Which university should I go to if I want to work in consulting? UT Austin or Penn State

Question

Hello, I am a senior in high school who just finished the college application process and got accepted to UT Austin and Penn State for Mechanical engineering. I am from Texas, so the in-state tuition sounds good, however, I want to go to the university that will bring me the most opportunities once I graduate. I want to know out of those universities, which one do most consulting firms hire the most students?

While browsing online the articles mostly mentioned Ivy Leagues, so I hope someone who works in recruiting or graduated from those universities can help me.

Answer 1

Adriana,

Congrats on the two options.

Honestly, both are fine. What you do from now on matters more.

Specifically, that means collecting evidence that you have a long-term interest in consulting AND consulting-like skills.

To show these on your CV, you need to get involved with organisations at university that relate to consulting (e.g., a consulting club) or external associations. Or you could choose to volunteer for an organisation that does consulting for charities.

There are many avenues, but the point is to collect evidence that you belong in this space, so that in a couple years from now on, it will seem like starting to work full time in a consulting firm is a natural next step.

You might find this article helpful in understanding the industry:

Expert Guide: What Do Management Consultants Do?

And this one in terms of how to prepare your application when the time comes:

Expert Guide: Build A Winning Application Strategy

Best,
Cristian

Answer 2

Hi Adriana,

Q: I want to know out of those universities, which one do most consulting firms hire the most students?

You can check it as follows:

Go to LinkedIn
Add the university as "School"
Filter by each MBB/target company as “Current company” for your target geography

If you find a good number of alumni for a school working there with a background similar to yours, it means it could be a good option.

If you are not sure what a good number of people could be, you can use a school you are sure is a target as a benchmark.

You can find below an example for Harvard and McKinsey:

For the US, you can find a list of target schools below:

▶ MBB Target Schools

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Answer 3

Hi,

I think firstly we need to disaggregate what kind of consulting - consulting is really a broad field.

Specifically w.r.t. MBB, you are right in that most articles mention Ivy Leagues - because in reality these are the target schools. The last time I checked the list, both UT Austin and Penn State weren't in the list of target schools for BCG.

That doesn't meant that it is impossible to get into MBB, or a T2/3 firm. If you want to have some rough sense, just do a simple filtered search on LinkedIn for alumni of both these schools and their placement in the firms you are targetting.

Lastly, I also want to encourage to think about how to use your degree to the max potential to help you leverage into consulting - we don't always need to have studied business to get in for sure.

Article: Breaking into Consulting from a non-business background

Answer 4

Both are good schools, althouth not priority schools for MBB. This doesn't mean it's not a good option or that you have no chances. You'll have to do your best with what you have (GPA) and build out your CV in other areas. Make sure to consider other consulting firms as well. Kind of curious why you are taking mechanichal engineering if you want to go into business…

You should be considering other factors as well, namely where (in terms of location) do you see yourself living your life after college. Having a network there will help you out the most in your professional life in the long run.

Answer 5

Hi Adriana,

Congrats on the two offers. Both schools are well positioned for engineering, neither is exactly a “target school” that MBB and Tier 2 companies go after. I also find it remarkable that you have already set your eyes on consulting this early. Why do you want to study mechanical engineering when you ultimately want to work on business problems rather than technical problems? Not to say that there aren’t many people with engineering backgrounds in consulting, but entering an engineering major already knowing that you don’t want to work as an engineer seems a bit backward.

In any case, to increase your chances for consulting down the line, make sure you add business/consulting related aspects to your resume (e.g. relevant courses, consulting club/competition, internships). It also doesn’t hurt to start networking early - reaching out to alumns who are currently in consulting.

As for the specific choice of school, I think the in-state tuition advantage is not to be neglected. Plus many schools effectively use the same engineering textbooks in their classes. So unless you are actually getting involved in research or your program includes writing a thesis for your degree, I would argue that the overall “scientific” reputation of the individual professor doesn’t matter that much for general undergrad. The engineering network won’t be as important to you if you don’t want to work in engineering anyway (assuming you don’t change your mind in the next four years).

Ultimately, you need to have a well rounded profile with the right combination of GPA, major, school, internships, experience abroad, extracurriculars/volunteering. Given that you are already pursuing consulting as a goal, the advantage is that you can proactively tailor your CV for it over the next years.

Best of luck

Answer 6

Hi Adriana,

Please be careful with non-US based coaches with this one…

UT Austin is the superior score with superior opportunities overall.

National ranking #32 compared to #60

#9 in public schools compared to #28 in public schools.

Look, you're going to need to temper expectations here. I hope when you say consulting you don't have your eyes/hopes set on MBB. It's possible, but please cast the net wide here - as in, when recruiting in the future, look at and apply to one hundred consultancies/internships.

Make sure to get as close to a 4.0 GPA as possible, but even then, remember that you're going to need to cast the net wide and not just target MBB - I went to University of Maryland (#46) and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA in my majors of Economics and French and didn't stand a chance at BCG then.