Deloitte S&O vs. Capital One BA MBA placement and exit opportunities?

Hi,

I'm a senior at UPenn studying Cognitive Science (minor in CS). I'm having a lot of trouble coming to a decision about where I want to work next year. I could really use some help assessing my two options.

Short Background on the offers: I interned at Capital One as a Business Anaylst, and I really enjoyed it. That said, I don't have a particularly strong interest in staying in the credit card industry for more than a few years, and I didn't feel that the firm was a perfect fit for me. That's where the Deloitte offer comes in. I've wanted to try consulting for a a while because I feel that it would be a great way to get my feet wet and experience several different areas. My eventual goal is to work in start ups, so it feels like having broad experience could be useful there.

My Concerns: My primary concern is maximizing my future opportunities. Specifically, I want to give myself the best chance of getting into a top MBA program (HBS/S/W/Kellogg/Sloan/Booth). I should be able to graduate Penn summa cum laude and I predict a 720-750 GMAT (based on practice test performance). What I would really like to understand is the impact of Capital One vs. Deloitte S&O on my MBA chances. There are a lot of pros and cons to both. Capital One has significantly better work life balance, and noticeably higher pay (at least for the first 1-4 years). However, I really do like the idea of giving consulting a try - traveling, client meetings, fast deadlines, MBA sponsorship, etc. To me, there doesn't appear to be a tremendous difference in terms of my net gain over the next 1-4 years between the two firms, so it really comes down to MBA placement and future job opportunities after MBA. To that end, I would not be opposed to returning to Deloitte post MBA (if that's where I end up) or trying for MBB, but I think it's more likely I would try to pursue something in tech (ideally a start up).
I've had a lot of trouble finding solid information about Deloitte S&O's MBA placement online. What I've gathered from reading these forums and others is that S&O has really been on the rise over the last ~5 years (due to Monitor acquisition and increased focus on strategy/consulting arm), it seems like a lot of the information may be somewhat outdated. If anyone would be willing to share their thoughts/knowledge about any of this, I would be incredibly grateful. It's been really stressful trying to decide and my deadlines are approaching.

 
Best Response

Go chat with people about the GSAP (Graduate School Assistance Program) at Deloitte and ask for the acceptance rates at top schools. When I went to pitch day, this was a normal part of the pitch program as GSAP was a prominent feature of Deloitte. Overall, Deloitte sponsored employees place extremely well at top 20 MBA programs and one of the "jokes" I consistently heard was that Deloitte "pays" 12% of the tuition at Kellogg. With that being said, Harvard and Stanford are a bit tougher...the most prominent programs for Deloitte. GSAPers seem to be Kellogg, Booth, Haas, Ross, Fuqua, Columbia, and Anderson. Honestly, I think people could go to "better" schools, but a ton of people go back to the firm, so most people seemingly want to go to schools in "fun" places (see Chicago, New York, LA, Berkley, or amazing college towns).

On top of that, of what I know at Cap One, Deloitte will give you a more diversified experience that will translate to a wider variety of jobs. Realistically speaking, Deloitte places as well as MBB outside of PE, VC, and Impact Consulting (arguably the three most interesting jobs, but if you don't care about those jobs then it really doesn't matter).

TLDR: Go to Deloitte - places tons of people at top MBA programs and consulting opens lots of doors.

 

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