Latest / Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast / MBA Wire Taps 329—Low GPA, how to mitigate? Medical school drop-out. Goizueta versus Darden

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MBA Wire Taps 329—Low GPA, how to mitigate? Medical school drop-out. Goizueta versus Darden · Clear Admit MBA Admissions Podcast

0:15
Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Admit MBA Admissions podcast. I'm Graham Richmond, and this is your wiretaps for Monday, December 25, 2023. For more than 100 years years, Emory University's Guisueta business school has been a training ground for principal leaders and a laboratory for powerful insights. Whether you're looking to accelerate your career or make a career pivot, Emory's one year and two year full time MBA programs prepare you for a lifetime of career confidence. Learn more about Emory's top 20 MBA with top five career outcomes, offering world class academics and small by design classes delivered in a dynamic global city. More at Emory biz slash clearadmit, I'm joined by Alex Brown from Cornwall, England. Alex, merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas to you, Graham, and to all of our listeners who might be celebrating. What on earth are you doing listening to this today? If you're listening when it's published, but there you go. Alex, what do you think? What's been going on? And why might someone want to be listening right now?
1:18
Speaker B: Yeah, just to be clear, we're not recording on Christmas Day.
1:21
Speaker A: No.
1:22
Speaker B: So it is a few days ahead of Christmas right now, but, yeah, sorry, what was your question? I just wanted to clarify that.
1:30
Speaker A: Yeah, no, I just wanted to know whether talk a little bit about what people could be doing in this time, because this is actually a pretty important time. Aside from celebrating a holiday with family and stuff, this is that critical window between Christmas and New Year's where a lot of people have maybe less work. And so it's not a bad time, right, to work on apps.
1:48
Speaker B: It's not a bad time unless you're a turkey because you should be eating Christmas dinner.
1:53
Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, absolutely.
1:55
Speaker B: But, yeah, I mean, obviously on a more serious note, round two applications come thick and fast, January 3 fourth and then subsequent days from there. So lots of prep for sort of tightening up those essays a little bit. Hopefully you've already nudged and dealt with your recommenders at this point. You're not harassing them over the holiday period. Yeah, but, yeah, this is a time for just making sure all your ducks in a row and get those applications in front of the MBA committees, which will be returning directly after the holidays. Ready for round two?
2:39
Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. And I do think that kind of that time of year, I guess on some levels, people might be tuning in just to get a little bit of an escape from. Maybe they're out for a run or whatever, getting a little bit of an escape from all the family that might be celebrating and staying in their homes or whatever. But yeah, no, it is a busy time and we've got all these deadlines coming up. I'm still hoping, because we are recording this a couple of days ahead of Christmas. I'm hoping that we wake up to some reviews of the podcast on Christmas morning, or maybe some emails of people telling us that they like the show we'll see. Alex, so far I haven't seen anything, but I'm sure people are just working on it.
3:14
Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
3:16
Speaker A: And we've got some events coming up. We've got, on January 3, cleared MIT plus monthly webinar. That's just with you and me, Alex. And we'll take questions, do kind of office hours, as well as discuss all the key stuff that you would be wanting to think about as we'll be in the thick of the round two applications, those webinars, you do have to sign up for them, but they are free if you're a registered user on clearadmit.com. So you can just go to clearadmit. If you're registered, go to clear admit plus and you'll see the sign up for the webinar. If you're not registered, it'll take you 2 seconds to register and find the link. So join us. That's at noon Eastern on January 3. Then on January 9, we're doing an event with Carnegie Mellon Tepper about their masters in business analytics. So this is for people who are into the numbers. That event that was just announced. I know I hadn't mentioned that before. It's kind of just come onto the calendar. So if you're interested in an MS in business analytics, go to CMU analytics and you can sign up to join us for that event. All the details are on the site. And then later in the month, we've got our real humans event, which is going to be on January 24 from eight to 09:00 p.m.. Eastern. And you can sign up for that by going to bit le real humans, all lowercase, all one word. That event will be. Usually we have. I got to look at the list. I don't know if Vic and Mike on our team have shared that yet, but usually there'll be like anywhere from four to five current students or recent grads from the very best MBA programs. I think they did tell us in a meeting last week that we already have tuck and maybe was it. I can't remember if it was Stern or do you remember there was somebody from Georgetown? Anyway, there's a handful of students and recent grads who are going to be talking about their experience. So those events are usually fun. You can sign up.
