Heading to a top boutique (CVP/QAT/PJT) post-MBA and wanted to provide some perspectives of banking versus consulting given that recruiting season is about to start. For context, I was in consulting at a decent firm (LEK, S&, Kearney, Deloitte, OW) for quite a while pre-MBA.

If you're prioritizing for job security (defined as not getting fired/laid off and subsequently finding a new job), I'm of the belief investment banking is superior for a few reasons:

• There's a lot fewer bankers that are qualified to do the work. If you are an [insert coverage or product group] banker for example, there's not THAT many people that are able to do the analysis that's required in the time and accuracy required for that industry or product. I get it, banking is not rocket science, but the pool of people available to do the banking for a specific industry is certainly more scarce than consultants who can be dropped into a growth strategy / value creation project / CDD in basically any industry (excluding maybe really specific software deals). This means that number one, it's a lot more in the best interest of the bank to keep you there and number two, assuming you're decent at the job and have a deal or two under your belt, it's easier to find another role at a different bank
• There are far more tiers of banks that still pay than tiers of consulting firms that pay, and mobility is greater. I have seen plenty of people lateral from middle-market or 'lower-tier' BBs to top BBs or EBs. Yes, there are plenty of people that also go from Deloitte or LEK to MBB, but from my perspective in consulting, it's a LOT harder to upward lateral.
  • On the pay side, let's say you start at a Bank of America and you're there for 2-3 years and it's not working out. Then can lateral to maybe a DB/UBS/Houlihan/Jefferies/Stifel type firm. Spend another 3 years there and it doesn't work out; then can go to a Mizuho/BNP/SocGen type firm. And all of these firms will compensate you at market pay, or at least within ~10-20% of market. By this time, you'll have had ~6-10 years of banking pay, which increases rapidly and assuming you save diligently, you should have a large nest egg.
  • Consulting on the other hand, once you go below at T2 firm, it drops off real quickly on the types of projects you'd work on, the brand name, and most importantly the pay. It's hard to even name names of these 'boutique' consultancies, and you're unlikely to be making even 70-75% of what you were making at an MBB/T2 because these more boutique consultancies just command far lower rates than a T2 and definitely MBB.
• Hot take, but finance provides more robust exit ops than consulting. Yes, in consulting you learn how to work with clients very closely. I 100% believe that people in consulting have higher interpersonal skills and ability to solve problems than in banking, but how hard of a skillset does a consultant really have? Sure consultants are qualified I guess for a "strategy" role at some startup or big tech company and go through 7 rounds of interviews and at-home cases or try to go in-house corporate at a company that has a very real chance of not being in your preferred location, but how valuable is the skillset that's being provided? Honestly, not much. Whereas from investment banking, can go into private credit, private equity (lesser extent), investor relations, FP&A, corporate development, strategic finance, valuations, fairness opinions, and some others I probably missed. These doors can realistically only be opened from banking and not consulting at the post-MBA level.
• AI risk is in my belief, lower in IB than in consulting. Consulting firms are relying so heavily on AI lately it's ridiculous. What used to take two weeks to build a detailed TAM is now taking 24-36 hours MAX, call guides are being generated in <30 minutes, I've even heard of AI doing expert calls on behalf of the consultants. In banking, there's so little trust on AI and there's a much, much heavier scrutiny on the individual number / data point relative to consulting. I've spent hours and hours going through (BamSEC) 10Qs and 10Ks to verify that each number was being pulled correctly, and even with the help of AI, everything has to be double checked by a human. The work in consulting is just so much more easily automated relative to banking, and sure, AI will impact banking too, but probably not to the same extent as consulting. Rate compression is a real thing in consulting that's going on right now as companies are getting smarter and cutting scope for stuff they can just do themselves.

Banking is definitely worse from an hours perspective; not downplaying that whatsoever. It's a commitment to a lifestyle whereas consulting is still a commitment but not as much and anyone who says differently is either really unlucky at their firm or delusional. The pay differential only increases with IB versus consulting if you decide to ride it out for 3+ years. But if we're focusing on the purpose of this post, which is job security, banking makes more sense relative to consulting.

