UCLA Anderson vs. MIT Sloan vs. Chicago Booth (for PE in LA)

Hey guys,

I need to make a decision between several MBA program - UCLA Anderson (with a generous fellowship), MIT Sloan and Chicago Booth - with the ultimate goal of transitioning to private equity specifically in LA (thus my bias for UCLA). My background has been primarily in IB (analyst at a top bulge bracket and three years at a boutique IB in LA as an associate). What do you think?

Thanks!

 
Best Response

check the bios of people working in PE shops in LA... I would guess UCLA is better. Regional firms recruit regionally, including PE firms. I think the only schools for PE that are predominantly stronger than the rest are HBS/Stanford and then Wharton. As for the rest it is about the same. Between Booth and MIT, i would go where you like the most. PE recruiting depends heavily on you. When you send an email with the headline Chicago Booth or MIT Sloan they will read it either way and they will not say "oh, he is from Booth, too bad he/she is not from MIT" or the other way around. They will think "from top school, with relevant experience, seems interesting..." Having said that, UCLA is not as strong as Booth and MIT, you will feel the need to mention in interviews that you did get into Booth and MIT and you chose to go to UCLA.

in my personal opinion I would go to the school with the strongest reputation and think "globally". What if you don't get into any PE firm in LA, then what. Is UCLA a strong school in the Northeast? Does it have a national brand? When I shifted my career searching to outside of the US, I realized how strong the MIT brand is. Chicago is not as strong (some people might argue otherwise, but the fact is, it doesn't carry the same weight). So, to sum up: You are narrowing yourself to a very small market. Go either Booth or MIT, and go where you would like to spend 2 years.

 

Though choice -- I think the answer depends on a couple factors:

(1) How generous is the fellowship? If it's half tuition or more and you want to be in PE in LA, I think it'd be very hard to pass on UCLA. (2) If you had to flex on one of your goals (LA, PE) which would it be? If you are open to other locations but want to be in PE, I'd say Booth or MIT (MIT if your focus is international and/or early-stage, Booth otherwise). If you'd pass on PE to be in LA, then I'd go with UCLA.

 

don't forget to consider backup career options. PE is ultra-competitive, so you should figure out which school is going to maximize your chance of landing at your top and backup career choices.

If your backup careers involves technology, go with MIT, if it involves banking / corp. dev / public equity investing etc., go with Booth.

 

Hey guys - thanks so much for your thoughtful comments!! Making this decision has been brutal. Here are some of my comments to your collective responses:

(1) The UCLA fellowship is half of total tuition so pretty significant. (2) PE in LA is the dream job, but I think I'd flex on the PE goal to stay in LA and do banking, corp dev or something with public equities (that's my back-up plan).
(3) Given my background, I think I'd be well positioned to get a banking job in LA as a back-up plan (UCLA places really well in LA and I'd be competing against a lot of career switchers w/o experience).
(4) A significant caveat to my back-up plan above (for banking) is that banking summer recruiting takes place very early in the school year so if I pass on banking recruiting and go for PE, getting a full-time job in banking will be significantly harder. (5) MIT has very few alums in LA relative to Chicago and of course UCLA so networking would probably be better with UCLA or Chicago.

 

I have heard it said that UCLA "punches above its weight" in VC and PE, especially because of the connections in southern California, so your instinct seems spot on about being there. And then there is the money. Half tuition is a lot, but tuition is still only a little less than half of the costs of going to Anderson.

I do agree with the posters above that MIT is a bit distant for the kind of insider connections you are looking for in your niche. Even here in northern California (I live in the Bay Area), you don't see as many Sloanies, and hardly any in finance.

Alas, but, Chicago is probably the more challenging academic environment, and I mean that in a good way. There are great professors at UCLA, indeed, but nothing like Chicago. Also, and here's the real question; will you feel more motivated and challenged by students in your Booth classroom than you would at Anderson? You see, having come from LA as a banker will help you in the summer recruiting anyway. Your experience will comfort potential hiring firms, knowing that you want to come back to where you have done well and call home. So I don't think that from a recruiting point of view you will be on the back foot. Call me crazy, but I cannot imagine that many firms in LA that would not look at you because you went to Booth instead of Anderson.

Tough choice, but I come down voting for Booth.

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!
 

I agree with betsy. You want the best name brand, network, and caliber of students. Anderson is great but it's nowhere near the level of Booth. And in finance, Booth is huge. There's no way you would be at a disadvantage for L.A. jobs simply because you're not in the city.

