Booth vs. Sloan for finance
I have the fortunate dilemma of choosing between Booth and Sloan for business school in the fall. I'm coming from a background in strategic consulting and hoping to shift to PE longer term, but realize given my experience that will be improbable. I'll more likely recruit for IB and stay for at least a few years, but would love to end up on the buy side at some point.
I had initially committed to Booth months ago but recently was admitted off the Sloan waitlist. I'm aware Booth is generally stronger for finance, but a smaller community interested in finance at Sloan might not be the worst thing.
General considerations:
Booth
I've already invested a lot of time, money, and networking to learning about the program and was mentally set on attending
Much stronger overall in finance with great IB recruiting pipeline; probably better chance from there to end up in PE
I've been in the northeast my whole life and it'd be nice to try a new part of the country
I'm not a huge fan of the flexible curriculum or setup commuting down to Hyde Park from downtown
Sloan
I like the people there and program/curriculum more
I have a large network in the northeast/Boston and it would be something familiar for me overall
Less strong reputation in finance, but still places reasonably well it seems to me in IB for those who want it; I also am uncertain about aiming for top BB (GS/MS/JPM) where Sloan places well vs. EB (EVR/Moelis/CVP) and Booth is definitely much stronger for the latter
I'd love to get people's thoughts, particularly those who had a similar b-school decision, went to one of these schools, recruit from one of them for IB, or just have other general knowledge on the topic. Thanks in advance
For IB honestly both places will get you where you want to go. I am finishing up my MBA at Sloan (and was admitted to Booth). Booth will provide you more diversity of opportunities (MM, EB etc..), and you will be recruiting with a much larger group. Very few people recruit for IB at Sloan (15-20ish), but Sloan kills it for GS/MS/JPM, Essentially everyone I know who recruited seriously at Sloan got one of the big 3 (except one lower-tier BB), and people had interviews at the other BBs and some EBs. Interestingly people at Sloan don't seem that interested in EB, though some of my friends did interview at Moelis, Evercore, Lazard etc.
You will get the job from either spot with a little effort, I would choose based on fit. Feel free to DM me if you want me to put you in touch with people who made that decision.
Thanks, very much in line with what I've heard from others at Sloan. Seems like if I want GS/MS/JPM, I've got as good a shot as anywhere. For EVR/CVP/MC/PJT etc., chances would be much slimmer at Sloan. Couple that with lower chance at PE, which I may want to pursue or have as an option, and it sums up my only concerns about Sloan. Other than that, love the people, program, location, and culture which makes it hard to turn down if career is anywhere close to Booth
Booth gives you more optionality as you can easily recruit for BB/EB/MM whereas MIT mostly place kids in BBs
I agree with the comments above regarding the professional aspects of your choice. I do just want to clarify one thing:
I was a bit misinformed by the this aspect of Booth myself. As someone who hates commuting with a passion, I thought this was a serious negative. Fortunately the reality proved to be a lot less daunting.First, the vast majority of students live downtown in essentially a few select buildings that are within a three block radius of one another. This creates a close-knit community vibe that is quite similar to campuses. In one building in particular, Millennium Park Plaza, so many students elect to live there that it has been dubbed the "Booth dorms." Students house "around the world" parties and constant social gatherings in their apartments, not to mention a lot of people elect to just do their study group meetings in the buildings' community rooms. If your concern is social in nature, you won't be missing out.
Second, classroom time is scheduled as such that you are rarely on campus. With select exceptions, you need to take three classes a quarter. Classes meet once a week for three hours. If you are doing a night class, it is held at the Gleacher center that is literally a block away from the buildings all the Booth students live in. This results in your only having an obligation to be on campus 2-3 times a week, depending on how you setup your classes. If you're massively opposed to commuting, you could even stack two classes on one day and then do a night class any other day, ensuring you only need to be on campus once a week. This is a pretty powerful degree of flexibility. Just be careful you don't abuse it ... it isn't hard to create quarters where every week you have 6-day weekends...!
So whether it is a social thing or an efficiency thing, I can assure you that the commuting aspect of Booth ended up as a non-issue despite my initial impression and fears.
Thanks CompBanker--insightful post as always. Excited to have helpful, successful folks like yourself in my network if I attended Booth!
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