<p>As of now I've been admitted to Cornell's ILR school and Michigan(I'm in LSA but I might switch into Engineering to pursue EGL). I want to go into finance or strategy consulting and I have absolutely no idea what to do. It seems Cornell's brand name is much stronger, but Michigan's Engineering Global Leadership program is extremely well sculpted and rigorous. </p>
<p>Should I go for the better education, or the better brand? I'm worried the ILR program is not for me. Especially if I want to break into strategy consulting or finance. Hell, even McKinsey/Bain don't recruit at Cornell! </p>
<p>Please help, I also really want to work abroad in the future. Will employers not know Michigan as opposed to Cornell?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Mistasuggs</p>
<p>Edit: Looking out for your advice, Alexandre!</p>
<p>If you’re interested in finance or strategy consulting, shouldn’t you be aiming for a BBA instead of an engineering degree? I don’t see that much alignment between the schools you’re going for vs your career interest.</p>
<p>To be fair, having an engineering background does give you an in-roads track to some their industry concentrations + the Financial Engineering side of IB but it seems like a round about way to do it if MC is your main goal.</p>
<p>Anyway, to answer your question :</p>
<p>Michigan if:
You’re in-state
Confident about getting into Ross after your first year. Ross places better for your career interests than Cornell. </p>
<p>Cornell:
You’re OOS
No plan on switching to B-school
REALLY want to increase your chance of working in NYC post-grad.</p>
<p>“It seems Cornell’s brand name is much stronge…”</p>
<p>Not according to those firms you are so desperate to join. Ross in particular is one of the top 5 names in the Management Consulting world. Frankly, outside of your high school circles and of not-so-knowledgeable parents who only rely on rankings, Cornell is not a stronger brand than Michigan, particularly in the industries you seem to have identified a potential careers.</p>
<p>Interesting, what about for employment internationally? How does Michigan compare with Cornell? Eventually I want to work in Hong Kong. </p>
<p>My concerns regarding Cornell are with the ILR program itself, how does that fare in comparison to Michigans Engineering for Consulting and Finance? </p>
<p>Also, regarding Ross, I don’t really mind studying business, but I’d rather not. I think Engineering provides a very versatile and thorough skillset that business could certainly compliment, but should not replace.</p>
<p>Bot universities are very well recognized internationally. I think a degree in Engineering or from Ross will be more marketable than a degree in ILR.</p>
<p>Have you thought about going to Cornell ILR then internal transfer to AEM/Engineering? From what I hear(don’t have any evidence to back it up), AEM has a slight edge over Ross. But I say it is safer and much more worth it to go to Michigan and transfer to Ross or Engineering after your first year since internal transfers are tedious at Cornell. Cornell ILR still probably trumps UMich LSA though in terms of recruiting.</p>
<p>Of course, it’s not a 100% apples to apples comparison since AEM isn’t a pure business degree - it may serve your purposes better depending on what you want.</p>
<p>Anyway, if your main target is HK MC/ Bulge Bracket finance type of companies Ross has traditional inroads into those areas due to the relatively number of international students who go work there every year - but I’m not sure about the rest of the university.</p>
<p>Cornell does have the branding edge in China/HK due to the Ivy affiliation so smaller firms in HK will probably recognize the Cornell brand over Michigan’s - I worked in Asia for about 7 years after my undergrad and everyone knows the Ivy league (although HYP are the only members that people tend to know). During my years there Michigan’s branding tended to resonate the most with US expats, engineers, and academics.</p>
<p>Between Ross and AEM, I would say the two are equally effective with IBanks, but Ross has the edge with Strategy Consulting firms. Bain, BCG and Booz do not even recruit AEM students on campus, while they actively recruit at Ross. Even among second tier consulting firms, like AT Kearney, OW and several others, Ross has the edge. Also, smaller IBank firms, such as Blackstone and Lazard also recruit Ross better than AEM. As a rule, among undergraduate business programs, only Wharton has an advantage over Ross when it comes to career placement.</p>
<p>Alexandre, I agree with most of your points but Lazard recruits very heavily at Cornell actually and Booz/OW don’t really have an on-campus presence at U of M. Other than that, I agree that Ross is a better option seeing as all of MBB and Deloitte recruit there while only McKinsey recruits at Cornell.</p>
<p>Michigan benefits in the strategy consulting realm for being a regional superpower and a logical choice for the Chicago offices of companies to recruit at. Unfortunately, Cornell is overshadowed by HYP, MIT, Dartmouth, etc. for NYC offices which is its natural hub.</p>
<p>Also, Ross is definitely not one of the “top 5” names in the MC world. That’s stretching things a bit.</p>
<p>“Also, Ross is definitely not one of the “top 5” names in the MC world. That’s stretching things a bit.”</p>
<p>Agreed. Definitely among the top 10 though. In terms of numbers placed, I would say #6 or #7, behind Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Stanford, Columbia and Sloan.</p>
<p>Hmm, how does ILR fare for finance? I’m extremely worried that I will not have access to Consulting/Finance career paths from ILR as its not really focused on the science of business or economics. I’ve spoken with Cornell about internal transferring, and they said not to count on it as an external transfer(which makes sense in their defense).</p>
<p>Edit: My concerns are primarily about ILR, not Cornell itself. I’m trying to see how ILR specifically compares with pursuing EGL at Michigan. Both are fine universities and I respect both, but I’m just curious, taking into account brand value and curriculum, which would best serve my interests.</p>
