Schools to apply for a career in Management Consulting ?

Just to chip in that we were shown some recruiting figures during pre-term here that showed that the growth in consulting recruiting at Stern over the past few years has continued through to the most recent class.

The obvious choices for consulting are there for all to see, but outside the top few on each continent (in Europe I would say Insead and LBS in that order) I think the differences become marginal. At any of the top schools I imagine you'll have a good chance, and as many have said before once you've got an interview you're competing with peers all across the board, not in your school. Beyond that I think it's mostly down to the environment you want to be in and personal preference.

For me Stern is a good fit for a few reasons. I'm a career switcher and I know I will thrive more in a group that is largely in a similar position to me, rather than in among a bunch of sponsored consultants. That's a loss on the networking side, but not by too much as there are many alumni around and being in NYC has obvious advantages. It's also definitely a growth area within the school and for me that's a positive thing in and of itself - it has some momentum with recruiters and among the staff in the Office of Career Development which can only be helpful. There are also specific things such as the Industry Mentoring Initiative with Deloitte that could be really helpful for a career switcher - I'll be applying for that and if successful will be happy to report back.

I'm not saying Stern's the best for consulting and you will undoubtedly find more people from the big firms at other schools (how that translates into recruitment is another matter), but I do think it's under-represented as a strong and growing area at the school. I feel like the opportunities are definitely there and it's up to me to maximise them. At the end of the day that's all you can ask of a school, at which point you need to focus on by far the biggest variable: how you conduct/develop/present yourself, regardless of what school you end up at.

the M7 + Tuck schools have strong M/B/B placement

Ross is also a strong MC school

I think it is better than Duke and Darden

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.

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.?

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).

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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%

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.

I respectfully disagree. In 2007, the top recruiters (in terms of full time offers) at Ross were Microsoft, McKinsey and BCG ( in that order).

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.

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.

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.