TL;DR
• We analyzed 200+ LinkedIn profiles of consulting interns at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Oliver Wyman, Kearney, EY-Parthenon, and Strategy&. MBB interns averaged 3.2 prior internships at offer time. Big 4 advisory: 1.5. Small firms: 0.9.
• 42% of MBB interns had a student consulting club or case competition on their profile. That signal was unique to consulting. It barely appeared in any other industry.
• Certifications were almost absent. Nobody listed a Coursera or LinkedIn Learning certificate. What separated firm tiers was internship count and club involvement, not credentials.
• School tier mattered less than experience. At Kearney, only 27% came from tier 1 schools. At every firm, the number of prior internships was a stronger predictor than school prestige.
• The bar is rising fast: 68% of 2023 consulting interns had prior experience at offer time. By 2026, that number hit 88%.
An externship is a short, remote, mentored project with a real company that gives you resume-ready experience before you apply. Explore consulting externships | Explore all externships
How We Built This Dataset
This article is part of a larger analysis of 2,500+ intern profiles across investment banking, consulting, Big 4, and tech. For the consulting slice, we collected profiles from two sources: a broad pull using consulting-related job titles (Summer Business Analyst, Summer Associate Consultant, Consulting Intern, Strategy Intern), and a targeted pull filtering by seven top firms. After deduplication, we had 317 profiles in the consulting cohort, 206 from the company-level pulls at named firms.
We looked at what each person had on their profile at the point when they would've received the offer, typically 10 months before the internship started. For undergrad interns (214 of the cohort), we separated MBB, Big 4/Accenture, and other firms to see how the bar actually differs by tier.
Every number here is an aggregate. No individual profiles are shown.
The Experience Gap Between MBB, Big 4, and Everyone Else
Consulting has the steepest experience gradient of any industry we studied. Steeper than IB. Steeper than tech. The gap between MBB and a small consulting shop is wider than the gap between Goldman Sachs and a regional bank.
Here's what undergraduate consulting interns had at offer time, split by firm tier:
| Firm tier | n | Prior internships (mean) | Had 1+ | Had 2+ | Had relevant internship | Had consulting club or case | Leadership title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBB | 19 | 3.26 | 84% | 79% | 84% | 42% | 42% |
| Big 4 / Accenture | 57 | 1.51 | 72% | 39% | 56% | 18% | 33% |
| Other firms | 131 | 0.89 | 54% | 21% | 32% | 15% | 11% |
Prior Internships by Firm
Average number of prior internships at offer time
The Experience Gap: MBB vs. Big 4 vs. Other Firms
Average prior internships at offer time (undergrad only)
MBB undergrad interns had more than triple the experience of small-firm interns. And 79% of MBB interns walked in with two or more prior internships. That's not a soft preference. It's a pattern.
MBB: 3+ Internships and a Consulting Club
At the company level, MBB and strategy boutique numbers were remarkably consistent:
| Firm | n | Prior internships (mean) | Had 1+ | Had relevant | Club / case | Tier 1 school |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oliver Wyman | 16 | 3.56 | 94% | 88% | 62% | 56% |
| BCG | 34 | 3.53 | 88% | 79% | 56% | 56% |
| McKinsey | 13 | 3.46 | 85% | 69% | 15% | 62% |
| Strategy& | 34 | 3.38 | 91% | 85% | 47% | 74% |
| Kearney | 11 | 3.27 | 91% | 91% | 45% | 27% |
| Bain | 61 | 3.15 | 85% | 72% | 46% | 54% |
Oliver Wyman and BCG interns had the most loaded resumes (3.5+ prior internships on average). McKinsey had a smaller sample (13 people, since most LinkedIn profiles with "McKinsey" were full-time Business Analysts, not interns), but the pattern held: 85% had prior experience and the average was 3.46 internships.
The consulting club signal is worth calling out. At BCG and Oliver Wyman, over half of interns had participated in a student consulting club or case competition. At Bain, 46%. This is a signal that barely shows up in investment banking or tech. In consulting, it clearly matters.
One surprise: McKinsey's club rate was only 15%. Small sample, so take it directionally. But it's also possible that McKinsey weighs other things more heavily. Their leadership title rate was 69%, the highest of any firm.
Big 4 Advisory: Lower Bar, Wider Pipeline
EY-Parthenon sits between MBB and the traditional Big 4. Its interns averaged 2.41 prior internships, with 95% having at least one and 84% with a relevant one. That's closer to MBB than to Deloitte's consulting arm.
The traditional Big 4 advisory track (Deloitte Strategy, PwC Deals, EY Consulting, KPMG Advisory) had a noticeably lower bar: 1.51 prior internships on average for undergrads, 72% with at least one. Still competitive, but you don't need three prior internships to get in.
Boutique and Mid-Tier: Where You Break In
At firms outside the named strategy houses and Big 4, the average dropped to 0.89 prior internships. Only 54% had any prior experience at all. And just 3% had done a previous consulting internship.