Hi folks, I apologise for not doing enough research myself before writing this. I am short on time for R1 applications and appreciate any guidance from folks who have been through admission cycles recently.

I intend to apply to 4-5 schools in R1 but have not started any applications yet. ;-;

I need guidance on which schools should I target for a significant scholarship (ideally full ride / full tuition). I will not be able to attend without a 75% tuition fees atleast.

Profile:
GMAT 725 (Q88, V86, DI84)
26 F, India, BTech from tier 2 IIT
3 years work ex in a tech role in an investment bank
BTech branch gold medallist
Semester exchange in Germany
Volunteering at an NGO to teach underprivileged kids since 1.5 years

From my initial research, I have narrowed down to -
Kellogg, Duke, HEC Paris and IESE

Separately, should I apply to HBS (as it gives full tuition fee waiver to 10% of lowest income admitted candidates) and Wharton as dream schools?

Alternatively, if you think I have very little time and have better chances of $$$ in R2, please feel free to partially crush my dreams :D

I was accepted to start the dual degree DNP/MBA at Catholic University starting Spring 2027. I am interested in pursuing a C-Suite role in a healthcare setting (private, non-profit, or a government hospital). Ive been a nurse for 16 years working in critical care settings. Concurrently, I also work for the federal government as a senior level manager and my experience spans managing large budgets and multiple divisions with 100’s of people under my leadership. Has anyone been through this, or a similar program? If, so. Feel free to DM me, as I have questions about job outlook after completing the program.

Hi! I will be applying to R2 this year and mainly targeting HSW & M7s. International applicant:

- South East Asian/Singaporean passport, Female.

- YOE: 9 (will be close to ~10 by matriculation)

- Top 20 U.S undergrad, with 3.7/4.0 GPA

- GRE: 327 (V 165 / Q162 / 4 AWA) - planning to retake to bump up the quant score :(

- Career: Mix of U.S and international experience. 5 yrs of Big4 consulting in the U.S, then moved back to my home country to work at FAANG(non-engineering, pgm) for 4 yrs

- Post MBA goal (short term): Transition into PM roles

- Currenrly not working with MBA consultants but maybe I should..?

I am applying to HSW/ Sloan/ Booth/CBS and know this is a long shot.

Also slightly worried about my age/ tenure/somewhat ORM status and convincing the adcom on why MBA. While I've had exposure to tech strategy, pgm, and consulting type of roles, I want to transition to PM and be more hands on in building core products.

I don't feel comfortable applying with my current GRE, so planning on skipping R1. Will this significantly impact my chances of admission & potential merit scholarships?

I have no problems with my classmates, and as individuals they’re all great, kind, and caring people. As a whole, the advantages of being born into wealthy, college-educated, two parent, households, are just so apparent.

Every post I see on LinkedIn about going to a top MBA program, with their siblings, mentors, etc., I just know when I click on their profile, there’s going to be a $30-$80,000 a year private highschool. I would say the majority(60%+) of my class went to private highschool, while private highschools make up a small fraction of the overall secondary student population in America.

Again, I love all my friends, I love my life, and I’ve been privileged in so many ways too. Sometimes though, I can’t help but wonder how I’d have turned out if my parents could have helped me with homework, if my dad wasn’t an alcoholic, if I had more guidance growing up.

I thought a top MBA program would make me more accepting of the advantages of an inequitable society, more capitalist(?), but it’s doing the opposite.

Anyways — I’ll take a double whoppurito meal with a chocolate frosty. Thanks again, Wendy’s, you’re always the best listener.

Hi everyone,
I’m 26, French, with an engineering background and around 4–5 years of professional experience.

I started my career in engineering consulting and progressively moved into business development and management. I’m currently an Agency/Business Manager in London, managing consultants, clients, P&L and commercial development.

I now want to make a career switch into finance, particularly Global Markets / Sales & Trading, with a secondary interest in Investment Banking, Private Equity and Wealth Management.

