Philadelphia MBAs and a Consulting Career

Last Updated Mar 9, 2016 by Kelly Vo

If you’re pursuing your MBA to get a job in consulting, then consider heading to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is home to some of the top MBA programs in the country, and many of them place an emphasis on consulting careers.

We focused on three schools: the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Villanova School of Business, and the Smeal College of Business at Penn State to get an idea of where you should attend and why.

Wharton School

There’s no doubt that the Wharton School is frequently considered one of the top MBA programs in the world and it also leads the list for its focus on consulting. Wharton students interested in consulting come from all backgrounds and enter into a variety of consulting fields from Marketing to Strategic Management, Organizational Effectiveness to Finance. To get an idea of the type of Wharton MBAs who enter into the consulting field, you can check out their student interviews.

Global Consulting Practicum: Unique to the Wharton School, their Global Consulting Practicum provides an opportunity for all MBA students to garner real-world practice in consulting. Established in 1978, this valuable program pairs teams of Wharton MBA students with faculty at partner universities to consult with a client company.
MBA Consulting Focus: Beyond the Practicum, Wharton MBAs can tailor their program to six different focuses, including a consulting focus. The focus allows students to add flexible core courses to their program that will give them insight into the consulting industry.
Consulting Club: Outside of the MBA program, The Wharton School is home to the Wharton Consulting Club, one of the largest student-run organizations at the school. Yearly, the club hosts conferences, case competitions, speakers, mock interviews, workshops and more.
Wharton Community Consultants: For more in-depth experiences, Wharton MBA students can volunteer their time with the Wharton Community Consultants and provide consulting and advisory services to nonprofit and community organizations. Participants gain valuable experiences and mentorship opportunities.

Villanova School

While Villanova’s consulting opportunities are not quite as varied as Wharton’s, there are still many opportunities for MBAs, including two unique practicums.

Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum: The 14-week Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum provides MBA students with the opportunity to research and partner with a local nonprofit organization. They’ll help detect problem areas in branding, funding, logistics, or membership retention and identify solutions.
MBA Nonprofit Consulting Practicum: Another course requirement for all Villanova MBA students is the Nonprofit Consulting Practicum, which puts students into teams of five. Those teams then select a social enterprise to serve. The practicum culminates at the end of the semester with a final performance before client representatives, their consultant, and an outside observer.

Smeal College

As for Smeal College, we reached out to Brenda L. Fabian, the MBA Admissions Associate Director. She provided us with an in-depth look at how a Smeal MBA is valuable for consulting.

MetroMBA: How does the Smeal MBA Prepare Students for a Career in Consulting?

Brenda L. Fabian

“We prepare students by equipping them with the essential skills to be successful in the industry,” said Brenda. “The Smeal MBA academic curriculum as well as our co-curricular and extracurricular activities offer students experience in data analytics, communication, and teamwork. The ability to successfully evaluate data is a necessity for a career in consulting. Our students complete coursework in Data Analysis, Financial Modeling, and Strategy.

Relationships in consulting are built on trust. At Smeal we have an honor code and we foster a culture of honor, integrity, and trust. Our goal is for students to commit to and carry this way of thinking and behaving into their professional and personal lives.

The Code: We, the Smeal College of Business community, aspire to the highest ethical standards and will hold each other accountable to them. We will not engage in any action that is improper or that creates the appearance of impropriety in our academic lives, and we intend to hold to this standard in our future careers.”