West Point grad.  Iraq war vet.  NYU Stern MBA.  Engagement Manager and Senior Associate at Strategy&.  Co-founder of Service to School. 

Gus Giacoman, our guest this week, is a fascinating individual, dedicated to helping vets get into schools of all kinds – everything from community colleges to law school, business school and diverse graduate programs. 

Tune in to our conversation with the highly accomplished and tireless Gus for the low-down on how he helps vets get into school, advice for vets and other MBA applicants, as well as tips for future management consultants.  Oh, and he tells some great stories. 

00:02:38 – Service to School: Networking and guidance for veterans headed to college and grad school. 

00:05:55 – The revenue model (you can’t charge family, right?). 

00:06:55 – A breakdown of where Service to School applicants are applying. 

00:10:28 – What success looks like (How about 3 Wharton/HBS admits!). 

00:12:29 – Business school as the path returning vets to civilian life. 

00:17:33 – The advantages and challenges of being a veteran in b-school and consulting. 

Firmsconsulting just released new rankings that compare the performance of CEOs from six top consulting firms, McKinsey & Co., BCG, Bain & Co., Deloitte S&O, PwC Strategy& and Roland Berger.  Each Sunday, the rankings will be republished based on new performance findings. 

Here are some points to keep in mind:

1.  How a CEO fares does not correlate to the prestige of the firm. 

2.  Feedback is collected directly from firm partners. 

3.  The real-time ranking updates allow Firmsconsulting to track weekly changes.  For consulting firms, a yearly ranking would simply be outdated by the time it was published, taking into account data from a bygone era. 

4.  Based on a CEO’s past performance, Firmsconsulting believes one can infer from these ranking the likely future performance of a CEO. 

Entrepreneurship is the sexy post-MBA job, but the reality is that less than 5% of grads from top MBA programs start a business at graduation.  Per GMAC’s just released Prospective Students Survey Report, 34% of all graduate business students seek consulting positions after they earn their degree.  My suspicion is that the figure is even higher among full-time MBA candidates.  True, many will work as consultants for a few years, and then down the road start their own business. 

If you are in that vast mass of MBA wannabes planning/hoping for a job in consulting immediately after you earn your degree, this ranking is for you!  We’ve examined US News’ top MBA programs and the number of grads who have gone into consulting from each one. ( The data here is from U.S. News.) 

The biggest surprise is how low Stanford places on these lists.  I would attribute that low ranking to the relatively high percentage of MBAs going into entrepreneurship (approximately 18%, the highest of any of these programs by far.).  Yale’s placement as #1 in percentage as well as Duke Fuqua’s, CMU Tepper’s and Emory’s as respectively #2,#6 and #8 on the percentage list also indicate real strength in consulting placement, which sometimes isn’t recognized. 

Similarly Wharton’s #1 placement and Chicago Booth’s #4 spot in total numbers call into question the meme that these two programs are “just” finance powerhouses. 

Certainly a high ranking in either of these lists indicates that the program has the recruiting ties, placement track record, and alumni network, as well as the curriculum, to support your consulting goals.  However, these numbers don’t tell the full picture.  Dig into the schools’ class profile, placement stats, curriculum, extra-curricular activities and opportunities to determine which schools to apply to. 

Ultimately you want to apply to programs that will take you where you want to go and that are likely to admit you. 

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