<p>For all you current H undergrads/alumni, I would like to know why so many Harvard grads go into management consulting at elite firms i.e. Boston Consulting Group, Bain, Mckinsey. From statistics alone, I know that each of these firms hire the most people from H, which beats out every single school (Wharton included) for these positions. Any idea why so many people go and how a vast majority of them do so well against peer institution students (Yale, Princeton, etc)?</p>
<p>Harvard grads go to the elite firms because they generally pay more than any other job.</p>
<p>The big 3 consulting firms pay very well... but they're by no means they highest-paying jobs Harvard students can get out college.</p>
<p>I think Harvard students are attracted to the consulting jobs because:
1. They let well-rounded kids put off the "what do i want to do with my life" decision for a few years
2. It's what the other top Harvard kids are doing (and have done for the past 10 years at least)
3. The jobs are springboards to lots of cool things (b-school, a startup, etc), and (even though they're not paying six figures) have generous expense accounts that let kids live the good life.</p>
<p>Harvard students are also pretty appealing to the consulting firms because, even if they don't have as much business knowledge as the Wharton grads, they tend to be good at communicating and selling their ideas (and themselves!).</p>
<p>That said, do you know if the big 3 consulting firms hire more (per capita) out of Harvard than Wharton/Yale/Stanford/Princeton? I think most of what I've said above would apply to those schools as well.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that the big three hires the most from Harvard per capita compared to its peer institutions besides Wharton (but I think most Wharton grads go into ibanking/private equity anyways). </p>
<p>How is the pay anyways for these firms? In your opinion, how competitive is the competition inside H to land a job like this?</p>
<p>Two words for consulting: Yale and Harvard. Look at the bios of associates at some of the most elite NYC firms (the ones that actually have staff bios online) and you'll see they are dominated by recent grads from these two schools. You also see some representation from Wellesley (in particular, especially relative to its size), and also Amherst, Davidson, Wharton and others, of course, but it's pretty interesting to me how these firms are dominated by two schools. Also, about 10-20% of the employees have various state university backgrounds, but that's not so great considering that 80% of graduates nationwide are from state universities.</p>
<p>Also, a lot of the employees have MBAs, mostly from the usual cohort of top business schools, especially Harvard and Stanford.</p>
<p>Why do grads go into it right after college? Because it's prestigious, well-paying and you get to work with very smart people on projects that are more interesting than just crunching numbers. Part of the reason why the firms are dominated by elite school graduates is because, due to "automated" recruiting and career service centers these colleges have, up to 10-15% of the senior class will apply to EACH firm.</p>