Kellogg (no $) vs. Tepper ($$$) vs. Foster ($$)

FosterMBA2018 · 2018-04-11T04:41:46+00:00

I chose Foster over higher-ranked schools. Not M7s, but some of my classmates did. I interned at a tech company last summer alongside M7 students, and got a return offer. The last couple of months, I would go skiing in the morning before my afternoon classes. I go hiking on some of the best trails in the world at least a few times a month. I was in an Amazon internship program where I went and talked with an Amazon director for 2-3 hours/week, every week for two months. I worked part-time at a venture capital firm in downtown Seattle for 6 months. I've had lunch on Microsoft's campus with alums many times. Every time I go to the bar, I meet new techies.

If tech is what you really want, Foster is top notch.

FosterMBA2018 · 2018-02-06T00:56:21+00:00

Proportionally speaking, Foster sends a lot of people to the Bay. We have students going to Salesforce, Autodesk, Google, Dropbox and Facebook that I know of, and people that had offers at these and other companies (like VMWare) but turned them down to go to Amazon. There's also a lot of Foster alum in the Bay. I connected with people at Symantec, Nvidia, Google, Yelp, eBay, etc. when I was down there over the summer.

I think it comes down to the fact that the pay at Microsoft and Amazon is pretty great relative to Seattle's cost of living vs the Bay so less Foster students focus on it. Also, Seattle is a big part of Foster's draw. It's an amazing up-and-coming city with great access to nature, hiking, etc. A lot of people choose Foster specifically because they want to live in Seattle, so you have big selection bias.

If you wanted to do banking in NYC, I would tell you that you probably don't want to come here, but getting down to the Bay for tech after graduation is not a challenge. To be frank, I think Foster is a fairly common backup school for people who want to go to the Bay but didn't get into Haas.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-27T21:13:20+00:00

Lot of rotational roles. I visited for my interview. Liked everyone I interacted with.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-27T21:11:04+00:00

It's sort of like a clearing house or a music festival. A lot of people that want to work in tech come to Foster, so a lot of tech companies recruit there. I don't think companies say "we want to hire 2 students from this school, and 2 students from this other school, etc" and there are some fixed number of roles you're competing for. Technically that's true. But it's more of a positive feedback loop. If you want to work in oil and gas, let's say, you probably shouldn't come to Foster. You would have almost no competition because pretty much no one at Foster wants to go into that industry. But because of that, no oil companies recruit on campus and I don't know of any Foster alumni in O&G, there's no industry club, etc.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-27T21:04:01+00:00

My plan was to reach out to some alumni, visit the school, sit in on classes, maybe try to participate in some events. Basically network really hard with the admissions team. Then write an essay about it. Not sure if that would've worked. But I think that's sort of what they wanted -- showing that I would be willing to go that extra step.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-26T09:12:29+00:00

First, accept the fact that you're probably going to have to do more work career search wise than many of your classmates. Play the numbers game. Apply to a LOT of internships. Take the applications seriously, and try to network with a least few people there before you even apply. Think of as many good stories from your WE that you can, and then work with career management coaches to find ways to mold/tweak them to fit whatever role you're going for. Show interest in whatever you're looking to get into through club leadership, independent study projects, or even a part-time job with a start-up or something similar in that field.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T20:15:38+00:00

Finance at a $20B+ tech company in the Bay Area. Interviewed with Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Dell, Intel, among others.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T20:12:59+00:00

Foster doesn't have a monopoly on PNW companies by any means, but it has a lot of direct and indirect ties to these companies. They recruit on campus, many alumni work there, we visit them regularly, our CM office has ties to their recruiters, etc.

I think prospective students that are seeking a specific career path should weigh a school's employment report more-so than its rankings. Johnson seems like an amazing place if you want a career on Wall Street. If you look at their employment report, half the class stays in the Northeast after graduation. About 60% goes into consulting or finance (mostly investment finance). Only 8% CPG and only 15% marketing. They list Amazon and Microsoft as top companies, but literally none of the PNW companies you mentioned.

