While it might be nice for such business clubs to have the ability to be open to all, at least their very existence is far more equitable than before they existed, when inside knowledge was limited to those very well connected by family, prep school or athletic team. These clubs do offer a way for regular kids to acquire the helpful skills for certain elite jobs.
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Totally agree, @roycroftmom, in that regard.
I’d like to challenge these kids to figure out how to open it more if that’s what this is about.- they’re supposed to be such clever problem-solvers, right? 
So if they need to hear from someone who just did an interview, why can’t that be open to all comers? Why does that have to be exclusive?
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Because that kind of info can be obtained online. The typical MBB ( or Google) interview questions are widely available. What the clubs help with is how your student answers them, responds to unknowns, presentation, etc. Personal feedback on what your student is doing right and wrong and coaching to improve.
That is capacity limited. Also, students do not want to spend their time coaching peers who they feel are not well suited
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Kids do crack the code just by going online. And I think if you google it, you will find “coaches” for this kind of stuff. Burned out bankers and quants, I suppose.
I spoke to someone at a “young alum” event - part of my research. I went to alum events that had kids from colleges that my child was interested in. Then I went to look for the young alum who had cracked the code. I spoke to one who said he locked himself in a room for weeks until he’d mastered every bit of Excel spreadsheets. He then cold called all the companies in some directory until he found one that would give him an interview. That was then his first job until he was recruited for IB. Yes, he had good grades from a top school that was not helpful in recruiting.
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If SHYMP, with all their endowment money, decided to pay these senior students $50-$100/hour to provide these career services at the career center, the senior students wouldn’t accept? Then it becomes accessible to everyone and not just those that the kids select to join their club.
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Rice is similar caliber wise and extremely collaborative. I’m not sure any clubs are competitive to join except maybe some singing/dance/club sports. But I think there are even options in those areas that are not competitive. It’s also extremely easy to change majors (except music and architecture majors - those are handled differently). Students are not admitted by major and don’t have to declare until towards the end of sophomore year. And they have distribution requirements so students explore different types of classes.
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You can’t pay students $50-$100/hr. A lot of faculty don’t get paid that much.
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There are. My DD signed her MBB offer summer of sophomore year after completing her first internship with them.
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It is hard enough for seniors to coach their sophomore friends. Now you want to pay them to coach anyone? Nope, I don’t know anyone who would do that-giving candid and often unwelcome feedback to your random peers is not going to go over well.
To use the earlier example, what if the poetry major decides to sign up for coaching anyway? How does the senior explain you need quant skills for this job, and your mental math just isn’t good enough? Or you have hygiene issues? Or you are just plain inarticulate? Boring? Arrogant? Kids don’t want to provide that kind of feedback to others.
They can work with pre-screened kids who they feel have potential. Plenty of others have potential but dont join clubs and do the work solo.
I am sure there are kids that will coach for $50-$100/hr. We shouldn’t pre-judge someone’s utility function. There are kids that genuinely need the money.
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Even if there are, would we want this? Senior A telling sophomore B your math skills stink? Or better yet, just passing the kid on with nonsubstantive feedback so the whole experience is useless? Close friends may offer honest feedback and coaching, not sure others would
I don’t know. I find kids to be very conscientious when they take money. They are not jaded yet. Curious how that experiment would turn out if some university is going to try this.
My (then) junior was asked by a non-friend sophomore how to prep for quant interviews. He replied that he didn’t know in terms of which prep book to read. He said that if he took these half a dozen classes that required you to bound upper and lower probabilities on events, working through psets for 15 hours a week, over many semesters, you don’t need any other prep. Clearly that was not what the kid was looking to hear. You can communicate what is needed. There is no necessity to be nicer than necessary.
Maybe it would work, but I do not want a college spending thousands of dollars in coaching kids, when only 30 will end up working at MBB and there are 1470 others.
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When we’re talking about universities whose endowments are so big that they could have all students attend for free, then I think they can nudge faculty salaries up so they’re at least all at $50/hour, particularly since these universities are not in low cost-of-living areas. $50/hr for 40hrs/week for 52 weeks = $104k. For having a the credentials/background to be employed at a SHYMP and living in Palo Alto, Cambridge, Princeton, etc, they should at least be paid that much.
I bolded this part, because that’s what a lot of the investment/management consultant club selection sounds like…choosing your friends. And the pushback from many posters is that the pipeline to these coveted industries shouldn’t be controlled by 20-year olds who are only picking people they want to be friends with.
Also, I strongly suspect that if a kid was going to be paid (and paid well) to do the advising, that they would figure out how to do it. (If they can’t figure out a polite way to tell people about hygiene, or needed quant skills, etc, then what are they doing in the management consulting clubs anyway? Their EQ doesn’t have to be genius level to have those conservations.) And if they can’t figure out how to have these conversations, then why are these coveted companies allowing these students to be their gatekeepers?
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This is not the vibe I get.
To repeat, these clubs are not gatekeepers. They are useful sources of info and training for some. Jobs, info, and training can all be obtained without joining these clubs thru alternative means by those who choose to do so.
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For those not familiar with the “airport test”, it is a commonly used criteria of, would you want to be stuck in an airport with this person for 6 hours? Many companies use it, as a test of “fit”. MBB uses it as well, so for those so outraged that 20 year olds are picking their friends, you can be reassured that the 25 year olds conducting the actual interviews are using much the same criteria of likeability plus talent.
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Also “can I put you in front of the client” test.
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Yes, soft skills/emotional intelligence will take you a long way.
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Thank you this is helpful!