When does the prestige of a person's undergraduate degree matter in either consulting or the world of finance?
I have a friend who has been struggling with a decision whether to go to an ivy league school for undergraduate. He is struggling with the decision because attending the ivy league school would put him in a lot of debt. He is currently taking classes at a non-target school, and while he has a wealth of research experience, he has been unable to break into consulting because the top 5 do not recruit at his school. When he eventually does breaks into consulting, he doesn't want to be overlooked or held back from being on the fast track to partner. In your opinion and experience, when does the prestige of a person's undergraduate degree matter in either consulting or the world of finance? Does their undergraduate degree matter if they have a prestigious graduate degree from a top business school? Thank you in advance.
I don’t think it matters in IB once you get your foot in the door. But sure, you’d have a better network/CV if you’re interested in exit ops.
This is where it matters - breaking in. I went to a non-target undergrad and couldn't get anyone to talk to me; I went to an M7 for my MBA and interviewed with every major consulting firm with multiple offers.
As you grow up, no, people don't really care where you went to school. If you're dropping that you went to Harvard or Princeton at a major consulting firm noone gives a fuck, the place is full of targets and those that didn't go to a target belong to be there (i.e. they probably had to be better than you to get a job). Work experience (or your project/deal track record) is much more important.
In terms of being held back from partner - I laughed when I read this. You make partner based on making yourself a revenue center for the firm, they make decisions for partnership status on this, not where you chose to study micro 10 years before. Once your'e in you are on equal footing with everyone else.
The real continuing value of a top school is in terms of networking for external exits.
College Transfer - Importance of Undergrad Prestige for Non-MBB Consulting? (Originally Posted: 06/13/2016)
I've been lurking around WSO for a few months and finally decided to join. I'm a rising junior from an upstate NY CC and will be transferring this fall likely to a non-target university state U or mid-tier private to major in Finance or Accounting, likely along with a regional studies minor or double major. My goal after undergrad is to get into consulting abroad. I'm not particularly interested in MBB, though I wouldn't pass up an offer, but I would like to be able to work for a firm that would pay decently for a fresh undergrad (50k-80k). I'm aware many boutique firms don't have international offices, but I would be willing to work in the US for a few years then either go to a company with an international office or get my MBA overseas.
After stupidly applying to way too many colleges and subsequently not spending enough time on most of my applications, I got waitlisted at good non-Ivies (think UVA, Gtown, UNC) and will likely end up at:
American Univ (SUNY) Binghamton, Stony Brook, UB, Albany Florida International Univ UCF RIT
Though American is pretty well known for their IR/PolSci and has some decent OCR, and FIU has a well-ranked Intl Bus program, these are all pretty much non-targets for Finance. I plan on networking my ass off no matter where I go, but I'm basically guaranteed at least an interview at a Vault top 50 as a family member is an MD. However, outside of that I'd like to get an idea of what the possibilities are. I'm also a female URM, not sure how much this helps or hurts in terms of OCR from non-targets.
1.) How important is undergrad brand name to non-MBB, assuming at the very, very least 3.5+? 2.) How likely is it to be able to break into consulting from one of these schools? 3.) Which school would position me better for consulting, particularly abroad?
4.) Would I be better off working in different area of finance such as AM or trading and then trying to move to consulting, possibly post-MBA, assuming top 25 program? (I know what I want, but I'm not inflexible) 5.) American is the highest ranked out of the group to my knowledge, but will cost me about $35,000 vs. the others at around $10-20. Would going there be worth the cost?
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