How strong is the Baylor Business brand in DFW? (find a job, top schools)

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by cordata

Curious what your rationale is? Part time at SMU is entitled to the same recruiting as full time. Has the same professors as full time.

The jobs a person typically wants in finance after your MBA don't hire students who weren't full time (investment banking, private equity, research analyst, etc). Obviously there is going to be an exception to any rule, but it would significantly decrease your chances at those jobs. If you already work in finance and you're going to work your way through an MBA, you might as well just not get one at all, aggressively network to try and jump to a new firm in a post-MBA role, and save yourself the tuition.

[turf3]

So are you saying that someone who lives off Mommy and Daddy while attending MBA school full time gets a higher approval rating than someone who works a full time job while busting his butt to get the degree by part time attendance? If that's true, that's really wacko.

[bencronin04]

Originally Posted by turf3

So are you saying that someone who lives off Mommy and Daddy while attending MBA school full time gets a higher approval rating than someone who works a full time job while busting his butt to get the degree by part time attendance? If that's true, that's really wacko.

Yes

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by turf3

So are you saying that someone who lives off Mommy and Daddy while attending MBA school full time gets a higher approval rating than someone who works a full time job while busting his butt to get the degree by part time attendance? If that's true, that's really wacko.

Who lives off mommy and daddy? They're called student loans and most people use them; some save up and pay for an MBA in cash. I'd suspect the number of people whose parents pay for their MBA is tiny, unless your parents had put away money for college and then you got a scholarship so they said they'd use it to help pay for grad school.

[J800]

I'm not aiming for IB, but if I was, SMU would be at the bottom of my list, only one spot above Baylor.

SMU places a few undergrads at BB's on the East Coast and a handful of kids at small family shops in Dallas. At the post-MBA (associate) level, UT and Rice are the only schools in Texas that consistently place grads at BB's. This largely depends on your pre-MBA experience and networking ability though.


I was strongly considering Cornell and USC. USC's placements are primarily on the West Coast, but the program would end up being $10K cheaper than SMU. I'd imagine that with all the transplants, there are more than a few USC grads in the DFW. I think USC is more prestigious than SMU as well, and Cornell obviously speaks for itself.

However, SMU still seems like the best bang for my buck for Texas.

[Rumble]

Originally Posted by numbersguy100

The jobs a person typically wants in finance after your MBA don't hire students who weren't full time (investment banking, private equity, research analyst, etc). Obviously there is going to be an exception to any rule, but it would significantly decrease your chances at those jobs. If you already work in finance and you're going to work your way through an MBA, you might as well just not get one at all, aggressively network to try and jump to a new firm in a post-MBA role, and save yourself the tuition.

I'd like to see the support on this statement.

Even if it is the case, are we sure there aren't other equally contributing factors (age, cost/benefit of switching companies/careers, etc.)?

I would like to know an employer's reasoning for this. To me, the dedication and work ethic to complete a part-time masters in < 3 years and MBA < 4 years, in addition to balancing a full time salaried professional occupation can be impressive.

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by Rumble

I'd like to see the support on this statement.

Even if it is the case, are we sure there aren't other equally contributing factors (age, cost/benefit of switching companies/careers, etc.)?

I would like to know an employer's reasoning for this. To me, the dedication and work ethic to complete a part-time masters in < 3 years and MBA < 4 years, in addition to balancing a full time salaried professional occupation can be impressive.

A lot of it is just inertia, to be honest. It's only in recent years that the top programs even launched part time MBAs (and many people speculate that it's purely motivated by an attempt to maximize enrollment revenue), so the recruiting cycle has simply been tethered to the typical 2 year full time frame. Lots of your MBA is just networking and getting to know as many well connected people at the school as possible so you can leverage those connections later in your career. To further that, groups of people typically travel together on exotic, absurdly expensive trips to locations around the world (paid for with student loans, btw) and that can only happen if you are a full time student with built in school breaks. But it also makes sense in terms of what an employer in finance is looking for from an MBA candidate. Basically nothing that you learn in your MBA does anything for you on the job. What they want to know is where you did your summer internship, how you performed there, and what it made you want to do when you leave your program. You interview for post-MBA jobs in the fall of your second year, so that is also problematic from a timing perspective. The most coveted jobs are typically not for immediate hire.

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by J800

I'm not aiming for IB, but if I was, SMU would be at the bottom of my list, only one spot above Baylor.

SMU places a few undergrads at BB's on the East Coast and a handful of kids at small family shops in Dallas. At the post-MBA (associate) level, UT and Rice are the only schools in Texas that consistently place grads at BB's. This largely depends on your pre-MBA experience and networking ability though.


I was strongly considering Cornell and USC. USC's placements are primarily on the West Coast, but the program would end up being $10K cheaper than SMU. I'd imagine that with all the transplants, there are more than a few USC grads in the DFW. I think USC is more prestigious than SMU as well, and Cornell obviously speaks for itself.

However, SMU still seems like the best bang for my buck for Texas.

It sounds like you're set on SMU. If you want advice, it might be helpful for a little context. You don't seem to be looking for a "check the box" MBA. I see lots of people who need those and in that case I recommend SMU if your employer is paying, or somewhere like UNT if you're paying.

The idea that you'd pick an MBA program for the sake of a $10k price difference is baffling to me. In the context of a career in finance, $10k is basically nothing. For that matter and in the same context, the price difference between SMU and Cornell is basically nothing. What jobs are you looking for when you leave your MBA program? Based on some of the schools you applied to I assume you're looking to make somewhere in the $175k+ context, which is what leads me to question your price sensitivity.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by J800

I'm in a bit of a pickle here.


I was offered admission to the following business schools. I've been working in Texas for years now and I have no plans on working anywhere else. However, after receiving MBA admissions decisions and merit aid offers, I have to decide between the following:

Yale (#8, $200K)
Cornell (#14, will cost $120K out of pocket)
USC (#31, $80K out of pocket)
SMU (#45, $90K out of pocket)
Baylor (#57, $45K out of pocket)


I was wait listed at UT-Austin and Rice. I'm not sure how that happened considering the Yale and Cornell acceptance.



Considering the debt I'll take on at each school, my gut tells me that SMU Cox is the best choice if I want to stay in Dallas, but I'm not sure if it's worth the additional $45K over Baylor. I'm expecting my salary to increase by $25-30K after graduating. When I run the numbers, the difference in student loan debt will be marginal in the long run, but for some reason it's hard for me to stomach adding $90K in debt.


Even though it is my worst option (based on rankings alone), it is also the least expensive. Would Baylor be a good choice?

How much work experience do you have?

[J800]

Originally Posted by EDS_

How much work experience do you have?

Two-years of "high finance" experience (equity research and investment banking) and one-year of middle-market firm credit underwriting experience.

A lot of the MD's have done two years as an analyst > MBA > associate and continued to work their way up the ladder from there. I'm aiming for a corporate finance/FP&A role post-MBA though.