Northwestern vs Berkeley vs Pomona for MBB

Hey guys! I’m an international who was admitted to NU, Berkeley, Pomona, Rice (on a hefty scholarship) and Emory.

I’m leaning towards NU—I like the school better overall and it seems to have the best MBB placements. Is the latter true? I’ve had people tell me Pomona is best for recruiting and others say Berkeley. I don’t really know much about location and where I want to work etc.

12 Comments
 

I'm at Berkeley, and I come from MBB. I have seen a lot of my friends recruiting for MBB from here too.

I would tend to agree with A1 above, that Kellogg will be a better and safer choice for it. You'd also be recruiting for the Chicago offices, most likely, which are a little less competitive than the SF offices (still tough though).

You can still definitely make it from Berkeley, I have many friends who got offers (both pre-MBA and during on-cycle recruiting), but it looks like it was tougher than I expected it for many of them.

Happy to talk more about Berkeley in general, but if that's your only metric, then Kellogg > Haas.

 

On the Berkeley college experience, how real is grade deflation? Honestly, I had a hard time keeping a work ethic in high-school (particularly for my academics)—-wasn’t even in the top 50% of my class till junior year—but I did go up a crazy amount after. I really don’t wanna go to a school that’s too tough academically.

 

Anecdotally, a quarter of my incoming MBB class is Northwestern, more than double the next school. Although correlation ≠ causation, and it may be the case that people from Northwestern disproportionately apply to consulting more/have disproportionately better resume's.

 

gonna be the devils advocate here - northwestern is better for placement but i would 100% take berkeley for the college experience and their consulting clubs have F500 clients

 

I go to Emory and we're fairly strong for MBB and consulting in general but I would pick Northwestern here. If not Northwestern then I would pick Rice because of the scholarship, its a very good school and going to a great school for cheap is clutch. Berkeley is a humongous school so it naturally would have a ton in MBB and Pomona is good but not Northwestern level

 

Porro quam officia consequatur architecto atque excepturi iusto. Et nostrum officiis quia qui facilis et alias. Esse odit voluptatum assumenda et aut molestiae at.

Alias doloremque impedit unde quasi dolores. Vitae sit dolorum enim adipisci. Perspiciatis facilis eveniet ullam dignissimos error ipsam praesentium.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Consulting

  • Boston Consulting Group 99.5%
  • Bain & Company 99.0%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.5%
  • Oliver Wyman 98.0%
  • LEK Consulting 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Consulting

  • Cornerstone Research 99.5%
  • Bain & Company 99.0%
  • Boston Consulting Group 98.5%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.0%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.5%
  • Boston Consulting Group 99.0%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.5%
  • Oliver Wyman 98.0%
  • LEK Consulting 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Consulting

  • Partner (4) $361
  • Principal (30) $294
  • Director/MD (58) $274
  • Vice President (53) $247
  • Engagement Manager (111) $232
  • Manager (167) $172
  • 2nd Year Associate (185) $142
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (115) $135
  • Senior Consultant (354) $132
  • Consultant (635) $122
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (162) $121
  • 1st Year Associate (575) $121
  • NA (16) $114
  • Engineer (6) $114
  • 2nd Year Analyst (390) $104
  • Associate Consultant (175) $100
  • 1st Year Analyst (1152) $90
  • Intern/Summer Associate (205) $83
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (625) $67
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”