<p>Is it difficult to become a management consultant without an MBA from a top-tier school? Most of the big firms I read about recruit from the top schools like Harvard, Wharton, Chicago, etc. What if I get an MBA from a lesser known school? I am thinking about attending Boston University's School of Management and I'd like to reside in the Boston area after getting my MBA. I know that the Boston Consulting Group has its headquarters there, but I'm pretty sure they recruit from the top schools. Is there still chances out there for MBAs from lesser known schools to succeed in management consulting? Perhaps not with one of the most known firms, but with say lesser known or mid-level firms.</p>
<p>I'm sure if you have a high gpa and a great resume, you'll have a chance at the lesser known firms. The top firms (like BCG) are difficult to get into even if you're from a top school (like harvard, wharton etc).</p>
<p>I don't think that is always the case. A guy who actually went to my university, a medium sized state school, actually got a job at one of the bigger firms. I think he works for PriceWaterhouseCooper, and I am pretty sure they are a big firm. I don't know what exactly his GPA was but it just goes to show that there are always exceptions. Not every single person working in a big firm has an Ivy league or top 10 school degree.</p>
<p>He's probably an accountant chris4984. PWHC has a management consulting branch but they are also one of (or is it the?) biggest employers of young accountants.</p>
<p>Actually I don't think he is an account. I believe he works in Business Development and does something with Asset management and trust funds. I don't know. He's not an MBA, he only has his bachelor's degree. But besides that. Is it really the case that everyone in management consulting has a degree from a top school? I just can't see that being possible. There has to be some people in the field who don't have such a degree.</p>
<p>Of course there are some, but realize that if thousands of people want a certain job then companies can afford to be extremely choosy about who they pick. IMO, the quintessential consultant is John Legend. He is an example of the individuals you are up against. Stiff competition, indeed.</p>
<p>Yeah, pretty much everyone is from top schools. Like red sox said, since so many people are interested, top consulting firms will only choose the top of the top..that come from the top schools</p>
<p>chris, asset management and trust funds is way different than management consulting.</p>
<p>And I really don't know if it's all people from top schools. I would think there are some people that break into MC from within (as in, start in something like asset management, do really well, get to know someone in MC and then move over there, sort of like a promotion), people that get in through various connections, and people that are just lucky. Not that no one outside of the top 20 gets it (at least I assume), just it's easier to get lucky from the top 20. </p>
<p>Of course, like most posts on this board, this is simply reasonable (sort of informed) speculation.</p>
<p>Right. But...is it possible for an MBA from a lesser known school to get a position in a consulting firm that someone with a Bachelor's degree from Harvard could do? Could an MBA from a lesser known school start at a lower position than an MBA from a better school? Would a company hire an MBA from a lesser known school for an entry-level position over a Bachelor's degree? If I had an MBA from a lesser known school, I would honestly take the same salary as someone would get there if they only had a Bachelor's. Salary aside, I would just want to get my foot in the door,and an opportunity to work my way up.</p>
<p>it's extremely unlikely at top firms, but if you get a position at less prestigious firms and work for a few years successfully, a lateral hire isn't out of the question.</p>
<p>If you want to go to one of the elite firms (Bain, Monitor, McKinsey, etc) your best shot is if you go to an elite MBA program because that is what those firms are selling, and how they differentiate themselves. Of course there are exceptions, especially if you are an expert in a particular field like oil and gas, but if you are a generalist you really need the pedigree so the elite firm can sell your elite resume to clients in order to justify their fees.</p>
<p>However, if you look at PwC, Booz Allen, Deloitte, etc. you might have a shot but their business is very different from the elite firms who tend to interact with the CEO, CFO levels. You may want to do a little bit more research on what type of consulting you want to get into and what types of clients and projects interest you. Once you know that you can identify the firms that do the kind of work you are interested in. Your research may lead you to away from the elite firms and then BU would be fine, but if it leads you back to the elite then you'll know what you have to do.</p>
<p>Well, I really don't have a desire to work for one of the elite firms, unless I go to one of the top business schools which I doubt I have a shot at anyway. Id be content working for a lesser known firm. Management consulting isnt even the only option I have for myself, so If I didn't get into it, it wouldn't be a big deal. Its just a big goal I am shooting for. I guess it wouldn't hurt to apply to the top programs, nothing to lose except the application fee I guess. But my question is, how heavily do the top programs weigh the actual school you went to for undergrad. I went to a state school that is pretty well respected throughout the state. </p>
<p>Do top MBA programs only want undergrads from Ivy league and other top schools? I have an ok undergrad GPA of 3.5. My resume will look pretty good in a few years once I get more experience under my belt. I've done a lot of volunteer work and extracirricular things. I'm pretty sure I can do well on the GMAT and have great letters of reccommendation from employers. What are my chances? Did I screw myself by not trying to get into a top undergrad program? </p>
<p>Anyone know where I can see statistics of where top MBA program students got their undergrad degrees from</p>
<p>the top MBA programs are heavily weighted in their class makeup towards the top undergrad programs. However, correlation does not here imply causation. The biggest factor in admissions remains your work experience, how much your employers love you, how well you've done, etc. College GPA and prestige matters only a little, and less and less the farther removed you are from undergrad.</p>
<p>A fairly supportable hypothesis for why both things are true is that top-undergrad-program students tend to be the hard-working, smart type who will rise fast in an organization and contribute a lot on their own. You can be such a person without attending one of those schools, there's just a correlation there.</p>
<p>There's an even stronger correlation for law schools, which makes prevailing opinion that there's a bias in top law schools towards top undergrad programs. The defense is usually that top undergrad programs are a more rigorous curriculum so a 3.9 from georgetown means a lot more than a 3.9 from michigan state (etc.) But that's less true for business schools, from what i've read.</p>
<p>And the fact that a 3.9 from georgetown will, most of the time, outperform the 3.9 from michigan state in the LSAT.</p>