Interesting MBA Question

What's your background?

IMO Booth. Booth is traditionally one of the tougher B-schools academically which I think would help you more in your career if that ends up being IBD. Also I like to keep in mind the statistics of students entering the school as well as where they place. Might be interesting to look at because Booth draws a lot of people already in finance. Might even out the 3%.

Booth but with a caveat. Are you deadset on NYC? If you're open to other locations, then definitely Booth. UVA is great, don't get me wrong, but Booth would give you a lot more flexibility both now and in the future in terms of geography and the name will always trump UVA.

Definitely Booth.

Seems like a no-brainer to choose Booth over Darden given it reputation as a finance power-house, more highly regarded program, acceptance rates/yields (although I realize the Booth acceptance rate is a bit high for a top tier schools), your career goals, etc. Darden is a solid program but to me it lacks the prestige and rigor associated with Booth.

mdk6c:

Consider the fact that, among the students at Booth, I would be pretty run of the mill. But at Darden, I might stand out more to recruiters.

Please don't fall into that line of thinking. Yes you will be smarter than the average Darden student, but IBD has little to do with intelligence, and more to do with drive, passion and hustle. One of my Associates is a Darden grad and he's a rock-star.

In conclusion, go to Booth. It's a fantastic B-School, and competes with the likes of Columbia, and MIT. You will enjoy better OCR, have a stronger brand on your resume, and have some fun while you're at it. (Refer to one of Brady's threads for more elaboration on "fun").

Is Booth THAT much more rigorous academically than Darden? I had associates from both schools in my start class and it seemed that the Darden curriculum was more rigorous. That's not to say Booth isn't, but just something I had noticed...

Booth > Darden, this is not a toss up.

Definitely Booth. There really is no debate unless you want to be in VA as opposed to Ill. Darden is still a good school and all, but Booth has a better general rep on the street.

Booth.

This whole theory of "I want less competition" is bunk. Like going to Kellogg for IBD over Booth, or going to Booth for marketing over Kellogg. Recruiters are focused on maximizing yield and volume - they will focus on schools with the largest number of students that are willing to accept jobs offered to them (hence why banks may be more focused on Booth than say Stanford). Recruiters aren't looking for "diversity" (i.e. having some soft or hard quota of students coming from each school)- they are focused again on scooping up the most grads with the least effort.

Also, there is a big networking factor as well. You are better off going to a school where there is a larger percentage of people with like-minded career goals. Recruiting isn't as "competitive" a vibe amongst students as you may think it would be - these are people you'll likely bond with more closely post-MBA as well (since you're going into the same industry). Most b-school students know that it's not about the first job, but maintaining good relationships over time -- and they're not going "scorched earth" but stepping on other fellow classmates for an entry-level job post-MBA.

Those of you out there probably know my overall view of b-school itself (verdict: decidedly mixed feelings/views about it). But I have to say one of the more refreshing things is that MBAs are genuinely helpful to one another. Don't discount that - being around more people with like-minded career goals (not just "banking" but finance as a whole) will help in terms of job leads (students do share job leads with one another; in fact, you can count on 50% of potential opportunities you uncover will come through your fellow classmates - even for on-campus recruiters where through classmates you may get "extra" access to people beyond just the recruiting presentation/interviews -- i.e. "oh you're interested in Morgan Stanley? I used to work there as an analyst. I know the VP who is recruiting - I'll hook you up to meet him for coffee when you're in NY next week."), reviewing each other's resumes, mock interviews, and generally helping each other out (going on recruiting trips together, sharing travel expenses, etc).

Also, simply put, at Booth you're likely to get more students with stronger pre-MBA finance backgrounds to network with than at Darden. That isn't a disadvantage, but a huge advantage because these people can make valuable introductions for you.

If you're interested in IBD or finance as a whole, you will have a better time at Booth: more people like yourself, more recruiters, more potential opportunities (again, a lot of job leads also come from your fellow classmates - either their former employers, or folks they've met in their own job hunt, i.e. "I met this portfolio mgr at XYZ fund; not really interested in that job since it's in NYC and I wanna stay in Chicago, but it may be someone you'd be interested to meet - I'll make the introduction.").

I agree with other commenters that Booth is the hands down winner in all tangible respects, but would add that it's important you go somewhere you feel you can thrive and would enjoy. It is, after all 2 years of your life, and if you visit Booth and come away with a terrible feeling, hate Chicago, or whatever you should consider that. Chicago and C-ville are vastly different places and you should consider your quality of life for the 2 years you are there. Getting $ from one school and not the other would also complicate things.

Bottom line - Booth has an edge in network, academics, and recruiting, but consider the whole package.