These 28 B-Schools Are On BCG's Target List For MBA Recruits

BCG’s New York office at 10 Hudson Yards – overlooking the Hudson River. Photo by Anthony Collins

It’s well known that major employers of MBAs have favorite hunting grounds for their future employees. Those lists tend to be highly guarded, in part because a company would not want to discourage MBAs from other schools from applying. But sometimes a firm will show its hand in special programs designed to get to know incoming students. That is the case with Boston Consulting Group for its BCG Unlock summer learning program.

Long a mainstream recruiter at elite business schools, BCG is targeting the incoming MBA students at just 28 business schools for the program. To be eligible for the summer experience, an MBA applicant must be a first-year student in a listed two-year MBA program beginning in the fall of 2021. The deadline to apply this year is Friday, May 7th.

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.

SCHOOLS ON THE TARGET LIST YOU MIGHT OVERLOOK IN YOUR APPLICANT STRATEGY

But there are also a number of excellent MBA programs that applicants can easily overlook or miss. They would include the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, Washington University’s Olin Business School, and the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Also among the target MBA programs are those that typically hover toward the end of most Top 25 rankings: Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

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 is limited to only 17 business schools for incoming MBAs with an anticipated graduation date of 2023 (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).

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.

BCG’s 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
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
Johnson School of Management	Cornell University
Jones Graduate School of Management	Rice University
Kellogg School of Management	Northwestern University
Kenan-Flagler Business School	University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Marshall School of Business	University of Southern California
McCombs School of Business	University of Texas-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
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
Yale School of Management	Yale University