Do the Big 4 care about college Prestige?
I was wondering about the emphasis that the Big 4 place on the name/prestige of the B-School. For example, if I really like UGA's Terry, but also got into UVA's Darden, would I be a fool to choose Terry (for accounting)? From what I can tell, there appears to be a lot less of an emphasis on the "brand" of business school you go to for accounting when compared to investing banking.
(The schools are just hypothetical - although I do like Terry)
no dude don't worry they take anyone with a pulse
It's really not that big of a deal to be working for the big 4. It's fairly entry level and depending on what you do, the salary isn't that great (go check glassdoor if you don't believe me) because it doesn't need to be - they know that they're doing you a favor by hiring you.
Also - Choose Terry. Go Dawgs.
The biggest thing would be if the Big 4 actively recruit at the campuses you are considering. That is loosely connected with prestige, but it's not always true. Look at the firm's website and ask the career services folks who does OCR.
They will NOT take anyone with a pulse (see various accounting forums for reference), but they are much less selective than BB IB groups tend to be. It’s simply a factor of lower starting salary and greater hiring needs.
The point about OCR is dead on. They won’t generally recruit at directional schools (though this does vary), but all the large state flagships will have a presence. The biggest differences between UVA and UGA will be how well you enjoy it, how well you perform, and whether you’d rather end up in DC or Atlanta (and they should take that order of importance).
Generally a 3.5 and social skills at a large state school will be enough to get you comfortably in the door, but there is room for error. Best bets will be the flagship in the state you want to end up in, but this isn’t a hard rule (i.e. a UGA grad could still end up in LA or NY for example).
Starting salaries only vary by about $10k across the spectrum, as in NY/SF only pay around that much more than Boise or OKC, so keep that in mind when looking at potentially taking on debt. The difference will expand at higher levels, if you last that long (most leave within 3-5 years). These factors will also depend on what group you’re looking at
Thank you for your reply and info! I am interested in staying more in the South, so I believe that UGA will be the best choice for me.
If you're talking about audit/tax - then sure, they are not very selective.
For consulting or M&A - they are much more selective (although still less selective than BB banks or MBB). I looked up the profiles of analysts entering Deloitte S&O in my city, and some attended from top universities.
It depends on the group. Agreed with some of the comments above, audit and tax not so much. Even certain groups within consulting. However, the Strategy groups within consulting are definitely more selective. It was very tough for me to break into my strategy group from a non-target and most of my peers have elite school pedigree. my current team EM was UVA UG and Michigan Grad, while my same level peer was yale UG and Wharton MBA. Not going to say its as tough as MBB or Elite IB because its not, but they dont take everyone.
Dude, there’s no comparison when deciding between UGA and UVA. UVA and it isn’t even close...regardless of what you want to major in.
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