Feeder Colleges & Companies To Harvard Business School

‘FEEDER COLLEGES COULD BE EVEN MORE CONCENTRATED FOR WHITES AND INDIAN MALES’

The data shows just how elitist admissions can be at the Harvard Business School.”I got a feeling the ‘feeder college numbers’ would be even more concentrated for white and Indian males, that is to say, my bet is, more URMs (e.g. Afro-American and Hispanic surname applicants, and possibly white women) are taken from non-feeder schools,” observes Sandy Kreisberg, founder of HBSGuru.com, a top admissions consulting firm. “Just a hunch, but if you are a non-feeder white male without any “adversity” story, well good luck getting in to HBS unless you have a knock-out resume e.g. you somehow went from No-Name college to Goldman and also had 750+ GMAT.”

When it came to the 37% of the Class of 2020 who qualify as international students, Fortuna found that only one quarter of them earned their undergraduate degree outside the U.S. in 40 different countries. Not surprisingly, Indian and British universities sent the most students (11% each), closely followed by Canada (10%). “The University of Cambridge won hands down over Oxford in the boat race to HBS. Chinese universities sent very few students – we identified only 7 admits among close to 900 – but that may indicate that more Chinese students pursue undergrad degrees in the US,” added Symonds.

“Nearly 5% of the class, or 44 students, earned their undergraduate degrees in South or Central America. Graduates from Chilean universities outnumber those from France, with University de Los Andes sending 6 grads. Admits from seven Brazilian universities are the most represented in South and Central America, with 17 admits. But there are also graduates with degrees from universities in Lebanon, Ireland, Taiwan, Ukraine, the Philippines, and Nigeria – just to name a few.”

NEARLY ONE IN FIVE HBS STUDENTS HAD WORKED AT MCKINSEY, BAIN OR BCG

There are exceptions, of course, to the obvious preference that HBS admissions shows for elitist credentials.  As Symonds points out, “while many top research institutions are represented, there are also admits who hail from the Louisiana State, University of South Carolina and University of Nebraska – Lincoln. For the rankings obsessed among us, it may be heartening to see admits from respectively obscure colleges like St. Olaf College in Minnesota or William Carey University in Mississippi (U.S. News rank 281).”

Often times, however, these students distinguish themselves in other ways, including by coming from a highly selective employer. The study found that nearly one in every five (21%) of the students had at some point worked for just one of three consulting companies: McKinsey, Bain or The Boston Consulting Group.

In many cases, enrolled students at Harvard Business School have worked for not only one employer but two or three. The Fortuna study found, for example, that while 21% had an MBB firm stamped on their resume, 11.4% came directly from those firms: 41 from McKinsey, 36 from BCG, and 27 from Bain. At BCG there are only three job titles among HBS admits: Consultant (26), Associate (6) and Senior Associate. Those from McKinsey included Business Analysts, Engagement Managers (7), a Chief of Staff, and a Risk & Operations Manager. And while 82 students had worked at McKinsey since their graduation from college, exactly half–41–showed up on the Harvard Business School campus direct from McKinsey.

SOME 14% OF THE CLASS WORKED AT ONE OF SIX BANKS LED BY GOLDMAN

Similarly, 126, or 14.1%, of the MBA students in the Harvard class examined worked at some point for Goldman, JP Morgan, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America or Citi, only 32 were admitted directly from those banks. All told, 126 of the HBS admits worked at some point for Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Barclays, BofA, Merrill Lynch or Citi. But only 32 were admitted directly out of one of these. “From an HBS admissions perspective they are a good place to start out your career but then it is good to move on to gain additional depth and breadth of experience before applying to HBS,” according to Fortuna.

Beyond the big Investment Banks it is the dozens of private equity and investment firms that feature on the resumes of the Harvard Class of 2020. Before starting their MBA they had previously worked at Blackstone (8), Blackrock (7), Advent International (7), Carlyle Group (5), KKR (5), Warburg Pincus (5), TPG (4), Hellman & Friedman (4), Bain Capital (3), American Securities (3) and at fifteen other firms. At every VC / PE firm that provided 1 to 3 admits, they were the most recent employer prior to HBS.

“Among the Big Four there’s a strong showing by Deloitte – 8 admits came direct but 27 have the company on their resume – and Accenture also scored well (8 direct and 17 on resume),” wrote Symonds. “Smaller numbers of consultants came from Oliver Wyman (6), AT Kearney (3) and Keystone (2). Like McKinsey for consulting, Goldman dominates finance firms, sending 14 admits directly (44 on resume) versus 8 for Morgan Stanley (26 on resume) and 4 from Bank of America (17 on resume).”

I-BANKERS MORE LIKELY THAN CONSULTANTS TO MAKE A PRE-MBA CAREER SWITCH

Another finding worth noting concerns those second jobs on the resumes of HBS students. “Successful HBS applicants who started their careers in Investment Banking are far more likely than Strategy Consultants to make a career switch within two years of graduating from college,” the admissions firm found. “We identified 20 profiles that started in an IB Analyst position at Goldman Sachs and then switched to Private Equity or Venture Capital at companies such as KKR and Blackstone (11), Investment Management at the likes of the IFC and Berkshire (7), Consulting at BCG and Bain (2). Similarly, at Morgan Stanley, 14 started the early stage of their career as IB or Equities Trading Analysts and then within 2 to 3 years moved to PE or VC (8), with others pursuing finance-focused roles in FMCG, strategic and product manager roles in tech, or non-profit.”

Fortuna found just 21 students who had been entrepreneurs in the class. The largest group of startups were in education, followed by nonprofit/social enterprise. Only three of the entrepreneurs had founded companies in tech apps/services.

The study also discovered that while the average years of work experience for a Harvard MBA was 4.7 years , several admits spent as many as eight or more years in the workforce. One older West Point grad, for example, majored in nuclear engineering and ascended the ranks to U.S. Army Commander. But not all older students came from the military. Symonds points to a Spanish & Sociology major from Vanderbilt who racked up work experience at Facebook or an Architectural Engineering major from the University of Texas who spent more than eight years with Turner Construction Company.

He also cites a Greek mathematician and professional handball player with a Ph.D. in Education who’s passionate about helping kids learn statistics using digital games. “While much of her career is at the intersection of tech and education,” wrote Symonds, “she found the time to found a startup in the hospitality industry. Or the French and Film major at University of Nottingham whose post college career includes stints in healthcare (Babylon health) as well as consulting with Strategy& and finance at PwC. Then there’s the Boston U grad coming from the Boston Mayor’s office after a White House stint as a policy advisor for intergovernmental affairs.”

(See following page for the top feeder companies to Harvard Business School)