So you got in two schools - one that is ranked higher than the other, but the other one is in a bigger city. What to do now?!?! In my opinion, always and ALWAYS go with the location school unless you made it to the top 5-7 schools.
Lets say you want to work in internet/technology sector after graduation. And you made it to Duke and UT Austin. Duke is a higher ranked school than Austin, much higher. But if I were you, I would choose Austin. Here is why:
1. Ranking is just a number, it only goes so far. What matters is the number of companies willing to hire you. Austin is a tech hub now, and is growing rapidly. You will have a lot of local companies that will be looking for talent. They wont be amazon and microsoft, but will be great companies.
2. These companies will have a much better relationship with UT Austin that Duke. Many employees might just be alumni - BIG PLUS.
3. Many companies are willing to hire interns, but they want local interns so you can work for them during school too. I lost an internship because of this. This awesome company in Austin wanted to hire me but since I was not a local, they didn't. It was a horrible feeling.
4. Your networking during school will be industry relevant and actually helpful. I went to so many networking sessions at UNC, most of them useless for me. If I wanted to work in Finance or consulting, it would have been different.
Hope this helps. I welcome questions and comments.
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3 comments:
as usual a great post and very informative.
Keep em coming
thanks... any specific thing you want me to write about?
Anything on the portability factor. Lets take an example - A Duke's MBA has a better name than say UNC. In the long run would you say that entails better portability using the brand name moving places/countries.
UNC MBA may get a great job in and around that area but would it handicap one's chances to move around...
Just random thoughts. I think i could have phrased the question better....oh well.
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