I wrote earlier in the year that one of my personal goals was to get accepted to both Katz (University of Pittsburgh) and Tepper (Carnegie Mellon University). I’m happy to say that I was accepted to both programs! I was accepted to Katz a few days after I sent my application in. For Tepper, I had to wait almost a month to find out if I was accepted. Tepper’s admission process was pretty rigorous. The application consisted of four essays, resume, activities, GMAT, transcripts, detailed work experience, and an interview. I will be honest, I was really nervous during the month waiting to find out if I was accepted or not!
Now that I was accepted to both programs, I have to decide which program to attend. I’m pretty sure that I am going to attend Tepper, but the biggest down fall to that is the tuition for three years will be about $120k. That is double the cost of the Katz MBA. That said, my choices are basically:
1) Go to Tepper and get an MBA from one of the top schools in the country and pay around $120k. However, I would only end up with a maximum of 30k in loans.
2) Go to Katz and get an MBA with a good reputation locally, but not nationally. I would have no loans after finishing this MBA program.
Being a personal finance blogger, most would probably choose Katz and avoid taking out any student loans. However, I don’t plan to live in Pittsburgh forever and the reputation from Tepper and the global network will certainly be worth the extra cost in the long run.
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