Undecided - 03-03-2017 | Clear Admit DecisionWire

March 3, 2017 10:46am ET

Enrolled: Undecided

Admitted: Babson / Olin , U. Chicago Booth , Carnegie Mellon / Tepper , IMD , Rice / Jones

Applied: Babson / Olin, Boston College / Carroll, U. Chicago Booth, Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, IE Business School, IMD, Ohio State / Fisher

Entering Year: 2017

Post MBA Career:

GMAT: 730

Notes:

Deciding between the 5 admitted schools, for someone looking to place into IB and perhaps transition into PE down the line, which of these would be the smartest choice?

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Show Comments (25) Last: April 28, 2017

How? Likes Earned: 0 Deposit deadline was weeks ago for most schools (0)

Anon Likes Earned: 0 Yale SOM or Haas depending on your location preference (0)

Anon Likes Earned: 0 Yale and Haas (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Agreed. Yale haas depending on fit pref (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Stern (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 My vote is Yale > Haas > Stern >> others (0)

OP Likes Earned: 0 really huh? Yale out of the admits for IB->PE? I thought it would be Tuck and Stern. is yale really coming up that fast for corporate finance? (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Yale is what Chicago was less than a decade ago (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Why so many Yales? Stern is in NY and places really strongly in IB, definitely Stern for IB. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Stern has seemed to take a drop in the ratings but it is still regarded as a top 10, can't beat the location of being almost on top of wall street for networking purposes (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 DAYAM so many admits. congrats! (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Location is a double edged sword for Stern for people who want banking. People from other schools are probably only expected to take a few weekend trips to NYC during recruiting, but those at NYU / Columbia (I know OP didn't list them, but for anyone who reads this, it applies to both schools) are expected to recruit a lot more. If that is what you want (network with bankers), then that's cool. But a lot of people would prefer to not spend more time than necessary on recruiting assuming you get what you want. (0)

duh Likes Earned: 0 Yale (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 When I was at Yale they told me the had to go into the city at least 3 times a week to recruit, so there is still the really high expectation there and adding a 2 hour commute each way (0)

Red stripe Likes Earned: 0 I think its Tuck no question... Less competition and outcomes of students are really good (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 For another datapoint, Evercore (top investment bank) only lists Columbia, Harvard, Kellogg, Stern, Booth, and Wharton as where they do recruiting. Yale has still sent people there, but to me seems they still have a ways to go to be a strong target school for IB/PE (0)

@ClearAdmit Likes Earned: 0 First off, congratulations on gaining admission to so many terrific MBA programs! While you face a challenging decision, it's certainly nice to be in a position to make such a choice! In terms of where to begin, it seems like your career goals are very well-defined and should help as a starting point to narrowing down the list. Some of the schools on your list will be better represented than others in the investment banking universe. Tuck, Yale, and Stern will put some distance between themselves and the likes of Haas and Fuqua (if measured solely on the IB front). With that said, you also need to consider geography and campus community, since you have a wide range of options here. As we've stated before, Haas going to have a stronger, larger network on the West Coast, in the same way that Tuck will have more graduates in NYC than in San Francisco - and that holds true in both the short term (post-MBA jobs) and the long-term. Further, you have examples on this list of essentially urban offerings (NYU, Haas, Yale) and more rural/suburban options (Tuck, Fuqua). Now, some might argue that NYU Stern is the only truly urban campus, with Yale and Haas being a bit more suburban, and Tuck and Fuqua being more firmly in the 'destination campus' category, but it's clearly worth visiting each program to better understand these subtle differences and find your fit. Another factor to consider is the network effect/global brand - an area where each program on your list has slightly different strengths. Yale and Tuck tick the Ivy League prestige box, Duke has a very strong brand - especially in the States, Haas (and Berkeley in particular) is known the world over, and NYU, by virtue of it's location and size, has excellent brand value. In our mind, as we stated at the outset, this decision likely comes down to one of the NE schools (Tuck, Stern, Yale) - and to your preferred study environment (close knit/rural, urban or somewhere in between). One thing you may want to do is ask each program for some alums to connect with in the IB domain, and to use those discussions to really probe the strength of the IB network - and the PE domain. This isn't an easy choice, but ideally this post - and others here - have given you some food for thought. Best of luck! (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Clear Admit makes a good point. No one has really talked about Haas which is usually thought of as a tech school but there are so many IBs on the west coast, not to mention a ton of PE firms. Definitely worth a lot of consideration if wanting to locate to the west coast and do TMT IB (0)

Anon Likes Earned: 0 Agree with many posters - btw Yale and Haas. After that, depends on type of campus/community you're interested in. (0)

ANON Likes Earned: 0 Yale and stern (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Either Yale or Haas if I were you (0)

Anon Likes Earned: 0 Yale will go up in rankings this year. Yale > Haas > Stern for finance (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 lol @ "will go up in rankings this year" as a reason to choose MBA programs. Stern probably has the best network in IB, but placement into an IB group doable from any of these programs. I think Tuck places a decent amount into IB and is another good option, but the problem w/ Tuck, in general, is that the location makes recruiting a tough slog if you're not satisfied with your options after interviewing on campus. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Yale or Haas (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 NYU Stern is great for finance and amazing for IB. Just search for Stern alums in Linkedin and see where they work. Non of the other schools would have such a network in finance, sorry. Given your goals, Stern is the best choice. (0)