Choosing the Best Business School for Consulting
If you are a prospective MBA applicant looking to business school as a way to enter or accelerate your career in the consulting industry, you are certainly not alone. According to the 2017 Prospective Student Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), consulting is once again the most sought-after postgraduate industry, with 33 percent of applicants surveyed citing consulting firms as their destination of choice. The consulting function, too, is a top draw. One in four indicated it as their chosen job function, after just marketing/sales (30 percent) and finance/accounting (28 percent).
With so many MBA graduates vying for roles in the consulting field, one of the best ways to distinguish yourself is by going to one of the business schools best known for training top-notch consultants. Of course, this requires thorough research and a deep knowledge of individual school programs. Lucky for you, Clear Admit has done some of the legwork.
Consulting Continues to Be a Top Draw for MBAs
Finance—and investment banking in particular—took a hit following the financial crash of 2008. And the tech sector has been gaining ground as a top destination for MBA grads. But along the way, the consulting industry has held its own, with MBAs clamoring to work for both towering giants in the field as well as at an increasing number of boutique firms now in the marketplace.
What’s the allure? Part of it is the diverse work. Consultants get to think creatively and solve problems, analyze both the big picture and the details, and work on teams juggling multiple assignments. Top salaries don’t hurt either. Recent MBA graduates taking jobs at firms like McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Bain & Company—known as ‘the MBB firms’ in industry parlance—reported base salaries in 2017 of between $147,000 to $152,500, with additional signing bonuses of $25,000, according to managementconsulted.com, an online resource for the consulting industry.
Choosing the Best Business School for Consulting
Determining which leading business school will best prepare you for a career in consulting requires looking at a range of factors. A logical place to start is by examining career outcomes at individual schools, both in terms of summer internships and full-time jobs. If possible with the available data, you also want to get a sense of how well a school has done placing career-switchers, namely those without prior consulting experience, in coveted consulting roles, since barriers for entry for these grads are understandably higher than for their counterparts who have already worked in the field.
It can also be instructive to see which of the powerhouse consulting firms donate to which leading business schools. Finally, it helps to understand how a given school goes about teaching its students to be consultants, what role experiential learning plays, whether you can hope to learn directly from superstar professors in the field, and what extracurricular resources are in place to help you land your dream consulting gig.
Consulting at UVA Darden
The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business sent more of its MBA graduates into consulting than any other U.S. school, with 38 percent of the Class of 2016 pursuing work in the consulting industry and 38 percent choosing a consulting function. By comparison, Harvard Business School (HBS) sent 25 percent of its 2016 graduates into consulting, and Stanford Graduate School of Business sent just 16 percent.
As for the top recruiting companies at Darden, Boston Consulting Group snapped up 18 members of the Class of 2016, followed by McKinsey & Company (14), PwC (13), and Accenture (10).
In terms of pay, the average base salary for a Darden MBA heading into consulting was $135,771 with a signing bonus of $26,927. While this isn’t the highest salary in the industry—it falls a few thousand dollars short of offers reported by students at schools like Kellogg School of Management—it is the highest average salary for all Darden MBAs.
Darden’s Classroom, Curriculum, and Professors
As for how Darden trains its MBAs to enter a career in consulting, the school offers a career track concentration in strategy consulting. This concentration is designed to immerse MBA students into the consulting process by helping them identify and deepen their consulting skill sets.
Darden is also known for its case study method of teaching and learning. This method confronts Darden MBA students with challenging, real-life business situations and teaches them how to analyze each situation to come up with a solution—just as they will be called upon to do in a consulting career. Over the course of MBA students’ two years at Darden, they’ll complete in more than 500 case studies on a variety of topics, industries, and diverse environments.
As for Darden’s faculty, many of the school’s professors have an in-depth knowledge of consulting with a breadth of research dedicated to all facets of the field. For example, Samuel E. Bodily, a professor of business administration, teaches “Decision Analysis” to first-year students and “Management Decision Models” to second-year students while also consulting with many corporations, utilities, and government agencies. And Scott. C. Beardsley, Darden dean since 2015, spent 26 years at McKinsey & Company before joining the school.
Outside the Classroom
Darden is home to the Consulting Club, a student organization designed to support students interested in the consulting industry. The club regularly holds events such as consulting industry panels, networking 101, consulting conferences, case competitions, mock interview sessions, internship preparation workshops, and more. And many large consulting companies are club sponsors, including Deloitte, AT Kearney, Bain & Company, EY, and Accenture.
