- Feb 05, 2025
- 10 min read
McKinsey Careers: Which US Business Schools Does McKinsey Hire From?
How to land a career at McKinsey & Company? First, find out which US business schools McKinsey hires MBAs from
Consulting remains the most popular career for business school graduates, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council* ©iStock
McKinsey & Company is a leading consulting company that recruits from business schools across the globe. Roles at the prestigious firm are highly competitive, with only a 1% success rate among those who apply. Yet McKinsey remains one of the biggest recruiters from MBA programs in the US.
It's a top consultant recruiter at the likes of Kellogg, Columbia, Chicago Booth, and other leading business schools—but in recent years, McKinsey has expanded its hiring net beyond the elite b-schools.
But which other business schools does McKinsey hire from? BusinessBecause has researched the schools where McKinsey is a top recruiter, as well as each school’s average consulting salaries and percentage of its MBA graduates who move into consulting.
So, grads from which b-schools are most likely to land a role at McKinsey? Read on to find out.
(All data relate to schools' full-time, two-year MBA programs.)
Top business schools for McKinsey careers
Columbia
Location: New York City, New York
Columbia is one of the top-ranked business schools in the world and the only New York member of the M7 group of prestigious institutions. McKinsey was easily the biggest recruiter from Columbia’s most recent MBA class (2024), hiring more grads than than Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Bain & Company—two other major consulting firms—combined.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 31%
Median consulting salary: $188,000
How many Columbia MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 50 new hires (out of a class of 844), with 12 additional MBA grads returning to employment at McKinsey
Read our Columbia MBA Jobs & Salary Review
(Image: Columbia Business School ©Facebook)
Chicago Booth
Location: Chicago, Illinois
As the business school of James O. McKinsey—founder of McKinsey—Booth was always going to feature in this list. McKinsey is the biggest employer of the school’s MBA graduates, but the firm’s hiring from the class of 2024 almost halved from the year before.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 34%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Booth MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 33 (out of 215 total hires)
Read our Chicago Booth MBA Jobs & Salary Review
Michigan Ross
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Another school where McKinsey is the top hiring firm, Ross features consistently among the top 20 business schools in the country. Thirty-six percent of its class of 2024 went into consulting—a noticeable drop from 44.9% who did so in 2023.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 36%
Median consulting salary: $185,000
How many Ross MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 27 (out of a class of 380)
Kellogg
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Listed among the top five US business schools in every major ranking, Kellogg specializes in consulting, with more than one-third of its MBA graduates entering the industry in 2024—a slight fall from the 42% who entered the industry from the class of 2023.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 35%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Kellogg MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 21 in 2024, around 10% of the MBA class of 2024.
Read our Kellogg MBA Jobs & Salary Review
Duke Fuqua
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Fuqua has a strong and growing reputation for consulting, with a rising proportion of Fuqua graduates moving into the industry. Increasing from 31% entering consulting in 2020 to 43% in 2023, McKinsey is the second-biggest hirer of Fuqua grads behind BCG.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 39%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Fuqua MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 19 (out of a class of 389)
MIT Sloan
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Although its parent university MIT has a global reputation for tech excellence, Sloan School of Management is a prolific exporter to consulting. Almost one-third of its most recent MBA cohort ended up in the industry.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 32%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Sloan MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 17 (out of a class of 418)
Read our MIT Sloan MBA Jobs & Salary Review
NYU Stern
Location: New York City, New York
Stern may be located in a global financial capital, but its MBA graduates predominantly choose consulting over finance. Many of them join McKinsey after leaving Stern. That said, the number of accepted offers among the MBA class of 2024 was 11, down from 24 in 2023.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 37%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Stern MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 11 (out of a class of 324)
Read our NYU Stern MBA Jobs & Salary Review
Wharton, Harvard, Stanford and other top schools for consulting
While McKinsey recruits from numerous other top schools, many of them don't publish MBA employment data by company. Find out how MBA grads from Wharton, Harvard and Stanford fared in landing consultant roles—and explore our list of other schools from which McKinsey recruits MBAs.
