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.
- 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.”
MetroMBA: What resources are available to Smeal MBAs?
“The MBA consulting association is a great benefit,” Brenda shared. “This association is managed by students and these student leaders offer professional networking opportunities, consulting career workshops, guest speakers from top consulting firms, industry information and interviewing preparation. Topics can range from ‘How to manage a meeting with a client’ to ‘Careers in operations and strategy consulting.’”
MetroMBA: How does Smeal College stand out in consulting?
Brenda L. Fabian
“Drs. Andy Gustafson and Nancy Mahon co-teach Communication Skills for Leaders, a signature course in our MBA program,” said Brenda. “This required course spans the first full year and allows students to further enhance their individual communication and public speaking skills. The course also includes work in understanding and further developing team communication skills.
Dr. Glen Kreiner teaches a Team Facilitation class. Most courses in the Smeal MBA Program are team focused. Students learn about models of group development, diagnosing team problems, selecting effective intervention strategies, skills in giving and receiving feedback, conflict management, and working constructively with gender, race, and cultural differences within teams (Source: MGMT 520 with MGMT 597B Lab).
Dr. Donald Hambrick teaches Strategy Implementation and Organizational Change. He is an internationally renowned scholar with expertise in CEOs, executive leadership, corporate governance, and strategy formulation and implementation. His course provides students with key analytic ability to assess the gap between the current status of the organization and the need to implement a new strategy or execute change, and then identify a strategy for closing the gap (Source: MGMT 531).
We also offer practical tools and course applications such as Lean Six-Sigma Black Belt Body of Knowledge (BOK).”
MetroMBA: How is a Smeal MBA different?
“Smeal encourages students to gain as much practical experience as possible, including on-site opportunities such as internal case competitions including Executive Panel,” explained Brenda. “Teams that advance to the final round of competition present to senior alumni and corporate partners. Smeal is also fortunate to be able to provide financial support to students who compete in external case competitions. An added benefit of our internal case competitions is early career networking opportunities.
Consulting involves working with cross functional and cross cultural teams. To help prepare our students for a global business environment, we require students to participate in Global Immersion. Students travel overseas to interact with global business leaders and business colleagues in such locations as the Czech Republic, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Lima, New Delhi, and elsewhere.”
MetroMBA: Why should an MBA candidate choose Smeal College?
“On average 25-30% of our graduates go into consulting,” revealed Brenda. “Top consulting firms such as Deloitte, EY, and A.T. Kearney recruit on campus. With a number of Smeal MBAs working in consulting and a total alumni network of 645,000, the Smeal community offers a great way to get connected in the industry.
With small class sizes and a close knit community, students can pursue a Smeal MBA through the full-time two-year residential program at University Park or take advantage of the EMBA Program at the Chubb Conference Center in the Philadelphia suburb of Lafayette Hill. Both the MBA and EMBA provide students with focused and individualized attention from world renowned faculty in addition to the wealth of resources that only Penn State can provide.”