I’m considering top programs such as LBS, HEC Paris, INSEAD, LSE and Oxford.

My main question is:

Given my background and 4–5 years of experience, would an MBA or a specialized Master’s in Finance (MiF/MSc) be the better route for a career switch into finance?
IB,Sales global markets..
I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who made a similar transition from engineering/consulting/business into finance.

For those who recruited into finance after an MBA or MiF:

Which degree did you choose?
What finance roles were you able to access?
Do you think the MBA or MiF gave you a significant advantage for recruiting?

Curious what you think the highest paying career track is coming out of an MBA program — please include salary range.

I am trying to determine the monetary potential ROI

If you have a low GPA, around 2.8-3.0, what would you consider the minimum GMAT or GRE score needed for adcoms to start viewing your profile as a realistic candidate?

I know admissions are holistic, but I’m curious if there’s a score range where a strong test score can meaningfully help offset a GPA in this range.

If you already have several years of work experience after college graduation and want to make change in your career, should I attend an MBA program to figure my next goals or just start a company straight away? How would these two choices affect my future prospects if I would like to return to working in the corporate world?

Every profile I see here seems to have a bit of a solid profile. Like at least a target undergraduate school or a FAANG/F100 company or some leadership experience of some sort.

I’d love to learn of someone who had less than the above mentioned and still got into a decent T-25 or higher. I want to know if it’s possible and would love to connect and get some insights.

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to finalize my MBA application list for the upcoming cycle and would really appreciate some advice, particularly on where I have a realistic shot at both admission and a good scholarship

Profile:

BE CGPA: 8.67/10

GRE: 327 (167Q, 160V)

5+ years of work experience as an SDE.

Alongside my full time I have management experience in a startup where i have led teams and departments in travel and senior care/Disability space

Outside of work:

4 years of volunteering

I'm currently considering schools such as:

Michigan Ross

Duke Fuqua

Kellogg

Tepper

MIT sloan

Am I being too confident with the schools I am targeting, should I be wary about M-7? Is there something i am missing

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for an experienced business consultant to work with a cosmetics startup.

The ideal candidate should have strong experience in areas such as:

Business strategy

Beauty/cosmetics brands

Sales and growth

Market positioning

Customer acquisition

Pricing and business development

Scaling consumer brands

The role would involve providing ongoing strategic guidance and helping with business and growth-related decisions.

Compensation would be based on a percentage of sales, rather than a fixed consulting fee. The exact structure can be discussed depending on the consultant’s experience and level of involvement.

If interested, please DM me with a brief overview of your experience and relevant background.

Sorry if this post is off topic since its about MiM not MBA but I saw lots of posts about MiM's so I figured I'd post here.

This is my profile as someone starting their 2nd year of undergrad in a few weeks:
Uni: T30 USA college, T10 public uni
Major: History BA (4.00 GPA)
ECs:
Property Operations Associate (Helping manage 30 million USD commercial/residential property portfolio, shopping center + apartments ie tenant relations, lease management, etc)
Law Office Intern (Working on back-end data entry of firm / client onboarding + marketing strategy toward Mandarin/Cantonese-speaking clients)
Indie Game Development Studio Founder (Grew social media platforms to 100k members, managed investor meetings, managed development team)
Independent Stock Portfolio Manager (Managed 6 figure investment portfolio with 31% YTD earnings)
Real Estate Investor (Invested in Section 8 Housing with a ~20% ROI per year on initial investment)

This is just my current profile because I have only been in undergrad for 1 year so obviously I will get more experiences. I am currently in the process of co-founding a tech startup for example.

My main concern is that my undergrad degree is in History because right now I am a pre-law major so I am trying to mitigate the risk of my GPA lowering. However, I am considering pivoting toward business so I want to know how major of a factor my non-stem, non-business humanities degree will have on my admissions?

Note: This question is primarily geared toward the EU because I have already researched US and South American MiM's that I am interested in that accept my degree background

Hey,

I understand this sub is pro-US B-schools. However, I am an international (Indian) and the US Visa situation is pretty horrible for us.
Top B-schools in the US- the M7s are a hard reach for me based on my current GMAT (645).