5:04
Speaker B: Yeah, I think you're right. Toc Stern and George.
5:07
Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. Right. And there'll be more. I think there's actually, that was just the preliminary list. I think there'll be a couple more students joining us for that. Then in February we have like a whole bunch of events. I'm not going to get into all the details, but I will tell you that we're doing events all around, deferred enrollment or masters in management. So these are events for the younger kind of college aged crowd. And we've got some amazing schools joining us. Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, Yale, Kellogg, Booth. I mean, the list goes on. So stay tuned for more information about that in the coming weeks. But that's something that you'll see from us in February. Alex, I got a couple of news items and then I really want to talk about this week's candidates because you picked out some pretty interesting cases as well as an undecided decision wire entry that we'll talk through. But before we do that, I wanted to mention Chicago. Booth made a big announcement last week, and that was that they are launching a master's in finance degree. So again, this is like a pre experience program. It's going to be starting in the fall of 24. So they're accepting applications now this winter and spring for people to start in the fall. I believe it's a one year degree. All the details are on our website. We did an article about that and obviously on the booth site there's even more. So that's kind of, you know, this is the second pre experience specialized masters that Booth has launched within the year. Right. They did the master's in management. They announced, and now they have a master's in finance. And they're not the first. I mean, there are a lot of schools that have these programs, but it does seem like there's a bit of a groundswell in the US for some of these specialized masters.
6:38
Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it is a trend that we need to keep our eye on, certainly. I think Europe and you're more familiar with this is a little bit more sort of grounded in this area. Yeah, definitely. But yeah, this is an interesting trend and it potentially can cannibalize the top MBA program marketplace. So it'll be interesting to see how it develops.
7:04
Speaker A: Yeah, you make a good point. I think we'll just have to see how this all shakes out. I mean, in some instances, these schools are very specifically saying these programs, these pre experience programs are for people who are not business undergrads or kind of people from the liberal arts to give them a year of kind of quick training to put them out into the workforce at a level that they wouldn't be able to obtain otherwise, and that those same individuals can then return and get an MBA later in their career within a few years or something. So I don't know. We'll have to see.
7:33
Speaker B: Yeah, but is the value proposition of the MBA as strong when someone's already done one of these programs?
7:40
Speaker A: I guess that's my point, and I think that time will tell. But you're making a very good point because I think you're right. The value proposition will be different anyway. We'll see how that shakes out. But congrats to booth for launching that master's in finance. On the website, we did run an admissions tip, actually two. The first one was a great question, an age old question, and we'll talk about this in the decision wire discussion we have a little bit later in the episode. But the question is, should scholarship money impact your choice of, you know, the answer to that is, you got to read the admissions tip. But I think in some instances it can impact your choice, and we'll get into that a little bit later. The other one though, Alex, that we did, and it's kind of related, is there's an admissions tip up on the site about how do you choose between schools? So even money aside, although money is a factor, but there are many other factors that go into making a selection. And so both of these tips, I think are great for people who know results in hand from round one and are kind of thinking it through. So check those out if you're in that boat. Alex, we also ran a bunch of still, I think Lauren on our team, who's our editor in chief, she said we're getting towards the end of the real Human students series for this year, but she rolled three of them out this past week. So we have the Ohio State University, that's the Fisher school, caught up with six students there. We also caught up with six Dartmouth Tuck students and another six students from Washington Foster out in Seattle. So really good profiles. Students giving you great kind of from the horse's mouth advice. Just everything you'd want to know if you were looking at these programs, from admissions advice to what it's like to be a first year student. So please read those if you're interested in those programs. And then I only have one more thing, Alex, that I thought would be interesting to you, and that is that we ran a piece for. It was last Friday, I guess for Fridays from the front line, where we heard from a current Duke Fuqua MBA student. His name is Kevin Beal. And the whole article, he wrote this amazing piece for our website about his journey from being kind of interested in shaping a greener future to being positioned to actually make a real impact in the space. And so he just walks through all the different things he did while at Fuqua to get himself involved in the kind of decarbonization movement and so kind of dovetails nicely with the sustainability pieces we've been running. And so just interesting to see how he used his experience at Fuqua to basically dive into an entirely new field for him.
