Full ride at Notre Dame or $150K at Harvard/Wharton
I recently got accepted to B school at Notre Dame for the accelerated 1 year program (9-week crash course and then join the 2nd year students for their last year) and I received a full ride scholarship. I also got accepted into Harvard and Wharton so tuition will be ~$150k for 2 years. Since Notre Dame is only 1 year I would only give up one year of earnings ~$150k. This make my choice about a $300k difference over the next 2 years. What should I choose? Is it worth it to take out that huge loan for the added benefits of an m7?
Harvard/Wharton are absolutely worth the extra money, 150k is not a lot of money when considering the better opportunities you will get over the course of your career by making this choice.
Wharton/HBS by a 1000. The starting salary from those schools is like 260,000 while ND (which is a fine school btw) is like 140,000. You’ll get ROI within a year-ish. Congratulations, I hope to be in your shoes in a couple of years
Starting salary over 250k?? what jobs are you thinking of
Average starting salaries for Stanford are $153k, signing bonuses of 28k, and year end bonus of 66k. So 1st year total compensation is around $250k.
literally any buyside job will clear way more than $250k for those that are already finance folk. add in all the new post mba bankers that will get a standard $235k + signing bonus comp packages, yeah if you go into any finance job you’re going to clear $250k.
Don’t disagree with your take but would be careful quoting blanket averages. That 260k is probably skewed upwards at H due to so many going into PE, which isn’t accessible to everyone.
Don't forget internship money during 2 year MBA + ask for scholarships / tuition help?
how the hell are you going to be successful in any MBA program that is 1 year? what happens to the oh so important summer internship between the two years? Even if you had the option of a theoretical HBS one year MBA I’d be gobsmacked why that would be appealing. this sounds like a fucking terrible idea and you should stay away from that. unless I’m missing something major to the puzzle here.
MBA is not about learning (“crash course and joining second years”), it’s about getting a jobbbbb. and how are you gonna be recruiting with the 2nd years with no prior internship and zero classes taken or networking up until that point.
Harvard / Wharton truly do have people and opportunities above and beyond your expectations and it’s a lifetime brand/network that seriously will help you out when times are TOUGH (imagine losing your job in an environment like this). from personal experience from friends who lost their jobs (0 relation to performance) Harvard/Wharton allow you to stay in the same tier of jobs while for example if you get let go from tier A jobs right now from ND you might be resigned to going for tier B, etc. in desperation
a little different perspective but the lifetime earnings difference in situations like now are another drastic difference that separates and adds to the divide from typical career earning projection calculations. also, the value of getting an MBA at ND is great of course, but H/W life changing and you have one less thing that you are competitively needing to overcome, but actually propels you (-30 to +50 for example, numbers are relative).
idk if this does anything to shift your perspective LMK either way (curious about that)
good luck, it’s still a massive cost but it’s actually worth it. but don’t get hung up on the ‘school’ giving you opportunities- you still need to make them yourself man. personally not a prestige whore but you have H/W as an immutable characteristic that no one can take from you (which few things are) and that should change who are for the better even if you’re not ‘insecure’ it’s a confidence boost and since humans really aren’t that smart having that as a baseline can be big when taking risks and doing things that are ambiguous
Hey, following up on the results - This post was actually for my sister and not me. I showed her your response, which was great, but it didn't end up getting her to sway to Wharton. This week she chose to go to ND. Biggest reason being is that she's not going for IB, and is going for consulting and is not even 100% sure on doing that, so going to ND with no debt allows her more flexibility to choose a job that doesn't necessarily have to come with a massive salary in order to get the ROI from a Wharton education. Also, there is a boyfriend involved so huge benefit to only being on a remote relationship for 1 year instead of 2. Thanks for the advice.
What on Earth is your sister doing making a life-changing decision when she doesn’t seem to have the foggiest clue of what she wants to do?
More to the point, how on Earth did she get offers from H/W and a full ride from ND with this mindset? She must be incredibly convincing in interviews because no b-school is going to hand out these kind of offers to somehow who isn’t absolutely assured of what they want to do after.
I wish your sister all the best but I really do think this is a mistake. I’d urge her to reconsider, if it’s still possible. HBS (and Wharton) will open so many doors for her.
Harvard. Congrats
This is clearly HBS, Wharton a bit behind, then a mile (or several) to full ride at ND. I question that you've actually gone through the MBA app process and talked to anyone at all if ND is a consideration to you, but I'll assume this isn't a troll for now.
For context, I had a full ride to a school ranked well above ND (in the 10-15 range) and no money from a school ranked in the bottom of the MBA business schools">M7. I struggled with the decision but pretty easily came to the conclusion the MBA business schools">M7 would be a better option, and after speaking to numerous colleagues/alums/others, most said the MBA business schools">M7 is the easy choice unless I'll just be thinking about money/the cost for two years. Your choice is 10x easier, and will pay back the difference in cost in a couple years.
Doesn't Harvard provide need based aid? I assume unless you were originally from IBD/PE, you would get something from them right?
Oldest brother is an HBS alum. He had offers from each of the MBBs (didn't know what he wanted to do so figured consulting). Has had a fabulous career. His network from both HBS and MBB are stupendous. That may be the biggest value of all. He has told me that between the two, he essentially can get a thought leader response to basically any inquiry within 24 hrs. Has been incredibly helpful while consulting and running companies all over the world.
Yes the starting income from Harvard / Wharton will be stellar, but the long term network effect could be a game changer for your career.
HBS for sure
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