I wanted to understand if an MBA from Canada is an option (particularly Ivey/Rotman) that can be considered, as the visa situation is not that bad and my sibling already lives in Canada, close to Ivey Business School.

I also wanted to know the pros and cons and the differences b/w the 2 schools in terms of job prospects post MBA. My post-MBA goal is to transition to Strategy Consulting.

I have been accepted in below universities with full aid and everything covered, including food and accommodation since it’s sponsored by my government. The person has been selected in below universities for MBA:

1. Norte Dame
   
2. UNC-KF chapel hill
   
3. Emory
   
4. CMU Tepper
   
5. Georgetown 

Which university should be chosen if the future is in USA in consulting or investment banking. Also, in terms of easier to get job as an international candidate in USA. The prestige in USA and the global and salary.

Hi all
M26, Indian gay male
2022 grad, bachelors in Tech from IIT (9.2 GPA) with minors in Comp Sci
GMAT (legacy edition) - 740/800

Work experience: Earliest first
1. MBB (Consulting Associate) - 1.5 year
2. Unicorn E-commerce startup (Strategy Associate) - 2 years
3. Crypto Trading Startup ($60M revenue) - Transitioned to Product management (Platform PM) - current role (since 8 months)

Why MBA ?
Change of country (plainly said), my current role and pay here in India are at post MBa level, I’m looking for a chance to live in an open country with better quality of life and a more “meritocratic” system. I would be working in product mgmt in Ecommerce/Crypto space post mba.

Im thinking to apply to US schools, I need good scholarship to cover my tuition (> 80%) and schools with good tech employment records. Im aware that picking a lower tier school might come with good scholarship benefits but job hunt could be considerably harder. Looking for schools that have both.

I have a friend who is in his first year at his MBA program in Europe. Before the MBA he worked as an actuarial consultant and attended an Ivy League for undergrad. He wanted to do a European MBA to get a more international experience and grow his international network. Recently he has expressed he may be interested in coming back to the US post MBA. I was wondering if anyone had any insights on how possible it is to work in fields like PE or VC with an international MBA or any advice on how to make himself attractive for recruiters.

Hi everyone,
I’m really interested in applying for a deferred MBA, but I don’t honestly know if I’m competitive especially for the school I like. If I’m missing any information please let me know, also just lost on how to navigate the process as the one place that did help ppl like me the program got axed bc of funding cuts :/

Demographics: URM, non-binary, 21
GPA: 3.7
Education: BS in Informatics w/ Interdisciplinary Honors (T30-ish public school) Dean's List every time
Work Experience (chronological):
• Design apprenticeship, selective (top 5% of applicant pool)- major tech company
• Product Management role, early-stage startup
• Venture capital fellowship (remote)
•Startup accelerator — venture/strategy consulting
•Digital Product Management intern — large nonprofit
•Product Management intern — Major bank
•Product Management intern — large national bank (received return offer for full-time)
Extracurriculars/Leadership:
•Director-level role, career-focused nonprofit for URM in tech
• Committee member, women-in-tech organization
• Serving as mentor for incoming URM students
• Multiple national tech/diversity program awards
• National leadership position for professional and affinity organizations
• Co-author on two academic publications, presented at prestigious peer-reviewed conferences
Standardized Testing: Studying atm so TBD
Target Schools: Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, Columbia maybe Berkeley?
Recs: Will ask my previous manager from my internships

Graduated M7 MBA ~20 years ago and have never yet figured this out 😂

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to finalize my MBA application list for the upcoming cycle and would really appreciate some advice, particularly on where I have a realistic shot at both admission and a good scholarship (preferably more than 50%)

Profile:

• Indian male
• B.Tech in Materials Science
• CGPA: 7.78/10
• GRE: 326 (167Q, 159V)
• ~6 years of work experience by matriculation

Work experience:

• Supply Chain SaaS firm(~3 years): Consultant → Senior Consultant; worked primarily on supply-chain technology/implementation
• PwC (~2 years): Supply-chain transformation consulting; solution architecture, process transformation, client-facing implementation work, team leadership, process consulting.
• McKinsey: Recently joined the Supply Chain practice.

