How does MBA ranking change when targeting a specific city?

I recently moved to a city where I intend to settle down. It's a decent sized city with plenty of companies, so I have no doubt I can grow a career here.

I've been mulling the thought of getting an MBA (currently thinking PT, but open to FT). The city I am in has a top-30 program, but not M7. If I want to stay in this city, does the ranking of this program effectively jump to #8 (or even higher)?

For example, how would Emory rank if you wanted to stay in Atlanta? or McCombs for Austin/Dallas? or Kelly for Indy, Olin for St. Louis, Foster for Seattle, Georgetown for DC. None of these cities have an M7 program, but all have a solid top 30.

I don't want to sell myself short, but I also don't want to move away for an M7 only to come back for virtually the same opportunities I would have had by going to the local top 30.

Do rankings/prestige/opportunities change when you're really only targeting one city?

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If you want to PM me specific details I may be able to help more, but without knowing specifics my general thoughts (for the Corporate world) are:

You need to determine what your reason for an MBA is.
- If it's just to continue moving on in your career and gain some knowledge then I can't imagine forgoing 2 years of experience + Salary + potential company reimbursement - If you're planning on making some sort of significant step change - maybe move to Marketing, get to the Exec level, etc... then I think full time is at least worth consideration (but still maybe not the best for everyone).

If you plan on going fulltime because you expect it to have significant impact on your career, then it is worth trying to go to the best school you can while giving consideration to other limitations ($, location, fit, etc...)

If you're going to go part time then it seems that you should generally choose the best school within your area and go there.

All companies and industries are different and a Harvard MBA certainly garners respect within the Corporate world, but I see it as much less of a requirements than many of the industries posted on this site.

twitter: @CorpFin_Guy
 

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