MBA Wire Taps 426—Investment banker, 325 GRE. Argentinian Strategist. Booth vs Ross.

May 19, 2025 00:30:37
MBA Wire Taps 426—Investment banker, 325 GRE. Argentinian Strategist. Booth vs Ross.
Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast
MBA Wire Taps 426—Investment banker, 325 GRE. Argentinian Strategist. Booth vs Ross.

May 19 2025 | 00:30:37

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Hosted By

Graham Richmond Alex Brown

Show Notes

In this week's MBA Admissions podcast we began by discussing the Round 3 activity on LiveWire; interview invites and final decisions continue to roll out for this shortened application round; next week Chicago / Booth and Imperial Business School are scheduled to release final decisions.

Graham noted the Clear Admit promotion, where for every new entry we receive on DecisionWire, that maps out a candidate’s entire application journey, Clear Admit will donate $10 to the Forte Foundation.

Graham highlighted the remainder of Application Overview events series that will be hosted this week on Tuesday (Berkeley / Haas, UVA / Darden, Washington / Foster, UNC / Kenan Flagler, and Georgia Tech / Scheller) and Wednesday (Columbia, Stanford, UPenn / Wharton, Yale SOM, and Texas / Austin). Signups for those events are here: https://bit.ly/appoverview25 Graham also mentioned an event on Thursday for London Business School’s One Year MBA program. Signups are here: https://bit.ly/lbs1year

Graham noted a deep-dive analysis article on MBA tech career placements for the most recent graduating classes. Not surprisingly, Big Tech placement has dropped off at most top MBA programs.

Graham highlighted two Real Humans alumni spotlights, alums from Duke / Fuqua working at EY-Parthenon, and UCLA / Anderson working at Google.

Finally, Graham noted the recently recorded podcast featuring the leader of career services at Georgetown / McDonough, talking about the triple jump - changing industries, functions and geographies.

For this week, for the candidate profile review portion of the show, Alex selected two ApplyWire entries and one DecisionWire entry:

This week’s first MBA admissions candidate works in investment banking and is from Ghana. They have a 325 GRE score.

This week’s second MBA candidate is from Argentina and appears to have a very interesting profile, but their GRE score of 309 is going to be an issue. They plan to retake. We also think they should reconsider their school targeting.

The final MBA candidate is deciding between Chicago / Booth and Michigan / Ross, with scholarship.

This episode was recorded in Boston, USA and Cornwall, England. It was produced and engineered by the fabulous Dennis Crowley in Philadelphia, USA. Thanks to all of you who’ve been joining us and please remember to rate and review this show wherever you listen!

