Ask Veritas Prep Admissions Consulting

Hi,

There is another dilemma in the form of good news. I have been offered admission
to Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of management. Right now I do not have official bind envelope detailing everything but the application website has moved to accepted status and I have also received a request to join their Facebook group for class of 2014.
Surprisingly I have not received an official email of acceptance. So I do not know of any scholarship details that I might get.
The second case, I have also been offered an admission to SMU Cox school of business and they have provided me with 70% scholarship in tuition, which makes it quite compelling for an international candidate from India like me.
Briefly - GMAT - 710, exp 6yrs at matriculation at a US based IT MNC.My goals lie towards strategy consulting/ general management.

I thus again need your guidance here on two things:
1. Since SMU has offered me a generous scholarship/aid of ~70% in tuition, how much is it really worth to think of vanderbilt? (In my research, which is in progress, I saw that vanderbilt offers much more opportunities for consulting and has a better curriculum as well as community. Also their recent employment report seems to be quite good as 99% of students were offered internships. So it seems Vanderbilt is a better choice. But is it better without scholarship or small scholarship?).
2. I have heard that students have negotiated with the schools for scholarship citing that another competitive school has provided scholarship. How do we go about doing this in case I needed to take this step (which I hope not to)?.

I would really appreciate guidance!!
Thanks a lot!!
Passion

In a nutsell, the MBA lasts a lifetime, but the bill is soon paid off. Even if you get a job out of Owen that makes just 10% more in salary, you will effectively pay off the entire tuition bill in just 10 years time vs. Cox. Always go to the best school you can get into.

Thanks Brian.Good news has turned to better as Vandy gave me a better scholarship and that makes my decision easier.

Thanks for your input. Though I wanted to ask, ppl say if you want to work in US study in a US school, and i agree with that.But when it comes to school like IESE or HEC Paris, how do you think they measure up for US recruiters compared to say a Vandy MBA or any top 20 US MBA. ( Both schools are ranked better by FT worldwide).
Please do let me know.

thanks
Passion

Definitely better to do Vandy if staying in US mostly for one reason: the network is here. You will have virtually no network in the US with those Euro schools. You can't look at FT rankings and be thinking US schools. It's much more about Vandy's rep here vs. Euro school rep here. hands down, Vandy is the winner.