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I guess booth because Booth is strong in Finance/Econ. The MBA Alum network has lots of Finance grads (although booth is trying to balance all fields now)
Kellogg I thought it's a marketing school. It isn't really so into Finance; but as a M7, it may still be better than many options except Berkeley for techVC
I was a round 1 Booth admit and have met a ton of people choosing between the two schools. I'm not the best resource on your VC question but would guess that either school would probably give you a fairly even shot - I highly suggest you go to admit weekend ("First Day" at Booth). You can do Friday at Booth and Saturday at Kellogg. The schools have very different cultures and Booth, at least, was NOTHING like I expected based on the quant-nerd stereotype perpetuated on the web.
there's not going to be much pull from either school (from what I know there rarely ever is) in VC, your going to have to get in through some alum or other connection you make yourself. Do some linkedin searching and find out who has more alums at firms you'd work for. Your founder experience should be huge here so that might be even more important than the school you go to.
Booth - they have a VC/PE lab that has early stage funds participating.
Just saying "they dont have pull" is fucking nonsense.
thanks for the replies. booth does have the vc/pe lab as mentioned, as does kellogg which should help get me some VC experience on my resume. i'm also looking to do a pre mba internship in VC.
in the end my decision may come down to fit as the schools are generally viewed as equals but curious to hear if anyone has compelling reasons why to choose one over the other
look at curriculum: i found the kellogg required courses to onerous yet irrelevant, while Booth really lets you craft course selection to your needs
best of luck, let us know what you decide (and why!)
dim Sum cook do you attend or will be you attending booth? i will definitely take a closer look at courses and try to map out my two years.
CompBanker @opsdude1" curious to hear your thoughts
Can't really help you. You should be at Stanford! I don't know much about the VC scene at Booth as I didn't participate in it. I know folks who have and were successful, but that would just be anecdotes and I have no stats to back it up.
Look, VC recruiting is VERY hard. I'd argue harder than PE as your competition is more than just other MBAs with prior experience. There is a large element of luck (right place at the right time) augmented by experience and skill. I can't imagine the difference between Booth and Kellogg would be meaningful enough to warrant picking one school over the other on that criteria.
I was admitted R1 to Kellogg and Booth, visited both schools when I interviewed, and attended the R1 DAK and First Day events.
I thought Booth emphasized VC much more than Kellogg and seemed to have more dedicated resources - New Venture Challenge, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship, etc. They also appear tied into the VC community (GrubHub was a NVC company, I believe the Groupon/Lightbank co-founders taught/teach a class at Booth). Both schools offer a PE/VC lab that appeared interchangeable to me. I honestly can't recall what VC/entrepreneurship resources Kellogg has, but I also wasn't specifically seeking it out. So, it may just be the case that Booth is pushing it harder in its marketing than Kellogg? I would recommend attending the DAK/First Day weekend, as BreakingOutOfPWM suggested.
Full disclosure: I am in PE and want to stay in PE post-MBA and chose Kellogg for a variety of personal and professional reasons, so I'm not an insider pushing Booth...
CompBanker - thanks for the reply. it seems to be that the opportunities between the schools in this area is negligible and my decision will mostly come down to fit
neocid i will be attending first day/DAK which hopefully will provide more clarity
I don't think there's a huge difference in VC opportunites between those 2 schools. Anecdotally from friends I know at both it seems that Booth has a slightly higher number of people going into finance & VC jobs, but that could just be that Booth emphasizes finance more. I would go to whichever one you feel a better fit for.
Sorry just saw this. Booth and Kellogg send the same amount of students to PE/VC. They both have the same labs (Kellogg has a pre-MBA internship you can do in PE/VC, classes, clubs, speaker events, networking events, during the year internships you can do for credit, etc). But with both schools, it's going to come down to YOU. Neither school will provide an advantage. Go to the school you like the most.
With only credit research background, it's going to be VERY difficult to get into VC, so maybe you should refine your career goals a bit.
I can't believe this hasn't been asked yet, but can you please describe more about your 5 years as a founder of an ecommerce startup? If that is actually relevant experience / you had success then that is your real recruiting ticket for VC, not so much a finance track at BSchool (as pointed out by an earlier post, it's not like IB or PE where that is the one tract in).
If the business was around for 5 years, I would assume that you had some interaction with VC's (whether or not you actually did a funding round), and therefore should have some contacts from that you could leverage, even if it is just someone you spoke with during that experience who could sit down with you for coffee and give their view of the industry and how to get in. You should be leveraging that experience more, because that should be the differentiator vs. other more cookie cutter MBA candidates.