<p>Those two have formidable brand names in the corporate world. No advantage either way. I thought I had mentioned that in an earlier thread, but I was perhaps not very clear. So if you send your resume out into the world, having a degree from either university will open doors. </p>
<p>However, we are talking about on-campus recruiting. In terms of curriculum, it really depends what you want to do. If you wish to work in Human Resources, ILR is obviously a much better option than Michigan’s CoE. If you want to work in manufacturing, tech or consulting, the CoE is a better option than ILR. Financial institutions recruit at ILR, but mainly for HR positions, not for Finance positions.</p>
<p>From a big picture point of view, where campus recruiting is concerned, Ross and AEM (slight edge to Ross) would serve your career interests in Management Consulting or IBanking best, followed by both those universities’ colleges of Engineering. ILR would not be as effective. So, between Michigan’s CoE and Cornell’s ILR, I would go for Michigan’s CoE. But if you really want to maximize your chances, I would recommend transferring to Ross once you are at Michigan.</p>
<p>Just one question: Why is OP asking this now, as his(her) final decision was probably due May 1. I assume OP accepted at both school and plans on forfeiting his(her) deposit. I find such behavior to be both unethical (taking a slot away from someone who may want to desperately go to the unchosen school) and unnecessary. What info does OP have now that he(she) did not possess May 1. It just seems like procrastination to me, not a trait that will get you far in life.</p>
<p>I’d say that Michigan and Cornell are about equal in prestige. Cornell has a slight edge overall but mainly because of its Ivy League label. I would choose Michigan over the two. For areas such as finance or consulting, Michigan has better connections thanks to the highly-rated Ross school of business. Even if you are doing engineering, you could probably minor in business and gain access to some of the career resources Ross has to offer. However, if you are just planning to do LSA, you should go to Cornell as the job-recruiting in LSA is fairly weak.</p>
<p>In addition, the social life at Ann Arbor is far superior to the one found at Ithica. While both are college towns are in areas with harsh, snowy winters, Ann Arbor is larger and very active with its football and basketball traditions and streets filled with local eateries and bars. I may be biased, but Ithica is much more depressing as it is smaller and not much to do after class. The one thing that is better at Cornell though is that there is more diversity. The thing with Michigan is that because it is a state school, most of the students are from the state of Michigan, particularly around the Detroit area. Because this, cliques have formed even before the start of school! Still, Michigan has a lot more out of state students than most public schools and there are many people from all over the world.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that both of the schools are expensive, unless you received scholarships/financial aid or you are in-state at Michigan. However, Michigan’s total cost for out of state is about 5-10k lower than Cornell’s so it is a slightly better deal.</p>
<p>“I find such behavior to be both unethical (taking a slot away from someone who may want to desperately go to the unchosen school”</p>
<p>I agree it’s a waste of money and just wreaks of procrastination…
But why is it unethical? Because schools say so since it’s inconvenient for them to not have to deal with double deposit?
If OP is willing to pay up, then he has the right to reserve a seat for himself. He paid for it. Schools are not regulatory bodies, until one enrolls at a school voluntarily, there is no obligation to abide by its rules, especially ones that originate from their self interest. </p>
<p>You know what’s unethical? Not looking out for the best interest of numero uno AT ALL TIMES.</p>
<p>“taking a slot away from someone who may want to desperately go to the unchosen school”
Why does this matter? For one, It is not OP’s obligation to look out for other people’s best interest. Also, the whole thing is a zero sum game. OP is not going to end up enrolling at both colleges, which means one school is probably just going to go into its waitlist pool if there is a target number of freshman the school wants to see enrolled. So OP probably reshuffled who would have gotten that slot, but he didn’t “take a slot away”.</p>
<p>And lastly, what can the schools do? In other words, why should OP care?</p>
<p>The slot is probably not likely open to wait list if you paid the deposit. The school would not find out until much later that would be too late for most other candidates. I have seen this kind of behavior very often though. Sometimes even with ED. It is call a “decision” for a reason, it is not simply a reservation. Not care about other is a synonym of selfish.</p>
<p>“The slot is probably not likely open to wait list if you paid the deposit. The school would not find out until much later that would be too late for most other candidates.”</p>
<p>If the school doesn’t dip down to the waitlist, that means they don’t care about whether that position is filled. If they do dip down to the waitlist, that means someone gets the spot. So either way no harm no foul, even though harm and foul really don’t matter.</p>
<p>“Not care about other is a synonym of selfish.”
Is that a bad thing? While the appearance of being selfish hurts you, actually being selfish doesn’t; and maximizing for numero uno is the most important thing in the world, with the only exception being family.</p>
<p>“Just one question: Why is OP asking this now, as his(her) final decision was probably due May 1. I assume OP accepted at both school and plans on forfeiting his(her) deposit. I find such behavior to be both unethical (taking a slot away from someone who may want to desperately go to the unchosen school) and unnecessary. What info does OP have now that he(she) did not possess May 1. It just seems like procrastination to me, not a trait that will get you far in life.” </p>
<p>I am a transfer student and my Cornell decision was released April 28th. I asked Michigan for a time extension and they said it was fine. Please don’t jump to conclusions.</p>