10:10
Speaker B: Yeah, no, absolutely brilliant. We need more people like, yeah, it'd be interesting to see how it resonates with the sustainability piece from Fuqua. I love Friday from the front lines. That's one of our oldest columns. Folks won't know this, but we started that column prior to the social media explosion because everybody was blogging back then. Right. And we would follow some of the more interesting MBA admissions bloggers and get them to contribute to us on Fridays.
10:46
Speaker A: Yeah, that was a lot of fun, actually. And we even have the best blogging competition and everything. But, yeah, the boy, the world has moved, and we're moving with it.
10:54
Speaker B: We're still doing Fridays in the front line, so we are reliable.
10:58
Speaker A: That's true. So I guess before we get into the candidates, if people want to send.
11:03
Speaker B: All right, quick quiz for you.
11:05
Speaker A: Oh, go ahead.
11:06
Speaker B: Who was.
11:08
Speaker A: Oh. Oh, yeah. Tad Holby was, I think, one of the first bloggers to kind of chronicle his experience of applying to business school. Is that. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's going way back. Yeah, those were the days where everyone had a blog and they would just talk about their process in any event. Yeah. So Friday Smith Rotline originally comes from that, and we now mostly work with current students at schools who want to write a column for the site. So if you are listening and you happen to be in that boat or want to be someday, you can always reach out to us and write columns for the site. Alex, I just want to remind people they can send their Christmas letters, reviews, whatever, to info@clearedmit.com use the subject line wiretaps. They can also post reviews and ratings on Spotify or Apple. Spotify's just ratings for now, but you can leave comments on episodes if you would like. And then Apple obviously does allow you to write reviews, which we love to see helps other people to discover the show. So please do that and spread the word. Other than that, Alex, I know you picked out some candidates for this week, and I'm happy to dive in and talk about them.
12:11
Speaker B: Let's kick on.
12:12
Speaker A: All right, so this is wiretaps candidate number one. So our first candidate this week has seven schools on the target list, and those schools are Cornell, Duke, Michigan, Kellogg, Notre Dame, USC, and UT Austin. And they want to start school in the fall. So 2024. They are working in consulting now and they're thinking about getting into either consulting or maybe VC, PE, or even entrepreneurship. I think in the very near term it's more of a consulting focus because the companies they listed were like Accenture, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, McKinsey, PwC, although they did mention a couple of PE shops like Bain Capital, Blackstone. So I don't know, I guess they're still figuring it out. Gre score is a 322 and their GPA is a 2.98. They have three years of work experience located in Dallas, and they would love to land in either Chicago, Dallas or the Pacific Northwest after business school. Now, they did leave us a note in which they said, I would love some insight on my profile, so hopefully they're tuned in to get this real time kind of live insight. But they did say that they're soon to be a third year consultant at a mid tier firm. So I presume that just means not MBB and that they're focusing on supply chain strategy. Their goal is to pivot into more acquisition or product strategy. After the MBA, they mentioned that they studied industrial engineering at a top ten undergrad engineering program in the US, but they never quite aced the classroom during the COVID era and they dealt with some family challenges. So they're shooting to apply. Oh, actually. So you know what? They're shooting to apply in the early decision round or round one in the fall of 24. So when they. I think they mistyped on their intake year, so they have a little bit of time before they apply. And they also mentioned that they are thinking of retaking the GRE if necessary. So, Alex, I'll let you take it from here. What do you make of this candidacy? And they have several months, so they can probably take our advice to.
