<p>Which is more difficult to get? Which pays more?</p>
<p>What are the common Majors that end up landing these slots. Are any of these to more likely to hire from lesser known schools?</p>
<p>And finally, which is more prestigious. (I don't mean money)</p>
<p>Correct me if im wrong from my understanding
<p>1) They’re both roughly equivalent to get. Both make offers to fewer than 1% of applicants. If you spend most of your college career preparing for one or the other and doing the necessary legwork to demonstrate interest, intellectual capability, passion, knowledge, and personality fit… your odds may increase well above that. Going to a target school will be a near-necessity in either case.</p>
<p>2) GS pays more even with salary only. At last look, a McKinsey analyst makes $55k, which is a little below market because they’re giving you the brand name on your resume, so they figure they don’t have to pay you as much. GS I think would be in the 60s, but of course you’ll get a substantial bonus some years. No bonuses in consulting for analysts, except one-off performance awards.</p>
<p>3) There is no typical major for strategy consulting. They are looking for the brightest people they can find, their academic background is of no importance (aside from MBA programs, where they’re recruiting experienced hires for a non-entry-level position). For a banking job, a quantitative major will be a help - most typical ones are probably economics, finance or financial engineering, math, physics, operations research, etc.</p>
<p>4) Neither are likely to hire even from top schools. At target schools, which will be around the top 20, you’ll see “informational sessions” posted at career services… if you submit your resume, you may be invited to invite-only informational sessions (all these info sessions are evaluative - they’re carefully remembering the people who stand out, both positive and negative), and these info sessions, get-to-know-the-group cocktail hours, etc will continue to winnow people down until they have a group they’re comfortable inviting for a formal interview.</p>
<p>At non-target schools, they’d probably have to receive a resume that blew their socks off - or get a glowing referral from someone inside the firm - for them to pay much attention.</p>
<p>5) Prestige is in the eye of the beholder. It depends on what you want to do. Both are good backgrounds for going to top business schools or for founding a startup or eventually running a large company. The quality of life will be different - McKinsey will work you hard, but by and large you’ll have weekends off and will get enough sleep; any IBD analyst will be busting arse 7 days a week most weeks. The type of work will be different, too - consulting is probably more creative, banking more analytical. In both cases, career advancement within the profession will depend primarily on the connections that you make, how much clients like you / respect you, and whether you’re able to build enough of a network that you can originate or contribute to an eventual sale of new business (either with an existing client or a new one).</p>