Does IE university place well in Consulting?

Hi everyone,

I am a CEGEP(pre-university college) in Quebec and it is now the time to choose where I want to study in University.

I live in Montreal so I will apply to HEC Montreal, McGill, and IE university in Madrid. All for their Bachelors in Management/Business. I want to pursue a career in consulting for the big firms(McKinsey, Bane, BCG, etc), and was wondering if choosing IE would allow me to do that. I know that they would lead me to very different directions but that’s something I expect.

I know HEC Montreal and McGill could very well get me into consulting in Montreal or Toronto but I want  the life experience of going abroad that IE can give me. IE is also a top school in Europe so I was wondering how good the IE placement into UK consulting is and If I could still land a job in consulting in the US or Canada. 
 

Thank you for your help!

16 Comments
 

Fresh IE graduate here: IE does very very well in consulting. However, geography plays a big role as you said. From what I've seen: IE to int'l hotspots (UK, Dubai, etc.) consulting -> common, IE to US consulting -> nightmare (imo), IE to Canada consulting -> not many people here go for Canada but easy if you're Canadian, knew a few who did so without much difficulty. Likely to be a plus actually if you spin it as having broadened your perspectives.

US is a nightmare mainly because US almost never hires from non-US universities. Luxembourg is also an option (only requires English). Madrid's student life is unparalleled as well vs any other European city. (Caveat: I was undergrad at IE)

 

The studies were awesome, the quality of the classes were at least on par with (if not better than) those I took when I went on exchange to a US T10 but with less workload. However, I did notice the undergrads at the target were more career-oriented than in IE undergrad, but this might be a cultural thing - Europeans definitely don't make life revolve around their careers vs what I've seen in the US, and lock in during their Master's as opposed to undergrad. 

IE's Master's programs are the real deal, their reputation and placement is top-tier. Social life was great but very different from North American. People were wayyyyy more well-adjusted and you find a much more refined class of people there. However, I didn't enjoy the campus too much because I prefer a North American style campus with lots of facilities, whereas European campuses tend to be city campuses.

Don't want to dox myself, so I'll keep it vague. Wanted to work in the US (as a citizen) but couldn't make it due to the brutal post-COVID job market, so I'm working in another country at a regional Elite Boutique investment bank.

 

Analyst 1 in IB - Gen

US is a nightmare mainly because US almost never hires from non-US universities. 

Not true, US hires from UK targets, especially US citizens studying abroad

 

McGill is 100 times better than IE university. IE is just a for-profit university that has a terrible reputation among other business school graduates (they care more about your money than anything). I would not go for it even if you had HEC Montreal or even Concordia...IE does not place well in Europe check their Linkedin stats... Go to ESADE if your want to study in Spain :)

 

Thank you for your response, 

How do I check LinkedIn stats?

And it’s really that bad? You think I will have trouble making it into big firms, even in Europe?

 

Hey, outside Spain yes. The best bachelor in business in Europe are LSE, Bocconi, RSM, HSG and Warwick (plus Oxford ofc). For Linkedin, find your target companies then put the name of the unis you want to go (then check their profiles because sometimes people have MOOC's or another non-degree programs and counts as almuni of the uni when it should not). You can do that for any university by the way :) (ps: you might need to have premium to do that but you have a 30 day trial which you can cancel just after). 

 
Most Helpful

that's BS, IE places better than ESADE in almost every ranking

 

Canadian but am also IE masters grad, so sure take this with a grain of salt if you want.. but this comment is just flat out wrong and terrible advice regarding IEs reputation.

With that said, if you want to work in Canada immediately after graduation, McGill would be easier due to proximity. However, if you’d be interested in working abroad for a few years (London etc) and then leverage that experience to move back to Canada then I think IE (or any top Euro school) is a great idea and helps build a pretty nice profile

 

Agreed. Boib seems to have something against IE. Although they make a fair point about the cost, the view that IE is a bad university and places badly is incredibly inaccurate. 

 

IE's reputation is ass, literally the regents university of Spain (dumb rich kids and a school who knows how to take their money). 

Look at some of the better EU undergrads like HSG, Bocconi etc 

 

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