MBA Decision: Johnson (Cornell) vs. McDonough (Georgetown) vs. Stern (NYU..maybe)
Hi all,
I was recently accepted to the full time MBA programs at Johnson (Cornell) and McDonough (Georgetown). I was also waitlisted at NYU Stern.
I'm currently working in consulting in the greater New York City area and am seeking a career change into finance. I'm weighing my options on which program to attend and am interested in getting some feedback from those in the financial industry. Some thoughts below:
Cornell:
-program has immersion learning experience (Asset Management focused), sounds like solid hands on approach to learning
-top industry: finance
-strong job placement in northeast, which is where I'd like to end up coming out of the program
-average starting salary + signing bonus coming out of the program is higher than Georgetown, slightly lower than Stern
-location is less than ideal
Georgetown:
-global business focus
-living in DC would be great
-top industry: consulting slightly more so than finance
location could bring about unique networking opportunities
-lower starting salary + signing bonus coming out of the program vs. Cornell and Stern
Stern:
-seems like the clear winner if it were a definite possibility, but waitlisted
-well-respected finance program
-top industry: finance
-ranked 3rd in terms of finance dept. among MBA programs
-highest starting salary + signing bonus
Thoughts?
Thanks
Definitely stay on the Stern waitlist. Especially since you want to switch into finance.
I think the quality of your classmates at Cornell will be slightly higher, at least in my experience. Georgetown is indeed global, and DC is a great city, but the Cornell is just a stronger all-around business program. And that immersion learning is cool. Location? Ithaca is about as lovely a campus as any on earth. So what if you have to drive to get to NY? think of it as a bonding road trip with your classmates. Cornell also has a strong culture -- I am guessing you got that when you visited the school. If you feel the fit there, I would put my deposit down and hope for the best on Stern.
Update: After I posted this I saw a comment on another thread from @masterz57 about Cornell:
Read through my past comments or AMA for info on Johnson. If you want more feel free to PM me. If youre set on finance, I would say Stern first, then Johnson, then Gtown waaay after that.
Thanks for the feedback. I also got a waitlist notice from Fuqua. How does that mix things up?
Assuming those waitlist notices turned into acceptances (big assumption, I know), I would probably rank them: NYU, Duke, Cornell, Georgetown. Would you agree? Again, I'd be going into finance post-MBA.
I originally wrote a congratulatory note on the waitlist for Duke, but the darn WSO website ate my comment.
But congrats! It means they didn't reject you. So you know what to do: lobby your case. (I wrote a blog post about waitlist strategy which draws from the best of all over the web, if you are interested) Most on this forum will vote for Duke over Stern, and maybe true for the fun factor. But it's all theory until things sort themselves out. I think if either come through, they are probably better than Cornell for your career choice, but that's just a guess based on not-perfect information.
Not sure about Duke for Asset Management. Might actually put Cornell ahead of them for that particular industry. Not really sure though...I feel like Cornell punches above its weight when it comes to AM.
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