Top Feeder Schools To The Consulting Industry

INSEAD was the top consulting school by percentage of class in 2019, with more than half its MBA graduates going into the industry. In 2020, that proportion declined to 48%. File photo

Let’s look at the top 10 schools. In 2019, the 10 highest-ranked schools in the P&Q ranking had an average consulting placement rate of 29.2%, and an average median base starting salary of $158,250. All of the top 10 schools reported a $30K median signing bonus except Columbia Business School ($25K), and UC-Berkeley Haas, which reported a $30,348 mean. In 2020, the placement rate rose to 30.7%; meanwhile, eight of the 10 schools had median starting salaries of $165,000, with the exceptions Columbia and Berkeley, each at $160K. That makes the average median starting consulting salary for a graduate of a top-10 MBA program $164,000, a 3.6% increase. Meanwhile, in signing bonuses, eight of the 10 schools reported a median of $30K, with MIT Sloan ($25K) and Berkeley ($28,917 mean) the exceptions.

In 2019, six of the top 10 schools were up in consulting placement year-over-year by an average of 12.8 percentage points, and three were down by an average of 6.8 points. One, Stanford, was flat. Six were up and four were down over a three-year window. In 2020, three schools were down by an average 1.3  points; one, Berkeley Haas, was flat; and the other six were up by an average of 3.1 points. Much less fluctuation. And once again, six are up and four down in the three-year window (between 2018 and 2020). See below for details.

The average consulting industry salary total for the 26 schools that report median totals is $153,525, down 4% from the 2019 average of $159,854 across 25 schools.