In addition, there are also a variety of consulting projects for MBAs to participate in. These projects help MBAs learn how to develop business plans, create financial forecasts, and perform marketing analysis. For each project, teams of three to six students will work with corporations, global businesses, or non-profit organizations to provide strategy evaluation and planning services.
INSEAD For Consulting
In terms of sheer numbers, no school sends more students into consulting jobs than INSEAD. According to the school’s latest 2016 MBA employment report, 46 percent of INSEAD MBAs took a job in the consulting sector and 48 percent assumed a consulting function. That’s a whopping 479 students accepting a position as a consultant—almost half of the 999 students who filled out the employment report.
INSEAD’s MBA graduates took jobs with such companies as McKinsey (which hired 125 INSEAD grads in 2016), BCG (67), Bain (48), Strategy& (24), and Accenture (16). And it’s no wonder the major players like INSEAD. Many alumni hold prominent positions such as chairmen, CEO, or senior leader at these same top consulting firms.
As for where these consulting grads work, they’re spread out around the world. More than 100 consulting graduates took jobs in Western Europe, 41 of those in the United Kingdom. Another 83 graduates headed off to consulting offices in Asia Pacific, including 23 each in Singapore and Australia. But the single most attractive country for INSEAD consulting grads was the United Arab Emirates, which drew 42.
INSEAD also features an alliance with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, allowing INSEAD students to spend one of their five periods studying at the U.S. school. INSEAD has a similar campus exchange with Kellogg as well. These exchanges afford INSEAD students access to those schools’ career management centers as well, which can be especially valuable in terms of making connections to U.S. recruiters for students who are interested in working in consulting in the United States after graduation.
In terms of what its consulting grads command in salary, INSEAD also shows strong numbers, albeit lower than Kellogg and Darden. For 2016, the overall mean salary in consulting was $107,300 USD, the overall median salary was $109,500 USD, and the overall annual median sign-on bonus was $25,000, with 76 percent of salaries coming with a sign-on bonus and 83 percent with a performance bonus around $24,500.
Proud of its success in helping career switchers enter new industries, INSEAD shares data about how many of its graduates heading into consulting started out there and how many used business school to make a pivot. Of those graduates taking jobs in consulting after INSEAD, 67 percent held pre-MBA roles in consulting. But 34 percent of those who were financial services professionals also successfully switched to consulting, as did 56 percent of former technology, media, and telecommunications professionals and 38 percent of former corporate sector professionals.
How Consulting Is Taught at INSEAD
INSEAD’s accelerated 10-month MBA is composed of five, eight-week periods built around core courses and electives and concluding with an exam, essay, and/or project. There is no preferred teaching method at INSEAD; instead, individual professors choose the method they feel is best. However, no matter the teaching style or technique, each class is sure to have lively exchange opportunities and diverse study groups.
In terms of core courses, students will start out their first eight weeks with an “Introduction to Strategy” course and will continue their learning into the next period with “Process & Operations Management.” As for electives, over a dozen courses are offered under the Strategy heading including the “Strategy Lab,” which provides MBA students with a practitioner’s view of how consultants tackle projects.
Who Trains Consultants at INSEAD
There are more than 25 resident strategy professors across INSEAD’s three campuses, as well as around a dozen visiting faculty members. Of these, several are former consultants, bringing experience straight from the trenches at McKinsey, Monitor Group, and Accenture, among other leading firms.
Two INSEAD professors, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, authored a best-selling book called Blue Ocean Strategy, which spawned the 2007 launch of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute. The institute offers several programs and electives that support the development of aspiring consultants, including a mini-elective, “Blue Ocean Strategy Simulation,” that lets students apply the trademark Blue Ocean Strategy toward managing a fictional company.
Beyond the Classroom at INSEAD
INSEAD’s accelerated 10-month program can make it hard for some student groups to gel, but despite this obstacle, the INSEAD Consulting Club seems to have an active campus presence. Much like at Darden, the Consulting Club at INSEAD provides resources to help INSEAD students prepare for consulting interviews and careers, including workshops, networking, and recruiting events with consulting firms. It also publishes the INSEAD Consulting Club Handbook, free to Consulting Club members, which offers an overview of the industry, profiles of individual firms, and sample cover letters, résumés, interview tips, and practice case questions.