14:18
Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, like you say, they're applying next season, so they've got some time to make any adjustments that might be necessary. And yeah, they graduated during COVID it looks like, and that sort of wreaked havoc with lots of folks, no doubt through their undergraduate experience and such. But nevertheless, they've clearly identified the weakest aspect of their profile, which is that GPA. And they have time now to think about, all right, what's the best strategy to mitigate that weakness? And for me, it's quite straightforward. Their GRE is okay, it's not outstanding. So if they could shift the needle on the GRE a little bit, that would be helpful. Right. Because ADcom is going to look at the GRE, GMAT, whatever, within the context of the GPA, GPA within the context of the test score. So they can help each other, is my point. If they come back with a stronger GRE, that will help. I also suggested that they might take some other steps in this regard. So doing either GMAX business fundamentals or MBA math, HBS core or something of that equivalent, so that they can show that they have the dedication now to their academics and that they're prepared to do well, and it will also help them ease them into that first year of their MBA program. So I think if they do both these things, that will help them maximize their opportunities for starting the following year. Now, I don't think they're being overly ambitious with their list of target schools. I like their list of target schools because it's a bit of a mix. They got one m seven, a couple of top 16s, top twenty s, and even one or two outside of that. So I think that's good. They've got a nice spread there. They might want to add Washington Foster because they got Pacific Northwest as a potential post NBA location. It looks like their actual work experience is probably decent and they reckon that they're going to get really strong. So it seems to me like this is someone that's really now hit the ground running and doing well at work. They've taken on some additional initiatives at work and so forth. So that should be probably the strongest element of their profile outside of work. They volunteered at children's hospital. I would try to ratchet that up a little bit more. Obviously, it would be interesting to add why volunteering at the children's hospital is important to them versus myriad other things that they could be doing, but presumably there's a trigger for that type of activity. But overall, Graham, I think there are certain things that they can and should do, and it's quite clear, and hopefully that gives them increased opportunities for next season.
17:27
Speaker A: Yeah, I want to talk about one thing because I think you've summarized this really well. First of all, whenever you're applying to a top school with a sub 3.0 gpA, it's going to be an uphill road. But they do have a wide list of school targets, which makes that maybe a little bit easier, I think. Yeah, retaking the test. My view is, if you have a low GPA, you got to have an outsized kind of test result to balance it. And the one thing I wanted to ask you about, though, is you recommended. And they were talking about, oh, I might take GMAX business fundamentals. And they said that. What did they say? They said, I'm seriously considering taking GMAX business fundamentals, but I was concerned about it simply coming off as being for show in my application. So what do you say to that?
18:13
Speaker B: That's what it's for. For show. It's basically, they're there. It shows a level of self awareness that you recognize that there's more stuff that you can be doing to improve that part of your profile. So in that regard, yeah, it's a little bit for show, but hopefully you also learn some stuff through the business fundamentals program. But effectively, you're trying to show the ADCOM, not tell, but show the ADCOM that you are committed to the academics as well as prepared to thrive in the academic environment. So however you can do that, that's what you need to do.
18:51
Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. And I do not think this is not like signing up for an extracurricular activity a month before you apply to business school where you're trying to show that you have outside activities. No, I mean, this is legitimate, like taking the business fundamentals course or MBA math or any of the other things that are out there that would really achieve the same goal is a really great thing to do. And I don't think there's anyone on the committee. I've never heard an admissions officer saying, oh, yeah, they just did that to try to convince us to look the other way in their GPA. Well, yeah, of course that's what they're doing. That's expected. So I think they need to do that, and I think they need to study for the GRE and ideally get a really good score, because that will change the calculus of their chances, I suspect. But otherwise, yeah, work experience is good. As you said, volunteer work sounds interesting. They can ratchet that up at the children's hospital and, yeah, I think everything else kind of lines up, but they've got to address the elephant in the room, which is that GPA.
19:49
Speaker B: Yeah.
