Is Cornell Dyson a target?

Dyson is a target. Opportunities from UMich and Dyson are similar; maybe, you may have more from Dyson as a result of Ivy League status. If Dyson is cheap/affordable, then it might be a better choice than UMich.

Either way, congrats on your acceptances - both schools will set you up strong for banking & private equity recruiting.

Maybe for VACUUM MANUFACTURERS

ZING

I would 100% take the instate tuition at UMich and have way more fun going to football games/greek life than be in Ithaca, NY. Both schools will set you up very well for IB, so choose the school where you think you will enjoy it more socially

Plus...not having student loan debt when you graduate will be very nice

Go to Michigan. It'll be much cheaper and recruiting is literally the same. Dyson is Cornell's business school but all schools at Cornell get access to OCR which is why you see Hotelies, ILR, and CAS Econ all get IB.

If your total debt is less than 60k, I would take the Ivy school. Choosing a school should be more than just choosing it based on IB recruiting. Even though Cornell is a lower ivy, it is still an Ivy League school that will open more doors for you. Things change as well, you might change your mind about finance. Cornell is the better choice in my opinion.

Dyson flies under the radar in terms of name recognition among the general public, like some other top business schools, but probably has the lowest profile of them all. This is no doubt partially due to the name changes (and realignment within Cornell’s administrative organizational chart) the school has gone through since its founding in 1909. Curious, because it’s one of only two undergrad business schools within the Ivy League. However, it is Very well-known among the constituency that matters—banks and financial firms of all kinds, corporations, government, and other top employers worldwide. Another reason for its low profile is that it’s the tiniest “traditional” business school in America (except for the one at MIT, which has a quant-focused curriculum). Each freshman class admits only about 160 +/- students each year, and Dyson accepts only about 35 transfers beginning in sophomore year. It is an outstanding school on several counts.

Our daughter attends, and the hallmark of the school is its collaborative, personalized atmosphere where everyone knows each other’s name. The teamwork and cooperative attitude among students is embedded within the culture. You don’t have the racial/ethnic/international student group self-segregation, with its concomitant hyper-competitive culture, that is common at Michigan Ross, Indiana Kelley, Virginia Darden, UPenn Wharton, et al, but especially at NYU Stern. Perhaps because of the tiny student body, there is a palpable sense of student assimilation into a cohesive, supportive learning community. The multi-pronged academic support offered by Dyson is robust. Nearly every year Dyson has the lowest acceptance rate among all top business schools (with an acceptance rate typically Half that of Wharton); in fact, until about 2020-ish (pre-pandemic) it almost always had the lowest acceptance rate among any college/university in the nation (not just business schools), including among all Tier 1 universities. Yes, breathtaking. The year our son applied and was rejected, 2017, I recall the acceptance rate was 2.6%.

The icing on the cake is that Dyson is in the Ivy League, which doesn’t hurt. The placement in IB, Consulting, PE, Hedge Funds, and other fields is very good. But what gives Dyson a unique advantage over all other top business schools such as NYU Stern, Michigan Ross and yes, even UPenn Wharton, is On-Campus Recruiting(OCR) time—which lasts, in one form or another, a good portion of the year. While the NYC Region, Boston-based and the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic states’ firms and banks predominate the hiring scene, there is very good opportunity for farther flung work locales anywhere on the map.

To add some significant color to what the OCR advantage is, do the math. Dyson is approximately 1/3 to 1/4 the size, on average, of the very best business schools. As the tiniest traditional business school in America—and perhaps the world—it therefore affords students unparalleled chances of top OCR success over all other top business schools—just on the numbers. Yeah, Wharton has the brand name (achieved largely through heavy marketing over the years), FWIW. (But Nota Bene: Wharton undergrad also has an outsize proportion of legacy, VIP international spawn of high-ranking government and corporate officials, and American students of the same ilk); that’s your competition. Many of these parents have the capability (or know someone who does) to pull strings in landing those coveted internships.

But, back to my main point, there are A LOT more students in each class at Wharton (TRIPLE) competing for the limited number of positions at the better banks and firms. Recruiters of any type have a rough limit on the number they expect to hire from each school they visit, for obvious reasons. Less students competing for more desirable internships during OCR equals higher chances of success in getting one. A significantly smaller pool of students at Dyson means more of them get into the more desirable firms and banks. And that’s before you even tap into Cornell’s impressive Alumni Network.

Best of Luck!

Cornell and Dyson fucking suck experience wise.