Hey guys, I need some guidance on a big decision I have to make for my MBA. I need to decide between Yale and Kellogg.

I like Yale because of the school's reputation and also because of the fact that it aligns well with my values. Most of my work background is with a social nonprofit startup, and Yale appeals to me in this sense.

However, it lost a lot of ground in the most recent Financial Times ranking, and from what I've read, the post-MBA salaries aren't as good as for people who go to Kellogg. Not to mention that I may not want to continue down the social nonprofit path, and maybe venture into another kind of startup or (gas) management consulting.

Any thoughts on this?

Yale isn't that far behind Kellogg in terms of salary, and it actually has a higher rate of salary increase, most likely because its cohorts are a bit less experienced that Kellogg's.

Ultimately you are going to have to clarify your career goals. Yale is probably the better choice in terms of social nonprofits -- but research this by looking at the types of firms that you would like to work in and see if these execs actually do have an MBA and from where.

However -- and this is a big however -- although Yale seems like it's a good choice for jobs in the social nonprofit space, its employment reports make clear that many grads don't actually end up in the sector. Less than 6 percent of the most recent cohort went into nonprofits, for instance. Not only that, the salaries for grads in this space tend to be much lower than those in other fields -- meaning that the FT data, while it's a great indicator for typical post-MBA careers, is less useful if you really want a job in the social nonprofit space.

Not to say that Yale would be a bad choice for management consulting... In fact, I think that both Yale and Kellogg would be good options here.

Thanks for the tips. I'll take this into consideration. It's sort of surprising that so few Yale MBAs go into the nonprofit field. I thought that this was one of the best MBA programs for nonprofit!

6% seems like quite a higr percentage for a top-ranked school. It certainly gets Yale into the top 10 http://find-mba.com/lists/top-business-school-by-speciality/top-business-schools-for-nonprofit-management

PS I suspect that much more than 6% would have a real impact on the average salary, and thus on Yale's ranking.

[Edited by Duncan on Jun 30, 2015]

The thing with these top tier MBA programs is that they have very few incentives for placing students in nonprofit roles, since what matters for the rankings is salaries and nonprofit jobs tend not to pay as well as consulting jobs or jobs in the financial sector.

If your life's passion was truly nonprofit work, and I'm not sure from your initial post that it actually is, you might just say "screw the rankings" and choose something like the Heller MBA from Brandeis, the focus of which is nonprofit, and nonprofit only. Of course, you'd have fewer options upon graduation than if you did the Yale MBA, but that's a choice some in the sector make. The Heller MBA is a great degree to have on your résumé though, if you are shopping around for nonprofits to work at.

FYI some whose passion is nonprofit don't even do an MBA but instead choose one of the huge number of other master's degree programs in the space: USC has the Master of Nonprofit Leadership and Management through the Price school, Harvard's Kennedy School has some options, Notre Dame has the Master of Nonprofit Administration, etc. etc. etc. No shortage of options.

I think "the thing" is that there are very few MBA roles in NGOs, not that the schools don't like placing alumni in them. I think someone with a good understanding of NGOs might benefit much more from an MBA than a non-profit MBA is their goals is to improve their management toolkit, soft skills and cross-cultural skills. That's a personal choice.

Hi Yale/Kellogg Dilemma, I wonder if you could offer any tips or even your application experience as you presumably were admitted to both of these schools. I am aiming to apply for 2016, to Yale and Kellogg with Haas as a reach school. So I am interested in hearing about how you were able to land admits.