19:50
Speaker A: All right. Well, I want to thank them for submitting that entry. Hopefully they've tuned in to hear our advice there. Let's move on, though, and talk about wiretaps. Candidate number two. So our second candidate for this week has a whopping 13 schools, or I should say lucky 13 schools on their list. The schools are Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, MIT, Kellogg, NYU, Stanford, Booth, Penn, and Yale. And essentially, that's kind of the top 16 programs. There are three missing, but it's a big group. They're all kind of top 16. They want to start school, they say, next fall. They've had two kind of pre MBA careers. One is their current career, which is in accounting, but they also had a bit of a medical background before, a background in medicine before that, which we'll explain in a moment. After business school, they're hoping to work in consulting or maybe even asset management. They're particularly interested, though, in the kind of healthcare and pharma domain for either of those roles. Their GMAT score is a really terrific score. 740 undergraduate GPA, 3.74. They have three and a half years of work experience, and they mentioned they are 32 years old and male. They say they are non underrepresented. I'd never heard anyone say that, Alex. I would just say overrepresented, but they're non underrepresented. Top 20 university for undergrad. They've been working for three and a half years in accounting. They also did do a science post baccalaureate at a state school. And on that program, their GPA was a 3.98. So some good grades, obviously. Now, one of the wrinkles is that they attended medical school for three years and then they dropped out. They mentioned that it was due to health reasons, but also just a poor fit in the hospital clinical environment. They had kind of an emotional burnout. They do some outside activities, some community involvement, had leadership experiences in student organizations. And as I mentioned earlier, they're thinking short term kind of equity research or healthcare strategy somehow tying together work in the healthcare domain with the business side, and then kind of longer term buysight, equity research, climbing up the ladder, et cetera. So, I don't know, Alex, this is an interesting case because this person went to med school and dropped out. And I know they got into a fairly long conversation with you on their post where they left some comments. I'd love for you to expand on that and just give us your take, because there's a little bit more here even to unpack.
22:34
Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of a mystery to us. This candidate is 32 years old. So the math, we couldn't quite figure out everything that they've been doing. So it looks to me like they've completed an undergrad degree, they've gone on to medical school and they've completed three and a half years of accounting work experience in public accounting. But maybe there's something I'm missing, because.
23:02
Speaker A: That would make them like 29 or something, right?
23:05
Speaker B: Yeah, about 29. I'm not sure if this post baccalaureate degree at a state school is separate to the medical thing or whatever. It's just a bit confusing to me. Anyway, the point is they did go to medical school and they realized, I wouldn't say soon realized, because they spent three years there. But becoming a doctor, clinician, or whatever the right terms are, was not for them. And they explained the reasons to us why that is. They were very authentic about it, which is nice to understand, but I don't know that that's the best strategy for their MBA application. Not that I ever advocate people to mislead folks in an MBA application, but I think what they can do in the MBA application is sort know as they got further along into medical school experience, they come to that realization. That sort of clinician work, or whatever it's called, was not for them, but they were much more interested in the business side of healthcare. So rather than completing the pathway to becoming a doctor or a researcher or whatever it was, they then decided to switch gears, get some business experience, I. E. The accounting experience, to then use the MBA with a healthcare component to allow them to refocus on the business side of healthcare, which does seem to genuinely be their goal. Right. So I think if they can affect that kind of narrative, it would really resonate quite well with the ADcoM. They're going to provide some kudos for the risk of dropping out once that realization came to pass, to then set themselves up for this different approach to healthcare and so forth. So I think that could be the appropriate strategy. Their academics is never going to be questioned. I mean, they've got a 740 gmat, they've got a three seven four GPA at Undergrad, they got this three nine eight post baccalaureate science degree or whatever it is. So they're clearly very smart, but they've definitely got to address this. Dropping out of medical school in a fashion that can resonate positively with the Adcom. And then it's a question of, all right, well, which are the right target schools? Applying to 13 schools is definitely not for the faint hearted. That's a lot of schools. But what are the topcare schools, Graham? I mean, look at Kellogg, maybe that should be their reach school. Look at Ross is not even on this list of target, so maybe including Ross I mean, obviously Wharton might be a reach plus, but should be considered. Duke Fuqua is another one that comes to mind when you're thinking healthcare. And there are several others, I mean, maybe even Goyzetta. Being in Atlanta, I'm sure there's a lot of healthcare there. So there's good potential here. But I would really worry about the narrative, how they present themselves.