INSEAD also features regular consulting case competitions, including the A.T. Kearney Global Prize Competition. As many as 15 teams from INSEAD compete against each other, with winners advancing to represent INSEAD in a regional competition against seven other European business schools. The winning European school then battles the winning North American school for the Global Prize.
The Boston vs. Washington DC Full-Time MBA Battle
Choosing the right city for your MBA program can be a bigger choice than it seems: given the connections and opportunities an MBA typically provides, the city where you pursue your degree will likely be the same city where your career begins and grows.
Even if you’ve narrowed down your business school search to the east coast, you’ve still got a number of top metros to choose from. So regardless if you’re looking south to Washington, D.C., or north to Boston, both metros will likely offer a number of benefits for up-and-coming business professionals.
Both D.C. and Boston offer a number of exceptional full-time MBA programs, giving a prospective MBA a lot to think about. Below, we’ll break down some of the biggest differences in location, programs, and job placement for each metro.
Location
As long as you can deal with snow, Boston is a multicultural hub of business that covers a variety of industries, from startups to high tech and the creative economy. Massachusetts is home to 30 Fortune 500 companies, with massive corporations like General Electric and Liberty Insurance Group centered within Boston. However, as the city continues to grow and improve, the cost of living is also climbing, with Boston ranking eight overall as the most expensive city in the United States.
If you are looking to use your business acumen in a government setting, there are few places better to go than the nation’s capital. With fifteen companies making the Fortune 500 list in the Washington DC metro area, there are a number of opportunities for MBAs to put their business skill to work, even outside of government agencies, with companies like Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobile leading the list. However, DC even outranks Boston for cost of living, ranking as the third most expensive city in the United States.
Washington Full-Time MBA Programs
The Washington DC metro has more than 35 higher education institutions with post-bachelor programs for business students. Featuring some of the top ranked MBA programs in the country, many of the DC programs focus on professional integrity and ethics, attempting to reflect its location in the country’s capital. Many of the MBA programs here also focus on placing business within a global context, encouraging students to gain real-world experience outside of the classroom to gain a better understanding of the global business community.
Full-Time MBA Programs in DC Include:
- George Mason University School of Business
- George Washington University School of Business
- Kogod School of Business – American University
- University of Maryland R.H. Smith School of Business
Boston Full-Time MBA Programs
The Boston metro features some of the top ranked and oldest business schools in the world, which focus on placing students within the global economy and encouraging study abroad opportunities that allow students to get hands-on experience in international business. Given Boston’s reputation as a growing business hub, many of the top jobs in the city may require an MBA.
Full-Time MBA Programs in Boston include:
- Sloan School of Management – MIT
- Harvard Business School
- Questrom School of Business – Boston University
- Sawyer Business School – Suffolk University
- Carroll School of Management – Boston College
Cost of MBA Programs
Cost can be an important consideration when choosing a degree program. The average tuition costs of the Washington DC programs mentioned above is roughly $82,090, though the number may be slightly less for local students. In Boston, the range may be slightly higher. Harvard Business School can cost up to $122,000 per year, but other quality programs in the Boston metro can also be found as low as $91,040.
Job Placement and Salary
The cost one is willing to spend on an MBA is often largely determined by the potential salary that can be made after obtaining the degree. Given that both Boston and DC are among the U.S. cities with the highest cost of living, salary may be an important determination in selecting a city to start your career. Thankfully, both cities offer the chance for high earning potential. According to PayScale, Boston MBA graduates can earn anywhere from $53,725 on average to $173,940. In Washington DC, where there is a slightly higher cost of living, salaries can range from $58,402 to $147,715.
How to Deal with a Bad GMAT Score
You’ve been studying for months, possibly losing sleep as you go over the practice questions in your head and, as a result, getting some oh-so-enjoyable stress dreams. If any of this sounds familiar, you probably have had to—or currently are—preparing to take that Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).
Searching for the Perfect 1-Year MBA in Boston
Not everyone has two years to dedicate toward earning an MBA. For some, maybe a year is just a better option. Luckily, Boston has more than enough options for those who would rather trek down the one-year path.
Currently, Boston is the 20th most populous city in the U.S., with its historical roots grounded in advanced academia. It has proven to be a perfect home for students, with a population that skews young. Almost one out of every three residents is between the ages of 20 and 34.
The largest employers might be hospitals like Brigham & Women’s Hospital or Massachusetts General Hospital, but the coastal city’s true jewels are its universities like Harvard and MIT. While most schools in the area offer MBA programs, not all offer options that’ll allow students to graduate with an MBA within one year. Below, we outlined some of the best Boston 1 Year MBA program opportunities.
