Undecided - 03-12-2022 | Clear Admit DecisionWire

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March 12, 2022 4:17pm ET

Enrolled: Undecided

Admitted: NYU Stern , UCLA Anderson $

$150000

, UPenn / Wharton

Applied: Berkeley / Haas, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, Stanford GSB, UCLA Anderson, UPenn / Wharton

Entering Year: 2022

Post MBA Career: Consulting, Technology, Consumer Goods Companies: BCG, McKinsey, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nike

GMAT: 710

GPA: 3.4

Location: San Francisco

Notes:

I posted this previously: https://www.clearadmit.com/decisionwire/undecided-12-21-2021-3/

However I got an update that I received a full Consortium fellowship to UCLA, so I am deciding between UCLA and Wharton with no $$. This is really tough, Wharton is my dream school but not sure if it makes sense to put myself in massive debt…HELP!

Like (3)

Show Comments (11) Last: March 24, 2022

anon55508 Likes Earned: 37 Also it’s not showing above - my post MBA goals are marketing within tech or beauty/health/wellness companies. Consulting is something I’m still considering. I don’t want to be limited to west coast post grad….considering NYC, Texas (where I’m from), or LA. Wharton opens more doors and opportunities but UCLA is solid in tech and the fact that I won’t have any loans is tough to pass up. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1584 A tough choice, and I think you summed it up well. Wharton will provide more access to opportunities. Your networks will be stronger everywhere, with the exception of LA. Here is the original post, for anyone interested: https://www.clearadmit.com/decisionwire/undecided-12-21-2021-3 (0)

eliot Verified User. Likes Earned: 1858 Congrats on your acceptances to Stern and Wharton and your acceptance and $150k scholarship to Anderson. All three are great programs. However, I think that you should be willing to take out loans and attend Wharton. Wharton will provide you with a great education, brand and global network. In addition, Wharton will provide you with better career opportunities - whether you are seeking a consulting or a marketing position. Furthermore, you mentioned that Wharton is your dream school. It sounds like the only reason you are considering Anderson is the $150k scholarship. While that is a substantial scholarship, you will easily be able to cover your student loans with your post MBA career. One idea for you to consider is to talk with Wharton, explain the scholarship and see if they can give you a partial scholarship. No harm in asking. Best of luck. (1)

anon10646 Likes Earned: 776 I generally lean to taking the $ over rank in most situations as I feel many get too caught up in the ranking/prestige game when their goal is achievable from their admits, but I'd start to favor Wharton in your case. You clearly want Wharton per your posts/comments and that you have not convinced yourself on Anderson yet, even with the increased $. You have mentioned Wharton is your dream school and per Eliot's comment on your first post about minimizing regret, it feels like you might regret not taking the Wharton offer. Also, in your comments you've mentioned a few different possible exits. If the goal is J&J, Peloton, Nike, Unilever etc or some form of Tech, then Anderson would have been capable of meeting your goals, but if the exit is trending to MBB or big tech then Wharton will give clear advantages. I'd argue some of the Anderson placement is self-selection due to lifestyle and being near large MBA hiring markets, but obviously Wharton has a bit more of a national dispersion if geographic factors are considered. As I noted before, it's your debt so don't take anything you're not comfortable with, but as mentioned a lot - $150-200k over a post-MBA earning career is a blip even if a large number today. I took a full over a higher ranked sticker last year, but only because the higher rank was not going to dramatically improve my post-MBA goal chances to compensate for the tuition. Student loan rates are at a relatively low rate and I'd venture that any post-MBA role from Wharton can easily take a loan down in short order if you so wished. (3)

anon47094 Likes Earned: 7 Anderson without loans seems pretty good to me. (1)

anon55508 Likes Earned: 37 OP here - thanks all for your advice, I really appreciate it! Also thank you for featuring this on the podcast this week. I do want to clarify, my target post-MBA is not necessarily consulting. For some reason when filling out the decision wire entry, i put other industries but it cut off after consulting. I'm more interested in marketing & tech, which is why I'm wondering if Wharton is worth the extra $$ given I'm not necessarily targeting consulting my #1 (and definitely not doing IB). Either way, I think Wharton will open more doors for me in the long run and given the regret factor Eliot mentioned, I think I'd regret not going there. Also I took a look at costs and while the consortium fellowship covers tuition, I'd still need to take out loans for living expenses, plus I'd probably want a car to get around LA and overall a high COL in LA so that's a sizable amount in loans. (Anderson estimates about $21-25K in room/board per year not including personal expenses & traveling, so likely it's gonna be more than that in reality). Also I've noticed in the past few months that Wharton has really been selling me on the school/program itself, whereas I feel like Anderson sometimes is selling me more on the location. LA is fantastic and I'd love to live there at some point in the future, but again don't want to be limited in terms of my network. Going to spend a bit more time chatting with students/alumni, researching employment outcomes, etc. but think at this point I need to go with my gut. :) (2)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1584 More details on this decision, in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2022/03/wire-taps-223/ (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1584 … also, Wharton’s marketing department is really outstanding! (0)

anon55508 Likes Earned: 37 Btw I did ask Wharton for more(or really just any) $$ twice but unfortunately it’s a hard no. I don’t know anyone else that’s successfully negotiated with them (2)

anon55508 Likes Earned: 37 OP here again - to make this more interesting, I was admitted to Kellogg off the waitlist today too! I don't believe I received any $ so I don't think this is going to sway me away from Wharton...it was definitely one of my top school choices previously given the strength in their marketing program. (2)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1584 Congratulations on Kellogg. Great program, but as you noted, perhaps not enough to sway away from Wharton. (1)