Conversely, if that ecommerce experience did not go well then you should be ready to do a big song and dance about how you spin that into a positive. And just to be clear, success does not necessarily mean just a big exit, but also showed understanding of the industry, your value proposition relative to competitors and your ability to go execute on that, learn where you were right and wrong, and adjust your plan and execution accordingly.
IBPrepared The company was moderately successful (enough to comfortably support my lifestyle), but never blew up.
do you plan to do the MMM at kellogg? The one with a Kellogg MBA and a MS from McCormick.. Otherwise, I'd keep recommending booth.. although Booth is more rounded now for all kinds of candidates, it was known for finance types for a good while; thus your alum network will have more finance types, which may be helpful.
or if you got a specific question, I can channel it to a friend of mine at booth.
Didn't apply to MMM at kellogg, just the regular 2Y
Booth vs Kellogg (1/2 ride) for PE/VC in EM (Originally Posted: 12/29/2015)
Fellow WSO members,
First of all Happy Holidays! I received a great Christmas gift: accepted into Booth and Kellogg (1/2 ride).
I have been thinking about this decision for two weeks now and analyzing everything I can but still do not have an answer (and I do not know if I will have it haha). There are some really helpful threads here of a few years ago but I prefer to hear something else.
The “problem” first and foremost is the $$$, I know that if things were $0 vs $0 I would go to Booth.
My top goal is to transition to VC/Growth Equity in the emerging markets region where I am from (EM) keeping it vague for paranoia purposes, preferably with a social impact or tech focus. If the buy-side fails I would lean to IB or entrepreneurship (open to EM or USA).
Basically this is my analysis:
Booth: + Booth has a good reputation and community in EM. I know that nobody would question my MBA choice if I am a finance/investor guy and I would become part of a network of finance people. This is by far my most important point compared to Kellogg. + Is in the city and I love cities, the possibility of eating on different restaurants, bars and always have something to do excites me. + Better campus and it seems to have more finance/entrepreneurship resources + Momentum on rankings +/- Academics more focused to the “quant” side – every course uses a data driven analytical approach. I “drew” my 21 course curriculum and is more leaned to Finance and entrepreneurship, two things that I like. On the other hand, I see that Booth is weaker in the leadership/people management side of business compared to Kellogg. More difficult courses? +/- Lack of “core” curriculum means less community? - Commuter school: Walking in the cold and riding a train to Booth would make me miserable - Are people really more nerd? I am by no means a bookworm and I enjoy drinking with people and socializing so I do not know if Booth’s stereotype is true - Fewer international and women (than Kellogg’s) - More expensive
Kellogg: + $$$ ½ ride + Courses more leaning towards managing people, leadership, strategy (things that I enjoy learning but are not “a must” for my goals) and a class just focused on Impact Investing that Booth does not have. Courses appear to be easier. + Core curriculum means more community? Hanging with the same people for courses over and over again builds rapport. + When I visited and the call, letter, etc Kellogg’s people communicate they care about you. They have been keeping in touch and overall seem like a great bunch of people. + Clubs seem more inclusive: from the Joint Ventures through the professional clubs they have called me and seem like they do care (related to past point). + I heard that if I write that I earned a big scholarship in my resume it looks good and attracts recruiters. + More fun people overall? +/- Historical Top 5 but below Booth right now +/- Maybe with the cash and Kellogg's style I discover that I would like to pursue something different: a role in a startup or really start something myself withouth the burden of paying a full tuition. - Evanston although a nice town short ride to the city is not in the city. I would guess with just 5-10 restaurants or bars it would bore me. Maybe social scene more aimed to house parties? - Grade disclosure - Reputation: I know that if I come back to EM and try to knock the door on some fund they would say “Kellogg is a marketing school”. I know because I talked to some finance people and they already told me the same. - Network: In EM Kellogg alumni are not really organized and the ones that I found on LinkedIn are more into management than finance. (Related to last point)
Does anyone know anything about single/partners scene at both schools?
My final option would be to reapply -- when I was researching schools Stanford and Wharton were my top choices (rejected at both without interview). I knew that Stanford was difficult to get into so when they rejected me it was not that hard to swallow but Wharton was painful. This option is stupid because I think that the difference between Wharton and Booth/Kellogg is not that big and nothing assures me that they would take me next year, so is just a thought but not really an option haha
Thinking analytically I know that half ride is a lot of money but also is not that much during a lifetime of career earnings: There are arguments for both sides: less debt or more cash but going to the school that I want to go? In 20 years I would remember the school that I went to and not that it costed me 50% more? I have savings and plan to get a government sponsored award ($20k) but obviously the money is nice.
Finally, I already tried to get something from Booth and they told me that “maybe after second round” so that’s after the first deposit deadline and I do not plan to deposit to both schools just to see if something happens. I am going to both schools on the first weekend of February (First Day and DAK), maybe I’ll get a better feeling hanging there for a full day.
