Columbia Econ vs Cornell ILR vs Vanderbilt Econ for Consulting
Transfer student here having a really hard time deciding between Columbia Econ, Cornell ILR, and Vanderbilt Econ for management consulting.
Main goal is consulting (MBB/T2 type roles), not IB. Curious how these schools compare specifically for consulting recruiting, alumni network, OCR, and overall placement.
A few things I’m considering:
- Columbia obviously has the NYC/location/prestige advantage
- Cornell ILR seems very strong for consulting despite being less traditional than Econ/AEM
- Vanderbilt seems to have a really strong culture and solid consulting placement, especially in the South
Would appreciate honest thoughts from people actually in consulting or who recruited recently. How different are the outcomes really if GPA/networking are strong at all 3?
I went to columbia and have multiple friends from both columbia (from econ to philosophy to CS) and cornell (ILR/Dyson) did MBB. Probably am biased to columbia but you'll likely have more fun at cornell and it won't differ that materially, although i can say for certain hella columbia kids got recruited for quite literally, every MBB
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Recent ILR alum. It's the main Cornell school for consulting, but generally there are far fewer MBB seats than IB seats, so maybe 3-4 ILR kids per year are going to MBB and substantially fewer people are recruiting for consulting than finance. Lots of people getting Big Four consulting offers beyond MBB. That said, 3-4 MBB per year our of 15-20 committed consulting kids is basically as good as you can ask for from what I understand. ILR is also generally super easy and has a good community. Very good experience - I consistently had less work and was in a more enjoyable environment than my Dyson / Arts friends despite having all of the same opportunities.
One of my best friends went to Columbia and we would joke about how I had 10% of the work he did. He recruited for consulting and eventually landed a T2 FT role but it wasn't easy, even with him having a 3.9 in econ and relevant experience.
Just so you know, BCG barely recruits from Cornell, similar to how Bain barely recruits from Columbia. It's really MB, not MBB. Even then it's at least twice as much McKinsey as Bain. If you're dedicated to consulting as a freshmen McKinsey is pretty attainable.
Vanderbilt will hands down be several notches more fun than any ivy. For consulting - Vanderbilt places incredibly well. The founder of Bain was a Vandy alum as well. I'm biased bc I went there - but it's rly the full package of social life, academics, and recruiting opps.
vandy does not place incredibly well for mbb
I think cornell=columbia for IB but columbia>cornell for mbb.
Cornell is not equal to Columbia for IB wtf??
Bro for the 50th time, you are a high school senior going to Stern. NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR OPINION ON RECRUITING BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW A THING.
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