Michigan Ross, Cornell Johnson or UT Austin

Dear monkeys (especially those across the pond),

I am a Master's student at a European target school and have the option to study in the States as part of my degree. I have narrowed my preferred choices down to these three schools and would be very interested to hear your thoughts.

Key decision points: - As this will most likely be the last year of my studies, I am mostly looking to get that "real" U.S. college experience, building a meaningful network and just enjoying myself thoroughly - I intend to travel around and visit multiple states / cities - I could see myself returning to the U.S. to work and build a family there long-term, most likely East Coast and potentially West Coast later on, not sure how these schools are acknowledged in different parts of the U.S.

Although I am aware none of these schools really place into the HYP bracket (simply rephrashing comments from existing threads), prestige as such does not play a key role in my decision (already attended target schools for both my undergrad and master's so I think that should open up enough doors). I would thus prefer any of the above points over a marginal increase in perceived "prestige".

Finally, I do not intend to turn this into a competition between schools of any sort, I'd really just value your honest opinion.

Thanks, ctrlaltelite

11 Comments
 
Best Response

If you are looking to enjoy yourself at all, remove Cornell from the list. Ithaca sucks and the campus life there is not great compared to large schools like UT Austin and Michigan where you'll get more of an American experience (tailgating and watching football/basketball etc).

Tough toss-up between Michigan and Austin (2/3 colleges I applied to myself for undergrad). I would perhaps look at how much flights cost out of Michigan (DTW) and Austin to places you want to visit.

 

You seem like you'd fit in most at Cornell since you refer to the business schools by name, rather than the name of the university. Prestige is obviously important to you

 

Agree with how plskystks said it is a toss-up between Ross and McCombs. Ross has much better representation/prestige but since that isn't a deal breaker come to McCombs. A lot of people tend to come here for a semester/year and love their time here. There are a lot of places to travel to on weekends in terms of road trips. Doesn't get too cold here anyways so you can travel any time of the year.

 

Jesus I feel like no one actually read what you wrote. I went to Cornell and enjoyed it, but if you don't care about the academic/recruiting/brand aspects of the school and only want the lifestyle, definitely go with Ross or McCombs. I'd probably pick McCombs for the weather and Austin.

 

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