Vanderbilt/CMU Tepper/Georgetown McDonough/NYU Stern/USC Marshall/Notre Dame Mendoza
I am a rising junior in undergrad transferring out of a non-target school (T40), and I wanted to see what the best school of the following was best for MBB recruiting:
- Vanderbilt CAS - Economics
- CMU Tepper
- Georgetown McDonough
- NYU Stern
- USC Marshall
- Notre Dame Mendoza
Based in East Coast (NY), but would like to know your thoughts on local recruiting for each of the schools as well.
Thanks for the help!
Don’t think any of those schools are true MBB targets, though I know BCG recruits at NYU. You’ve got some solid IB targets however (stern and gtown).
I go to Vanderbilt and can confirm Mckinsey and Bain did OCR first rounds last fall. They target for Dallas and Atlanta offices though.
Also Vandy is a target for BCG in Atlanta but I forget if they came onto campus too.
I will say that it is competitive though as probably 100-200 kids each year are considering consulting.
Would you say most of those kids are Economics / HOD? I was thinking of doing a double major in the two with a Business minor if I chose to matriculate there. Thanks for the help!
I know Bain is just southern offices but can you recruit for other offices (like northeast or west coast) for McKinsey and Bain? does that give you a disadvantage?
You can for McKinsey with no disadvantage. I don’t think you can for Bain.
Also attend Vanderbilt - the school is a solid target for MBB. McKinsey and Bain take several interns and full-times per year, while BCG is a bit smaller but still takes a solid number of people. MBB seems to take more people every year, while the number of people at info sessions seems to be growing proportionally.
Locations vary though - McKinsey recruits for all offices, but Bain exclusively recruits for its South-Eastern offices (Dallas, Houston, Atlanta). BCG I'm not sure how set in stone they are (compared to Bain, who explicitly says the South Eastern thing in info sessions), but anecdotally, most Vandy-to-BCG people I know end up in the Atlanta office, with a few exceptions.
Regarding your other choices, can't speak too much about them except for Stern - I'm from the area so I know a ton of NYU kids, and my impression is that they are a heavily banking-focused school. Banking recruiting is an order of magnitude bigger than consulting recruiting there, and tends to suck the air out of things a bit. It's obviously not impossible, but it seems like a way smaller proportion of their class ends up in consulting, relatively speaking.
Regardless, you've got some phenomenal options on your hands across the board - best of luck with whatever you decide!
Georgetown is the largest MBB target IMO--they send 20-30 people every year to mostly east coast offices. ND is strong for Chicago, and USC sends a few to Bain in LA. Unsure about the rest but they all most likely have some degree of MBB recruiting.
Current Vandy alum at an MBB - can confirm that all recruit heavily on campus (20+ went to MBB in my year), but they are incredibly competitive (e.g., 400+ people came to my MBB's last info session). Like others have said, Bain and BCG only recruit for southern offices, but McKinsey recruits for all offices.
Of those schools listed, I'd rank them as following - Vandy, Notre Dame, NYU, Georgetown, USC, CMU. This is an office agnostic ranking - if you have a preference to be in the Northeast, NYU and Georgetown would win out (and likewise Notre Dame for Chicago).
What would you say the most common trait between the 20 students that made it was? I'm lowkey worried that as a junior transfer, I'll have a hard time balancing adjusting to a new school and recruiting at the same time. Vandy is definitely one of my top choices though, and I'm more than 50% set on going right now.
I'd say the things that are a must are a high GPA (>3.7), good prior work experience / internships, networking, and solid case prep.
Keep in mind that the bulk of BA / A / AC recruiting happens senior year, as very few people get internships, so I wouldn't be too disillusioned if you don't land something this fall.
Honestly, are you exclusively transferring out of your school for career reasons or for social reasons as well? If its solely the former, I'd recommend against it - I've seen several students from non-target schools land MBB positions through networking alone. College is too short to throw away a good set of friends / experiences for just the chance at working at a prestigious firm. Transferring to Vandy is no guarantee that you'll get into MBB, so might as well stay at your current school, bust your ass, and try to land something from there.
In terms of consulting I would rank it as the following:
Georgetown McDonough/SFS Vanderbilt CAS-Econ NYU Stern Notre Dame Mendoza USC Marshall CMU Tepper
Also keep in mind that the concept of a target for consulting is very different than that of IB. For IB, target schools might send 100+ to BB banks while for a consulting target it might be like 10+ to MBB Edit: removed the extra Notre Dame
...you have Notre Dame twice
Id go Georgetown Stern or USC
All of these besides maybe CMU Tepper are targets for regional offices. Strongest bets are probably Vandy, GTown, USC, NYU in that order. Of these, GTown has the most diversified office placements, but a lot of that is driven by recruits from the SFS that speak a foreign language and recruit for that office.
Georgetown for east coast followed closely by NYU
USC for West Coast
Notre Dame for Chicago.
If I were you I’d choose Georgetown or USC- both because they place well and because there will be a decent amount of other transfers so you won’t be alone
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