Wharton
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Another member of the M7 group of elite business schools, Wharton topped the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking for 2024. It has a strong reputation for consulting, with more than a quarter of its class of 2024 entering the industry.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 25%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Wharton MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 2+ (Wharton didn't share exact figures)
Read our Wharton MBA Jobs & Salary Review
(Image: ©Rose Lincoln/Harvard Business School)
Harvard
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Harvard Business School graduates go on to work in a much wider range of industries than alumni most b-schools. However, consulting remains one of the top industries for MBA graduates in 2024, and McKinsey is one of the listed recruiters. Only financial services attracted a larger number of grads, with 38% of HBS MBAs entering financial functions.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 18%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Harvard MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Read our Harvard MBA Jobs & Salary Review
Stanford
Location: Stanford, California
Stanford is consistently one of the top-ranked business schools globally, with the highest average graduate salaries and lowest acceptance rate in the world. Consulting is the third most popular industry for its grads, after finance and tech. Among the 249 class of 2024 who sought employment on graduation, 14% of MBA grads moved into consulting, which was significantly lower than other leading US schools.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 14%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Stanford MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Read our Stanford MBA Jobs & Salary Review
Dartmouth Tuck
Location: Hanover, New Hampshire
MBA graduates tend to gravitate towards consulting and finance, but Tuck alumni do so more than grads from most schools. Almost 70% of its most recent cohort moved into one of the two sectors—and McKinsey was listed among its top hiring companies.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 44%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Tuck MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Emory Goizueta
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
More than half of Emory Goizueta’s MBA class of 2023 moved into consulting, but last year, that figure fell to 43%.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 43%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Goizueta MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Read: 7 Key Management Consultant Skills For Success In The Industry
©g-stockstudio/iStock
Darden
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia
Another school with a high proportion of grads entering consulting and finance, recent Darden also joined industries such as energy, healthcare, and retail. McKinsey was listed as one of Darden’s biggest hiring companies in 2024.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 44%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Darden MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Read our Darden MBA Jobs & Salary Review
Vanderbilt Owen
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Another school with a varied set of post-MBA industries, but consulting remains the most popular sector for Owen graduates. McKinsey hired from its MBA class of 2024, though it's not known how many grads were offered a role with the consulting company.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 34%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Vanderbilt Owen MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Yale
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
If you get admitted to Yale School of Management, there’s a good chance you’ll work in consulting afterwards. Almost one-third of the school's MBA grads moved into the sector after graduating in 2024—although that figure fell from 44.2% in 2023.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 32%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Yale MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Read our YAle MBA Jobs & Salary Review
Cornell Johnson
Location: Ithaca, New York
Consulting and finance dominate the industries of choice for Johnson MBA graduates, with a whopping 73% moving into one of the two areas. McKinsey is among the top hirers of Johnson grads.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 31%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Johnson graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Read our Cornell Johnson Jobs & Salary Review
McCombs
Location: Austin, Texas
Consulting is the industry the largest number of McCombs MBAs enter upon graduation. Although the school doesn't publish precise figures by employer, McCombs highlights McKinsey as a top employer, with five or more MBA students landed internships or full-time work with the prestigious consulting company.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 30%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many McCombs graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Marshall
Location: Los Angeles, California
One of the few business schools where consulting doesn’t dominate, more than one-quarter of Marshall MBA graduates nevertheless join the industry. McKinsey is listed as one of the school’s top recruiters in its employment report.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 28%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Marshall graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Tepper
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Tepper School at Carnegie Mellon is a fertile breeding ground for tech workers, with 28.7% of its class of 2024 moving into the sector. But consulting isn’t far behind— 25.7% of the most recent class are now working in the industry.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 26%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Tepper graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? Data not available
Berkeley Haas
Location: Berkeley, California
The second-oldest business school in the US, Haas has a stellar reputation across various industries. But as with most top American b-schools, consulting was the industry of choice for Haas grads in 2024.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 25%
Median consulting salary: $190,000
How many Haas MBA graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 3+
Anderson
Location: Los Angeles, California
Anderson School of Management may be on the fringes of the top 20 business schools in the US, but it is one of the happiest hunting grounds for McKinsey. Along with Amazon, the consulting firm was one of the top recruiters from Anderson’s class of 2024.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 25%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Anderson graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 3+
Kelley
Location: Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana
McKinsey is the only one of the ‘Big Three’ consulting firms listed as a top recruiter at Kelley. The school has one of the most varied set of destinations for its MBA grads: consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, and tech hires all top 10% here.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 24%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Kelley graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? N/A
Kenan-Flagler
Although a fairly low proportion of Kenan-Flagler graduates move into consulting compared to other top US business schools, many that do end up at McKinsey. The consulting firm is also an on-campus partner of Kenan-Flagler.
Percentage of graduates who entered consulting: 21%
Median consulting salary: $175,000
How many Kenan-Flagler graduates did McKinsey hire in 2024? 3+ (including interns)
