Traveling for MBB in NY vs. Boston vs. Chicago

This is largely a guess--but I'd imagine the NY office does the least traveling of the 3, because of the number of local clients. Especially if you're in CF or something

Chicago > Boston > NY in terms of travel would be my guess. Best way is to get in touch with someone in each office and ask them what % of cases are travel.

Really, it does not matter that NYC is 50% local (making that figure up) when you're the guy that got stuck on the 6 month project with a flagship client in Delaware that rolled for another 3 months with the client requesting that the same team continue.

I had Boston friends who traveled to NYC constantly and that NYC friends travelled to DC or Europe constantly; it all depends on your project and how long your engagement is.

Chicago travels Mon to Thurs. At least at McKinsey, projects get staffed irrespective of the "home office."

In my experience travel is very different from one city to the next.

Generally hubs like like NY / London (and to a lesser degree Chicago) will not have to travel as much and smaller cities such as Boston will have to travel more because a higher percentage of cases will be outside the local area. It will vary a lot depending on your firm and the industries you work with however (e.g., a Healthcare specialist in Boston may not need to travel as much as FS person would).

Also, it depends quite a bit on which firm. McKinsey engagements still tend to be 4 days travel. Bain and BCG consultants average 2-3/week, because they try to staff teams from the same office together.