There IS a list. It’s linked at the top of the thread.
Edit: It will be unpinned in the morning so if anyone has a college to add to the list, please do it now. LIST of colleges with Competitive or Open clubs-
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Yes, essentially they all land in a very competitive intramural or fraternity league. Which he will play and and be very happy. But, I agree. Not sure the school has an appetite for multiple interscholastic club teams in a single sport.
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I thought I saw this somewhere in the thread, but I’ll ask those who know - is there a formal or informal feedback loop with the companies? Does the club learn about the firm’s current priorities, preferences, etc. from company personnel directly? Or is it, as some have said, all available on the internet?
I doubt the companies are open about these, because this is also IP
You can find what you need on the wall st oasis website
It appears the bottom line is that if you attend a HYP caliber school and want a job in IB or consulting or accounting with certain firms, these consulting/finance clubs are a huge foot in the door. But there is so much more than these clubs to college life, and there are so many more ways to get a prestigious job without having to live in that culture. And there are a billion other jobs than these.
I just find it very sad that students are getting sucked into this. When do they get to enjoy living?
I have a similar example of a kid getting a prestigious job (not in any of the oft-mentioned fields in this thread) but she joined no clubs to get her job. She reached out to alumni. She did a lot of research. She applied for several different jobs at this institution and made it through several rounds of interviews. She didn’t get hired. She took a short term postgrad job that gave her relevant experience. Then she tried again. By the time she got hired, she had a ton of extra knowledge, lots of experience interviewing, and had gained even more skills relevant to the position she did get.
Another kid I know did 65, yes 65 interviews by the time he got hired at an IB this past May. He attended a state Uni ranked at about #80. He was tenacious. 65 is admittedly a lot of interviews, and he was offered some jobs along the way, but he was waiting for the big name and he got it. Both of the students I mentioned started their respective journeys at the start of their senior year. They didn’t spend four years filling out apps to join clubs though.
Is this less a case about joining clubs and more a case of the kids who really want those types of jobs are going to find a way to get them?
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I don’t think being in clubs is any different than what your friends did; in fact, the club kids may have had a whole lot more fun at their club parties. No one spends 4 years applying to clubs anyway. Bottom line is that it is competitive to acquire certain jobs ( which may not be of interest anyway to most) and there are various venues to follow that path if one desires
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My point is that they didn’t have that additional stress in the first few college years of competing to get into clubs. They just did stuff they wanted to do, varied activities, maybe one club as a soph, a different one as a junior, parties with varied people, etc… They focused on getting jobs when they were seniors. Many would say that’s a good time to start thinking about life after college.
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For some, maybe. Plenty of others really enjoy having it all wrapped up during sophomore year and the security of knowing one’s initial career path and city, particularly if most students around you already know. I would think it would be extraordinarily difficult to be at Wharton, for example, and not have it done early when so many other students do and are happily talking about it. In any event, kids will pursue their own paths as they wish; good to have more info regarding various options and timelines for all.
Certainly nothing prevents students from delaying until senior year. Just recognize that most of these types of jobs were already filled before then.
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Just noting that I work at MBB, and worked with a super lovely person who majored in poetry 
She was hired out of undergrad, no consulting clubs, no prep. Just a thoughtful, creative person who wanted to give consulting a go. She was certainly a leader in the activities she got involved in at a top public university.
I share this anecdote only to agree that there are many ways into MBB for those who want that.
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Yes, I agree. I have a child at a school with a very competitive and time-consuming consulting club. This child did not try to get into the club (didn’t even know/think they’d end up applying for consulting until very late in the game), and enjoyed wonderful varied extracurriculars during college. They did end up with a MBB offer for next year. Hard to know if being in the consulting club would have made it even more likely they’d get that offer or not.