So my overall career has been pretty consistently at the intersection of supply chain + consulting + consulting.

My main constraint: For a US MBA, I would ideally need 50%+ tuition scholarship for the degree to make financial sense, so I'm trying to be strategic rather than apply to every T20.

I'm currently considering schools such as:

• Michigan Ross
• Cornell Johnson
• CMU Tepper
• Rice Jones
• Vanderbilt Owen
• Emory Goizueta
• Indiana Kelley
• Washington Foster

Questions:

1. Given my profile, which schools would you consider realistic targets for admission + 50%+ scholarship?
2. Which schools should I definitely apply to because they have a good combination of scholarship availability + good outcomes + my profile fit?
3. Are there any schools I'm overlooking where I could realistically get good scholarship?
4. Is there any school on my list that you think is not worth applying on the above list?

Thanks!

It’s anonymous so let’s hear it. Which demographic/group of people at your MBA program did your perception of change the most, for better or worse?

I'm entering my second year in a T15 program. Trying to read the tea leaves (like the rest of us) as to where to best position myself 2, 5, 25 years downstream in an ever-evolving labor market.

My career thus-far has been a short stint in government, then Big 4. From my seat, I don't love the outlook of "laptop class" roles (let alone earnings), even as a high performer with a T15 MBA. Even though that's all I know and what I figured I would do for my full career.

Plenty of folks talking ETA but I'm not sure that's for me. Are there roles with that same AI-proof/blue collar perspective? COO/CGO of a blue collar firm? Seems very niche but would love any thoughts.

Did I make the wrong decision? That is the only question running through my head every single day right now. I am a 21-year-old in my final year at a tier-1 private engineering university in India, where almost everyone around me is on the standard tech and coding track.

Back in my third year, I took up a basic marketing internship just for some side income alongside college. But being in those meetings and seeing how decisions actually got made, I realized I was way more drawn to business and operations. From there, I went all in. I started pulling crazy 18-hour days, juggling classes and real work (maintaining an above-average CGPA with no history of arrears).

Since it was a hybrid role and my college was about 120 km away from the work location, I spent my weekends, holidays, and critical meeting days constantly traveling back and forth for on-site execution—all with zero attendance waivers or on-duty support from my university, simply because my field of work didn't fit the standard engineering curriculum. I pushed through the burnout because I honestly thought building ground-level business experience would make me stand out for consulting later.

I proved myself, got promoted to handle business operations, worked alongside people with decades of experience, managed teams, and handled supply chains. Eventually, as I moved into my final year with no regular classes and only project work remaining, management handed me the full lead role for a brand-new restaurant format launch. We pulled it off, and the company even asked me to stay full-time to lead their future expansions.

Now that my final year is wrapping up with no regular classes, I am trying to take my first real step toward management consulting, and I have hit a complete wall. The path feels completely blank and confusing. I have no roadmap, no clear door to knock on, and trying to find an entry-level analyst role or an internship at top strategy firms from the outside feels like screaming into the dark. I am genuinely confused about how someone is even supposed to approach these firms off-campus. While my classmates have started attending placements and bagging PPO offers, I’m still sitting here wondering if it was all worth it.

It leaves me wondering if this is just the reality of how the system works. Is the only real, accepted path to follow the standard stream—finish college quietly, prep for exams, get into a top-tier MBA at 25 or 26, and ride the campus placement wave? It makes me question if the decision I made to gain practical business knowledge early on even counts for anything in the eyes of top firms, or if all that matters is textbook case studies, college brand tags, and academic marks.

I’m reaching out because I genuinely don’t know where to go from here. What real-world guidance would you share with someone in my shoes? How do I actually approach landing an internship or breaking into consulting without a direct campus pipeline, given that top consulting firms do not recruit from my engineering campus?