Yale SOM or Berkeley Haas?

Hey isit2022yet,

Congratulations on getting into two great programs! I'm a first year at SOM.

I have to admit, it's a little hard to pick out what seems to be most important to you and what you want to do after school, but I'll give you my perspective from SOM.

1. Short term career goals
The thing that will be most important to you your first year will be short term career goals. The absolute whirlwind that is first semester and recruiting will make you focus on that almost 100%. You listed some vastly different short term career paths including FAANG, general management and consulting. Deciding on what you want to do the most right after school, instead of listing three different sectors, may help you narrow down what is best for you. SOM is a consulting powerhouse and we do really well with general management roles as well. A wild majority of our class goes into consulting and tons of companies come to campus also (AB InBev's presentation at SOM and when they had SOM recruits down to the NY headquarters involved lots of beer ha). We have a much larger amount of students going to FAANG this summer than I expected, but, without seeing Haas' numbers, I would assume a larger percent of the Haas class goes to tech than SOM. Deciding on which path you'd want to take short term may help you narrow down the decision.

2. Location
I totally understand the appeal of getting a few years on the west coast in your late 20s, early 30s. I think something like 70% of Haas graduates end up staying on the west coast so in the short term you will have a stronger network with Haas probably. Long term, however, you want to be on the east coast and your network is on the east coast. Yale sends about 30% of their graduates to the west coast with 50% staying in the northeast. SOM's alumni are spread around a little bit more, which I prefer. Just like Haas may have the edge in alumni network in the short term, Yale may have the edge in alumni network in the long term for you.

3. Culture
This is the biggest difference probably, and its completely up to you as to what you want. Personally, I was in CO before coming to Yale. I am going to Seattle this summer and will be staying on the West Coast after my MBA as well. I prefer the west coast to the east coast. That being said, I never even considered or applied to Haas because of the culture of the area and school. I am not a fan of any location that is heavy left-leaning or heavy right-leaning as I prefer a more moderate, politically diverse place to live. If you want a very left-leaning city then Haas may be the better location for you. New Haven is much more moderate in comparison with Berkeley. Also, I knew I didn't want to go into tech - never found the industry all that interesting - so had no real desire to apply to Haas. If those things are appealing to you then that may sway you more towards Haas.

- Other
I think the education you'll get in a general management sense is pretty negligible. As bb pointed out, the soft skill of management is difficult to teach and I can't imagine there being vast differences between Haas and SOM. SOM's endowment is awesome (and I think the fact they have such a massive endowment for such a young school is a testament to the program), but I doubt Haas is in any trouble whatsoever financially even with a global pandemic. Your relationship will survive if its meant to be. Whether you move together to Berkeley or do the kinda-long distance from NH to NY, if its meant to be it'll be fine. I came into school with a gf who still lives in CO and we just got engaged. We see each other twice a month and are super happy. Some of my other classmates brought their significant others to campus with them and are already broken up. Long distance is only really that hard on couples who would have problems together anyway. Outdoor scene is definitely better in CA than CT. I'm out in Colorado and on the west coast so often I don't even tell a big difference from when I was in Colorado. Just got back from a big ski trip in Canada (right before Corona). You're gonna be an elite MBA so you'll be on planes a lot.

Narrow down your short term career goals, decide if you want a stronger network in the short vs. long term, and decide what kind of culture you'll thrive in best. If you do those three things, I'm sure a clear winner will emerge. Both are excellent opportunities. Congrats again and good luck with the decision.

Making the same decision myself! I'd love to connect

isit2022yet - congratulations! Great job!

A lot of things were said there, some are just great!
I just want to add a few points in terms of the recruitment aspect. I keep saying this - when it comes to recruitment your pre-MBA experience will probably the biggest factor to your success - how much relevant/transferable skills you have. This process will involve a lot of reflection on your past experience, you will recalibrate your resume to different positions, teams, companies etc. I'll try to be more practical, there are always exceptions, so:

General Management: with the class size of both schools being small, not many big companies like Cummins/AB InBev (just an example) will be on campus but there will be some and mostly the local ones. Get a Linkedin premium subscription (free 1 month) and check how many people from each school are in the companies/teams you're interested in, LinkedIn is a great tool for this.

FAANG and Tech: in terms of your profile strength will be an equally strong candidate from both schools, however, it's more likely that the hiring managers will be from Haas than from Yale SOM. You have a great experience in marketing at startups, tech firms will love that experience, not sure about FB and Apple, but Amazon and Google will most likely, Netflix is a mystery. BUT, there are a ton of other tech companies doing exciting stuff, even within other big techs. I like saying that if you're in Haas, Tech is your safe choice, you can always find something interesting in Tech, Haas alumni network is priceless here.

Consulting: consulting is very geography- and networking- specific and Yale SOM, with its proximity to NYC and Boston, definitely has an edge over Haas, but then again NYC and Boston are the most popular offices and you compete with HBS, Sloan, CBS, Wharton, Kellogg, Booth, and Stern. By same logic, if you're interested in SF office, which is also one of the most popular if not the most, you'll better off at Haas (or GSB and I guess HBS). You will network with/meet the people from SF office and will be able to leverage that to land an interview. I've seen people going to NYC, Seattle, and LA offices as well, so no door is closed for you from Haas, and I'll say the same about Yale SOM.

If you have any other specific questions about anything, DM me.

Narrow your industry and geographic preferences down to a top choice and backup, and then the choice may become easier. But, right now, seems like your preferences are a bit of everything, so if it stays like that, I would go with the stronger school and one that has a great pull towards tech and entrepreneurship (since you mention this first), making Haas the better choice