MS advice for breaking into consulting
Hello everyone, so as the title reflects I'm hoping to get advice as to what my best bets are for a masters program to break into consulting. About my background, I went to UG for 1 semester following high school and it didn't work for me at the time and ended up having a failing semester. I spent the next 4 years in the Navy as an intelligence analyst where I excelled and always ranked in the top 10% of my peers and even picked up a meritorious promotion along the way. After the Navy I was refocused on my studies to have the career I always wanted. I had to attend a community college for a few semesters to raise my GPA enough to get into a respectable UG program. I had a 3.8 GPA through out CC to get my GPA up to a 3.0 overall to transfer into a BS in Management degree program from a top 30 UG school. Since transferring into my program I have a 4.0 GPA through 30 credits. I am going into my senior year this year and will be applying to graduate schools for next year. I have not taken the GMAT yet (taking in September) but predict around a 660.
Here are the questions I'm looking to have answered. 1.) what programs do I actually have a shot at that will help me break into consulting? Duke is my absolute dream school so I will be applying to the MMS there, not sure if I will get in but I feel pretty good about it. I was pretty dead set on applying to a handful of MSF programs as well to include Vandy, Nova, UTA, WUSTL, and SMU. I recently started looking into MS in Business Analytics programs as well but have no idea if that is a good idea or not. I was looking at UTD, Wake Forest, and SMU MSBA programs, I just started looking into them so there might be others as well.
2.) Since I am going into my senior year, I still have around 32 credits I have to take for my degree. Because of this I was thinking that I would try to apply in the January deadline rounds to give the schools more grades to evaluate. Is this a bad idea? would it be stupid to not apply round 1 for everything even though I need quite a few more credits for my degree? I guess I'm just trying to get advice on what timing I should have for my applications.
Thanks in advance to anyone willing to offer me some insight. I would really appreciate it.
you may have a legit shot towards MBA programs since you are not the traditional 4-year undergrad without experience.
GMAT hope yours get into 700s, if not, not a huge problem either. Kellogg MSMS can be doable. UVA can be reach too. aim higher. let them reject you is better than denying yourself from acceptances.
with all due respect, all these MSF, MMS or Business Analytics programs, are for OCR spots and alumni networking through the university (and their respective full-time MBA ranking matters). Classes are secondary even though useful. if you're in Top 30 UG, is your campus resource not enough for consulting directly? At least MMS makes sense, but MSF is more geared towards financial careers and is tougher to explain for a general practice consulting career
My initial intention was to apply for MBA programs as well, however after looking into everything I thought that I wouldn't have a legitimate shot being that I would have to apply in January rounds without even completing my undergraduate yet. I fear wasting my time in application preparation to not get accepted and then be screwed for a year. I also want to leave my options for the future open so anything worse than a 15 or so MBA ranking just wouldn't be worth it to me at this point in time.
In all honesty I am aiming to attend these programs for a few reasons. 1 is that it will be of no cost to me no matter where or what program I do. The second would be attending for specifically that, the OCR and networking. For consulting my current on campus resource is completely laughable, there is absolutely no MBB presence and there are no offices in my area. The best shot I would have would be about Deloitte equivalent, which isn't terrible but I would like to have a shot at the top too and even the Deloitte caliber opportunities are limited. Ill look into the Kellogg program you mentioned. Thanks for the tip. How do you feel like my chances are at some of these programs? Or even at like a Duke MBA?
if it isn't as good as Virginia, Kellogg MIT, or Duke and equivalents, there is a high chance that you shouldn't bother. I don't have much to evaluate your MBA chances, I'm just saying well executed application with your base may work out to your favor. MBB chances are low in most places you can have a short-term reach of, so if your bang does not product MBB placement, don't be surprised.
Bump. hoping for some more insight. I am not MBB or bust, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't end in a placement. I simply would like to give myself the best chance possible.
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