Ross MBA vs Darden MBA for IB

Hi Everyone,

Which school will you choose for IB? According to the employment report, it seems that most of the BB firms recruit on campus at both schools. However, Darden seems to have more people getting in Wall Street (percentage-wise). While I believe Ross has stronger connections and larger network (due to the large alumni base). What are your thoughts? Thanks.

11 Comments
 

This is probably a toss up for the most part. Is there one school you like more than the other?

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 
Best Response

I kjnow you asked about investment banking, but as a point of reference, Darden does have a bit of an edge in investment management, with a relatively newly endowed Center for Asset Management http://www.darden.virginia.edu/web/CAM/Darden-Capital-Management/

Also, between the two, Darden's smaller class size means that your experience there will be a bit different (320 vs. about 500+ for Ross), but more importantly, the 100% case method teaching style is a huge booster for leadership and communications ability. The culture of the two schools is really quite different.

FWIW, Ross's alumni base does take into account those with undergraduate degrees there, if that matters.

@holla-back Yeah, that guy on P&Q who is a Ross hater is very strange.

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

Thanks for the inputs. I was looking at the 2011 & 2012 employment reports again and noticed that Ross had 5% going to IB while Darden had 16% (looking at by job function). This turns out to be around 25 students for Ross and 50 for Darden. I am not sure if this is the correct amount since 50 seems to be quite a lot of people for IB. I always thought Darden is more of a general management school. I also heard from a Ross student that some of the top banks like Morgan Stanley and BAML do not recruit for IB on campus. So I guess Darden could be a bit stronger in banking?

 

Be wary of how the schools can twist employment reports. They will not differentiate between getting an M&A job and working BO compliance role. They will both be listed as Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs on their employment report. 50 people going to Investment Banking on the statistics does not necessarily mean 50 people going to the Investment Banking Division.

I would still choose Darden over Ross but just want to make sure you take the reports with a grain of salt.

 
MilitaryToFinance

Be wary of how the schools can twist employment reports. They will not differentiate between getting an M&A job and working BO compliance role. They will both be listed as Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs on their employment report. 50 people going to Investment Banking on the statistics does not necessarily mean 50 people going to the Investment Banking Division.

I would still choose Darden over Ross but just want to make sure you take the reports with a grain of salt.

Usually they break it out to "Jobs by Function"; I would hope schools would not lump M&A and BO together in this section of the report?

Also, my vote goes Darden for mostly weather-related reasons.

 

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