Consulting without a Bachelor's Degree
Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well! I am currently a First-Year Oxford Undergraduate studying Mathematics, and I am strongly considering dropping out. I recognise how fortunate I am to be studying in a University such as Oxford, but I have recently gotten the feeling that it is not right for me.
During my time in Oxford I had the opportunity to consult part-time for a Fortune 500 Life Sciences Company, and in doing so I realised just how much I enjoyed consulting whilst simultaneously how little I enjoyed doing my degree. I would almost view the work I did as a break from my Maths problem sheets, and would look forward to attending client and team meetings instead of Maths lectures.
I am now considering my options, but I have been incredibly stuck on whether it is possible to be successful in the Consulting sphere without a degree behind me. Hence, I have decided that I will not drop out of University unless I have a clear gameplan and path ahead, and was wondering if any of you know if such a path exists. I am not seeking emotional encouragement, but instead would deeply appreciate any and all honest advice as this feels like a very pivotal moment in my life. Thank you!
If you've only really worked part time, you haven't experienced the full career. School and working after graduation have one commonality, it's a marathon, not a sprint. You'd be sacrificing your chance at completing a bachelors, which, over a 40-50 year career is just a few years of your life, to begin working that much quicker. You could consider the bachelor's as a hedge against the risk of working in a way. Let's say you drop out and you work in this firm for about a year and decide you want to leave or get bored. Being in life sciences would limit you quite a bit and the vast majority of professional service firms are still very traditional in the sense they expect you to hvae a Bachelor's as table stakes to apply. So you'd be betting your future that the first company you've ever worked at will be a place you will want continue doing so and one that will not lay you off in the interim.
That's just not a smart decision however you split it. I'd rather see if you can continue working part time and building your resume. When graduation comes or future opportunities for internships come, try other fields or other firms and expand your view from a new perspective. If you came here saying they've offered you a full-time role (which I highly doubt they would) or that you'd had built your own product/service, then perhaps there may have been merit to it. I'd still advise against it, but there may have been some more merit.
Thank you, I really appreciate the time you took to reply. Yes, to give a bit of context the company I part-time consulted in was an opportunity I got through application and selection at a University Consulting Society. Furthermore, my work with the company was about AI-implementation and performance differentiation (I mention this as life sciences was not a focus).
I think it makes a lot of sense that a Bachelor's is almost like a hedge against a future change in mind. I think what I would be interested in asking you is what a path outside of University might look like assuming the best case - i.e. that I don't get bored and remain motivated to keep working, and whether that path is at all feasible. I understand that this question is quite hypothetical, but I feel quite motivated personally to make it work.
Frankly, I'd be surprised if they gave you full-time work as an employee without a stipulated end date. The probable best case scenario is that they'd give you fixed-term or part-time work with the assumption that it would be treated as a temporary leave from school (as would be the cadence with a 12-16 month internship/fixed-term contract).
If they've been really impressed, they may keep you on part-time as you finish your degree (or you take on full-time work and finish your degree part-time), but the underlying assumption is that you'd likely complete your degree regardless. I've been around for quite a while and outside of the top 1% who've founded their own companies or have proven themselves to be prodigies, none of which I've seen within traditional professional services, have I seen F500 companies ignore post-secondary education requirements for prestegious or coveted positions.
I'm still unsure why you'd not want to explore or companies throughout your undergrad. The beauty of your undergraduate career is the uniuqe opportunity to work in different environments and sectors and explore what you'd like to pursue in the long run. For instance, you may enjoy product management and helping lead the development of an AI solution, you may try AI management consulting with a narrow scope (like Quantum Black by McKinsey) or something else entirely.
Agree with the above advice, but also if it’s maths in particular driving you mad I’d be thinking about changing course before dropping out
Thanks a lot for this. I'm currently considering my options, but I think you're right that it's definitely worth considering taking a year out and changing course (a 1 year commitment) before dropping out (a lifetime commitment).
Do not drop out. Learning how to grind through things that are hard, mundane, or tedious is an incredibly valuable life skill, especially if you want to work in a field like consulting. Most consulting firms also still expect an undergraduate degree in their recruitment process, so dropping out of school (especially a target school like Oxford) just puts you in a more disadvantaged position.
My advice is do enough to get a 2.1 and build your resume up with work experiences so that you're in good stead for MBB recruiting in your final year.
Thank you for this. MBB is certainly the dream haha, would you say a low 2:1 is sufficient to keep up in a regular recruiting cycle (assuming I don't get pipelined)? And further, would you say a 2:2 would take me out of consideration entirely?
I'm not too familiar with how recruiting works in the UK, so I wouldn't be able to tell you what the general cutoff is. I would ask around with other students that have successfully recruited and attend info sessions. As a general rule, MBB is quite competitive even if you are in a top uni, so meeting the academic cutoff + having some other resume spikes is important.
dont drop out, you are at best uni studying arguably one of the most highly regarded courses out there. your current part time opportunity only came about because you are at oxford and studying such a rigorous course.
grind your degree out, also you are young, it is likely that you will change your outlook on your career etc. tons of opportunities lie ahead of you, i wouldnt silo urself straight into consulting. if you start to like math again, you can become a quant for example.
dont give up and keep your options open.
I appreciate your advice! I agree actually; putting it a bit in perspective, I've been undervaluing the flexibility an undergrad gives me. It's been a bit optimistic from my perspective to think I'll remain truly consistent haha I see that now
DO NOT DROP OUT.
You only got this current role because of your undergrad. What happens if this company goes under or you get fired? Homeless.
I appreciate your honest advice, and to be honest - considering the (pretty obvious) consensus I've received, I've talked to my mentors and they agree - so I think I'm going to complete this degree one way or another :)!
How did you get the part time consulting job before even going to university? Does your dad work there or something
"to give a bit of context the company I part-time consulted in was an opportunity I got through application and selection at a University Consulting Society." - part of a different comment I replied to!
As others have said, don’t drop out. Get a 2.1 minimum and you will have far more options for the rest of your life.
However, worth saying that it is possible to join a big consulting firm without a degree… but this isn’t at the entry level, you typically need to prove yourself in industry first, and getting your foot in the door there will be a challenge. I do know partners, for example, who were engineers that had gone the apprentice root and eventually transitioned to MBB.
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