Undecided - 04-03-2024 | Clear Admit DecisionWire

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April 3, 2024 12:07am ET

Enrolled: Undecided

Admitted: U. Chicago Booth $

$160000

, Harvard Business School $

$30000

, Northwestern / Kellogg $

$50000

Applied: U. Chicago Booth, Columbia, Harvard Business School, Northwestern / Kellogg, Stanford GSB, UPenn / Wharton

Entering Year: 2024

Post MBA Career: Technology, Private Equity, Entrepreneurship

GRE: 336

GPA: 3.87

Location: SF

Notes:

I'm torn on the decision between Booth and HBS - hard to pass up the extra $$$ for Booth, but I'm not fully sure on my career path and may focus on PE - it feels like HBS is the better choice for both reasons.

Like (2)

Show Comments (15) Last: April 6, 2024

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1618 Yes, if you can make it work for you, HBS will provide more options for the short run, and provide a stronger network in the longer run. (1)

eliot Verified User. Likes Earned: 1877 Congrats on your acceptances to HBS, Booth and Kellogg. Well done. Yes, most applicants in your situation would likely choose HBS. Of course, the ultimate choice is up to you. Feel free to attend the welcome weekends to help you decide. (2)

anon24138 Likes Earned: 37 I’m not sure this is a clear win for HBS. It really depends on your goals, financial situation, and level of risk. If you’re dead set on PE and/or the money difference doesn’t matter, then HBS for sure. But if you’re considering more standard fields where the schools are reasonably equal (IM, consulting, IB, tech), I’d probably pocket the savings and head to Booth. (3)

anon16553 Likes Earned: 135 OBVIOUSLY BOOTH WITH A FULL-RIDE!! HBS is in decline and Booth is a rising and also well-established program. My friends in Booth have succesfully pivoted to PE, its curriculum is much better suited for it than HBS's (wich is basically discussing a bunch of cases too years....). HBS has a good placement in PE BUT it is because these folks were already in PE pre-MBA, I have seen better pivots into PE at Booth. I WISH I WAS ON YOUR SHOES CONGRATS!! (1)

anon16553 Likes Earned: 135 *Apologies for my horrendous typos, writing from my cellphone (0)

anon24138 Likes Earned: 37 I agree! I’d take a Booth full ride over any HSW. Maybe I’d do GSB if pursuing entrepreneurship or VC but anything else and that Booth full ride is the pick. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1618 @16553 curious about your repeated assertion that HBS is in decline. I’ve not witnessed any evidence of this, so I’d be interested in understanding why you believe this. Thanks (1)

anon12795 Likes Earned: 51 A lot of people think Harvard is a damaged brand these days. Seems like an ephemeral viewpoint in the grand scheme of things (1)

anon16553 Likes Earned: 135 Hi Alex. Thanks for asking, sure my opinion is by no means objective, it is based on the following and anyone can make their own judgement, just sharing my viewpoint. Also I mention this from a PE perspective, HBS might be best for consulting and more GM careers: 1) Curriculum seems outdated to today's data-intensive world and weighting too much into the case method. I am sure HBS has some way of covering this but seems more like a response. 2) Too much weight given to DEI. Sure its important but they seem to have put too much emphasis on this vs more applied topics. Someone else might love this, not me 3) Recent antisemitism scandal. I went to Harvard square to visit someone and saw some quite agressive banners on the matter. This is also impacting donors and while they have $ today, it may impact its ability in the future vs other programs such as Booth that are receiving tons of funding 4) In decline might be inaccurate after thinking a bit, more like left behind. I think Booth, Wharton, MIT, GSB are leaving HBS behind. Hope it helps, its a forum so the idea is to discuss. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1618 Yes, discussion is good. It’s just good to support your assertions (as you have done here) rather than simply repeating them.

Not sure I agree. I do think all top programs have had to adjust to the Supreme Court ruling, and I don’t think DEI (which I personally believe is important) is something that stands out at HBS vs it’s peers.

and they’ve all experienced issues related to freedom of speech on campus, more recently. In the latter regard, Wharton comes to mind, but I don’t fear that that means Wharton will be left behind.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts. These are all outstanding MBA options.

(0)

anon16553 Likes Earned: 135 Thanks for your points. Agree that this applicant has fantastic options! (1)

anon24138 Likes Earned: 37 I'll chime in with another view on HBS. For me, at least, the decline (if there is even such a thing) has less to do with DEI and freedom of speech, and more to do with their strict use of the case method. It's great for general management and consulting, but my friends at HBS who have recruited for other roles have found it woefully inadequate compared to what their friends got at other schools. Still, I think the prestige outweighs that for most people. It opens all of the doors Booth does and a few more, but not many more, and maybe the Booth classes + the major scholarship difference is worth considering. My friends at HBS have had more modest pivots than my friends at Booth. It's a small sample size but I think they've assumed the brand will do more for them that it has. (2)

anon16553 Likes Earned: 135 Agree, that was my #1 point in the argument: the academic experience. Booth excels on this on the other hand. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1618 Academics is a good point. There are pros and cons for each schools’ approaches. I’ve always thought Wharton and Booth standout in that regard, but that is quite anecdotal.

I guess my broad point is that HBS is not in decline, but its “potential” flaws have always been there, if you consider the heavy use of the case method a weakness.

(0)

anon10646 Likes Earned: 783 There are pros and cons to case-method or lecture teaching, but even assuming lecture led can be more advanced since you can keep the content/courses more current, no one is hiring MBAs for the knowledge they got during 8/9-week course electives. Yes, choose whichever program that is going to fit your learning preferences more, but MBAs is not an academic degree. (1)