quote:
To reiterate, consulting recruiting is a beyotch coming out of undergrad. If you're not at a target with a stellar resume you realistically have no shot with the big boys, and it's every bit as competitive as top IB if you do. This is true outside MBB too, B4 consulting arms and the next-tier groups (e.g. Booz, Accenture, LEK) are picky too. For every Lynx there's 9 other hustlers who failed to get any traction.

A Top 20 MBA program with robust consulting recruiting will set you back a bit financially, but if you can get into such schools it is usually a more fruitful path if you don't blow it in internship recruiting prep. Many would argue it's the more conventional way to land.

Agreed. To be even more specific, you need at least a 700 GMAT or a 32 ACT plus stellar grades to even get an interview at MBB. They use pretty strict cutoffs....because they can. They have way more demand than positions available so the reputation becomes self fulfilling. I did not pursue MBB right out of undergrad because it was too much of an uphill battle. I targeted the next tier because I thought my chances of getting an interview were higher (and they were). However, I did try to get in with Bain and BCG about 18 months in professionally and literally had a recruiter say, “I’m swimming knee deep in awesome; I have no idea how I got a job here”

That quote forever sticks in my mind about the MBB application process.

Even the next tier of firms have a very specific set of schools they recruit for undergraduates. At mine, recruiters called it the “Top 30” and they were tasked with recruiting 75% of new hires from 30 schools. At MBB, they take more like 95% of new hires from 15-20 schools. McKinsey is known as the most selective...they are to the point where they get almost all MBA talent from 10 schools or so.

Nonetheless, it is not impossible to break-in from a non-target school. A girl I mentored a few years ago got into BCG out of undergrad from LSU; she also had a New York IB offer with JP Morgan. She’s a top of the class, homecoming queen -type talent but I use this example to show it is not impossible.