Transferring from Wharton to Ross

ChoatieMom
Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:55:38 +0000

FWIW: Many years ago, I was accepted to Wharton, Michigan, and Harvard. I chose Harvard because hubby was able to transfer to his company’s Boston office and we wanted to get out of Michigan (we had both graduated from Michigan years earlier). I always regret that I didn’t choose Michigan because I would have been happier with “what I grew up with”. I left HBS before graduating; it just wasn’t the right place for me, and I never went back. So, @interfc1, I can understand how you might be having second thoughts, and those thoughts might be valid, but I gotta say, it’s only a two-year program, and I never considered doing the first year at one school and finishing up at another. For what? What you think might be a better experience? You end up with an MBA in either case, and isn’t that the goal? Save yourself the hassle (applying, moving, adjusting to the other program, integrating with new classmates) and stay where you are, bond with the class you’re in. And don’t underestimate those first-year bonds; they are crucial, extremely valuable, and will stay with you the rest of your life – if you don’t break them. I’m not so sure that second-year associations, when you are not taking all/most of your classes with your first-year section mates, are quite as durable, but maybe all that’s changed.

(On a side note, I found it harder to withdraw from the HBS program than get in to it. I had to go through a series of “interviews” that seemed designed to ensure I wasn’t writing a book or some expose. I also liked how I was told that, “there are no admissions mistakes, only acceptance mistakes.”)