Private Equity: Booth vs. Columbia
Was going to apply to HBS, Wharton, Booth and Columbia (Round 1). Debating dropping Columbia and keeping Booth. Does anyone have recent thoughts (last threads are from 2014) on Booth vs. Columbia?
Personal Stats/Career History:
- Top Tier Undergrad (3.8 GPA) in NYC
- Middle Market Traditional PE
- Bulge Bracket IB
- 750 GMAT
- Looking to stay in PE after graduating
- Spent 7 years in NYC between work and college
Disclosure: I went to Booth, did not recruit for PE
Why not keep all four? Four isn't a lot for MBA admissions. Sounds like you're set on H/W with B/C as a backup. You definitely have a blue-chip background for apps, but MBA applications are wonky. You're a good fit for H/W, but if for some reason you don't get in or there is a hole in your app that we don't see, I wouldn't bank that you're a 100% bet for B/C, but it's a safe bet that you would probably get in to one or the other if H/W fails.
It's only $250, the Columbia app is also pretty straightforward. And if you end up in a position where you need to decide between the two schools, admit weekend is the best time and place to do that, rather than the glimpses you get on the message boards. PE recruiting is highly idiosyncratic, so I wouldn't put a lot of stock into the 2-3 opinions you might get here for each school. If you end up getting into 3-4 schools, the good feels and being able to choose between options will be worth the $250.
Admissions is wonky. Sometimes very qualified candidates are fighting demographics, sometimes the schools play other games (Columbia, in particular, is whispered to intentionally ding candidates they think are a shoe-in for H/S/W, since they almost never win the yield game there for rankings). If you're interested in attending either school, I'd just app all at once and be done with it.
This. 100%. Columbia really wants you to show genuine interest so it's not the best school to use as a backup. Booth on the other hand will happily accept candidates that have a high likelihood of also getting into HSW and it's really reflected in the acceptance rate (~24% for Booth vs. ~14% for CBS) and yield (~55% at Booth vs. ~73% at CBS).
As to your question of which is best for PE, there isn't a huge difference so it really comes down to where you'd have the best experience. Given you've been in NYC for a while, a change of settings might be a good idea and would likely allow you to have a better, more focused MBA experience.
agreed with applying to all four but if forced to decide between CBS and Booth I'd go with Booth. Based on outcomes of friends who have attended both schools, Booth seems to do considerably better when it comes to PE recruiting
Don't make the choice before they've chosen you.
Like everyone has said here, apply to them all. B-school admissions is a numbers game, and you want to apply to a sufficient number of schools to at least lessen the sheer randomness of results from one school to the next, and usually 4 is a bare minimum to achieve that if your goal is to get into a decent b-school next year. Ideally you should aim for 6-8 schools, as there is sufficient overlap in the essay questions, rec letters and application forms that once you've gone through 2-3 schools, each additional school beyond that will take next to no time.
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