Sorry for the long post – needed to get this out of my mind, really appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks.
With equal prestige and maybe higher recognition in Finance, I'd vote Booth. MBA ain't cheap. Hyde Park is actually pretty close ~25 min drive to downtown.
Congrats man. How about both. Whatever school you don't go to Ill go to in your name haha. Seriously though, awesome job. That's tough. I was looking at both schools but decided not to apply as my chances are too slim this year.
Not sure about VC but at Booth they have the PE lab and you can intern during the year so that's something to take into account.
Theres a thread ama on Kellogg that's very recent. I would ask him about PE but I hear they do surprisingly well in PE. For finance I would definitely lean towards Booth but I haven't visited or talked to many students or alums.
The girl issue is a wash. I don't think there will be many attractive girls at either mba program. But who cares. You're right next to Chicago. Could even live in the city and commute. I've also heard that Kellogg classes are very easy and you will have plenty of time to network / party.
I would talk to booth people in the PE labs and then whoever is doing the PE/entrepreneur track at Kellogg. Its a difficult choice but I think for finance Booth makes more sense unless the Kellogg PE guys tell you its incredible there.
The great news is that there's no bad choice here. Both are awesome.
No bad decision here. If I were you I'd take the money. The rankings difference is negligible, and Kellogg does a solid job out of the non-HSWs of placing in the buyside, particularly PE/VC. At this level, If you can't get one of those jobs coming out of Kellogg, chances are you wouldn't out of Booth either. The opposite also holds true.
I would only take Booth in this instance if It far and away felt like a better "fit", which you'll know once you attend both welcome weekends.
But again, can't go wrong either way, and once you set foot on either campus and start recruiting/networking/having a good time the other will be a distant memory.
In almost all cases, Booth/Kellogg/Tuck/Sloan/Columbia will be viewed interchangeably by the major recruiters. On the fringes this breaks down a tiny bit - small Chicago based PE firms might only come on campus to Booth and Kellogg for example...and smaller firms that are only looking for a handful of MBA's might not go to Tuck because it's not big enough. But even then, they almost always have a robust off-campus pathway that is no harder than on-campus recruiting. It'll be posted on your job board, and you'll get a first round over the phone instead of on-campus, but won't be a major difference.
Kellogg has a PE lab, and according to employment reports, sends a few more people to PE/VC than Booth. That said, despite booth's reputation, neither school is great for PE. It's mostly a HSW game, and even then, the people who go to big funds, almost always did PE/VC before school. The life working at a mega fund is much different than working at a 5-6 man shop that most PE MBA's without gold-platted experience end up. For IB, the conversion rate for Booth and Kellogg are both above 90%. If you can speak fluent English, you'll find an IB job from either. Only people I know who struck out had sub-optimal English skills.
Also worth noting there is a lot of self-selection going on - tech/engineers end up at MIT, Finance-driven people go to Booth, and Consultants choose Kellogg. This can be misleading because people will think one school is "better" in something, but it's really self-selection of the student body. Your odds are the same regardless of school.
Lastly, about rankings trends. Kellogg's average GMAT increased 10 points this year, it doubled its scholarship money it gives out (it would lose cross-offers to Booth in previous years because Booth had generally given more money), and has a brand new building opening Jan 2017...So I'd expect Kellogg to go up a point or two in the rankings. But again, it doesn't really matter, and recruiters aren't looking at USNews to see year by year differences.
Anyways, for you, and other people reading this. If you get into Booth/Kellogg/Tuck/Sloan/Columbia you're decision tree should be:
1) Did one give me a substantially higher scholarship? Go there.
If not, then:
2) Did I have a much stronger cultural fit with a school? Go there.
If not, then:
3) Which is closest to where I want to work (It'll make recruiting a bit simpler, and you'll have a larger percentage of your friends around after graduation)? Go there.
Agree with Kellogg2016's comments. I'm going through a similar choice and for me it really comes down to balancing the money with the fit and how happy I'll be at each school. I'm focused on some small recruiting differences, as well, but all these schools are very similar so even small differences don't matter THAT much. I would ask for as much info as you can from both programs on their PE placements and talk to as many students/alums as you can, as well. That may give you some insight to small differences.
I think you should attend the admitted students weekends and then decide on what really feels right to you. 60k or so in scholarship is no small amount, but it's not a game changer, IMO, if you really prefer one school to another, especially when planning on entering a high income field.
Also, I wouldn't really call Booth a "commuter" school. The vast majority of students life in a couple buildings all next to each other in downtown Chicago. It's not dissimilar to living in a few different buildings on a campus, IMO. Yes you have to take a 10 minute train ride to the school, but that's no different then walking to classes at other schools. Just my 2 cents, anyways. Good luck.
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