Undecided - 04-23-2020 | Clear Admit DecisionWire

April 23, 2020 3:33am ET

Enrolled: Undecided

Admitted: Berkeley / Haas , UVA / Darden $

Applied: Berkeley / Haas, UVA / Darden

Entering Year: 2020

Post MBA Career: Consulting, Technology Companies: Bain, BCG, Deloitte, McKinsey, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft

GMAT: 760

GPA: 3.6

Location: India

Notes:

I am undecided between Haas and Darden (half tuition scholarship). My criteria for school selection in the priority order:
1. Recruitment opportunities in Strategy consulting and Tech
2. School brand and reputation
3. Culture (collaborative and close knit community)
4. Alum connections

Any suggestions or guidance would be highly appreciated

Like (1)

Show Comments (8) Last: May 4, 2020

eliot Verified User. Likes Earned: 1858 Congratulations on your acceptance at Haas and your acceptance and scholarship at Darden. Both are great choices and you can't go wrong with either option. 1) Career: For strategy consulting, Darden may have the edge. In addition Darden has good ties to the tech scene in Washington DC/Northern Virginia. In contract, Haas would have the edge in tech placement on the west coast/Bay Area. So, a key question is - post MBA do you want to work on the East Coast or the West Coast of the US? 2) Both schools have strong brands and reputations 3) both offer a nice community 4) Alum connections for Darden are more likely to be on the east coast and Haas alum connections are more likely to be on the west coast. Thus, I think that your decision on geography is a key factor. Best of luck with your decision. (1)

anon27821 Likes Earned: 193 Haas plays a little bit better than Darden imo and is continuing to move up. If tech is really what you want it has to be Haas (2)

anon17442 Likes Earned: 5 Haas and Darden on a par when it comes to MBB recruiting, so it’ll depend on location you want to end up - imagine Darden will be easier to recruit East Coast from. Haas is stronger in tech and has the edge in terms of overall prestige. (2)

anon10660 Likes Earned: 292 Congratulations! You can't go wrong with either. If Tech is your goal, I would go with Haas otherwise Darden. Also, if you want to end up in the bay area, Haas would be the stronger program (1)

anon17442 Likes Earned: 5 Interested in anon10660’s evidence for Darden over Haas apart from for Tech? In general prestige terms, Haas is consistently the higher ranked program (e.g., US News 7 vs 11) and the associated Berkeley name has considerable clout, more than UVA I would argue, both in the US and abroad. Specific goals could lead to one favouring UVA over Haas but I would argue the general candidate would choose Haas over Darden. (1)

anon10660 Likes Earned: 292 Completely agree with you 17442, the reason I mentioned Darden to op was because of the 70k scholarship. I could see giving up on 70 k at Darden if tech was the goal. I agree for a general candidate without scholarships to pick Haas (1)

anon36796 Likes Earned: 39 If you can make the finances work I would say go for Haas. They've been jet rocketing up the rankings and have a great location for recruiting. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1584 More details on this decision in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2020/05/episode-99-wire-taps/ (0)