Many people attempt to use an MBA to pivot into an exciting career in a leading global management consulting firm. If you are thinking about doing the same, and pivoting from finance, healthcare, or a family business, which schools will give you the best shot at landing a spot in one of these prestigious firms?
Poets & Quants performed an analysis of 32 top programs to determine the percentage of their 2016 graduating class that entered the consulting industry. Some of schools at the top of the list may be surprising to some. This might be an important factor to consider as you form your school selection strategy if consulting is your eventual career goal.
Top 5 US Schools
- Virginia (Darden)
- Dartmouth (Tuck)
- Columbia Business School
- Northwestern (Kellogg)
- Emory (Goizueta)
Top 5 Non-US Schools
- INSEAD
- London Business School
- IESE
- HEC Paris
- IE Business School
INSEAD placed a whopping 46% of its class into consulting roles. McKinsey alone made 75 new hires from INSEAD with 50 students returning. BCG made 41 new hires, with 26 returning, and Bain made 34 new hires, with 14 former employees returning to the firm.
For a full breakdown of schools and the percentage of their graduating class placed into consulting roles, see the table below.
| School | Consulting Hires by Industry | Consulting Hires by Function | Median Base Salary | Median Sign-On Bonus |
| INSEAD | 46.0% | 48.0% | $109,500 | $24,500 |
| Virginia (Darden) | 38.0% | 39.0% | $135,771* | $26,927* |
| Dartmouth (Tuck) | 36.0% | 40.0% | $140,000 | $25,000 |
| London Business School | 35.0% | N/A | $109,942* | $40,751** |
| Columbia Business School | 34.5% | 38.1% | $145,000 | $25,000 |
| Northwestern (Kellogg) | 33.0% | 33.0% | $145,000 | $25,000 |
| Emory (Goizueta) | 33.0% | 38.0% | $135,000 | $25,000 |
| Michigan (Ross) | 32.2% | 36.1% | $144,000 | $25,000 |
| Duke (Fuqua) | 32.0% | 34.0% | $140,000 | $25,000 |
| USC (Marshall) | 31.0% | 34.0% | $135,000 | N/A |
| Yale School of Management | 30.8% | 44.6% | $140,000 | $35,000** |
| MIT (Sloan) | 30.5% | 33.7% | $144,000 | $25,000 |
| Georgetown (McDonough) | 29.0% | 33.0% | $118,336* | N/A |
| New York University (Stern) | 28.5% | 33.8% | $140,000 | $26,904* |
| Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) | 27.5% | 32.9% | $135,000 | N/A |
| Chicago (Booth) | 27.5% | 29.3% | $145,000 | $25,000 |
| Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 26.6% | 31.2% | $145,000 | N/A |
| Harvard School of Business | 25.0% | 27% | $145,000 | $25,000 |
| Vanderbilt (Owen) | 25.0% | 28.0% | $132,500 | N/A |
| Cornell (Johnson) | 25.0% | 29.0% | $132,525* | $29,362 |
| IESE | 24.0% | 24.0% | $74,596* | $42,634* |
| Washington (Foster) | 23.0% | 22.0% | $124,325* | N/A |
| UCLA (Anderson) | 21.4% | 24.8% | $140,000 | $25,000 |
| Texas (McCombs) | 21.0% | 23.0% | $135,614* | N/A |
| HEC Paris | 21.0% | 26.0% | $98,915 | $24,464 |
| Washington (Olin) | 21.0% | 29.0% | $120,000 | N/A |
| UC-Berkeley (Haas) | 19.1% | 20.8% | $142,000 | $29,711* |
| IE Business School | 19.0% | 18.0% | $86,155* | N/A |
| North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) | 17.0% | 26.0% | $120,000 | $22,500 |
| Indiana (Kelley) | 16.8% | 20.0% | $140,000 | $22,000 |
| Stanford Graduate School of Business | 16.0% | 24.0% | $145,000 | $25,000 |
| Minnesota (Carlson) | 16.0% | 20.0% | $134,308* | $25,458* |
| Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 11.5% | 17.7% | $97,500 | N/A |
| Michigan State (Broad) | 10.9% | 9.40% | $130,000 | N/A |
- Source: Poets & Quants
The likelihood of being placed into a top consulting firm after business school is one of many metrics that are important to keep in mind as you form your school selection strategy. You may also want to look at the 10 Year ROI of different programs, which programs place the most students in Tech, or which have a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
If you are considering pursuing an MBA to make a career switch into consulting, and aren’t entirely sure how to get started, feel free to reach out to us at Info@TranscendAdmissions.com anytime for a chat.