Undecided - 02-13-2017 | Clear Admit DecisionWire

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February 13, 2017 2:49pm ET

Enrolled: Undecided

Admitted: Boston College / Carroll , Cambridge / Judge , Nanyang

Applied: Boston College / Carroll, Cambridge / Judge, Nanyang

Entering Year: 2017

Post MBA Career:

GMAT: 700

GPA: 3.7

Location: GA

Notes:

Pre-MBA experience is wealth management, post-MBA goal is mutual/hedge funds. Interested in Columbia because of the Value Investing Program and the chance to do school year internships are hedge funds, but also liked Wharton and Booth when I visited. I've heard that, for buyside jobs, the three are peers, but having a hard time deciding. Thoughts?

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Show Comments (22) Last: February 21, 2017

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Either Wharton or Booth. Columbia's rankings just keep sliding.... You also have to consider that it's competitive to even get into the value investing program. So, I'm wary about going to Columbia just for that. BTW Wharton deposit deadline is today. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Yeah, got a deadline extension (surprisingly). Have one more week to decide and really don't know what to do. I know about the competitiveness of getting into Value Investing Program but I wouldn't reject CBS because I'm scared of not getting in. Trying to make a conscious decision. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Come join me at Wharton!! But obviously all 3 are great options.... (0)

Anon Likes Earned: 0 I think the Wharton name will get you farthest in the hedge fund world (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Your story screams Columbia -- hard to beat the NYC connections you'd make. That said, Booth may have the competitive advantage when it comes to brand recognition and positioning yourself well for a HF job after business school. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Wharton is by far your best option (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 I had a similar decision to make and chose W over CBS. Liked W's moderately/marginally better brand/reputation, what felt like a more "fun"-oriented culture, and the firms the students recruited at (megafunds + other). Really liked CBS VI program for the focus and the real, more direct exposure to investment pros (but didn't like the prospects if you didn't get in), seemed like perhaps slightly fewer megafunds recruited at CBS (or that people I happened to talk to who interviewed at megafunds typically predominantly saw other H/W candidates). I did not consider rankings a factor (who cares, all that matters is actual perception on the street and your classmates and alumni) nor location (NYC is a 100% better city whereas Philly is ok as an approachable place to live for 2 years, maybe because everybody at W lives in the same [10] block radius its a bit more tighter knit). Did not apply to Booth - impressive rise in ranking but prefer W brand or CBS VI program. What are you thinking op? (0)

Hmm Likes Earned: 0 All great options, though I agree Booth/Wharton have better names and might be stronger in the long run (although NYC obviously best city). If you make the most of the resources (massive in all 3 schools) you'll get the job you want. Which school did you feel like you meshed best with the students? Thats a huge factor for me.. 2 years is a decent chunk of time and you want to make sure you get along with the people who will be your network for those 2 years (and beyond) (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 W vs CBS (0)

OP Likes Earned: 0 My short term goal is to work in the US doing EM equities (I'm hispanic American born in South America). Long term goal is to open a fund in South America. Liked the people at three schools, although I got the impression that CBS kids usually didn't make it to Wharton so there seemed to be an inferiority complex. I'm an URM with a unique story and I found CBS kids more open to it whereas Wharton kids seemed to be more stuck up. Booth kids were super cool and I love the educational experience there, but having 1/3 of my network in Chicago won't help me as much towards my long term goal. I think I'm between W and C. W def has a prestige advantage (slight for the buyside) but CBS offers networking opportunities and the VI program is well regarded (I know it's tough to to get in, but I'm not scared at all). Any other thoughts? (0)

Hmm Likes Earned: 0 Yeah, your Booth network would comprise many students in Chicago, but I imagine that the booth kids in finance likely move to NYC after. You'd know a lot of consultants in Chicago though. That said, between C and W you gotta go with W. You don't know if you'd get into that program, and there are non-pretentious people at W (and every school). Your network will be stronger and the badge status on your resume will take you further internationally (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Current CBS Student: W for PE but IM definitely CBS. My batchmates from non finance backgrounds this year were able to land internships with top IM firms. Strongest program for IM in my opinion but for PE we are weak for sure. My batch also includes a forbes 30 under 30 candidate for HF investing. CBS in my view. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 CBS is great for IM, legacy is there and access to top folks is unmatched. But please don't mention forbes 30U30 it's as subjective as it gets. (0)