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:16] Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast. I'm Graham Richmond, and this is your Wiretaps for Monday, May 19, 2025. I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, how are things? [00:00:28] Speaker B: Very good, thank you, Graham. [00:00:29] Speaker A: So, Alex, you're a former admissions officer from Wharton and current ClearAdmit community manager and podcaster. And you're teaching digital marketing for Columbia Business School and London Business School. And for those tuning in who don't remember, I'm the co founder of Clear Admit. Also worked in admissions at Wharton, where I earned my mba. Alex, this is a crazy week on many levels for me. As you know, I'm in Boston getting ready for all the events that we have going on in town here. But what's been going on. I feel like this is a pretty important week, or, you know, last week, too, for Round three stuff, right? [00:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, last week, Round three does quite a lot of decision releases. This week is actually a bit quieter. I mean, last week we had Kellogg, Sloan, Columbia, Anderson, Yale, and a variety of other programs, but this week it's just Booth and Imperial Business School releasing decisions this upcoming week. But, yeah, we. We still have several weeks of sort of finishing up the final rounds type activity. [00:01:29] Speaker A: Okay. You know what's funny to me is it feels like despite this being a very compact round, which you've mentioned, the schools aren't always on the same page about when they run their Round three process. It seems like some schools are a little bit later, earlier, whereas they seem more in sync in the earlier rounds for one reason or another. [00:01:46] Speaker B: It's true. But I mean, several schools outside of probably the very top programs tend to have four rounds or even five rounds. So obviously they're sort of. That adds that sort of inconsistency in terms of when the deadlines start moving in different directions. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Right. Okay, that makes sense. The other thing that's going on is we're still trying to get folks to share their admissions journey on Decision Wire. I love Decision Wire. It's probably my favorite of all the wires, even though I know Livewire is the most popular. But Decisionwire is great because you can put in where you applied, where you got in, whether you got scholarship, a little bit about your background. It's such useful data for candidates to see over time and understand, you know, outcomes. And so we're still running this little promotion where every time someone posts an entry to Decision Wire to share their journey, we're giving $10 to Forte Foundation. So, you know, we're. We're running that. We're hopefully going to get a lot of those entries to support, you know, because ultimately it'll go to support women in management education. So that's fun. We're still running that. So if you haven't shared your journey on the website, please go ahead and do so and you'll be supporting a good cause. And we're also giving out some Amazon cards. I think every fifth entry also gets like an Amazon gift card or something. Yeah, trying to, trying to drum those up. [00:03:04] Speaker B: We obviously need those entries, but also I think it's great opportunity to support the Forte foundation. So. Yeah, really good. Really good. [00:03:13] Speaker A: Totally. So I talked about how I'm in Boston. Well, next week or this week when you're tuning in, it's another busy week for us with events. We have three virtual events. So on Tuesday I'm going to emcee a panel with Berkeley, Georgia Tech, UNC uva and University of Washington Foster. And then on Wednesday another panel that I'll emcee with Columbia Business school, Stanford, Wharton UT, Austin McCombs and Yale SOM. You can still sign up for these events. So if you're tuning in and you haven't yet signed up, please do so. Go to bit ly appoverview25. That's app overview 2 5. So that should be fun. Yeah. What are we going to say? [00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah. How many folks have you got signed up for these events, Graham? [00:03:58] Speaker A: You know, I haven't looked very recently, but I feel like that there's like hundreds and hundreds and I, I think I saw nine. Did I see 900 or a thousand for that? The event with Stanford and Wharton, I mean it's, it's really. Yeah, a lot of people are coming. [00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah, I, I haven't seen it lately, but that, that's impressive. But I remember the numbers last year. They were really strong numbers. So yeah, very, very well attended. But also super interesting webinars. I know that now, Graham, because I looked at the transcripts. [00:04:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we. Yeah, in fact we. Yeah, you should talk about this. Made a transcript of the first two panels. The virtual events that we did earlier this month with the likes of Harvard and who else joined us INSEAD LBs. We had a lot of schools earlier this month and we fed those transcripts into ChatGPT and had it kind of help us to sort of summarize a lot of the key salient points and things that schools were saying. Admissions tips. There were