How He Decided Among HBS, Stanford, Wharton & Booth

An enviable dilemma: Whether to go to HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton or Booth

John: You mentioned that a big factor in your decision was ultimately your meetings with students. Could you actually detect a difference between the students you met Stanford vs. Harvard? Or Wharton or Chicago?

Justin: I can’t speak as much about the students from Booth and Wharton; I did speak to a few, more so at Booth, [they were] very impressive as well. But as far as HBS vs Stanford, the folks I met during admit weekend on the Stanford side seemed to be a little more focused on outside interests and summer travel. They are smart, very bright people, obviously, but at HBS it seemed to be more business focused, more career focused, more talk about the academia. Maybe that was just the way that the admit weekend was structured at each school, but that was an interesting dynamic for me.

At all four schools, every student I met was very bright, very sharp.

John: And you get to attend a mock class, right? What was that like at Stanford vs. Harvard?

Justin:  At Stanford, my class was an entrepreneurship class; that was fun. There was a big tech focus—65% or 70% of the folks I met either had a background in tech or would like to go into tech and we more west-coast focused. Maybe at an HBS classroom you see a more well-rounded (for better or for worse) class, with students from various industries and backgrounds. That was my experience.

Betsy Massar, founder of Master Admissions

Betsy: So, here we are. You gave us some of the background of your experience, and now for our listeners and readers, I would like to ask you: Which school did you choose?

Justin: I’ve been telling everybody over the past few weeks that this was by far the toughest choice I’d ever made. Both of these schools—and all four of them—really were spectacular. The admit weekends were fantastic, everybody I spoke with was awesome.  But I am excited to say that I will be in the HBS class of 2019.

Betsy: Now that we know your decision, can you tell us the top two reasons that swayed your decision?

Justin: I would say number 1, I spoke with a so many Stanford students during admit weekend and on the phone, and it was just very west-coast focused, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But for me, coming from the east coast, and my network is from the east coast, it was valuable to gain that new perspective. Maybe five or 10 years down the road I would like to be on the east coast again, so for me it was important that there was a broad network up and down the coast, and not as many students were concentrated in one place.

Secondly, HBS was a bit more willing to work with me and to be more flexible from a financial aid perspective. For me that was important because that could give me more flexibility post-MBA to pursue various options.

I think ultimately it was a gut decision. I could just see myself on the Boston campus for two years.

Betsy:  John thought it was going to be HBS all along, and Naomi (podcast producer) guessed that it was going to be HBS, but what struck me when we talked the other day, was that it was a much harder decision than you had expected. Could you tell us a little more about why it was so hard? My sense is that you were leaning toward HBS, but now it sounds like you went back and forth a bit during the decision process.

Justin:  I can honestly say that it was very much back and forth over the past couple of months. It started with HBS and then fluctuated after talking to some people. It was a back and forth game; honestly, going to Palo Alto—now I know what you guys were saying when you say that there’s a reason everybody stays out there. It was 60 degrees and sunny every day. It was beautiful. Everybody was so nice out there. It was my first time seeing the Stanford campus, which was fantastic. So I can see why everybody loves Palo Alto and San Francisco.

For me there was a personalized feel at HBS. I was worried going in because there are a lot of people who say you get lost in that big class size.  Seeing for me that the staff and faculty and students were so down to earth. That was maybe what ultimately what pulled me towards that school. My gut—I felt a little bit better envisioning myself in Boston over the next couple of years. Everything about the visit was just fantastic. I’m really excited about the decision.

Betsy: Did your mother have a big influence on the ultimate decision, since you took her to Boston but you didn’t take her to Palo Alto?

Justin: I actually took my partner to Palo Alto, and she really enjoyed that.  My mom didn’t have a huge influence on the decision; she thought either school would be fantastic for me. She was a bit scared to pressure me one way or the other. She’s from the east coast as well and she loved the campus and Boston, but ultimately she wanted me to make my own decision.

Betsy: On the partner side, she’s not disappointed that she’s not going to get two sunny years in California?

Justin: She’s not. But now that I’ve been there I am interested in going back maybe some point down the road.  She’s very supportive so we’re excited about that.

John: Other than the visits and the conversations that you’ve had with current students, did you go through any spreadsheet analysis like plugging numbers, whether admissions stats or career and salary stats to help you compare the schools that you were accepted to?

Justin: I did not. I know that you have run articles on folks in the past who have focused on that. Personally, I did to a lot of self-analysis and a lot of research in the months leading up to the decision. To be honest, I probably thought too much about quantitative numbers in terms of post-MBA goals and that type of thing, but over the last week or two when I visited the schools I wanted to focus on where I envisioned myself over the two years. Betsy and I had talked about that some, and for me that was what became evident and most important over the last couple of weeks: where I see myself having the most fun and the most transformative experience. Both schools did a fantastic job. I think for me personally, that was HBS.

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