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Neither of those schools are targets, so it will be up to you to network and apply to get to a good firm. Because of that fact, location is the number one most important factor. Minnesota is closer to NYC/Chicago while Utah is closer to California, but if you want hedge funds NYC is better.
You need to think of it this way: Which location makes more sense to fly out to do interviews? The people who are at non-targets will book an entire week during the school year to do interviews and recruiting, so based on these facts, which school makes more sense to you?
Personally, I'd go to Minnesota b/c Chicago is decent and NYC is king.
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OSU is a massive school with a very well known athletics program, so I'd definitely go there. In interviews, you can always talk about OSU's sports teams. The location rationale still applies. While OSU has so many alums, it might be harder to actually sort through all the names to find someone who is willing to talk to you. I don't know how well U of Minnesota is known in Chicago, but at least everyone in the country has at least heard of Ohio State.
I definitely agree with LeftArmMonkey on choosing Minnesota over Utah.
Carlson holds a stronger business school brand compared to Utah as you stated. The brand will definitely help you in the future/initial job to say the least.
As per Placement and salary - Neither of the schools post an actual employment report to give us a more in-depth look. Carlson does provide the recent overall placement for 2017, which shows 53% in financial services. Now be vary, that is the industry, not the actual function. You may also want to note that from a class size of 90 students at Utah, the average age is 28. This means most of the students coming in have previous experience. Previous experience results in higher $$$ after graduation. Carlson's average age is 24 from a class size of 24. That tells me that the average student has little to no experience, resulting in lower average $$$.
Now looking at your dream of going to IB in BB. Let's talk about Carlson's MBA, as it is much more powerful than the MSF itself. From the last years report, 69 students were looking for employment. 19% went into financial services. That is 13 students from the whole class. Since it doesn't go deep in detail for the finance functions, it is hard to guess how many students actually go into IB, that also in BB.
Honestly, I will say that you have to be on your A game for networking to get into IB from either colleges. These are non-target schools for IB.
Get some experience and go for an MBA, or go to a higher ranked MSF.
To choose between the two, I will go with Minnesota.
Thank you
I know of an MD at KKR who went to Carlson. Go to U of M, lots more on the street than you think
Go to Utah and shred pow
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