A tougher call would be say if you wanted to work in SF and were deciding between haas with money or booth. That's much more of a tough call since haas is a top 8-9 program. Anderson is not top 10 yet, so there is a rather big gap between booth and anderson.

 

Damn, that is me. Booth interview coming up Wednesday and waiting on Haas. Looking at SF REPE firms. As I posted in another thread, no use stressing until I know whether haas is a possibility. Seemed like Booth doesn't have a super strong VC/PE presence unless they didn't pitch it well when I went to their all day event.

LA Banker - for #4 I don't think you'd have a problem getting back into IBD if you miss the first year recruiting season and go for PE from what I've heard from students (esp. with your background), but you could always go through with recruiting while networking on the side and hold your offer until you absolutely have to make a decision..

 
phantombanker:
Not sure I'd call this a no brainer. Half-tuition is no joke, however I think I'd probably take Booth in this case.

Have you already gotten into these programs from round 1? Weren't deposits due already? Or is this a hypothetical for round 2?

In the long-term the money he would save by going to anderson is not that significant. I think the gap between booth and anderson for finance is big enough that he should take booth regardless of the cost.

Yeah, I thought round 1 deposit deadline was due like 2 weeks ago.

 

I got into UCLA and MIT in the first round. I actually submitted my deposit for UCLA yesterday and got my MIT offer extended about 6 weeks (until mid-April). I applied to Booth in the second round and interviewed a few weeks ago but haven't been accepted so this is hypothetical for Booth. I guess I'm starting to think through whether or not to swallow the deposit if Booth becomes an option.

 
LA banker - generalist:
I got into UCLA and MIT in the first round. I actually submitted my deposit for UCLA yesterday and got my MIT offer extended about 6 weeks (until mid-April). I applied to Booth in the second round and interviewed a few weeks ago but haven't been accepted so this is hypothetical for Booth. I guess I'm starting to think through whether or not to swallow the deposit if Booth becomes an option.

Gotcha. Nice of MIT to extend the deadline.

Did you apply to HSW, haas, or columbia?

 
LA banker - generalist:
It really was nice of them - no questions asked. I applied to Stanford in round 2 but no response yet (already assumed it's a "no"). I also got into Haas in round 1.

Yeah, stanford is a ding if you haven't heard by this point. Sorry about that, but it's the toughest mba program to get into, as you very well know.

Congrats on haas. I freaking love haas' mba program and came close to applying there myself but just got lazy. Lol.

Why didn't you apply to hbs/wharton given their strength in PE?

 
kingfalcon:
You should definitely go to Sloan (I say that only because I'm starting there this fall!).

SB to you -- glad you are looking to the cool WSO kids for company

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!
 

You should go to the best school you can get into - in the region where you want to live/work medium-long term.Your living preference may eventually change, of course, but realistically speaking, the importance of which program you attend is weighted more heavily at the start of your career after b-school. If you do badass things after coming out of Anderson, there's no way you'd get passed over for someone from Booth/MIT medium-long term just because the other candidates went to a "higher ranked" school. The fellowship will also come in handy when you're trying to come up with cash for weekend trips/scrip clubs.

Full disclosure - I'm attending Anderson this fall, also with a fellowship.

 
codytravers:
You should go to the best school you can get into - in the region where you want to live/work medium-long term.Your living preference may eventually change, of course, but realistically speaking, the importance of which program you attend is weighted more heavily at the start of your career after b-school. If you do badass things after coming out of Anderson, there's no way you'd get passed over for someone from Booth/MIT medium-long term just because the other candidates went to a "higher ranked" school. The fellowship will also come in handy when you're trying to come up with cash for weekend trips/scrip clubs.

Full disclosure - I'm attending Anderson this fall, also with a fellowship.

 

codytravers - congrats on Anderson and the fellowship. Are you going to the A-days in a couple weeks? Just curious, what is your background and how did you decide on Anderson?

Ultimately, I think having Booth or MIT on your resume vs. Anderson would help on the margin but there will be H/S/W kids competing for the same jobs that will look even more impressive on paper. In an industry so competitive and relationship-driven like PE, I think being local and having the opportunity to potentially intern with a PE fund in LA during the school year makes a big difference, not to mention the personal connection when speaking with Anderson alums at funds in LA. It's too bad Anderson is not ranked a bit higher. If they were somewhere closer to Haas, it would be a much easier decision, at least for me.

 

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