Congrats! If you have a minute, would love for you to fill out the
decision tracker so I can see what other programs you were weighing and considering and also would help bunch of other folks down the road.
In terms of your choice, if you’re looking at consulting, the school doesn’t have that much say or choice in terms of which office you’re going to go to. You choose that as a part of the process so you can easily go to Yale and save a bunch of money. Both schools have strong placement in consulting. Both appears but they are quite different. I don’t think the climate is that much different actually and probably the least of your worries.
I would say the people that are recruited at this programs are also going to be quite similar. You’ll find diverse student bodies built so you’ll be in a good spot at either one.
Culture and fit are very important because they can make the same product a very different experience because they impact your perception of the program and that can really mean a lot. There’s always multiple perspectives and the whole half empty and half full is a good illustration of it.
Anyway, it looks like you are in a dilemma between Yale and Fuqua so let’s jump in!
I would recommend approaching the matter three sides:
1. Students. Over the next month you can get in touch with current students from both programs and ask them what they would recommend and which program they would choose.
2. Adcom - there is a meaningful difference in scholarships between the two programs so it may make sense to reach out to see if Fuqua would match the scholarship amount. I don’t think you have a rush for this so you can do this in January but I also feel sooner is better. Think about what other aspects can potentially entice admissions into providing you with more funding. Sometimes it may be professional achievements but usually hard to come by and so you really end up pitting one school against another and saying that you really want to go to Fuqua but the difference is too big. We have a template for this type of thing. Check the topic called
how to negotiate your scholarship.3. Yourself - Culture and fit are often about perceptions and sometimes we jump to conclusions without having a complete picture. Did you really get to know Yale enough and had a chance to understand it. Maybe there’s something you don’t know yet about Yale and perhaps it’s worth learning. As you reach out to students in the point one above, I would also ask them about how the week is at school and what they do on weekends and how is the life there and what is their favorite part about Yale. I would be a bit open-minded about it. I’m not saying you should start loving Yale because they offered you a bigger scholarship but are you having a complete picture?
Having said all of that, depending if you reach first or second year students, people will become much more utilitarian by the second year. Culture and fit are worth nothing if you can’t find a job and when you are a poor student who hasn’t bought new clothes for two years And has an old laptop or a cracked phone, you get jaded and start taking things for granted as well but my guess is that many of them will tell you to take the money 😱 everything else is equal.
PS. Don’t put too much hope into the admitted students weekend. It’s a production and it’s highly curated. Some people hate them and change their choice others love them and also change their choice. I think they’re good informative events but they’re not exactly representative of day today. so if you’re going to wait for one of these to make your choice, you definitely can but I would not put all your eggs into this basket.
Good luck with your choice. I would love to know how it progresses. Please don’t hesitate posting any more questions and also would love to hear an update about what you end up choosing. It always helps to have an ending to a story and not have a cliffhanger 😂
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