the area. I'd imagine this is even more so today.

If you go to a school out of the area, you'll be recruiting against tons of people from local schools. Not such a big deal if you are a H/S/W etc. level school. More so when you move down the list to where Georgetown/McCombs/Tepper, et. al. sit.

Now if you have no idea where you want to end up, I'd lean towards McCombs, but if one is substantially cheaper than the other, that might swing the needle for me.

ozzy10fl · Answer

I'm a 2nd year at Georgetown. I could not have asked for a better experience. McCombs is also a great school. If you want to know more about Georgetown (careers, student life, etc), shoot me a PM.

All the best and congrats on your acceptances.

method · Answer

McCombs! For the weather, college sports, and Austin. Also, you sound pretty open geographically, why not consider landing in Texas, especially Austin? Technology and entrepreneurship are huge there. Having traveled to a fair there this Fall, it was populated with all kinds of MBAs working for Dell, AMD, Bioware, and so on. Low cost of living, awesome city and Texas has amazing pull in-state.

I also heard some kind of stat, which may be whack but maybe not, that 80% of all the jobs created in the post-recession efforts have been in Texas.

I also heard some kind of stat, which may be whack but maybe not, that 80% of all the jobs created in the post-recession efforts have been in Texas.

asimov · Answer

McCombs . Hands down.

I understand that you care about the location post-graduation. But I'm assuming that you are going into b-school for career advanced opportunities as well. Even if a company recruits at both schools, it may not recruit for the same position. I have experienced this recruiting segmentation at my summer employer, which recruits for its leadership development program candidates only at specific schools, but recruit for general MBA level analysts across a wide net of schools.

If you go to McCombs, there is not a comparable school within a 1000 mile radius. Instead of being the 3rd string pick, you on top of the list. I have done second rounds with a handful of Texas companies, the schools that show up are elite schools + McCombs. When I interviewed for East coast or NE companies, it's an all elite school pony show.

NE is dominated by schools like HBS, Sloan, Wharton, CBS, Stern, Yale, and not to mention the tons of local schools there. If they are doing non-local recruiting, they can also look at Ross, Fuqua, Darden, Booth, and Kellogg, which are all in the general area.

McCombs Vs. Georgetown

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