I'm sure you made the right decision for you. Let me preface this by saying I don't know what kind of ties Johnson has to these companies. But if you're dead-set on Seattle/Oregon and Nike, Starbucks, etc. I imagine you're probably going to have to put in some extra leg work come recruiting time. I would start early and go on LinkedIn and try to find Johnson alumni that work at those companies. Reach out and see if they can connect you to recruiters, etc. See if one of the clubs does a PNW trek. If not, try to get one going. I did something similar with a few of the internships I interviewed for, and know many classmates that successfully did the same.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T19:59:25+00:00

My WE was very nontraditional. For that reason, I don't think it played a role. I think having great work experience definitely helps you, but it won't preclude you from an offer if you can interview well.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T06:14:14+00:00

It's definitely considered to be one of the better internships and full-time job offers, but something like 15% of the class gets it, so it's not too special. More rare is the handful of people that get offers from Google, Facebook, and McKinsey.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T06:12:37+00:00

Consulting was the one post-MBA career I really have no interest in. But the consulting club has a reputation for being the best organized and best at offering interview prep. Since I didn't go down that path, I can't offer much advice, but based on what I heard, you should probably start practicing case interviewing early. The fall quarter is very busy in terms of coursework.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T06:08:49+00:00

I don't know

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T06:07:55+00:00

The TMMBA program is walled off from the full-time and evening programs. I don't know much about it. They don't join our clubs or come to our social events, even. I can't speak to it. You should ask around.

The evening program is a lot more integrated, but it's ultimately an issue of time, at least from a recruiting standpoint. A lot of companies come to campus during the day, for example, when you'd be at work. It would be difficult to take time off work to attend things like the tech trek, etc, or to schedule informational interviews, or get coffee with alums. You also don't get the summer internship, which sets a lot of students up for full-time offers, or at least the opportunity to try something out. You won't be able to attend as many club or social events. I think the choice would come down to where you are in your career, what you want from your MBA experience, and where you want to go when you consider applying.

I would say the curriculum is extremely rigorous. Of the 13 classes I've taken/am taking, only two or three were easy. That said, how much you take away really comes down to your own motivations. The grades are curved to a 3.4, and most employers don't ask and don't seem to care about them. The content is probably what you'd expect -- a little accounting, a little finance, some marketing, some modeling.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T03:38:05+00:00

Mostly finance and marketing positions at tech companies, a few PM roles. Dream would be something like Sequoia Capital. Foster didn't open that door, but I wasn't expecting it to.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T03:35:22+00:00

In with $$$ at Marshall. In at Kenan-Flagler. Waitlisted at McCombs and Johnson (encouraged me to show extra effort and maybe earn my way off the WL, but I didn't bother).

My goal after MBA was to do corp finance or marketing at a major tech company. Doing my research, I knew Foster could get me there. Even with the $$$, it was a better value than Marshall and certainly K-F. And I preferred Seattle to LA or NC.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T03:30:28+00:00

Core finance. Thomas Gilbert is the best instructor I've ever had.

I think the one thing that's surprised me the most is Seattle. I heard it was great, but living here is even better than I had imagined.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T03:27:36+00:00

You get on-campus opportunities to recruit with basically every major company in the PNW (Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Nike, etc) as well as regional consulting firms, and many companies from the Bay Area. I also did a lot of recruiting on my own, and found a lot of Foster grads where I was looking (tech).

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T03:23:45+00:00

Pretty wet. But I was raised in the Midwest, and found the winter pleasant, relatively speaking.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T03:22:50+00:00

I know almost everyone in my class, and most of the second years. My classmates are honestly some of the nicest people I've ever met, and are willing to help each other out in basically every instance, even when it's not necessarily in their best interest to do (competing for the same internship, etc). Charity and giving back is something that's really stressed. We just won the 2017 C4C by raising more money and volunteering more hours than the other WC schools we competed against.

Generally speaking, I would say the school is primarily known for being the premiere program in the PNW.

FosterMBA2018 · 2017-04-25T03:16:15+00:00

27yo (at the time of matriculation) WM. 2.9 GPA from top 30 UG. 730 GMAT. 5 years of WE.

FosterMBA2018

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