some great tips. I'm now remembering Duke. I mean all these schools were giving great advice at this early stage of the application process and then we fed that into our bot. Right. Is it live yet in the bot or. [00:05:02] Speaker B: No, they are live. [00:05:03] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay, so. So the Ask Clear Admit GPT that we built now knows what was said in the panels and. Yeah, so this is really cool. I cannot wait to. Yeah, we just keep building the brain here. But I totally forgot I said we're doing three events this week and I only mentioned two. The third event is a solo event that I'm going to sit down with the director admissions at London Business School as well as the program director for their new one year MBA program. And we're going to have a discussion about that. And I think anyone who signs up and comes to that gets an applic fee waiver. So if you're thinking of applying to LBS on the one year format, this is like a, you know, you gotta come and you can sign up at Bit Ly LBS one year. And the one is the number one not spelled out. So LBS one year sign up for that. Yeah, it's going to be another busy week. Just crazy. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Just to be so folks are aware, I believe you have to have had a master's degree in management to qualify for that program. Is that correct, Graeme? [00:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah, some kind of business master's degree, I believe. Yeah, that's how you get to accelerate because you can kind of skip the core, I think, and get right into the. The fun stuff. So yeah, so that's, that's on Thursday of this week. All these events by the way, are at noon Eastern. Should be fun. I. I would love to be able to tell you more about what happened last week in Boston, but recording this just before. So we'll have to wait until the next episode to report in on what our big in person fair was like. But stay tuned. I can't wait. [00:06:27] Speaker B: I think it's going to be fantastic. Well, anyway, I wish you all the best of luck. [00:06:33] Speaker A: On the website. We have a really cool article that Elliot has been working on that will be on the site by the time this podcast airs. And it's about tech placements and it's got all the usual stuff. We did these articles for consulting and for finance and so now we're digging into the tech jobs. And one of the things I wanted to share a stat. Elliot looked at what we would call big tech jobs. So he looked at Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft. Those are four bigger kind of employers in the tech domain. And there's a quote in the article, it says looking at the overall big tech job placement trend among MBA graduates from there. I guess there are seven programs, seven top programs that actually share this granular data. It says there was a 26% decline in big tech jobs accepted from the class of 23 to the class of 24. So there's been a noticeable decline in those tech jobs at the big big companies. So I don't know what you make of that, Alex, and whether you think that's here to stay. Is it, you know, is it AI driven? Is it they overhired in Covid and have backed off. What do you think's driving that? [00:07:36] Speaker B: I think it's both of those reasons. I mean, again, if you just read the business press over the last several months, you would be surprised if that wasn't the case. And yeah, AI is just emerging and obviously there are a variety of reasons why that might reduce the number of hires. But also like you say, doubling down over Covid is probably another. Another reason. [00:08:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, totally. So in any event, read the article. It's got a lot more detail than what I've shared here, but very interesting stuff. If you're thinking about tech and, and obviously, you know, schools, it's still like the third largest thing that schools are sending, largest domain that schools are sending candidates into. So it's not gone away by any stretch. And there's some schools, I think it's University of Washing Foster. That's not like 47% of their grads into tech. So look at the article and go through the data. It's really interesting. Other than that, Alex, before we talk about our candidates, I wanted to share just some. We're continuing to catch up with alumni and so some more of these real humans pieces. We caught up with Rashmi who is a Duke Fuqua grad from a couple years ago, MBA, I guess they graduated in 23 and they work as a consultant at EY Parthenon. This candidate or alum? Sorry, I'm so used to our wiretaps mode that I'm saying candidate. But they hail from Bengaluru, India and the undergraduate studies were in accounting and finance and had done some work as a consultant but in India before business school. And we asked why did you choose to attend business school? And I thought this was a really interesting and thoughtful response. So I'm going to share what Rashmi had to say. Here it is. Having grown up and studied in India, I wanted to attain a global classroom experience. In my role pre mba, I worked with several leaders of large multinational corporations and found myself wondering how I could get to the next level of leadership. I Found myself lacking some technical skills and competencies yet carrying