Campus, Community, Network Likes Earned: 0 Congrats! All three programs are superb, so you honestly can't go wrong here. With that said, you also need to consider the campus environment and the fact that you are spending two years in b-school. In that domain, Booth and Wharton are well ahead of CBS. As one poster noted here, the Wharton students all live near each other AND most (if not 99%) have never lived in Philly, which results in a very close-knit community. Booth and Wharton also have excellent facilities, where CBS falls a bit short. And finally, look at the size of the global alumni network - particularly in Latin America (in case you intend on working there long term) and you will find that Wharton stands above the other schools - in a major way. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 OP agree you shouldn't be scared of getting into VI. I had the same impression that a not insignificant # of CBS kids mentioned they didn't get into W and seemed to have a bit of a complex, tho there were also a handful that mentioned that they only applied to CBS ED for VI. I don't know to what extent you've interacted with students at each school, but I would caution about sample size bias - perhaps you interacted with a few people that happened to vibe or not vibe with your story? Both schools are large so assume there will be some variance in the 800+ population. I wouldn't place too much weight on facilities, yes a nice building is nice but it doesn't affect your LT prospects. New facilities is just a costly signal that the school is well funded, and all schools have signaled that (even if at CBS you won't be able to use the new facilities during your 2 years). Op have you spent time on figuring out what firms people at W and CBS VI recruit? (0)

anonn Likes Earned: 0 Chiming in here as someone in your target field. IM can be a pretty clubby industry and the alumni network is going to be crucial. I would echo what other posters said about Wharton, which is probably going to give you the most diverse set of options. As for Booth and CBS, I want to emphasize as much as I can that the stereotypes of Booth and CBS students and the preception of the training you get at each of these schools is *****VERY**** different. Because of differences in philosophy, curriculum, and a self-sorting alumni base, my sense is that your opportunity set at CBS is going to skew heavily towards funds that take a "bottoms-up" while Booth is going to place very well into funds that are more "top-down." Think Berkshire Hathaway vs. AQR Capital Management. This is particularly true in the hedge fund world, where you will find some CBS alums at places that are philosophically similar to Greenlight, Third Point, etc. and Booth alums at places more similar to DoubleLine or maybe Bridgewater (this is purely illustrative as none of these firms recruit at CBS, Booth, or MBA programs in general as far as I know). For mutual funds, generally speaking, both Booth and CBS are going to give you a lot of at-bats. Booth/CBS/Wharton arguably the three biggest target schools for research roles in IM, but there are some differences in the types of firms that recruit at each school that is generally in-line with the differences described above. If your decision set is CBS/Booth (arguably even CBS/Booth/Wharton) and you don't have a strong opinion on which philosophical camp you fall into, then this decision should be purely based on fit and location. If you do have an inkling of what type of analysis you want to do, you can probably carve out opportunities for yourself anywhere but definitely worth asking yourself what *type* of analysis you want to be doing as Booth and CBS are more specialized in this regard. (0)

Anon Likes Earned: 0 People citing year-to-year movements in magazine rankings are idiots. Nobody hiring you is going to look at that. C/W/H probably the best alumni network for HF on the coasts, Booth a fantastic school w/ great Chicago network. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Did you make a decision? (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Chicago hands down (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 yea what was your ultimate decision? (0)

OP Likes Earned: 0 Hi all. Thanks for the valuable insight I got here. I made a decision and will be joining Columbia. I'm gonna try hard and get into the Value Investing program. My investing profile aligns more with their way of thinking - I really don't buy EMH hypothesis. As for Wharton, awesome brand but I would like to do school-semester internships. For IM, I think Columbia has legacy. Feel free to comment. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Very thoughtful choice (coming from someone with similar-ish profile who chose W over CBS). Congrats! (0)