But the consulting club isn’t just hard to get into; it requires a lot of work/time after you are in. My understanding is that they take on actual consulting jobs, and do the work during the school year. It can be a lot of work and quite stressful. I can see that many people would think this is great–you get to try out if this type of work is for you; you surely bond with your club-mates over the work you are doing; you may be making useful connections; you learn a lot about business, etc etc. And as mentioned, the club somehow gets money from its clients and so is pretty flush and hosts fun parties and maybe even weekends away (the students themselves do not get paid directly for their work, but the club has funds for nice meals out and other fun things which is some sort of compensation). However, I am in the camp that I am glad my child did not join that club; I feel like they will get all the consulting experience they need when they ARE an actual consultant, and I’m glad they used their free time doing other (more fun) things. Now, if the child did NOT get the job offer, would I be thinking, “Darn! I wonder if they were in that consulting club if they would have had an advantage and gotten an offer? Perhaps it would have been a good idea to join.” Maybe! But I’m personally leaning towards the side of thinking it’s an unnecessary and kind of sad way to spend your time in college.
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But isn’t the question do the club members think it is a " sad way" to spend their time? Maybe they like it, and the various social activities therewith. If they enjoy it, what does it matter what others think? Not everyone wants to join the Ultimate Frisbee Club.
Regardless of whether one joins a club, the recruiting timelines are what they are, and do not seem to be changing anytime in the near future.
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Why would you assume they don’t?
The competitive club my D joined was a decent amount of work for one term after joining, in order to learn the material. But this wasn’t wasted effort, as it made her interviewing process much easier. She had her end of junior year internship locked up before starting her end of sophomore year internship, and that’s where she is working now. Her last two years of college were a breeze.
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Yes, of course that’s what matters…and so I did point out some of what would be seen as benefits, including the experience, the fun parties, the ability to “try-out” if it’s the right job for them, etc.
But I just say that "I’m personally leaning towards thinking it’s an unnecessary and kind of sad way to spend your time in college". It’s my view, and I can’t help but feel pity for kids who do it. Because as fun as those meals & parties may be, I think there are MORE fun things to do. But as I said, that’s MY personal opinion. I sure hope the kids doing it might not even realize that it perhaps doesn’t give them much of a boost, and that they could have used their time in better ways. 
. I don’t want to think of these kids having too many regrets!!
Also, many of the posts above make it sound like at several of the schools the “work” involved in the clubs is largely learning to interview. So it may be that not all clubs are similar. I think at my child’s school, the “work” is doing actual consulting projects. I do not think the club is largely revolving around learning interview skills. I think it’s doing the actual job of a consultant for actual companies, and you would do this work for much more than 1 semester in almost all cases. So they have a very large workload, and the projects may be very interesting or not, but the goal isn’t directly to just prep you for interviews. Sounds like the clubs really vary.
Just a guess, but there seem to be more kids who regret missing the initial recruiting deadlines, regardless of any club membership.
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I was going to say something similar, but felt I had beaten my daughter’s MBB interviews like a dead horse.
Lots of liberal arts majors are also great at math and other quant skills. I think my daughter found through the process with 2 forms that they valued a diversity of thought and experiences. It didn’t work out for her for next summer, but she didn’t feel disadvantaged by her major…only her unfamiliarity with the style of interviews.
Also, and you could probably speak to this better, but one of the firms where she interviewed offered extensive preparatory resources. The other offered none. But one felt like a sorority rush because she was able to make so many wonderful connections with various people at year firm through I various sessions. It was quite interesting to see the diffeeent approaches.
Do you know if the STEM students that end up at MBB/GS/MS also follow this path? Or do they come to these jobs later in their studies? (cc: @neela1)
Fair point.
I imagine that for many who busted their chops to get into HYPS and similar, it is demoralizing to not even be able to join a club (not just the clubs mainly mentioned here) and it seems that for the kids that do join these clubs, they spend a LOT of their “free” time doing stuff for the club. I’m sure there are fun aspects, but I personally think that at these colleges which offer so many incredible opportunities, it seems a shame not to be able to take more advantage of them.
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Yes, same for STEM majors. MBB/GS/MS recruit students from all majors, including STEM and poetry.
There is another opportunity for recruiting following a phd or MBA
I see. Thanks. I know MBB recruit broadly but just wondering whether students in certain majors are more likely to aim for MBB from the start of college and others - such as STEM folks - gravitate toward consulting nearer the end of their studies after concluding they no longer want to pursue STEM careers.