Now what?

I definitely never EVER for a SECOND considered the possibility that I would be admitted to BOTH SCHOOLS. IESE & ESADE have both offered me admission to their September 2010 intake. Both schools are awesome, both are places I'd be very happy at. Both involve me going VERY deep into debt. Yeah, IESE's about 20K more than ESADE, but in the grand scheme of things, those 20K are pretty insignificant so I need to not consider that in my decision making process.

From the acceptance e-mails alone, you can just tell that I'm going to get a lot more personalized attention at ESADE than IESE - ESADE's acceptance e-mail was so gushing, so excited, so helpful, full of contacts and information and an offer of anything I needed to help me through the process. IESE's was like...congrats. Here's where you pay, and here's how much. But, on the other hand, they're #1....when you're number one, you don't have to kiss anyone's ass. And, on that same token, when you're accepted to the #1 anything, you don't say no!

I have a lot of factors to consider:
1. Where I'm gonna grow the most professionally
2. Where I'll grow the most personally
3. Alumni connections for jobs post graduation
4. Alumni connections for jobs in the US
5. Reputation...but that's an easy one.

What attracted me to ESADE was their claim of Career Services working with you from the moment you're admitted to start developing your profile and start you on the right path to searching for your dream job. Their "LEAD" program sounds like something I'd be intensely benefited by, that kind of 360 approach to leadership development and mentorship. Their workload, which is somewhat less than IESE, sounds like I would get more out of it. Its hard to learn when you're just constantly rushing to get things done. On the other hand, I always do better, the more I'm challenged. But preparing 3 cases a night just sounds excessive to me! So i think overall my time would be more enjoyably spent at ESADE. IESE's focus, as evidenced by their reputation, is on the Banking & Consulting industries, and that's where most of their connections are and companies recruiting on campus come from. I'm not interested in either of those industries. ESADE seemed to have a lot more going on with Energy companies, with innovative technology, etc.But then again, that's what I think I want to do now - that might change. On a broader level, IESE probably offers more opportunity. They are more established, have broader alumni contacts, in more places in the world.

I'm gonna be engaging in this back and forth a LOT...