F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business — Babson College
The F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business isn’t too old; it’s been around since 1947. Students can take its one-year MBA program on its main campus in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It’s about 14 miles away from Boston, so students will still be just a short drive away.
The program takes 12 months, but students can build close bonds with each other in this short period of time. This program’s participants operate as a cohort, but they also get the chance to mingle with some students in the school’s two-year and evening MBA programs. All MBA candidates have the opportunity to participate in Signature Learning Experiences, a hands-on approach to education that prepares students for real-world situations.
Sawyer Business School — Suffolk University
The Sawyer Business School isn’t as old as the university, but that hasn’t stopped it from getting recognized. The school began to offer an MBA in 1948 and never quite began to offer a formal one-year MBA program, but it does offer accelerated ones.
Sawyer has a couple accelerated MBA programs: one for attorneys and for certified public accountants. The way it works is that students enter the program with credits already under their wing. The catch is that students complete a certain number of credits in the business school—but these could have been before chasing an MBA. It all really depends. That’s 37 credits for attorneys; 34 for CPAs.
MBA candidates with an interest in law can also learn a concentration while at the school. Courses include an immersive, travel seminar. As for CPA candidates, their curriculum is nearly identical to the attorney pathway. The only difference is one class required for the attorney curriculum and not the CPA: Corporate Financial Reporting and Control.
Sloan School of Management — MIT
MIT may mostly be known for tech industry and Good Will Hunting scenes, but its Sloan School of Management is frequently ranked as one of the best in the world by esteemed publications like The Economist. While Sloan doesn’t exactly offer a one-year MBA, its MIT Sloan Fellows Program only takes one year—and fellows walk away with an MBA.
The school calls the program a “change-the-world toolkit.” Mid-career managers from around the world are invited to apply for the fellowship. Once accepted, fellows arrive in April and begin their journey together. They take summer courses, fall courses, and some during the spring too. There’s an optional independent activities period where fellows can take part in a four-week term made up of how-to sessions, forums, or tours for 12 credits max.
Harvard Business Enters Business Analytics Arena with New Certificate Program
Data driven. In today’s digital world, businesses that aren’t are quickly becoming passé. To help business leaders—including MBA grads—keep up with and leverage the explosion of data now available in every industry, Harvard Business School (HBS) and two other schools at the prestigious Boston university have partnered with 2U, Inc. to deliver a new online certificate program in business analytics. The program is expected to welcome its first cohort of students in March 2018.
The Harvard Business Analytics Program, announced yesterday, will bring together faculty from HBS, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Department of Statistics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to share the latest research on how data analytics play a role in everything from strategy to operations, marketing to people management. Through 2U’s leading online learning platform, participants will also hone fundamental analytic, software design and architecture, and data science skills—readying them to seize opportunities presented by today’s data-driven business landscape.
“By bringing together world-class faculty from Harvard Business School, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Business Analytics Certificate Program will push the boundaries of innovation both in terms of scholarship and program delivery,” Srikant Datar, HBS Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs, said in a statement. “Business analytics is an exciting emerging field, and Harvard is uniquely positioned to collaborate across disciplines and geographies in pursuit of new ideas in this space.”
According to a press release announcing the new offering, the program targets “business leaders, including MBA graduates, seeking to modernize their analytics skills and learn new ways to analyze, interpret, and take advantage of increasingly complex data across all industries.” The 2U platform will facilitate live, interactive online classes that simulate the seminar-style setting Harvard is known for. Course content will be created by more than a dozen faculty members drawn from across the three participating schools. Though the vast majority of the nine-month certificate program is designed to be completed online, students will come to the HBS campus in Boston for two immersive two-day learning experiences, giving them a chance to meet face to face with their professors and classmates and help build their professional networks.
The program, which carries a $50,000 price tag, is a departure from the specialized data analytics master’s degree programs offered at other leading business schools, such as MIT Sloan School of Management. Harvard is hoping that part of its appeal will be the fact that it doesn’t require students to relocate or step out of the workforce to hone their data-diving expertise. To earn the certificate, students will complete seven courses offered through the three schools. The classes, held live in an online classroom, will cover hot topics in business analytics, including quantitative methods, business and financial statistics, big data, and data visualization.
Learn more about the new Harvard Business Analytics Program.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from Clear Admit.
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