<p>I was rejected from a lot of my reach schools on Ivy Massacre Day and now I have 3 (potentially 4) schools to decide where to go. Given my financial situation, I received enough aid from all the schools to essentially go there full-ride. I need help deciding between which schools are more well-known in the academic community. I want to eventually get my MBA and I want to do it from a fantastic institution (HYPS or Penn), so if anyone can help me out by giving some insight on any of my schools, I would greatly appreciate it!</p>
<p>My choices are:</p>
<p>University of Richmond - $46k in grants, costs around $59k, on the East coast
University of San Diego - $40k in grants, costs around $56k, closer to my home (Tucson, AZ) and potentially in Honors Program
University of Arizona - $14k in grants, cost around $22k, 20 minutes from my home</p>
<p>I was also wait-listed from NYU, so I can reserve my spot if I wish. However, I won't know if I was accepted until after May 1st, the deadline for the first two schools. Can anyone help me out please?? I really need some inside perspective about the schools.</p>
<p>MBA admissions doesn’t depend on where you went to college. The most important factors are your career trajectory (at bare minimum two years of increasingly responsible professional experience, preferably more than that), your undergrad GPA, your GMAT scores, and your letters of recommendation from your supervisors at work and from your old college professors. People get into top MBA programs every single year who have graduated from colleges and universities that never get talked about here at CC.</p>
<p>Do your math again using this handy tool: [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Award Letter Comparison Tool](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Award Letter Requirements - Finaid)
Depending on your family’s situation, the differences between $16k at U San Diego, $13k at U of Richmond, and $8k at U of AZ may be enough to take one or two of those out of the running. For example, with a Stafford Loan and a good summer job, you should be able to cover all the left-over cost for U of AZ, but the other two institutions will require that someone else pitch some money in as well.</p>
<p>It’s hard to say that where you go to college doesn’t matter for an MBA. The job you get matters, and where you go to college will significantly influence what jobs are available to you.</p>
<p>NYU, if it’s Stern, would be worth considering f you can afford it. After that I’d say it would depend on where you want to work. If in CA go to USD. Richmond for the South East. Arizona is the weak link on this list.</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree with happymomof1. I do think that where your undergrad degree is from is one factor (and mind you only one factor among the many others listed in her post) that MBA programs look at. My husband has a Wharton MBA and my sister has a Harvard MBA and if you look back to their directories, while there are students come from many different schools, a good many of them come from what I would consider very strong (well-ranked, not necessarily Ivy League) undergraduate schools. Also factor in that a strong undergrad degree can help you land that better first job.</p>
<p>That said, I would not go heavily in debt for undergrad so do what makes sense for your family. My friend’s son had a great experience in the b-school at Richmond and got a good job right out of college, but I have no first hand knowledge of the other schools.</p>
<p>I live in Tucson, AZ and have a lot of friends that will be going to U of AZ, so it would make the transition much easier to college. I am shy around people I don’t know, so I’m worried about that first semester.</p>
<p>And yes, I want to major in Business Administration with a concentration in finance. I’m worried that if I choose to go to the UA, I will be overlooked when it comes to MBA programs and jobs. I eventually want to work in New York at one of the financial institutions in the city, but I doubt NYU will offer much financial aid if I attend. This whole process is tough because there isn’t one school that is EXACTLY what I want.</p>