Consulting Tier List - 2025 Comprehensive

Tier A+: McKinsey NYC/SF/CHI/BOS, BCG NYC/SF/CHI/BOS, Bain NYC/SF/CHI/BOS

Tier A: McKinsey DC/LA, BCG DC/LA, Bain DC/LA

Tier A-: McKinsey T2/3 Locations, BCG T2/3 Locations, Bain T2/3 Locations, Oliver Wyman NYC

Tier B+: Oliver Wyman T2/3 Locations, S&, EYP, LEK

Tier B: Kearney, ZS, ClearView, Accenture, Deloitte, A&M, FTI, AlixPartners

Tier B-: Altman Solon, Simon Kutcher, OC&C, Booz Allen Hamilton

31 Comments
 

As someone who worked at McK NY/SF but received offers at multiple MBB in your A+ tier, it's inaccurate and too crowded. A better ranking would be:

1. McK NY, McK SF, Bain SF, BCG NY

  • These are the best offices nationally, it's not even debatable. Before people comment, yes, Bain SF is better than Bain NY.

2. Bain NY, McK Chicago, Bain Chicago, BCG SF

  • These offices are all strong but are just a tiny bit below the locations above. They all have the same exit quality as above and good staffing but get edged out by the above in perception/project quality. 

2.5. BCG Boston

  • BCG Boston sits in its own weird spot. It has legacy weight, but worse exits and projects than all of the above. Definitely on the downturn compared to BCG NY/SF.

3. McK Boston, Bain Boston, BCG Chicago

  • As you can see, I am a bit more critical of the Boston offices and this is for good reason. Projects, exits, and prestige lag behind NY/SF/Chicago. Lastly, BCG Chicago is the worst major city MBB office. 
 
Most Helpful

Did not work there but had a close friend who did but can provide some insight. 

  1. Most attractive / best MBB office in the world if you're interested in tech period. People might say it's McK but I disagree because Bain SF works with more early-stage / high growth / VC backed clients whereas McK SF skews to big tech / enterprise, and regulatory-heavy projects.
  2. You work on all of the cool tech projects as well as the sexy healthcare/consumer projects and they dominate west coast PE work (although Bain is weaker in HC compared to McK/BCG). Since you're locally staffed at Bain, you get to spend almost all of your time on the most interesting projects (which are out of SF) whereas at McK/BCG it's more challenging to do so.
  3. Slightly better (maybe more varied is correct) exits than Bain NY/Chicago due to proximity to SF and local staffing so you get things like VC/GE and top startup exits.
  4. Best WLB of all of the Tier 1/2 offices referenced in my post.
  5. Many of Bain's recent global managing partners are from the SF office.
  6. Partly biased because I work in PE now, but if you want PE, you go to Bain. Yes it's also straightforward from McK, but the Bain pipelines are very robust and their PEG practice makes the transition easier.
 

Doesnt make sense to do these rankings by office so specifically. Because everyone will take the worst MBB office over NY T2. 

Also, if your gonna do it by office for MBB and OW, dont just leave the rest as "firm" lol

 

Good time to “get casing” for all banking rejects graduating in 2026. 

 

Where would you put MBB New Jersey and Connecticut offices?


(For reference, everyone under the age of 30-35 in these offices lives in Manhattan and works in Manhattan offices except for going to NJY/CT 2x/month. Many have NYC as their location on LinkedIn as they are in NYC office way more than their actual office. The offices exist basically for partners who move outside the city and for lower taxes, but younger people get to live in NYC. They’re also staffed on the same projects/circuit as NYC consultants.)

Where would they stand as I know these offices are very competitive due to being able to live in NYC and work on their cases? However, I’m not sure exactly where they are relative to other cities. Any idea?  

 

Mid tier 2 office, comparable to DC or Miami but below Boston Chicago LA

 

Ngl I feel like it's incredibly hard to tier list consulting unless you specify the type...like no one in their right mind who's looking for econ consulting would take MBB over like Analysis Group, and the same for RX, FTI / Alix / A&M are the top dogs.

Your list is better suited for strat / management rankings, which seems a bit selfish bc that's not the "only" consulting

 

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