Darden or Cornell?

zxsteven

Just know that I am in at Cornell, and I am admitted by Darden as well. It is going to be a tough decision for me.

A little of my background and future goal: Engineering background, BS in China, MS in USA, four year W/E in USA.......want to switch career to either finance or MC, and would like to get back to China right after MBA.....Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

stanhope

in the same boat.hope to see the detailed analysis on this topic

northeuro

I vote for the latter one, Darden.

Cornell is really a good school, but as to its location, sigh...

pumpkin

以下是引用northeuro在2006-3-22 19:53:00的发言：

I vote for the latter one, Darden.

Cornell is really a good school, but as to its location, sigh...

我也选DARDEN

zxsteven

As I indicated in my first thread, I want to come back to China post MBA, so the brand name (Cornell)  means a great deal to me. However, honestly speaking, if you want to do management consulting, general management or even corporate finance, you should choose Darden over Johnson. Based on the statistics in their career placement websites, the ratio of getting in above industry is about 2:1(Darden vs. Cornell). If you take a closer look into the recruiting company list, some MC firms don't even come to Cornell to do on-campus recruiting, like BCG, ATKearny and Bain. I guess this is because of the remote location of Ithaca. I have been Ithaca for a couple of times, a very beautiful town and campus, but no major airport or train station, and the freezing weather in winter time, say five months of snow, is hard to bear with.

But if you want to be a Wall street guy in private equity/investment management/equity research/sales and trading, Cornell is the right choice with its strong investment banking immersion program and Wall street network.

For me, neither school is  my top choice, (dinged by Wharton, Chicago and Columbia), and actually I may end up with not going either school but coming back to China for a local MBA, say CEIBS, with less cost and stronger network. Anyway, I have been living in US for six years, what I need is not an international perspecitve, but I do need to know more about China.

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-3-23 7:28:17编辑过]

dtiger

I vote Cornell. Chinese locals like the brand name more... Also, from your top choices, I can feel you are heading to Finance... :-) As you said, Cornell is right choice for that... Plus, I notice that Cornell has a strong area (not in B-school) for financial engineering, select some electives in that area will also increase your opportunity to work in finance industry, if you select to keep working a while in USA ... :-)

I have the same idea as you, to go back China right after MBA... :-) Good Luck!

Swinerton

cool, man

I have been in the States for almost 6 years too and I totally agree with you on "know more about China" but please reconsider your decision of going back to CEIBS for MBA.

International exposure in engineering school is totally different to that in B school. I also believe that there are tons of opportunities for you to work for Great China office of IB or MC companies right after MBA.

olivia

Vote for Cornell, big name in China

asahicuiyu

Cornell!