Target Schools For Consulting Megathread

Top Targets: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Wharton

Mid Targets: Dartmouth, Columbia, Brown, Duke, Upenn (Non-Wharton), MIT

Low Targets: Cornell, Georgetown, Umich Ross, UVA, Northwestern

Top Semi-targets: Berkeley Haas, WashU Olin, Uchicago

Mid Semi-targets: USC Marshall, Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, Emory, Indiana Kelley, Boston College, UT Mccombs, UNC, Rice, Caltech, Georgia tech

Low Semi-targets: Johns Hopkins, UCLA, Wake Forest, Tufts, SMU, UIUC

Top LACs excluded

 

Even after living in Washington, DC for many years -- I rarely ran into JHU graduates (I'm excluding the masters/grad programs--just undergrad). You'd think that arguably the best undergrad in the area would send more folks to DC. I don't know if it was just my work/social groups but I've often wondered where the JHU grads all end up.

 

For consulting, W gives a slight advantage, but MBB still heavily recruits from the other schools and I'd say still top target. In fact, consulting is the biggest industry people go into from CAS and third for the engineering school. The difference is much bigger for finance.

 

For UCLA's junior class summer this year, they only managed to send 2 kids in total for MBB in the US, and it was 2 kids to Bain. McKinsey and BCG didn't take anyone. EY-Parthenon took 3, LEK took 2, Deloitte S&O took 1. I would say UCLA does really poorly in consulting recruiting going by those stats.

Then for the lower tier offers, KPMG took 2, ZS took 1 or 2, and Keystone took 2.

 

High school buddy just placed out of OSU -- this is not true, in a good year they have 2 McK (OCR) and 1 BCG. They just had their first placements at Bain, OW, LEK, Parthenon. Up and coming but not a "target" (although if UIUC is on the list OSU could be on there)

 

There’s no specific top or low target like IB in consulting. you either go to their target or you don’t. Also IU is no where near USC and others in that league since USC places well at Bain. I’d add Top LAC’s like Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin to the list as well

 

This is actually not true. IU places nearly 10 people into MBB every year. The economic consulting major has a near 70% placement rate into consulting firms and the median salary is $73,000 for that major.

USC is about equal for consulting.

And yes, I completely forgot top LACs

 

What does it mean that X school is better than Y school for placing people into consulting? Let's say they are of equal prestige generally.

Does that mean firms just tend to take more people from school X or do they have a larger presence, offer more opportunity to meet consultants, and other benefits at school X compared to Y, despite both being good schools?

I hope that makes sense! Also the fact that IU places 10 people into MBB, and other similarly low numbers, makes me very nervous about the coming fall.

 

USC has twice as many consultants than IU (including Kelley) at MBB. Not saying it’s not a target but wouldn’t be in the same tier.

 

Indiana Kelley places better for big4 consulting/t2 consulting. USC places better with MBB.

Both very good schools for consulting, but I'd give a slight edge to USC.

 
Funniest

I didnt realize consulting was considered Investment Banking at first. Then I saw it was a ranking thread and knew it belonged in this forum.

Also, this dude's post history is wack

 

For consulting, W gives a slight advantage, but MBB still heavily recruits from the other schools and I'd say still top target. In fact, consulting is the biggest industry people go into from CAS and third for the engineering school. The difference is much bigger for finance.

 

Just out of curiosity, how many of those in Engineering/CAS do you think are doing a dual degree with W? I know that a good amount at Wharton end up getting a second degree as well, so I feel like some of that information may not show up in placement data for Engineering/CAS. Could be completely wrong though.

 

No you’re right, that definitely skews the data, as around 30% of W gets a dual degree, but its difficult to separate the data. FWIW, in my experience I know many single degree non W students who land MBB. Cant put a number on it, but its not hard to get an interview at MBB from any school at penn

 
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I'd also put UIUC and Georgia Tech in there somewhere, each place ~12-15 per year into MBB

 

Yeah Georgia Tech should definitely be higher than Low Semi-target, this year placed 18 into MBB, according to the career center. All 3 have strong on-campus presence as well. Can't personally speak to UIUC though.

