Olin (WUSTL) Class of 2016 Calling all applicants!

I have been getting similar queries from many applicants on PM... so I thought of just pasting a couple of most frequent answers directly on this thread so it could help everyone make an informed decision..


1. How is career placements in different areas:

Ans: Corporate strategy, leadership development programs, corporate finance, marketing -- Strong
IB --- Poor
Consulting -- Moderate (Number of companies- but not the topmost)

2. How is curriculum?

Ans: Curriculum is quite flexible.. so even though I have opted for consulting platform, I was able to tailor my second semester as per my needs. Although first semester had core courses in finance, marketing, operation, accounting, economics and strategy that one MUST take irrespective of platforms. In general, courses in strategy (General management & Consulting Platform) are great, in my opinion. There is a particular strategy professor this semester who is amazingly impressive. He worked with Mckinsey in their strategy division as subject matter expert for 9 yrs. Most of the classes are great, specially because of some excellent professors. I bet u could ask any student about first semester teachers like Prof Fields or Prof Chayet and u would get same response.. In addition this semester I am also doing a real life market strategy project for one of the biggest manufacturing companies in the world..

3. How do you find the career center and how are their services?

Ans: Career center is extremely helpful. now on this opinions would vary from person to person, but if u know how to use resources to ur best advantage u can get a lot out of it. I did. Career center organizes couple of career fairs pretty early in the fall semester where u get a chance to network with companies. Of course - u need to go out there and network! Apart from that, u could schedule meetings with career advisers from specific platforms for anything - career advice, mock interview, case practice etc. Most of them even go out of their way to help u.. Once again- u need to be proactive to use these services..

Also to put career placements in perspective.... Some data from Poets & quants...

https://poetsandquants.com/2013/12/06/be ... acement/4/

4. How are the internship opportunities? Which consulting companies can someone at Olin target?

Ans: There are plenty of consulting companies that come to campus including boutique firms. However as I mentioned earlier MBB wont come to campus for grads, probably also because of very small class size.. MBB come to campus career fairs only for undergrads... On the other hand Deloitte, ATK, Booz come to campus every year for internship as well as full time...
Also a word of caution here - most of the boutique firms will not sponsor international students.. so i'm not sure how does that apply to u.. i mean it depends on whether u have work authorization..

Apart from consulting - there are tons of finance (JP Morgan, Chase bank, Wells Fargo, Citi), marketing (Nestle Purina, Amazon, Kimberly Clark, P&G, Pepsico), operations (Boeing, Emerson) and technology (Mastercard) internships too. These are few among the ones that have already been on campus this year for internship.. Most if not all of the listed ones are open for internationals..
Having said that- u still need to crack interviews.. there are 2-7 rounds of interviews in various companies even for internships.. but thats a usual practice in US..

Last year everyone had internships.. this year there's still 4 months to go and therefore official stats r not out yet...It is naturally easier for domestic students to get more/earlier offers because of work authorization status..


5. I got admit.. I have time.. what should i do? should i retake Gmat? Should I prepare for coursework?

Ans: Most of the colleges send a mandatory coursework in stats, accounting and finance before college begins.. so u dont need to worry about these... for other courses that u r going to study in college, there is no point in studying now.. you'll anyway be doing plenty of assignments during the course...
Regarding GMAT.. colleges look at that to award scholarships.. and companies (Only few consulting companies) for filtering... its ur call.. but it could be time consuming and depending upon where u r right now in the process may or may not be worth it..
Another thing.. very important.. connect with alumni in ur target companies.. if u r admitted to X school.. try to find any X alumni in those companies and network.. earlier the better.. Nothing works like networking for jobs in US...

Hope it helps u guys make a better decision..