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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 11:14
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Hi

I aspire to work in Management Consulting post MBA . Ideally schools with a strong General Management focus, have strong recruitments in the consulting Industry.

I know that Harvard, Fuqua, Tuck, Darden, all have an extremely strong recruitment in the Management Consulting Industry.

What other schools can one look at for a career in the same where top recruitment companies generally visit and recruit students from? Im looking at both options in Europe and US ? Any suggestions.

Thanks
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 11:17
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the M7 + Tuck schools have strong M/B/B placement
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 12:26
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Ross is also a strong MC school

I think it is better than Duke and Darden
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 13:45
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Just go through schools employment reports and its clear that any top school will work. Obviously the better the school the better your chances, I would say in order it would be H, S, W, K, M/Chi, Col, Tuck, then on from there.
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 14:17
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People refer to Duke, Darden, and Ross as "strong consulting schools", but aren't these schools typically lackluster when it comes to M/B/B placements? It seems like the vast majority of MBB recruiting goes on at the M7 and Tuck, and that schools like Duke/Darden/Ross generally get 2nd tier firms like LEK, Monitor, Mercer, Accenture Strategy, etc.?
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 14:43
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riverripper
Just go through schools employment reports and its clear that any top school will work. Obviously the better the school the better your chances, I would say in order it would be H, S, W, K, M/Chi, Col, Tuck, then on from there.
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river, i will take this opportunity to make an argument you have made several times.

chicago has better placement than kellogg at m/b/b, given that a higher percentage of those going into consulting at chicago end up at an m/b/b compared to kellogg.

you have argued that kellogg may be better for banking because less students pursue finance at kellogg and it is less competitive to land a spot at a bb bank. if that is true, doesn't the same hold for consulting? (i.e., chicago has less students interested in consulting so it will be less competitive).
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 15:10
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I think a more relevant answer to the original poster's question would be which schools offer the best preparation for an entry into management consulting. All or nearly all the top consulting firms recruit at the top 15 schools. Furthermore, I've read from multiple sources that the school from which you're getting your MBA loses nearly all importance once the interviews begin.. and the reason why the top-ranked schools have a higher percentage of people getting offers from M/B/B is simply due to them having more people that are capable of acing the interviews in the first place. Not sure if the selection bias is absolute, but it seems pretty logical to me.

Assuming the above, and also that the original poster is a career changer, I would venture to say that entering schools with strong GM programs would have more of an impact on the chances of landing an MC job than simply prestige. Of course, this is all relative, and such an approach would work best if one were hypothetically choosing between two schools of similar strength - say, Darden vs. Fuqua, or Haas vs. Tuck.

From my research, Harvard, Wharton, Tuck, and Darden all seem attractive, depending on what your target cluster is. Internationally, INSEAD January intake might be the best option.
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Kylian
I think a more relevant answer to the original poster's question would be which schools offer the best preparation for an entry into management consulting. All or nearly all the top consulting firms recruit at the top 15 schools. Furthermore, I've read from multiple sources that the school from which you're getting your MBA loses nearly all importance once the interviews begin.. and the reason why the top-ranked schools have a higher percentage of people getting offers from M/B/B is simply due to them having more people that are capable of acing the interviews in the first place. Not sure if the selection bias is absolute, but it seems pretty logical to me.

Assuming the above, and also that the original poster is a career changer, I would venture to say that entering schools with strong GM programs would have more of an impact on the chances of landing an MC job than simply prestige. Of course, this is all relative, and such an approach would work best if one were hypothetically choosing between two schools of similar strength - say, Darden vs. Fuqua, or Haas vs. Tuck.

From my research, Harvard, Wharton, Tuck, and Darden all seem attractive, depending on what your target cluster is. Internationally, INSEAD January intake might be the best option.
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i disagree. core schools usually stop at the T10 tier, and even among these schools you are not guaranteed an interview. i think at the m7 you are almost guaranteed to land an interview, but after that it becomes progressively harder. acing the interview is important, but it won't matter if you can't even get an interview. consulting is also a very relationship/prestige oriented profession, so no doubt the school's brand name does carry weight.
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 15:35
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Good point dabots about the placement. I think someone did some calcs on BW about going to top MC firms and it was like a step effect, where the percent of MC folks going to the top 3 firms was about equal for H/S then step to W, then step to GSB/K/MIT/Col (GSB slightly above the others). In terms of rep I would say Kellogg has the advantage in management just like Chicago has the advantage finance (though I think the spread is probably bigger in terms of rep for the finance portions). HOWEVER, competition is probably going to be a little stiffer at these schools in their areas of strength. So for a career changer it may be an advantage to head to the one with fewer folks pursuing the jobs.

I would say that overall the big firms recruit heavily from all the top schools, so if you are there you have a chance. No matter where you go its going to be up to your ability to nail cases.

If you get into multiples of the M7s, for M7 beyond H/S/W you can really go by fit.
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 15:42
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I should have further clarified. I agree 100% that the prestige of the school has a significant effect on the process of obtaining an interview. My point is that after you're in the interview, you're on your own... it doesn't matter whether you're from HBS or CBS or NYU - you must ace the case.

