Taking a Gap Year to get into HYPSM worth it?
So I'm an ultra hooked applicant (1st gen, African American, top 1% test scores/grades) who is interested in going into the consulting field after college. I applied to a few elite liberal arts colleges, but now after researching and reading WSO am realizing that MBB generally only heavily recruit from the tippity top schools (e.g. HYPSM+W). Now, in hindsight, I should have applied to these schools, and am now kinda mad that my career will be affected cuz of it (I know I'd enjoy those schools just as much).
So my question is, should I take a gap year so that I can apply to those colleges as a first year next year? I'm fairly confident I'll get into at least one and really regret not applying. Moreover, I know once I start college, it will be basically impossible to transfer due to their rates.
Please help me w/ any advice!
So wait, did you get into any school? If so, where did you get into? If they have on-campus recruiting there, then you're fine.
Pomona....do you think the advantage HYPSM would give is worth it?
https://www.bain.com/careers/meet-us/campus/ac-schools/claremont/
https://www.bcg.com/careers/join/on-campus/claremont-colleges.aspx
Pomona's facebook page says that McKinsey recruits there, I just couldn't find a dedicated link
So yeah, it's a target so don't waste a year going for a job that you only have a 1% shot at anyways.
Basically, network starting now, join your schools management consulting club (or whatever they have), identify key internships and work towards them. Go so hard that they can't help but interview you. Once you have an interview, then your school no longer matters, your performance in the case interviews and fit does. If you are proactive about everything, then you'll get an interview.
You've gotta keep grades up and such, and remember that "top 1%" is now utterly average and that you've still gotta keep up with classwork and extracurricular. Being african american helps, they always want to fill their diversity pools first so they can focus on the most competitive candidates afterward without anyone crying racism.
It's also super helpful to learn how to Google these sorts of things. I found the on-campus recruiting in like 5 minutes. If you really wanted to make sure, you'd just call up your school's career advisement center and ask about companies that recruit there. They'll tell you everything you need to know, and they'll have much better info than some dude on WSO that could be blowing smoke to seem cool to his primate-peers.
What would you do with the gap year?
Working at Starbucks or similar minimum wage job for savings, volunteering, working on other ECs
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