<p>I have been accepted into engineering at Vanderbilt and Cornell. As of right now I am planning to go into an MBA program following my undergraduate studies. In your opinion which program would offer some of the better connections into the better MBA programs (Sloan, Harvard, Wharton . . .)? Also, will Vanderbilt's premier status in the South provide any benefits for when I seek that 1-2 year work experience necessary prior to getting into a good MBA program. For example: Will I get a job from Vanderbilt easier, than if I tried the same from Cornell. Thanks!</p>
<p>bump: Please answer
:D</p>
<p>Cornell has a very strong engineering program and most people know that. Vanderbilt's reputation in engineering is not well-known. Consequently, I would say you will find more doors open for you coming out of Cornell than Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Work experience is probably more important that the school (and it's more like 4-5 years of work experience for the top MBA programs). That being said, the top programs like students who went to top undergrad, so you'll have a better chance from Cornell.</p>
<p>My advice is just to do what makes sense now. Four years is a long time and you might decide not to get an MBA.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt may be considered 'premier' in the South but it isn't up there with Cornell on national level. I'm really not a prestige whore but since you mention it, I have to say, isn't Ivy League the pinnacle of prestige?</p>
<p>heythatslife,</p>
<p>Depends. It's pretty hard to argue that Dartmouth or Cornell are better than Stanford. Similarly, few of the Ivies can hope to match MIT or CalTech in their specialty fields.</p>
<p>However, yes, for the most part you are right.</p>
<p>UCLAri, of course you're right, but I was just generalising.</p>
<p>Hmm...the Ivy League generalization is a bit dangerous, if you ask me. Considering that the gap between the so-called "lower Ivies" (what a term!) and the top three (HYP) is definitely noticeable, it's hard to say that as an aggregate, the schools are the pinnacle of American higher education.</p>
<p>HYP, no doubt. Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell? Gets a bit rockier from there on out. I'd put Chicago, Stanford, MIT, and CalTech up against any of the Ivies, even the so-called "top three."</p>
<p>Yeah, you know you're right, you win. But you have to admit, life is so much simpler when you're generalising so it becomes a habit. Anyway the two schools in question here are Cornell and Vandy, so I thought it wouldn't do any harm.</p>
<p>Hmm...that's tough. I think that Cornell has more "layman" prestige (i.e. man on the street.) But Vandy is probably going to be very adept at getting its grads into good MBA programs. </p>
<p>I'm willing to bet that the difference between the two is negligible, really. What might matter, however, is where undergrads manage to land jobs/internships. Cornell's somewhat proximity to NYC may help during summer and senior year hiring. </p>
<p>Because, let's face it, job experience is BLOODY important for top MBA programs. I think that all of the top MBA programs from UCLA to Harvard have almost identical number stats (700 GMA, 3.6+ GPA). It makes me suspect that the difference between them all was just work experience.</p>
<p>But I bet somewhere, there is an MBA student/sakky lurking, ready to tell me how wrong I am.</p>
<p>Cornell's "lower ivy" ranking is primarily selectivity based. People, especially in the engineering industries, know that an education from Cornell engineering is top-notch. The research potential is amazing and you have to work damn hard to keep a good GPA. For engineering, Cornell is definitely ranked above Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, and UPenn. Princeton, on the other hand, has an excellent undergraduate engineering program.</p>
<p>Job placement out of Cornell is very easy if you keep good grades and do research. I work at a top national laboratory and we condsider Cornell grads at the same level as Princeton, MIT, Stanford, and Caltech graduates. Those five schools are simply considered tier one around here. This attitude is based off how well the graduates have performed at the lab.</p>
<p>Be careful not to underestimate Cornell simply because of its rankings. Engineering Physics, for instance, is top in the country (ranked number one, if thats what you care about).</p>
<p>In terms of getting into an MBA program, I would def. say Cornell will open more doors than Vanderbuilt from an engineering program. This is especially true for technically oriented MBA's from Sloan at MIT.</p>
<p>forgradadvice,</p>
<p>I'm not sure if you're sorta responding to my post, but if you were, you missed my point.</p>
<p>Ivies as "the pinnacle of education" is a bit too generous to all the schools. That's all I was saying. I'm not suprised at all that hires from Cornell perform similarly to grads from CalTech. Although, I'm a bit wary of people saying "top national lab" and then leaving it at that...</p>
<p>UCLAri,
I was just stating my viewpoints on a few misconceptions I feel people have when viewing Cornell. Especially when trying to rank it against the other Ivies. I personally do not like ranking schools in a general fashion. Each school has strong and weak departments and a school's quality can not be measured on prestige or selectivity. In most cases a school's quality is completly driven by the person trying to choose. Again, just my opinion, but I think people looking at undergraduate programs put too much weight on national pretige, slectivity, and US News rankings when making their choices. </p>
<p>My response was loosely based on your mention of the gap between HYP and the rest of the Ivies. In engineering I would most certaintly put Cornell above Harvard or Yale. In the humanities I would never try and compare Cornell to Harvard or Yale for undergraduate studies.</p>
<p>Sorry for the vauge mention of a national lab. I do not want to give away too much personal information in an open forum. Without saying where I am now I can say that I have had personal experience with JPL, MIT Lincoln Lab., and JHU Applied Physics Lab. In each institution, my statement regarding candidate selection holds true.</p>
<p>Didn't want to offend anyone. I wrote that post pretty late last night after a tiresome conversation with a prefrosh who was very narrow minded about undergraduate eductional opportunities (I vounteer my time to HS and college students who have questions about various programs at the school's I attended or plan on attending in the near future).</p>
<p>What about Berkeley, is that in the tier one you were refering to.</p>
<p>Cornell for sure, that's no question. If your future is in business, cornell is far superior to Vanderbilt. There's a ton of recruiting that goes on here.</p>
<p>forgradadvice,</p>
<p>Not much else to say but "I agree."</p>
<p>Just a question, if you wanna do MBA why are you in the engineering school?</p>
<p>Why not? If one enjoys engineering...</p>