 

UCLA is super ass for consulting recruiting. For UCLA's junior class summer this year, they only managed to send 2 kids in total for MBB in the US, and it was 2 kids to Bain. McKinsey and BCG didn't take anyone. EY-Parthenon took 3, LEK took 2, Deloitte S&O took 1. Accenture Strategy took 2? I would say UCLA does really poorly in consulting recruiting going by those stats. Strategy&, Oliver Wyman, AT Kearney do not recruit at our school.

Then for the lower tier offers, KPMG took 2, ZS took 1 or 2, and Keystone took 2.

UCLA's really not good for anything in business lol - even for IB/S&T/Buy-side combined, they only send at most 30 a year, and almost half that number is through diversity programs.

 
  1. You really think Haas is less of a target than UVA, Williams and Umich, Amherst? Don’t they churn out Booz, McKinsey and BCG analysts? Isn’t it also ranked higher than Columbia,Yale, Stern and Dartmouth by USNWR and Poets and Quants?

Per USNWR MBA RANKINGS (2021): 1. Wharton / Stanford 2. Northwestern 3. Booth 4. MIT Sloan 5. Harvard 6. Berkeley Haas 7. Columbia 8. Yale 9. NYU Stern 10. UVA 11. Dartmouth Tuck

  1. Where are schools like CalTech, UIUC, Georgia Tech, Norte Dame?

I smell East coast opinions.

 

Undergrad rankings are even better for Berkeley. They’re #3 in Undergrad Business.

Per USNWR Undergrad business rankings (2021):

  1. UPenn Wharton (Fisher M&T + UG)
  2. MIT Sloan
  3. Berkeley Haas (MET + UG)
  4. UMich Ross (UG)
  5. CMU Tepper
  6. NYU Stern
  7. UT Austin
  8. UNC
  9. UVA
  10. Cornell
 

A little biased bc I go there but I think Amherst is definitely a Mid Target — strong on campus presence from two of the MBBs and some T2’s (I.e. Parthenon, ATK) and we consistently place multiple people at each firm every year (4 or 5 going to Bain as AC right now) including those that aren’t on campus

 

was talking about MBB but have insight into BB/EB as well. UT sends a bunch to NY BB/EB/others especially JPM/GS/MS/Evercore/Point72. There is a strong pipeline to houston Evercore as well. This year, Texas sends to not only the above but also to Moelis/Lazard/Barclays/UBS/PJT/WF/SIG.

A quick search on LinkedIn for "Wall Street for McCombs" will give you all sorts of results. Has a near 100% placement for BB/EB

 

What is the differentiating factor between rankings here? Is it by how many interns + full time folks are taken at MBB and otherwise relative to the size of the class?

Does the geography matter? I know UCLA and USC are nice schools, but the LA offices/Socal offices of MBB can be small.

Also where do people get the data? I've talked to my career center and they told me they don't have that information (or wouldn't give it to me, I wouldn't know the difference).

Also, I wonder how virtual recruiting will change things. Will firms be able to reach more people or give more interviews? Is networking directly gonna be more important since there aren't traditional info sessions where students meet consultants?

Sorry for the brain dump of stuff here.

 

Booth is the business school at Chicago not undergrad. are you sure you are not talking about Post MBA numbers here?

 

No, Emory, Vandy, and don't have 100 grads at McKinsey. CMU may have about 110 at McKinsey, but at the other BBs they only have 50 combined, UChicago is seen a better for IB, while NU is for consulting in Chicago. UCB is much larger, so it's per capita placement isn't good.

I would raise Georgia Tech to a high semi target, as they dominate consulting in Atlanta. Atlanta is a pretty big office for MBB, it is only smaller than Chicago, Boston, NYC, and San Fransico in the U.S. About equal in size to the Washington D.C. office.

 

NYU is definitely known for IB of course, but there are still a lot of undergrads that go into consulting. There is a decent handful that go to MBB every year and it is a huge Big 4 feeder, and Parthenon/LEK/Kearney all recruit on campus. For MBA, it's definitely an MBB target; all three recruit on campus and there are tons of Stern alum at each of them.

 

Vanderbilt definitely needs a bump to low-target or mid-target- its placement in consulting has drastically increased in the last 5 yrs, especially in the Southern offices. Last year it was 4-mckinsey, 11-bain, 9-bcg, i believe. Not a solid target for finance, but for consulting, it's pretty decent. 

 

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