26:39
Speaker A: Yeah. And I think what's great is they got to try out a narrative with us, which doesn't have to be the way that they approach it. And just so our listeners understand, this person just had a lot of trouble in med school, and they just felt a lot of pressure when it came to diagnosing patients and that aspect of having to be right all the time or else people could be harmed. And so that just led to failing performance and they dropped out and stuff. But the way they described it, we got this sense of like, oh, there was a lot of pressure. And the first thing I said to you, Alex, when we were kind of talking before we came on air, know, business school has a fair amount of pressure too. I mean, it's different in nature, but the first year of business school, there's a ton of work. It is a little bit of a pressure cooker. And so that's why I was nervous about the narrative. And so they just need to think of a way, as you really aptly put it, to just talk about wanting to impact change in healthcare, but realizing that the business side was probably a better fit for them. And so they lost that time in med school, but it was a time of discovery that helped them to get to where they are today. Now, as you correctly point out, at age 32, it might be hard to get into some of these very top schools with this sort of circuitous path that they've taken. So casting a little bit of a wider net. I mean, right now they only have top 16. Might be smart, as you say, to have some schools that are maybe a little bit outside of that scope, to just be sure, but they have great numbers. And I think if they can tell a good story, it could be a really compelling case. And one of the nice things is when you have a niche like healthcare, I think you can stand out a bit in the application process. So I think there's some schools that will be really interested in this, and they just need to kind of get it together. I don't know. I guess they're trying to apply in the coming weeks, so they need to pull this together. I would never recommend applying to more than like six or eight schools or something. So they need to narrow down this list. That'll just make for stronger applications. And they have to remember that their recommenders have to do all this work. And so 13 schools, not going to be possible. They wrote this post to us with not even a month to go on round two deadlines. So, yeah, I'm hoping they can kind of narrow the list, stay focused and spread things around a bit so that they're not too overweighted with like m seven only schools or something. So we will see. But really interesting profile.
28:54
Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
28:55
Speaker A: All right. I want to thank them for sharing their case with us and wish them the best of luck as they buckle down in the coming days to get those apps in. Our last candidate, this is going to be wiretaps candidate number three. So this person, this is a decision wire entry that you've chosen, Alex. And this person, they applied to Emory, Michigan and Darden. Okay. And they ultimately were accepted to Emory with $100,000 scholarship. And they've been accepted to UVA, Darden, but for the moment, with no scholarship money. So that's where they stand. They have these two offers, Emory with 100K, Darden at UVA with nothing. This person's obviously starting school next fall. Their post MBA career that they're hoping to get into is consulting. They want to work at Bain, BCG, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, McKinsey or PwC. Their gre, for those of you curious, was a 327 and their GPA was a 3.6. They're located in the northeast of the US, and they mentioned in their note that they are torn. They say the money at Emory and the strong consulting outcomes makes their offer compelling. But UVA at full sticker price was their number one from the start, and they're just not sure they'd want to live in Atlanta post graduation. They're more interested in the east coast and mid atlantic regions. They mentioned negotiations with Darden are in progress, but I'm assuming no change in the money. So we don't know yet. Alex, this was a bold move. You know, Emory is a sponsor of our podcast, and so now we're going to have to weigh in on should this person go to Emory or Darden. So it's going to be a real test of our journalistic integrity, I guess.
30:41
Speaker B: Yeah, go to.
30:45
Speaker A: Yeah. What should they do here? And there was a lot of comments on this post, right?
