Hi Reader,

Yudi here,

Before we start our newsletter, I have something to share with you.

I want to challenge something most students believe without even questioning it.

That a more famous university equals a better outcome.

I recently had a long conversation with Shreekar, co-founder of Gradvine and a Dartmouth alumnus who has personally helped more than 10,000 students get admits into top US universities. His team fills hundreds of spots in MEM and MIS programs every year. He has placement data, scholarship data, and salary data going back years. He knows which programs actually deliver.

And the first thing he told me was this.

An Ivy League university which everybody is chasing after may not be the best for every program. In fact, it can be terrible for some programs.

Let me give you a specific example he shared.

Columbia University. Huge brand. Globally recognized. Almost everybody wants it on their resume. But if you want to do a masters in engineering management and your goal is to break into product management or strategy roles, Columbia's MEM curriculum is not optimized for that outcome. You would be spending over $110,000 with no guarantee of a scholarship, in a program that does not set you up for the specific career you came for.

Compare that to San Jose State. Nobody is going to be impressed at a dinner table in India if you say San Jose State. But SJSU's computer science and adjacent programs place students into Silicon Valley companies faster than programs from universities with far more famous names. Why? Because location is a career advantage that a brand name cannot replace. You are already in the middle of the biggest tech ecosystem in the world. Recruiters from the companies you want to work for are literally on campus.

Or take Purdue. The MEM program at Purdue has a 100% co-op placement rate. One hundred percent. Every student who goes through the program gets a co-op. The tuition is roughly $45,000 for the full program. The average co-op salary covers a significant portion of that cost before you even graduate. That is a return on investment that very few programs can match anywhere.

And Dartmouth. If you look at global rankings, Dartmouth's MEM program does not even appear in the top 100. Some university in Austria might rank higher. But Dartmouth's MEM consistently has some of the strongest placement rates and salary outcomes in the country. Median salaries in the mid to high $120,000 range. And almost every student who applies for financial aid through the CSS profile gets 40% of tuition covered.

There is a box in the Dartmouth application that asks if you want to be considered for financial aid. Shreekar told me that students sometimes leave that box blank because they are worried that asking for aid might hurt their chances of admission. Dartmouth does not penalize you for needing aid. If you miss that box, the scholarship is gone. That one checkbox is the difference between $70,000 in tuition and roughly $42,000. That is not a small mistake.

Here is the framework Shreekar uses and the one I want you to carry into your shortlisting process.

Do not start with rankings. Start with curriculum. Every MEM and MIS program has a different set of elective tracks and core subjects. Two programs with the same name at two different universities can lead to completely different career outcomes. You need to read the curriculum and ask whether this program is actually set up to take someone with my background to the role I want.

Then look at location. If you want to work in tech, being in Seattle, the Bay Area, or Austin is a structural advantage. A good program in a strong location will outperform a prestigious program in a less connected market almost every time.

Then look at placement data. Every serious program publishes where their graduates end up. Look at job titles. Look at company names. Find people on LinkedIn who went through the program and see where they are now three years later. That is real data. It takes time but it removes the guesswork.

The students who get the best outcomes are not the ones who chase the most recognizable name. They are the ones who did the research, matched the program to their specific goal, and arrived with a plan already in motion.

This is one of the core things we work through in the Study in USA Accelerator. The program includes university shortlisting based on your actual profile and career goal, not a generic ranking list. Over 5,000 students have used it to get into programs at Georgia Tech, Purdue, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, and more. You can explore it here.

​The full podcast with Shreekar goes much deeper into specific university rankings by ROI for MEM and supply chain programs, how to read a curriculum, and how to think about scholarships before you apply. I will be sharing it soon.

Until then, I want you to ask yourself one question.

Are you choosing a university because it is the best fit for your career goal? Or because it is the name your family would recognize at a dinner table?

One of those questions leads to a job. The other leads to regret.

until then,

Keep smiling & keep hustling
Yudi

Note: My and Shreekar's team at Gradvine offers a free 30-minute strategy call where they walk through your profile, your shortlist, and your timeline honestly. If you are in the planning stage right now, it is worth taking. Link is in the description. Book your free call here.​