Undecided - 04-20-2021 | Clear Admit DecisionWire

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April 20, 2021 10:38am ET

Enrolled: Undecided

Admitted: Cornell / Johnson $

$150000

, Dartmouth / Tuck $

$20000

Applied: Cornell / Johnson, Dartmouth / Tuck, Duke / Fuqua, MIT Sloan, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM

Entering Year: 2021

Post MBA Career: Technology

GMAT: 760

GPA: 3.5

Location: Chicago

Notes:

Hi Alex, Graham, and the Community - I need your help. I'm deciding between Tuck (10k/year) and Johnson (full-ride through the Park Fellowship) for tech strategy. Tuck lands slightly ahead with rankings and is known for a tightknit community, but Johnson is offering alot of $ and the leadership opportunities through Park. What am I overlooking???

Like (2)

Show Comments (8) Last: April 27, 2021

anon10646 Likes Earned: 783 I think that's likely going to be your main decision point. Johnson and Tuck have similar class sizes, locations, tech placement as % of class etc. Tuck is a tier above, but for Tech you're not losing much at Johnson and then maybe any extra visibility you get from fellowship maybe closes that. So does the Park Fellowship provide elements that are important to you (beyond the $)? Could you self-generate or seek out similar opps via Tuck network? Is there any elements Tuck uniquely has you care about that Johnson lacks or is significantly weaker in? If Tuck offer stays as-is and you cannot find good answers to the above, may be tough to pass on the $$$$. (2)

anon58018 Likes Earned: 93 Given your focus on tech (and Cornell’s links to tech in NYC + Park), personally for me it’d be tough to turn down the money to attend Tuck. It’d be different if your goal was MBB I think! (4)

grichmond Verified User. Likes Earned: 1304 Congrats on your offers! Very insightful comments from anon10646! The Park Fellowship is a pretty big deal (like, 'put it on your resume' big deal), and no one will fault you for choosing Cornell + full scholarship vs. Tuck at nearly full-fare. A couple of additional thoughts: have you looked into the ways you might be able to leverage Cornell's TechMBA presence in NYC to help you along your career path? And to anon10646's point, is there anything about Tuck that you really love/are having trouble turning your back on? Fit does count for something, and this is two years of your life. Also, keep in mind that if you land a job in tech with one of the big players, the student loans may not loom so large in the long term. Best of luck!
(3)

anon43937 Likes Earned: 21 OP here, thanks for the advice everyone! @anon10646 I think the Park Fellowship offers a lot of cool leadership / self learning opportunities, they probably exist elsewhere but it's just so evident through the program. Still talking to Tuck about money, although doubtful they'll come close to matching. And both have good programs that have been interesting to me, Tuck's Digital Strategies Centers and First year project vs Johnson's Digital Immersion and Big Red Tech Strategy, so that feels like a wash. @Graham I think the biggest thing that is keeping me from finalizing is how amazing I hear the Tuck community (current and alumni) are. It's hard for that not to stay prevalent in my thinking. I'm sure Johnson has a great community as well, but Tuck is known for it! I'm not sure if I would do the Cornell Tech stuff because it seems to be very FinTech focused (not my area of interest), but I'm sure it could help in some way (2)

anon43937 Likes Earned: 21 (OP again) Also extra thank you Graham (and Alex). I was featured on Wiretaps Episode 128 (profile #1) and it made me decide to apply to some extra M7s (Wharton and MIT). It didn't work out, but at least I know I tried! (2)

anon10646 Likes Earned: 783 Dartmorth likely doesn't come close, but let's say reasonable good case is somewhere between a 1/4 & 1/2 Cornell; how much do you rate Tuck network and other opportunities? Like think of it as someone who offered the Tuck network like a membership with a fee, how much would you think that fee would need to be for you to join and feel you got value? And while Tuck alumni is known for its network, think back to your undergraduate and your time since graduating, how much have you utilized it? Just to back sure you're not assigning value to something if you're only really paying for the option to use it. Then while Tuck may have opportunities, are you the type of person that you know will seek those out by yourself, while juggling first year and recruiting? It sounds like you really like Tuck and looking for reason to say yes, so if Tuck come close in funding, and you're going into a good paying field, you also need to consider if you'll be happier there even if it's not the 'logical' decision based on money. (1)

anon23101 Likes Earned: 78 hi! so I actually have a crazy similar story to you, and I'm hoping I can help you out a little. I don't want to tell you which school I think you should pick, but I can give you some more ideas about how I went about making my decision. For context, my situation was extremely similar: Park at Cornell vs. Tuck. A few differences: 1) my goal is MBB, 2) my original Tuck offer was higher than yours ($70k), and 3) my heart was set on Tuck since August, so my high emotional investment there definitely contributed to my priorities. First, I will tell you that you're not alone: a bunch of students make this EXACT choice every year--I actually spoke to 2 MBA students from my undergrad who were torn between Park/Cornell and Tuck. One took Park/Cornell, and one went to Tuck. So please feel secure in the knowledge that both of these choices are AWESOME and you will have an incredible time wherever you go. Second, I want to encourage you to set up a bunch of coffee chats with students if you haven't already. Yes, Tuck is "known" for a crazy close-knit culture, but that doesn't mean Cornell doesn't have one, too. I was actually really impressed and excited by how down-to-earth, generous, and friendly the Cornell students I spoke to were. I could really imagine myself being classmates with them, and was seriously considering accepting the offer before I heard back from Tuck. I also feel like Laura Georgianna is awesome and I would have loved to have her as a mentor for 2 years--I would definitely suggest setting up a call with her if you haven't yet. In terms of the career considerations, I don't have any good knowledge to advise you on tech. All I can say is that for me, that was definitely a consideration, but in the end I felt like Tuck and Cornell would offer me pretty similar career opportunities, so that freed me up to prioritize some other factors (mainly an emotional feeling of "fit"). Lastly, I did think about the academics - both programs have strong offerings, but with my non-traditional background, I liked idea of Tuck's robust core curriculum with a general management focus. At the end of the day I chose Tuck (clearly) but I truly think there is no wrong choice here. GOOD LUCK! (2)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1693 More details on this decision in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2021/04/episode-159-wire-taps/ (0)