Kellogg vs Ross MBA: Location, Ranking, Curriculum, Career Service and Incoming Class Profile

Ross School of Business and Kellogg school of management both offer world-class MBA programs. Let us look at 10 differentiating factors and see which MBA program would be a better choice for you.

1) Location

The Full-time and Executive MBA Programs are taught in the Kellogg School of Management Evanston campus in Illinois, while part-time MBA program is taught in Downtown Chicago Campus with other management courses taught in the Miami Campus. Ross School of Business is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan with campuses in Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. Both Evanston and Ann Arbor are college-towns brought to the world map because of Northwestern University and University of Michigan respectively.

2)Ranking

Kellogg is a clear winner when it comes to Business School and MBA Program rankings. Kellogg beats Ross in all major ranking including US News, The Economist, Businessweek and the Financial Times. Kellogg has an average rank of 11.25 against Ross’ average of 24.67. According to US News 2012 ranking, Kellogg is ranked #4 against #13 for Ross School of Business.

3) Curriculum

Ross MBA Core Curriculum covers Accounting, Business economics and public policy, Finance, Law, history, and communication, Management and Organizations, Marketing, Strategy, and Technology & Operations while Kellogg MBA core include courses that highlight decision making in various job functions:  Accounting for Decision Making, Statistical Methods for Management Decisions and Decision Making Under Uncertainty.  Other core courses are Business Strategy, Finance Marketing Management, Microeconomic Analysis, Operations Management, and Leadership in Organizations

Both the programs have experiential learning option. Ross has Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP), a required part of the curriculum that requires a team of 5-6 students to solve a real-life Entrepreneurial or non-profit problems.  Kellogg has a similar learning objective with Courses and Labs, where students combine the knowledge acquired during MBA program and prior work experience to work on non-profit and corporate projects.

4) Incoming Class Profile

Kellogg and Ross have a different incoming class profile. According to the latest Kellogg MBA Class Profile, the largest representation is for Business Majors (32%) while Engineering background represented a close 2nd.  Ross on the other hand has Engineering as the majority representation (26%), followed by Business at 24%.  Both Kellogg and Ross have a healthy representation of students from Humanities/Social Science -21% for Ross and 18% for Kellogg.

As far as nationality is concerned, Kellogg attracts majority of students from Asia (53%) while Students from North America (64%) dominate Ross MBA Class.  Both the MBA programs have competitive entry criteria: Ross (Average GPA – 3.4, Average GMAT – 703) and Kellogg (Average GPA – 3.4, Average GMAT – 708). Both schools represent MBA students with an average of 5 years of experience. Women candidates also find considerable representation in both schools with Kellogg representing 35.3% of the class as against 30% in Ross.

5) Career Service

The Office of Career Development (OCD), which facilitates on-campus recruitment events, leads Ross MBA Career Service and provides the skills required for off-campus career search.  Nearly 65% of the class chose on-campus recruitment. Students get the chance to learn about corporate recruiters (250+ every year) and industries through these events.  According to 2011 stats, more than 100 Companies recruited from the campus.
Some of the services offered by Ross MBA are:

a) Career Search Process: Guidelines and checklist for job search
b) Career Counselling: Resume Reviews, Mock Interviews, Workshops and search strategies
c) Open Interview Opportunities: Secure on-campus interview through direct company invites or OCD bidding process.

There are several tools, events and resources offered under the Office of Career Development.

The career service for MBA Students at Kellogg is managed by the Kellogg Career Management Center. The center offers professional development services like one-on-one coaching, and workshops on interviewing techniques and salary negotiations. The career support in not limited to post-MBA recruitments but also lasts years after that with access to job boards, free career coaching and salary negotiations during different stages of the career.

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