30:48
Speaker B: I mean, the reason why I selected this post wasn't because obviously Emory is featured, but more so it's a really good conversation for those that do end up going to decision wire, and obviously our post on the site for this podcast episode will have a link to this particular entry. It's a really interesting conversation with those two or three community members chiming in with some really good insight because obviously they've gone through the same process and same sort of decision making. And it also includes our favorite contributor who now currently has 713 likes on the site. So that's absolutely phenomenal. They basically were a student or an MBA candidate, admissions candidate, probably about three years ago, and each year since have come back to provide really good insight for candidates choosing between schools.
31:49
Speaker A: A drink someday.
31:52
Speaker B: The reason why I selected this, and long may they continue to come back and help support the community that we try to build. But I mean, flat out, this is a very difficult decision to make. And if you had five people with the same two choices with the scholarship money for Emory, out of those five, two would choose one choice, three would choose the other, and I wouldn't know which two or three would fit into which one's which. No, I wouldn't be able to tell you. This is your classic example of scholarship money from a very good school, but a school in a tier below the school that doesn't offer the scholarship money. And both schools are also renowned for their consulting placement. And to the extent even that Darden has that case study method, because it's great prep for consulting. And so my. My quick answer is, there's no easy answer to this. I think our community has provided some great thoughts to help this candidate come to their decision, but as the final person or not the final person, because maybe other people will contribute, but the final person says, I hope I can help you here. I also got admitted to Goyzetta and live in Charlote currently. I also previously lived in DC. Hope I can help you make a decision, but I think the info that you gave me makes it kind of a toss up.
33:29
Speaker A: Yeah.
33:29
Speaker B: And that's literally, I think, what it is.
33:31
Speaker A: Yeah, I think what's interesting to me is that. So Elliot on our team also weighed in, but he kind know, sort of took the third path, which was, hey, maybe you should apply to some schools in round, like he said, why don't you apply to Tuck and Ross and know they're all pretty good at consulting. They're all competitors of Darden. And who knows, maybe one of them actually ends up giving you money. So that was actually an interesting thing because they were just like, which do I choose? And Elliot was like, well, you don't have to choose either. Maybe so there was that. But, yeah, the big thing seems to center around this idea that a lot of Emory grads land in the southeast, and so this person is sort of worried about that. But then someone pointed out, like 24% of Emory grads end up in the northeast and mid Atlantic. This person needs to just do their homework, talk to current students, talk to alums in the regions that they'd hope to live in and see how it shakes out. Probably could go to the welcome events as well for admitted students. But, yeah, this is, as you say, if you had a bunch of people who were given this choice, you'd end up with a pretty split group, I think. So it's an interesting quandary, but that's why we love decision wire.
34:36
Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's absolutely brilliant. And I think it also highlights the importance of geography, because if this candidate was bound and determined to have their career in the southeast and Atlanta and so on and so forth, you'd be like, yeah, just take the money and go to Emory. It's an obvious choice. But because it's the northeast, the question becomes, is Emory plus the scholarship going to provide them enough access to the east? Darden is going to have a more robust network up in the northeast. But again, as one of the community members pointed out, well, actually, our number one community member, they said there's a lot of self selection in terms of who chooses to go to Emory in the first place. And that dials into potentially the reason why a lot of people stay in the southeast, because they came from the southeast and that's where they want to be anyway. So really teasing between the numbers, it is tricky. I think this person has a couple of terrific options and, yeah, best of luck. Making the right. There isn't a right decision. Making the decision, not a universal right decision, I should say.
35:53
Speaker A: Yeah, I do want to congratulate them on getting into both programs and thank them for sharing this dilemma with our community. And also thanks to everyone who chimed in. There were like three or four people who had an opinion to share. So that's really cool. Alex. Let's get to the Christmas celebrations and stuff and let our listeners go off and do the same if they're tuned in on Christmas Day when this airs. In any event, I want to thank you for picking out these candidates. We'll do this next week, right? Holidays be damned. We're doing it right.
36:21
Speaker B: The next episode will be New Year's Day. How about that?
36:24
Speaker A: That's right. All right. Excellent. All right. So I'll see you then. Alex.
36:28
Speaker B: Brilliant. Best of everyone. Take care. Stay safe.