At Cornell Johnson, A Consulting Track Built From The Ground Up

Cornell University has no shortage of programs aimed at preparing MBA students for competitive careers. At the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, one of the newest efforts targets a familiar outcome with a more deliberate design: consulting.

When Chris Bordoni returned to Ithaca as a senior lecturer and management consulting lead, he saw a gap in how that pathway was being taught – and an opportunity to rebuild it.

CREATION OF THE SCI

What he saw at Johnson was not a lack of interest in consulting, but a lack of structure.

“Our consulting students were selecting tracks in corporate finance, digital technology, and operations,” Bordoni says. “Each offered its own strengths, but none was intentionally crafted to prepare students specifically for consulting.”

Rather than rework existing coursework, Bordoni pushed for a more cohesive approach: a set of courses, workshops, and projects designed specifically around how consultants are trained and evaluated on the job. Some classes already existed, but the consulting-focused structure – including the practicum and sequencing – was newly built, shaped by research and practitioner input.

That effort became the Strategy and Consulting Immersion, or SCI, which Bordoni describes as a coordinated suite of courses.

In addition to his strategy and consulting class, students take managerial accounting and reporting, strategic decision modeling, and the accelerated core.

To design the program, Bordoni and his team spent more than a year interviewing more than 70 practitioners – senior partners, recruiting leads, and learning and development heads – asking a simple question: what separates average consultants from top performers?

“From there, we broke down the results and used the data to guide the design of the entire program,” he says.

THE TRAITS THAT IDENTIFY A STELLAR CONSULTANT

Three traits surfaced consistently in those interviews – and now anchor the SCI.

“The first piece was intellectual curiosity,” Bordoni says. Firms, he found, are looking for people who genuinely want to solve problems – the kind who will dig deeper rather than stop at the obvious answer.

“Practitioners can tell the difference immediately. You can differentiate when someone really wants to solve the problem versus when they are just doing what they are told.”

The second trait was grit. Consulting work, Bordoni says, is often ambiguous and unglamorous. The program is designed to help students stay resourceful when the work gets difficult.

The third trait – and the one that surprised him – was the ability to learn quickly.

“Strong consultants improve and learn quickly week after week,” he says. The SCI is structured to build that kind of rapid feedback and iteration into the experience.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT IN THE SCI

The practicum is divided into three parts, beginning with case discussions that follow the lifecycle of an organization.

“Almost every single student is involved in our classroom conversations every single week,” Bordoni says. The emphasis on participation is intentional, particularly for students who might otherwise hold back.

The goal is to make mistakes in the classroom – not on the job.

“They’ll have gathered tools and worked through some of the problems they’ll be asked to solve,” Bordoni says.

A core component is a series of skill-building workshops that are fast-paced and, by design, overwhelming. In one early session, students are given more information than they can reasonably process alongside a tight deadline – a simulation of the pressure consultants often face.

Other workshops focus on primary research, mock expert interviews, and behavior change. Over the course of the semester, students complete 36 simulations and exercises.

The immersion also includes simulated client engagements. Students work in pairs, alongside second-year “managers,” on projects drawn from a portfolio of internally developed cases. The goal is to mirror the rhythms of consulting work – managing progress, navigating obstacles, and delivering clear recommendations.

INVESTING IN CONSULTING

Bordoni frames the SCI as part of a broader investment in consulting at Johnson.

Now in its third year, the program continues to evolve alongside the industry itself. That includes integrating AI into coursework.

“We’ve changed all of the assignments in my class to reflect where tech is today,” he says.

Early outcomes have been encouraging, according to Bordoni. Internship partners have told him that SCI students arrive performing above typical intern expectations.

“They tell me our graduates show up and perform like they’re at the post-MBA level,” he says.

Return offer rates reinforce that feedback. “At McKinsey, Bain, and BCG this last year, we were around 93%,” Bordoni says.

INSIGHTS FROM A SCI GRADUATE

For Elizabeth Sun, a member of the Johnson Class of 2025 and now a senior consultant at Deloitte, the impact of the program shows up in how she approaches uncertainty.

“SCI helped me not only become more comfortable when faced with ambiguity, but also gain more confidence in navigating it toward an effective outcome,” she says.

The repetition – week after week of structured challenges – was key. “This practiced repetition was hugely impactful for my growth.”

One lesson that has carried into her work is the importance of tailoring analysis to the audience.

She recalls spending hours building what she thought was a clean, detailed spreadsheet, only to realize it would overwhelm her manager.

“I had been working in this spreadsheet for three hours,” she says, “and I realized what looked beautiful and organized to me would actually look like an overwhelming amount of data to them.”

Reframing the work – asking what the audience already knows and what they need to know – led to a more productive outcome.

Her advice to future students: prepare early.

“Your output is determined by your input,” she says, encouraging prospective students to speak with second-years, alumni, and faculty before the program begins to shape how they approach the experience.

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