the confidence to have valuable conversations. Hence it made sense for me to go back to school and bridge that gap, to feel ready to step into the shoes of a leader. So that was a kind of interesting point of view. [00:09:51] Speaker B: Yeah, no, very good. I think they could write the brochure for why get a top MBA in. [00:09:56] Speaker A: The U.S. yeah, no, and I sense, I mean, I really do feel in this instance there's sort of two things coming across. One is that kind of global nature of the classroom. Right. So if this person was in India and so, you know, getting that exposure and then. Yeah, you know, connecting the needed technical skills with the innate leadership ability and. Yeah, it just. Yeah, makes a lot of sense. [00:10:18] Speaker B: Yeah, perfect. [00:10:19] Speaker A: We also caught up with Deborah who works at Google. And Deborah attended UCLA. Anderson also graduated a couple years ago, back in 23, working currently as a program manager over at Google. Deborah is 31 years old, originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Had studied business administration as an undergrad and then had worked in a number of roles prior to business school. Some marketing work like CPG type marketing, but also a little bit of work in entertainment, hospitality. So a lot of different experiences before heading off to UCLA and now has been at Google for one and a half going on two years. And we asked why did you choose to attend business school? And you know, why Anderson, et cetera. So similar question to what we just went over with our Fuqua grad. And Deborah said that, you know, I pursued an MBA to gain the necessary business acumen and expand my international network. UCLA Anderson stood out for several key reasons. Firstly, its share, success, culture and the genuine connections I forged with alumni. One of my managers is an alum, indicated a collaborative environment where I knew I could thrive. Secondly, coming from a major city like Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, global hub status and vibrant entertainment industry offered the dynamism I needed. Ultimately, Anderson provided the ideal combination of academic rigor, supportive community and a strategic location to propel my career aspirations. So sounds like Deborah could write the book for UCLA too. Right? [00:11:53] Speaker B: I was going to say these, both of these folks are really good at promoting the, you know, these top tier MBA programs in terms of why they made that decision. But yeah, no, absolutely fantastic. Yeah. [00:12:05] Speaker A: And just so that our listeners know, like we don't, the schools don't give us this stuff. Like we, you know, we go to alumni and get, and give them this questionnaire that they fill out. So it's not like the marketing team over at UCLA wrote this or anything. Although I'M sure they're happy with it. [00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Very good. [00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So other than that, I just want to remind people that they can email [email protected] if they have any questions. Use the subject line Wiretaps. We've been pretty busy of late, but always try to write back. And if you don't hear from us, you can always nudge us again. But we love to hear from you, so please write and also remember to rate and review the show when you can. Other than that, there's one other thing. We have a podcast that came out last week that is all about careers. And I sat down with the head of career services at Georgetown, McDonough, and we talked about all kinds of fun stuff, including the triple jump when someone's changing geography, function and industry via an mba. And her name's Christy Murray. She's fantastic. Head of career services over at Georgetown. And just so many great insights in that interview about how to hit the ground running when you get to business school. So definitely tune in. You can find it wherever you're listening to this episode. Anything else, though, Alex, before we talk about our candidates this week? [00:13:17] Speaker B: Now let's kick on. [00:13:18] Speaker A: All right, so our first candidate. This is WireTaps Candidate number one comes from an apply wire entry that you've chosen, Alex. And they have seven schools on the target list. The schools are Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Northwestern, Kellogg, Stanford, Wharton, and UVA. They want to start school next fall. So 20, 20, 26. They've been working in investment banking and in credit analysis and post mba. They're thinking about banking or maybe private equity. They list a slew of companies that they're potentially interested in. It's basically all the banks and PE shops. So I won't go through the full list. They have a 325 on the GRE and a 3.5 undergraduate GPA, seven years of work experience. We believe that this candidate is located in Ghana and you had a little bit of an exchange with them. They have a finance background. They would love to be in New York when they're done with business school. And, you know, just really looking forward to kind of meeting, you know, kind of what we talked about, getting into that global classroom setting. They do mention that they play table tennis and that they also do some work with an NGO that helps to promote. I don't know what this