Hey toksavuln--
This is a very personal decision and it sorta sounds like you're looking for us to give you permission to go to Rutgers. You totally have permission to go to Rutgers!
Rutgers is a good school. It's just not nearly as good as NYU. You need to look at it in terms of your own personal ROI - this is something that nobody else can evaluate for you.
You're right that P/T programs have limited on-campus recruiting options. NYU in particular is quite restrictive (we covered some of this on our blog awhile back:
https://essaysnark.blocked/2010/07/ ... to-pt.html ). However the Langone program at Stern does have its own career services department, dedicated to the P/T students, and they host a few companies on campus through the year in recruiting events. So there are some opportunites, just not as many as the F/T students get. The logic, of course, is that the P/T guy already has a job and so why should the school take opportunities away from the F/T students for them? Also, at least in the past, many P/Ters were getting tuition covered by their employers, and those employers would get bent out of shape if they knew that their employees were getting wooed by the competitor while they were going through an MBA program that they were paying for.
Anyway. To try and answer your question:
You're going to have more opportunities coming out with an NYU MBA -- both in the near term, right after you graduate, as well as for the rest of your life. The alumni network is much bigger and stronger, and the reputation of the school is much higher, and that typically translates to more money and more potential.
But in ALL cases, it's what you make of it. You can get a very good education at many many schools - it's what you bring to the table and how you take advantage of it. It sounds like you've got valid reasons for wanting to go to Rutgers, but they are also rather short-term reasons. Theoretically, you'd make more money in a lifetime with the NYU MBA than the Rutgers one - but that's just in theory. Your own individual experience will vary based on the factors that only you control.
You might want to study the placement reports for both schools more if you haven't already done so - not sure what average starting salary is coming out of Rutgers but you can use that to evaluate the "value" of the Rutgers MBA, at least in a very imprecise and limited way.
Not sure we're helping here, but hopefully this at least gives you more to consider, and more confidence in making your decision!!
Best of luck,
EssaySnark
