BCG Expands Its Target List For MBA Recruits To 37 Elite Schools

BCGers have enjoyed getting back together this summer through fun office, case team, and diversity affinity network events

The Boston Consulting Group, one of the premier recruiters of MBA talent, is a highly selective employer. Last year, we revealed the 28 business schools targeted by BCG to recruit incoming MBA students for a summer experience called BCG Unlock. The listed schools are clearly preferred hunting grounds for the global consulting firm, even though BCG would like hire some MBA graduates from business schools not on the list.

The target schools, of course, include the big brand powerhouses that dominate the top of most MBA rankings. It will surprise no one to know that every M7 school is on the list: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT Sloan, Booth, Kellogg and Columbia. Nor will it be surprising to see the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business or UC-Berkeley’s Haas School among the targets.

This year, however, BCG expanded what had been a largely U.S.-centric group of schools by nine other additional MBA programs, adding many of the best European players as well as a few in the U.S., including Howard University, 37 in all. In fact, some of the schools left off last year’s list had to be little more than an oversight.

BCG Adds The Top European B-Schools To Its Target Recruiting List

After all, INSEAD and London Business School were not on last year’s list but are included now. A year ago, only the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management was the only non-U.S. school. Also new to the target list are ESADE in Spain, HEC Paris in France, IE Business School in Spain, IESE Business School in Spain, Saïd Business School at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

According to BCG, the Unlock program introduces incoming MBAs “to the people, insight, and experiences that will enrich their skills, knowledge, and relationships…As a participant in BCG UnLock, you can expect personal, candid dialogue with BCG consultants and leaders, as well as your pre-MBA peers. You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes look at our transformational work and digital capabilities, and dive deep into the opportunity, support systems, and tools we offer to help our people be their best.”

What BCG’s Unlock Program Does For Incoming MBAs

According to BCG, the Unlock program introduces incoming MBAs “to the people, insight, and experiences that will enrich their skills, knowledge, and relationships…As a participant in BCG UnLock, you can expect personal, candid dialogue with BCG consultants and leaders, as well as your pre-MBA peers. You’ll also get. behind-the-scenes look at our transformational work and digital capabilities, and dive deep into the opportunity, support systems, and tools we offer to help our people be their best.”

In short, the program gives the consulting firm an early look at incoming MBA talent. For participants, it provides a glimpse into what a career in consulting might be like and gives students a leg up on landing a summer internship between their first and second years of the MBA program and ultimately a full-time job offer. While the deadline for this year’s program is past, the list is informative for applicants who want to target BCG or other elite MBA employers in their future job searches.

Applicants Are Invited To A Series of Neuroscience-Based Games

Incoming students who express interest in a U.S. BCG office will also receive an email inviting them to play the a series of Pymetrics games. These 12 neuroscience-based games provide insight into a person’s cognitive and emotional attributes and their potential for success at BCG. The games take less than 25 minutes to play, and students have 48 hours to play them after receiving the invitation. “Pymetrics enables us to better get to know you and make the right connections throughout the recruiting season, so please be sure to find a quiet place where you can focus and complete it,” advises BCG.

All the MBB firms have these pre-MBA programs and all of them are as highly selective as the business schools that make the target lists. At McKinsey & Co., eligibility for its Early Access program had been limited to only 17 business schools for incoming MBAs, but this year the firm eliminated the target list (see McKinsey’s 17 Target Business Schools). Bain & Co.’s target list for the ExperienceBain program includes 40 schools, though it is much more global, including MBAs from HEC Paris, IESE Business School and ESADE in Spain as well as such U.S. programs as Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, and the University of Texas’ Jindal School of Management in Dallas (See Bain’s 40 Target Business Schools).

BCG’s 2022 Target Business School List For Its Pre-MBA Summer Experience

Business School MBA Program	University
Anderson School of Management	University of California-Los Angeles
Booth School of Business	University of Chicago
Carlson School of Management	University of Minnesota
Columbia Business School	Columbia University
Darden School of Business	University of Virginia
ESADE	Ramon Llull University
Foster School of Business	University of Washington
Fuqua School of Business	Duke University
Goizueta Business School	Emory University
Haas School of Business	University of California-Berkeley
Harvard Business School	Harvard University
HEC Paris	HEC
Howard University School of Business	Howard University
IE Business School	IE University
IESE Business School	University of Navarra
INSEAD	INSEAD
Johnson School of Management	Cornell University
Jones Graduate School of Business	Rice University
Kellogg School of Management	Northwestern University
Kenan-Flagler Business School	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
London Business School	London Business School
Marshall School of Business	University of Southern California
McCombs School of Business	University of Texas at Austin
McDonough School of Business	Georgetown University
Olin Business School	Washington University
Owen Graduate School of Management	Vanderbilt University
Ross School of Business	University of Michigan
Rotman School of Management	University of Toronto
Saïd Business School	University of Oxford
Sloan School of Management	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford Graduate School of Business	Stanford University
Stern School of Business	New York University
Tepper School of Business	Carnegie Mellon University
The Wharton School	University of Pennsylvania
Tuck School of Business	Dartmouth College
Judge Business School	University of Cambridge
Yale School of Management	Yale University