Haas vs Columbia for MBB

I'd appreciate hearing some other thoughts on this decision that doesn't come up much as the schools are quite different. The categories I'm considering are:

Geography:
Short term: Spouse who can work in either location, but would have a much easier time transferring to the SF office of her firm than transferring or finding a new firm in NYC
- nod to Haas
Long term- want to get back to east coast to be closer to family before we settle down, but no rush
-nod to CBS

Career Goals:
Short term: MBB
- probably a nod to CBS- but Haas doesn't publish their data
Long Term- goals in big tech, automotive, or aerospace (autonomous and electric vehicles- what can I say, I'll always be a bit of an engineer at heart)
-nod to Haas

Cost:
100% GI Bill- Haas tuition completely covered as a state school, CBS would still have around 25k a year in tuition. Living expenses honestly seem similar?
-Nod to Haas

Fit/ Culture:
So far I like Haas a bit better, but feel like I haven't given CBS a fair shot yet. Heading to the CBS Admitted students event this weekend.

Short term placement seems to be the best criteria to judge a program by since that's the ROI.
Because of this, I'm a bit frustrated with Haas for not publishing their actual hires by firm like Columbia and many other schools do, wish I had more data. Columbia sends more folks to MBB than not within their consulting placements. No idea of the firm breakdown for offers, but an admittedly old and imprecise LinkedIn analysis on P&Q doesn't look promising for Haas.

My gut tells me that either will get me an MBB interview and that after that it will be up to me, but wanted to source open feedback on if I'd be making a mistake to turn down CBS for Haas due to $50k less in costs, its ties to my long term interests, and the short term geography benefits for my partner.

I've also been admitted to Yale and Duke, both of which I liked for fit, but would be more difficult places for my partner to work.

 
Most Helpful

First off, it was smart to narrow this down to Haas vs. CBS out of Duke/Yale/haas/cbs.

Second, are you “MBB or bust” or are you interested in consulting generally? Reason I ask is that you aren’t statistically likely to land an MBB role at either school, which speaks to the competitiveness of MBB more than anything else (more below). Therefore it would make sense to find a school that recruits into a feasible backup plan - i.e., if your backup option is tech, Haas would make sense; financial services / media, CBS would make sense.

I would also take some time to think about which consulting office you’d like to recruit for. The Bay Area offices are extremely competitive as MBA’s from every top school will try to go there. East coast offices are also quite competitive, but NYC is probably just a notch easier to get into, given their size.

 

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