Undecided - 05-11-2024 | Clear Admit DecisionWire

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May 10, 2024 4:31pm ET

Enrolled: Undecided

Admitted: Cambridge / Judge $

£10000

, Carnegie Mellon / Tepper $

$100000

, Duke / Fuqua , Georgetown / McDonough , London Business School , USC / Marshall

Applied: Cambridge / Judge, Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Duke / Fuqua, Georgetown / McDonough, London Business School, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, USC / Marshall

Entering Year: 2024

Post MBA Career: Consulting, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Family Business, Entrepreneurship Companies: Bain, BCG, McKinsey, Other, Bain Capital, Blackstone, Carlyle Group

GRE: 317

GPA: 3.87

Location: Utah, USA

Notes:

Just got off Fuqua waitlist today. Really between LBS and Fuqua. Many pros and cons to both, I am open to staying in Europe after MBA for a while but want to come back to US at some point. I think London offers a lot of advantages compared to Durham. Seems from comparing employment reports that LBS does better at MBB and think PE is possible.

Like (2)

Show Comments (4) Last: July 2, 2024

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 Very interesting choice to make. Fuqua would be the less “risky” option, I’d think, especially for the longer term in the US. LBS could potentially open up quite different options and experiences, in the shorter term. London is amazing (personal bias). (1)

anon10646 Likes Earned: 783 I'm also quite biased to London. Particularly if you have not had international working experience (or at least type of work given location is Utah and possibility of LDS), London is the perfect setting to gain some exposure coming from the US since it's still quite an international setting, but will be a relatively easy living adjustment. Of course that is going to be different experience to a more campus-based and collegiate feel you'd get in Durham which can provide a more cohesive cohort (less likely anyone already lives by Duke, you have school-wide social events like sports everyone can attend, all the MBA live in same complexes) and a chance to take a break from city-life that you'll likely be in for many years post-MBA. Re: the employment reports you also have to view LBS differently than you would Fuqua's given the cohort composition and post-MBA locations against your profile. 'Nearly 2% of Duke MBA full-time positions were outside the U.S.' so you can assume the nearly all of Fuqua's MBB chances are US offices (likely offices you would work in based on your location/desire to return to US indicating US background/citizenship). For LBS, how many of those MBB numbers are for offices in international locations which may not be likely for you for a variety of reasons. The LBS employment report notes for those from North America pre-MBA who switched location post-MBA, they nearly entirely either went to another N.America location or UK. So remaining in Europe post-MBA, UK is overwhelming likely and UK is 55% of all LBS placement opportunities (not MBB specifically, but thought process). Additional language skills could help open some non-English locations, but you'd still need to factor a lower total number. For PE you also need to factor many of these candidates were London-based IB analysts or M&A focused MBB pre-MBA. Looking at some of the PE-focused names on the employment report (CVC - European MF PE, Actis - infra/RE, Alchemy - Distressed/Special Situation) are technical heavy and would be difficult entries without certain profiles. There should be some LMM/MM or PE Ops roles which would be less strict, but if you're career switching and may need an IB role to attempt to bridge to PE, post-MBA associate is a less common role in the UK/EU than it is in USA where MBA is more common and 50%+ of global IB fee generation. Not to dissuade you from LBS as there is still plenty of advantages as you note and may be better choice still, just context points to consider. (2)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1676 More details on this decision in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2024/05/mba-wire-taps-354/ (0)

eliot Verified User. Likes Earned: 1899 I am just following up to see if you have made a decision about where you will be attending. If so, feel free to post your final decision. (0)