is. They used an acronym SDG in rural communities. So maybe you know what that is, or we'll have to Google it while we're recording here, but that's Their background. What do you make of this candidate? [00:14:45] Speaker B: I did my research, Graham. [00:14:47] Speaker A: You did? Okay. [00:14:48] Speaker B: It's all about sustainability and those kinds of initiatives. Okay, so. So the NGO stuff sounds really good actually and sort of adds that layer to the overall profile. Right. I mean, we can assume perhaps they have a, a very decent banking career to date banking. But you can add that on as that layer to sort of help differentiate them from other really strong candidates with really strong analytical skills and investment banking experience. So I really like that. I think one of the key aspects of this candidacy overall is they want to be in New York City right post mba, the heart of finance in the United States. That's really where the action is, etc. Etc. I suppose. I mean, even around the world. So I would look at their target list of schools and certainly include Stern, possibly you mentioned before, Johnson too, and to sort of complement the programs are already looking at. So I would make that sort of addition to their, to their overall sort of list of target schools. Their numbers are decent. They don't really jump off the page. You know, 325 GRE is going to be around the median of sort of, I'd say top 16, some of the M7. At the very top of the M7, it's going to be a little bit lower than the median. I mean, you know, even schools like Yale are about 330 at this point. So. So you know, their test score is not, not going to allow them to stand out. I mean, the GPA is decent too. But you know, if, if they can show that sort of impact and growth at work, complement it with some really interesting sort of NGO experience. Yeah, they seem like a very, very decent candidate, Graham. Yeah, but, but yeah, just add these other programs to the list possibly. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, I agree. I mean, I. So just while we were talking here, I looked it up. So SDG 4, which is what they mentioned is Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is all about education. So it's this idea that you really want to ensure INCL and equitable quality education for all. Right. So that's what their focus is with their kind of NGO and outside of work. And I agree that adds such a nice piece to their profile as a finance person, banker, etc. But yeah, when I looked at this profile I said the same thing as you, which is like, okay, they want to be in New York and they're interested in banking, maybe private equity. It would behoove them to take a very long look at NYU Stern and Cornell Johnson and maybe think more carefully about the sort of target school list here because I think it, it runs a little towards the sort of M7 and you know, their numbers as you say, are good but not jumping off the page. So I think it would be smart to cast a slightly wider net and to think very strategically. I mean, they have some schools on their list that are not in the, you know, New York or northeast and if they're trying to land in New York, we know regionality matters. [00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:02] Speaker A: So in any event, just some things for them to consider. [00:18:04] Speaker B: Yeah, very good. [00:18:05] Speaker A: All right, excellent. Let's move on. I want to thank them for their, for sharing their post but let's move on and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number two. So our second candidate this week is also looking to start school in the fall of 26. And you've picked this from an apply wire entry and they have five schools on the target list and those schools are Dartmouth, Emory, heck, insead and UT Austin. McCombs, this person's been working in consulting. They're interested in tech after business school and they mentioned targeting Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, etc. They have a 309 on the GRE. I believe they're planning to retake that. They have a 3.7 undergraduate GPA, five years of work experience. This Canada is located in Argentina and I believe they are Argentinian. They want to, you know, obviously land in the States, they say and they want to work ideally in corporate strategy, internal consulting or product within one of these tech companies. Now you were quick, Alex, to point out that that 309 on the GRE GRE might be a bit of an issue and they did mention they're going to retake it. And they also shared with you that they work with a global NGO and that they also founded a community to share job opportunities and offer free resume building advice. They do something called Teach for all. They give workshops I guess for that in Argentina. So what do you make of this candidacy? [00:19:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean again I like this candidate in as much as the NGO stuff. The outside of work activity looks really strong and again we need to make some assumptions about the quality of their work. But if they can show impact and growth and so forth, I think that'll be very good. Nice GPA. Obviously at 3.75 years of experience, the 309 GRE, I think they recognize that that's a huge potential red flag if they could come back with a 