It just seems to me that within the tiers, there are schools that are clearly more attractive for someone wishing to enter MC. When I mentioned Wharton, I was comparing it to every M7 that isn't HBS. Same for Tuck and other T10, and Darden vs. other T15.
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 18:03
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INSEAD is one of the heavyweights in consulting recruitment. However they do have language requirements you have to fulfill and the course is only 10 months long (12 months for the January Intake)
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I believe Insead is also extremely popular with McKinsey folks...so a lot of the people who are employed by McK post grad are returning employees.
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 20:31
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When I applied last year, I was also involved into thinking and comparison of which school is better for consulting career :) I did some research and stacking all the figures up found out that in general chosen schools (Tuck, Ross, Wharton, Kellogg, Columbia) place on average 10,3% of their graduates to top consulting companies (I included to top McK, BCG, Bain, BAH, ATK) with Columbia getting only 7.6% (because it has bigger class size with same absolute numbers as Kellogg - the school that is relatively similar to Columbia in terms of consulting recruitment - has). But the most interesting result I found in comparison of the ratio of placement to top companies to the number of people who went into consulting - Ross got 52%, while other schools 33-40% :)
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Thanks a lot to all you folks. Just one question, I have read across various forums that if you are a career changer, then it is better you avoid a 12 month program. I see Insead as a very highly rated option here.

Insead timeframe for Jan intake , is 12 months , as it includes 2 months for an internship.

Do you think the September intake, with a 10 month program offer similiar opportunities. Also would you go in for 10-12 month program if you want to shift careers .

Also whats your take on Cornell, UCLA, and Yale. Heard Yales got a new curriculum with a focus on consulting.
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 20:48
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terp06
People refer to Duke, Darden, and Ross as "strong consulting schools", but aren't these schools typically lackluster when it comes to M/B/B placements?
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I respectfully disagree. In 2007, the top recruiters (in terms of full time offers) at Ross were Microsoft, McKinsey and BCG ( in that order).
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I have to ram home the point that my fellow wolverines make. Ross is a FANTASTIC school for MC. Ross will open the interview doors for you. Once inside the interview room, you need to make it count just like how you have to do at HBS or Tuck or Kellogg. Also, Ross is a core school for the big-3 and is blessed to have a top strategy department that is second to none.

At the UE schools, the somewhat better numbers are a product of the generally higher class sizes and the larger presence of pre-MBA level analysts from M/B/B in their student bodies. Therefore, on average the students at the M7 schools are better positioned to succeed during case interviewing. For a career switcher, success will ultimately depend on focus, hard work, case interviewing ability and of course, luck - not on the name of your school.
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A simple comparison between Chicago and Ross:

Chicago has a 28% larger class size than Ross
Chicago has a 153% larger placement at McKinsey than Ross

I don't believe this is correlated to a larger number of pre-MBA M/B/B analysts at Chicago. In fact I have looked through the entire Chicago facebook group (~350 ppl) and not seen a single M/B/B analyst in the 2010 class. And Chicago is not known as a marketing/general management school as Ross is.

McKinsey and BCG may be among the top recruiters in numbers at Ross, but they tend to be top recruiters at all top schools because of the nature of consulting, which requires hiring armies of consultants each year. Consulting companies and banks are almost always the top recruiters at top schools. You can definitely get a job at M/B/B from Ross, but the numbers are much more favorable at the M7+Tuck.
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 02 Jun 2008, 23:12
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The other question you need to ask is WHERE do you want to do MC?

Depending on which region/location you are aiming for, certain schools will be better for you. e.g. I assume INSEAD places MC's around the world quite well, however the US schools will place more MC's within the USA.

From my pre-mba meeting with BCG, most of the students there went to US-Bschools.

necromonger maybe able to give more input as he is currently at INSEAD.
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At GSB, # of students = 529, # of McK offers = 33
At Ross, # of students = 420 #of McK offers = 13

edited:

As emphatic as these numbers and your assertions sound, one can argue that the difference in class size(100 or so) can easily account for 50% or even 100% of the additional 20 hires at GSB. If that was true, then may be Ross would have the same hires if it had the same class size. Obviously, none of us know if that is indeed the case. Granted, that's just splitting hairs and I generally agree that the numbers stack up better at GSB and the other schools when compared to Ross. What I dont agree with, is the notion that GSB is going to "win" someone a job at McK just because he went there (or) that one person's chances will dramatically swing just on account of the school he went. Specifically for consulting, as you said companies need to hire in large numbers.

For that reason, I dont think the recruiter at Ross is going into the room thinking "Gee, I better not be carried away by all these obviously awesome candidates who are coming through the door at Ross. Need to remember that I must hire only 13 people from Ross because I need to make additional hires at GSB".

By the same token, I dont think any recruiter at GSB is going to think "This candidate sucks. But, he is from GSB and I better hire him because I need to hire x number of people at GSB". I can't see this happening with standard post-MBA careers like IB or consulting.

dabots

Chicago has a 28% larger class size than Ross
Chicago has a 153% larger placement at McKinsey than Ross
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Re: facebook stats, I am surprised there is no one in the incoming class from M/B/B. May be nobody with the "analyst" designation is joining GSB. but are you sure that absolutely no one from M/B/B is joining GSB? That seems implausible.
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Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ? 03 Jun 2008, 02:31
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Without knowing the applicant pool. those stats are meaningless.

e.g if all students in a given year at HSW were not interested in MC. M/B/B would have 0% recruitment rate.
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