Undecided - 03-19-2017 | Clear Admit DecisionWire

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March 19, 2017 12:38pm ET

Enrolled: Undecided

Admitted: U. Chicago Booth , Duke / Fuqua , Michigan / Ross

Applied: U. Chicago Booth, Duke / Fuqua, Harvard Business School, Michigan / Ross, Stanford GSB

Entering Year: 2017

Post MBA Career:

GMAT: 710

GPA: 3.6

Location: Eastern US

Notes:

Any thoughts on strength of social impact/nonprofit management at Booth? Many focused on securing MBB or finance jobs will think it's insane I'm even considering anything but Booth, but those are not my career goals & I want to enroll at a place with robust social impact offerings/job placement. "Booth is a tier above" isn't helpful here.

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Show Comments (9) Last: March 21, 2017

Anon1 Likes Earned: 0 I am similarly interested in social impact (though from a business perspective, not so much non-profit), and I chose to enroll in Booth. Booth's Social Enterprise Initiative and social new venture challenge are top notch. There are also a ton of other activities (e.g., Board Fellows Program since you are interested in nonprofits, MBA impact investing networking and training, social impact leadership series) and classes/labs in this area. Booth has a ton of resources and has focused a lot of attention on the social impact space in recent years. I am confident you would get a job in the social impact/nonprofit space after school, and frankly, Booth really is a significantly better school. I know you did not want to hear that, but I think it is strong in social impact and simply a better overall school. (0)

Anon1 Likes Earned: 0 One more thing to add - if you decide to shift focuses (even a pivot within the overall social impact/nonprofit umbrella), Booth has more resources, more to offer, and will allow you to approach recruiting and job placement with more flexibility and greater options. The MBA is a pretty transformational experience, and it is not uncommon to consider other career opportunities during your two years. If you shift gears a little during your MBA program, you may regret choosing Duke or Ross over Booth (0)

Anon2 Likes Earned: 0 You don't want to hear it, but it's true: Booth is a tier above, and that's not just in MBB/finance/etc. You need the highest quality training possible regardless of where you end up. Yes, of course, if you're in between two schools that are mroe or less even in all other respects, you'd want to pick the one with the stronger social impact focus. But especially since Booth has a strong social impact program, it seems like a no brainer to me. UNLESS, of course, you just felt much more comfortable at fuqua or Ross / the specific program has uniquely good resources in a specific company you want to work for, etc. If we're just assessing general program strength for your field, I would have to agree with Anon1. You've got great options! (0)

OP Likes Earned: 0 Thank you both for your thoughts, Anon1 & Anon2! I appreciate you taking the time to type that out--I really wanted to get responses like these that pointed to specific strengths/weaknesses of the programs I'm considering. I'm actually looking at the dual policy programs with these three schools, and Booth/Harris dualies have overall been surprisingly negative about their experiences. If Harris were a stronger, more well-liked program, my choice would be much easier, but as it stands, the other schools seem to have better policy programs. It's a tough call given the strength of Booth. I don't want to discount the policy programs, as the dual aspect is important to me and I don't want to go into it knowing I'll likely dislike 1.5 of my 3 years. Thank you again for your thoughts! (0)

Anon Likes Earned: 0 Booth has great social impact. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 To add a little diversity to the conversation, social impact feels like an afterthought at Booth to me. Doesn't seem as if you're as worried about the rankings so I'd explore all three and go with your gut - especially since you're planning to spend three years in grad school. If it helps, I have a friend who turned down Booth to attend a top 10 - 15 school simply because she wasn't feeling Booth and she now has the same (if not better?) outcomes in her area of interest. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Why didn't you apply to Yale SOM? (0)

OP Likes Earned: 0 I didn't apply to Yale because my number one consideration was ability to do an MBA/MPP program at a single school. In retrospect, several awesome programs (Haas, Yale SOM) may have been worth forgoing the dual, but my long-term interest is politics so that's what I prioritized. (0)

Anonymous Likes Earned: 0 Honestly you can do social impact anywhere without having to concentrate in it for business school. You're better off picking the higher ranked school and just hustling to make industry connections, going to meet-ups, etc to build knowledge vs going into a more formalized program for it. (0)