329 GRE. I mean obviously that's a huge uplift. But then that puts this candidate Possibly in the realms of sort of M7 type, certainly top 16 profile. So this GRE retake is going to be super important. If I was them, I would have enough time to even retake the, the test a third time if necessary and so forth and just really go in heavy on prepping and prepping and driving that score up to the extent that they can. Because you know, I'm a little bit puzzled with their overall school selection strategy. They want to be in the US post MBA, so they really need to be targeting US programs singularly. So they've got to goizada McCombs on there. But with a stronger GRE score, they could be looking at more top 16 and again, maybe even an M7 in there. [00:21:11] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, it's funny, when I looked at this list of schools, I had the same thought. You know, I was sort of, okay, they have a range of sort of top 10 to top 20 or so US programs and then they have HEC and INSEAD. But they say in the notes that they want to work in the United States. And I'm trying to figure out why someone from Argentina goes to France to get an MBA to then try to work in the United States. It's not exactly a kind of logical path for me. So if they're dead set on working and living in America, they probably should apply to US programs because it's not like they're American leaving the US to go spend a year or two abroad and then would be returning. This person needs to find a way to enter the US market, job market. And, and the best way to do that would be from within a U.S. program, not to mention the visa. I mean, I imagine if you go and do an MBA, you know, at HEC or INSEAD and then you want to go work in the U.S. you're not eligible for STEM, OPT or any of that stuff. You didn't go to school in the U.S. right. So yeah, it just, it's a little puzzling to me. And I agree. If they can get that test score up even to the sort of 320 plus plus range. Yeah. That they, they could apply to a range of, you know, top 16 or top 20 type programs, including some very top schools. So, and I, I would say out of Argentina and Latin America in general, you know, that the testing, it's, it's not, there's not a tradition of testing in those markets. And so the schools know that and so they don't need to hit it out of the ballpark. They do have a 3.7 GPA. Right. So they just need to get kind of in spinning distance. The problem is right now 309 is not, not in range. Right. It's just low. So that's my take. But I. Yeah, I think they need to. Do you have any sense of like. Okay, let's imagine that they go with a us only strategy for their target schools. What schools do you think they should be at? And given that, you know, they want to work in tack. [00:22:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, again, I, I would target top 16 and throw in one or two M7, depending on where that GRE score comes in, if it hits that 320 threshold. [00:23:08] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:09] Speaker B: Absolutely. For sure. So Sloan. I'd put Sloan in there, maybe as my M7 or Kellogg, you know, as an M7. And then I would, you know, perhaps look at Hass and, and, and so forth and, and just one or two others. Yeah, the other, the other thing to keep in mind is whilst, you know, we, we speculate, our first candidates from Ghana and, you know, and so forth, and, and, and this candidate's from Argentina. I would say out of those two countries, Argentina is MBA programs in the United States. So, you know, they have that to their advantage too, in terms of bringing in a little bit more geographic diversity to the classroom and the conversation. So, yeah, I mean, if they could go all in on this gre, and obviously their work experience has to be strong. I mean, we're speculating there a little bit. But if they can go all in and fix this gre, I would be a little bit more ambitious and a lot more focused on that school selection. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. So. And I just want to. I know we talked about it earlier, but I would say, you know, if they're looking, you talked about schools and, you know, we'll see where the test lands. Right. That's going to be somewhat important. But they also might look at University of Washington Foster, like if they want to go work at Microsoft or, you know, or Amazon. I mean, that's, you know, right there. And we mentioned earlier that the school's placing a lot of people in that domain. So in any event. Yeah, it's an interesting profile and I'm really glad you underlined the difference between Argentina and, say, Ghana, which, you know, just far fewer Argentinians in the admissions process, so that you. Kind of. A little bit of an advantage there. Yeah. Excellent. All right, I want to thank them for sharing their profile. Let's move on, though, and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number three. So our final candidate this week comes from a decision Wire entry, as we've been doing for the last several weeks. And this person, I'll give you the kind of background they applied to you. University of Chicago, Booth. They applied to Duke, Michigan, Ross and Kellogg. And they ended up with a couple of offers, right? They got into Booth and they got into Ross. And Booth didn't give them any money, but Ross is offering them $120,000 scholarship over the course of this year. MBA. They want to work in consulting after business school. Although they also mentioned consumer goods or maybe even automotive. So they have a range, range of possibilities. They, they mentioned, you know, both kind of the McKinsey, Bain BCG kind of crowd. But they also mentioned Accenture and Kearney and Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, etc. So sounds like consulting is the short term plan. And then maybe something into the consumer goods domain. After they had a 725 on the GMAT Focus Edition. Very good score. 