Humanities Major to Consulting

Hello all!

So I'll keep this short and to the point: I've done a good deal of searching through these forums and others, and have spoken to a number of friends in the consulting world, but have yet to get a definitive answer on the question of college majors.

I'm a sophomore at a target/semi-target (depending on who you ask, I guess, but think Duke, Georgetown, etc), and am a language major with double minors in humanities areas and a 4.0. I have pretty stellar ECs in terms of leadership, research experience, business work, and internships (though none in the world of consulting...nonprofit and education work is where I've mostly focused, with some informal business experience, as well); I also have loads of international experience and speak 4 language, for what it's worth.

As I've been attending info sessions and the like, however, I've become more and more self-conscious of my major choice. Looking at my application, it's definitely not immediately apparent, but I have an aptitude for and greatly enjoy math and science. Looking at my resume/transcripts, a reader would see that I'm a math TA and have taken a year of chemistry plus an upper-level math course in statistics and modeling, but I'm worried that a top consulting firm won't get that far after looking at my major (as my family has warned me).

Just to put my mind at ease, I was wondering what everyone here thinks. Should I try and pick up a math or econ minor? Would that help at all? Or should I just stick with what I've got and try and go through the OCI process?

Thanks guys!

 
Best Response

well, there's a solid difference between Duke and Georgetown for MBB, but in general top firms don't care at all about your major (particularly at top schools, not completely sure if that extends to others). like, not even a little. school, connections, GPA, test scores, work experience, and extracurriculars are all that matters. if you're a hard science/engineering/math major, they will want to see clear examples of your soft skills, leadership, writing skills/verbal and writing SAT scores, ability to communicate, etc. for humanities majors, they want to see high math SAT scores, and stuff like you've included where you've taken a couple math or statistics classes or done anything quantitative work or research-wise. individual resume screeners may have slight biases one way or the other for whatever reasons, but usually interview decisions are made by teams anyway.

make sure you make it obvious in your cover letters and on your resume that you've taken those classes, and include your stint as a math TA under activities or interests, plus any other stuff along these lines. you'll be fine. the people who try to make you feel bad for not studying engineering or whatever, including your parents, are like most other people generally clueless, so just do your best to ignore them.

 

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