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I have been admitted to part time MBA programs from Wake Forest, Charlotte($$) and EMBA from UNC, Chapel Hill. In terms of culture and course curriculum both schools are a good fit for me.

I have 15+ years experience in IT industry. I hope MBA will help me further my career to senior executive role in tech industry. I am currently based out of Charlotte, NC and long term I intend to live in NC or south\southeast region in US.


The tuition difference between Wake Forest($65k) and UNC($105k) is significant. My dilemma is whether $40k difference worth UNC's brand recognition and larger alum network?

Any thoughts to help me decide will be greatly appreciated.

Hi there,
This is a very good question, and you have too look at various factors:
1. Brand name of both the schools overall and the program
2. The power of the network and the size of it

It is more difficult to compare the return on investment because there is limited information out there about career growth and compensation post EMBA. UNC EMBA is ranked as number 10, versus 20 for Wake Forest in the US News survey for EMBA, which is a large gap.
Since you've already been admitted, you can ask the schools to provide you with information they have about the compensation changes for their graduates, the worst case is that they say they don't have such data.

You should reach out and talk with current students and alumni of the programs. You want to hear about their experience leveraging the network and the qualify of the career services at each program.

Beyond the branding and ranking, don't you feel strongly about either program? did you visit the campus, sit in a class, went to another event? You need to evaluate which degree will give you more across experiences.

You also want to take the ranking and performance of the full-time program, as these will be your peers - UNC is ranking significally higher than Wake Forest. So your overall network of people in business is likely to be stronger and perform better.

I hope that this helps.
Best,
Yael, Admit1MBA
www.admit1mba.com

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Look at the companies that recruit at UNC vs. WF and what they pay. Do you want to work at any of those companies? If so, go with UNC.