3.5 GPA from undergrad. They talked about how they'd worked in corporate finance before business school. They're a domestic applicant. They currently live and work in the Midwest. And they also did say that they have a strong preference for landing in Chicago after business school. They're not entirely opposed to living elsewhere in the Midwest or East coast, but their first choice is Chicago. And they say that. Here's the direct quote. I'm torn between ROI versus Prestige. Booth would require all loans. Is it worth it for the network and brand? And it so happens, Alex, that you, Elliot, on our team, and our famous anonymous poster who always gives great advice on decision wire entries, all weighed in and you all had something similar to say. Do you want to share your thoughts on this? [00:26:51] Speaker B: Sure. But I'll throw a question back at you, Graham. If you go to Ross and you have a 725 GMAT I. E. You're probably close to the top of the class at Ross. Do you have access to MBB in Chicago? [00:27:06] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I would think so. I mean, I think, you know, the numbers bear it out. [00:27:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that, that, to me, that answers the question, right? You know, Ross is a very good program for consulting. Yes, Booth does have the prestige there in that top tier versus Ross in the next tier down or whatever, you know, however you want to organize your tiers, we. We do get that. But this, this scholarship is very significant, I would think. And given their goals, wanting to be in the Midwest, wanting to work in consulting, not going MBB or bust, et cetera, et cetera. I just think this is a case where actually the school in the tier a little bit lower makes absolute sense. And Ross will provide them a load of resources and access to execute on what they want to do. [00:28:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I tend to. I mean, I think that, you know, look, Ross and Booth are both really wonderful programs. I think there's even some similarities in terms of, you know, they're just super strong networks in the Midwest. They're close knit. I mean, there's a lot of things that people say about both programs, but I feel like that the gap, as you say in scholarship is really wide. I mean, actually, this is almost surprisingly wide. Like, I think that, you know, yes, Booth is in a higher tier, but, you know, you would expect to see something like, oh, Booth gave me 40, Michigan's Gimme 120, or Booth gave me 60, you know, or something. But there's nothing. And so that's. And it's hard to negotiate off of nothing. [00:28:40] Speaker B: They can literally pay themselves a thousand dollars a week. [00:28:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:28:44] Speaker B: And go to Ross. [00:28:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So it, I think, and, and the fact that they say, you know, MBB or tier two consulting firms. [00:28:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:53] Speaker A: Or automotive or. I mean, they have all these potential options and they want to be in the Midwest. So I think, you know, look, University of Michigan is not to be underestimated in the. Particularly in that region of the United States. So, yeah, I, I think this is, there's a big difference. It's $120,000. This is not $10,000. [00:29:11] Speaker B: So I. Yeah, yeah, I usually do lean to the higher tiered school because I recognize the quality of the experience in the classroom. Your classmates, et cetera, et cetera, does elevate the experience, but not for 120,000 in, in this case. [00:29:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree, agree. So hopefully that helps as they try to make their decision. But, yeah, I mean, congratulations to them. Obviously, it's no small feat to land $120,000 scholarship at a top school like Ross, so. But yeah, they're going to be fine wherever they go. And, and their goals seem very attainable from either program. So I think things point towards, you know, follow the money a little bit on this one. Yeah. All right, so thanks for picking these three candidates out, as always, Alex. I'll be back next week if you're willing, and I'll give you a full report on how everything goes with our big NBA fair in Boston. And yeah, lots of fun stuff coming up this week with the events. And so stay tuned, everyone. And Alex, if you're willing, we'll get together in a week's time. [00:30:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Best of luck in Boston last week, Graham. I hope it was a great success. Very good. Take care. Everyone stay safe. It.

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