Booth vs Fuqua for BB IB

I've been accepted at Fuqua and Booth. My goal is BB IB in NYC. I thought Booth would be the obvious choice due to its higher ranking but from looking at the employment numbers, they appear to be about the same in terms of BB placement.

Duke is hands down the much better school for me in terms of location, atmosphere, and fit. Question is, is Booth's higher amount of prestige worth it in this case? It seems like BB IB is a fairly easy nut to crack from anywhere in the Top 15 so I should go with the better fit. None of my buddies in finance in NYC know any Booth grads but a fair amount of Fuqua grads. What am I missing?

Background is Harvard undergrad and 4 years as a military officer.

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Best Response

Employment numbers might be about the same because Booth students have better opportunities in other fields (IB is not the most desirable destination for top MBA grads these days). Booth is a much better school overall (arguably within top-5 if not top-3), and the name recognition both in the US and worldwide is much stronger than Fuqua.

However, you will likely be able to get a BB IB job from Fuqua as well if that's what you want, especially with the Harvard+veteran background. Essentially, getting a BB job should not be the differentiating factor when choosing between these two schools, since both will get you there. You should be thinking in terms of more fun for two years (Fuqua, since you're saying you like the location and the people better there) vs. potentially better opportunities in the long run (Booth, for example if you decide to exit to MM PE or upper corporate management one day, or maybe go international et cetera).

 

Booth without even thinking Fuqua's peers are Darden, Anderson, Yale SOM, Johnson, Stern, Ross, etc.

Booth is on another tier and you will see much better recruiting there

 

Maybe. For anyone else but a Harvard undergrad military officer. I think you can call your shots, and I think you have a lot more flexibility on Wall Street than someone who doesn't have your background. I think the vets club resources at Duke might be slightly better, but that could be a gut reaction to the location and the proximity to DC and military bases.

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

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