Admitted to Columbia MBA and UNC MBA
Hi all,
I'm fortunate enough to be in a position that I frankly, did not see coming. I could use extra perspective as I'm in uncharted territory that my friends / family / mentors really don't have any experience with.
I'm in consulting. I want to be a real estate developer with all I've got. I determined that a real estate focused MBA was the best route for me personally, and I've spent the last 2 years taking the GMAT and busting my ass networking and applying for biz school. Could I have spent that time breaking in? Yep, but I made a decision and I put my head down and stuck to it.
To keep it as brief as possible: I'm in at Columbia with no scholarship, and no financial aid. They don't negotiate.
I'm also in at UNC with roughly a half-ride, in addition to their most competitive fellowship (Vetter Dean's fellow) which comes with a host of additional benefits career prep wise.
I'm open to the southeast and I'm open to NYC. I'm familiar with living in both and I enjoy elements of both.
According to my calculations, all in, there's roughly a 150k difference between attending CBS and UNC for my situation. Even with my savings and some family assistance, I'd be looking at roughly 150k in student debt to go to Columbia, at roughly 8%.
UNC id graduate basically debt free. Part of me feels foolish for even considering taking on the debt when I can go to UNC for much cheaper, considering its real estate reputation and near equivalent outcomes.
The other part of me (probably ego driven) wants, as a first gen college student, to attend an ivy, take a stab at building a career in the CRE capital of the world, and have access to the benefits that come along with the pedigree of a school like Columbia.
Does anyone from this community have any thoughts. I know no one can make the decision for me, but I'd love some guidance in the form of perspective. Thanks
I think it really depends on where you want to be doing business long-term. You can make a pretty good argument that Colombia is an overall better brand/school but this isn’t IB or consulting and people get less hung up on this kind of stuff in RE. Columbia is going to have a better network for NYC/Northeast roles and UNC is going to have a stronger presence in the South/Southeast.
I really wouldn’t get too hung up over tuition. If you do things right in this business (or most high paying jobs) this amounts to one decent bonus check. I’d think about where you want to live long-term and make my decision based on that.
This is useful perspective. It's hard not to think short term .. and the "one bonus check" broadens my mental time horizon.
My thought process re: debt is - I'm scared of having 150k debt while paying NYC rent, all with no guarantees of a blockbuster salary by any means (RE being way less formal and standardized than say an IB or consulting)
$150k in student loans is peanuts compared to the long-term cost of living in NYC. Inanely high cost of everything and the icing on the cake is despite paying the the highest taxes in the country you’re probably still going to have to send your kids to private school because anything run by NYC is FUBAR.
One bonus check? The fuck?
The 3-4% interest rate environment was fun while it lasted.
From a developer's perspective, there are definitely days where I wish I looked harder at other CRE investments roles (debt/lp equity/IB/etc). Proximity and networking to NYC is huge for every other role outside of development, and I think NYC specifically is more insulated to economic downturn from a personal perspective just due to optionality after 2 years of school. If I were a betting man, areas with lower land values/rents with big recent supply stories (SE, Sunbelt, etc) would likely get hit hardest by tariff driven construction cost increases.
If you haven't worked as a consultant doing infrastructure/built environment work, I'd strongly suggest looking at all roles, not just development. I feel like everyone who isn't in RE and wants to be in RE starts out going towards development because it seems cool or accessible or w/e, but it's a grind and it's a generalist job which has it's perks/issues.
I think you need to a pick a lane on geography frankly. You do have optionality to pursue NE from KFBS or SE from Columbia, but you'll be easing the process if you pick a lane now. I'd also echo what others have said: in the grand scheme of an entire career, $150K isn't as much as it seems now. If you pick a good plan for yourself and thrive professionally as a result, it will pay for itself quickly.
I disagree with a lot of the other commenters. 150k at 8% is an enormous amount of debt that will accrue faster than you think. If you end up in the SE in a development role, it's not going to pay as much, and bonuses in development are not that big. Breaking into NYC real estate is just extremely tough and neither Columbia nor UNC will necessarily open doors. If you're not from NYC and are not diehard on living there, I would absolutely do UNC and just go to the SE afterwards and do internships in the SE during. Much easier to get jobs there. UNC will open plenty of doors there and you won't have a huge burden over your head to make as much money as humanly possible to pay off the debt. Life and other shit happens and who knows, you may hate real estate and want to do something else, but having that much debt for a marginally better school is not worth the risk. Not really a question of which to do in my opinion.
There’s truth here but saying that Columbia won’t open doors in NYC is NOT true.
Since the OP is a position to handle the short term burden of the additional debt, I would focus exclusively on the geography question.
Where do you want to launch / build a career? Because ultimately an MBA gives you a network that bends toward one area.
There have been some wacky threads about college decisions lately.
We’re talking about Columbia vs UNC. How many people do you think are going to take call from you with a Columbia.edu vs unc.edu? Do you think it might be a smidge easier to do internships throughout the year at Columbia? I just looked at UNC’s career report. It’s median salary is $140k vs $175k+ for the M7 schools. Do you think this might also compound over time.
Go to Columbia
I was so on your side but then you made the comment about median salary without looking at the fact that unc has more people in the SE hence the lower salaries…now I am questioning if your reasoning is based on rationale thinking or just a perceived perception
Correct. OP here. I've paid my deposit to UNC. Talked to RE club leadership at both schools. UNC is a sincere heavyweight for development. Truly a peer school with Columbia, which sounds hard to believe until you get boots on the ground (assuming indifference to geography).
They also increased my scholarship amount - now there's roughly a 200k difference between the two schools for total COA.
I understand the perspectives of Columbia in this thread and genuinely appreciate the advice. UNC is the better choice for me.
Consulting, IB, PE, fashion, marketing, etc etc, a clear nod to Columbia. Re Dev? UNC is sending numerous interns to TCC this year. At least one of which had zero relevant RE or built environment experience at all. In a down market.
I did my MBA at Columbia. Two pieces of advice from me…one would be to ignore the cost difference. Both are a huge cost when you factor in opportunity costs of not working, and you’ll probably have that $150k paid off within 5 years of graduating. My second piece of advice would be that I think the two programs are equal in quality. You’d see the same crowd at basically every superday…mostly Columbia, Wharton, UNC, MIT, Wisconsin, Cornell and maybe 1 or 2 others.
So what I am saying is really try to get a feel for what school you like better…do some class visits, meet some professors, walk around campus. If it really is a coin toss in your eyes then let the cost be the tie breaker.
UNC grad here and similar advice.
If you want to be in NYC/NE post-grad, then Columbia is likely the best bet given in-person network/strong presence.
Southeast, then UNC.
This isn’t to say you couldn’t achieve SE with Columbia or vice versa with UNC but networking is key in CRE. You should be thinking about where you want to be long term.
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