But this is also where students with thinner resumes can get their foot in the door. Build the profile here, and MBB or Big 4 becomes realistic the following summer.
What Kinds of Experience Did They Have?
Here's something that might surprise you. The most common prior experience among consulting interns wasn't a consulting internship. It was a finance internship.
Across the full consulting cohort:
• Finance internships (PE, VC, banking, corporate finance): 101 instances
• Consulting/strategy internships: 87
• Business, ops, and analyst roles: 82
• University research: 38
• Student consulting clubs: 21
Finance was the number one stepping stone into consulting. Students who had interned at a bank, PE firm, or corporate finance department were well represented across every tier. So if you've done a finance internship and you're pivoting into consulting? You're not behind. You're actually in the majority.
And the consulting-to-consulting pipeline (doing one consulting internship to get another) was real but not dominant.
For students at the MBB level, the major split was business/management (30%), finance (31%), economics (17%), and STEM (15%). No single major dominated, but 78% were in a business-adjacent field.
Does Your School Matter in Consulting?
More than in tech or Big 4 audit, yes. But less than you'd think.
At Strategy& (PwC's strategy arm), 74% of interns came from tier 1 schools. At McKinsey, 62%. But at Kearney, that number dropped to 27%, and at Bain it was 54%. The variation across firms is wide enough that there's no single "you need a target school" rule for consulting.
But one thing did hold true everywhere: students from less prestigious schools who made it in had more prior experience. The school-experience tradeoff we found across all industries was especially visible in consulting. You can compensate for school prestige. But you'll need to bring more on your resume.
How Much Has the Bar Risen?
We compared consulting interns across four classes:
| Class of 2023 | Class of 2024 | Class of 2025 | Class of 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Had 1+ prior internship | 68% | 67% | 78% | 88% |
Consulting Interns with Prior Experience, by Class Year
Share with at least one prior internship at offer time
The jump from 2024 to 2026 is 21 percentage points. But it's not a steady climb. It's accelerating. Some of this is LinkedIn profile completeness improving over time. But the direction is unmistakable: today's consulting internship recruits are bringing more experience than ever before.
Why Class Year Changes Everything
Junior-summer consulting applicants had 2.14 prior internships on average, and 59% had a business-relevant one. Sophomore-summer applicants? 0.99 internships, and only 34% with a relevant one.
This matters because consulting recruiting timelines differ by firm. MBB typically recruits juniors in the fall of their junior year. Some Big 4 firms have sophomore programs (like Deloitte Discovery or EY Launch). So if you're a sophomore reading that "MBB interns had 3.2 internships" and panicking a little? Stop. Your comparison group is other sophomores, not juniors with two more summers under their belt.
Getting one relevant experience before your junior fall, whether that's a summer internship, a consulting club project, or a remote externship, moves you from below to above average in your class-year cohort.
What You Can Change Before Recruiting Season
The data shows three things that separate consulting interns by firm tier. Two of them are things you can build right now.
Prior internship count. MBB: 3.2 average. Big 4: 1.5. Other: 0.9. Every additional internship moves you up.
Consulting club or case competition. 42% at MBB, 18% at Big 4, 15% elsewhere. If your school has a student consulting club, join it. If it doesn't, enter a case competition. This is the only extracurricular that consistently showed up in consulting profiles and nowhere else.
A relevant internship. 84% of MBB interns had one in consulting, finance, or business ops. 56% at Big 4. 32% at other firms. It doesn't need to be at a consulting firm. Finance, corporate strategy, and business analyst roles all counted.
Your school and class year are fixed. But your experience, your club involvement, and whether you've done any project-based work in a business context? Those aren't. And that's where the gap between firm tiers actually lives.
FAQ
How many internships do you need for McKinsey?
McKinsey interns in our dataset averaged 3.46 prior internships at offer time, and 85% had at least one. McKinsey doesn't publish a minimum. But the data suggests that 2+ prior internships plus a leadership role puts you in the competitive range for MBB recruiting.
Is Big 4 consulting easier to get into than MBB?
Based on our data, yes. Big 4 advisory interns averaged 1.51 prior internships (vs. 3.26 at MBB), and the school tier distribution was broader. EY-Parthenon sits between the two at 2.41 prior internships on average.
Do consulting clubs actually help?
The data says yes. 42% of MBB undergrad interns had a consulting club or case competition on their profile. That rate dropped to 18% at Big 4 and 15% at other firms. No other extracurricular showed this kind of correlation in any industry we studied.
What major do you need for consulting?
No single major dominated. Among consulting interns: 31% were finance majors, 30% business/management, 17% economics, and 15% STEM. The key was a business-adjacent background (78% total), not a specific department.
Can you get into consulting from a non-target school?
Yes. At Kearney, only 27% of interns came from tier 1 schools. At Bain, 54%. At BCG, 56%. Non-target students who made it in consistently had more prior experience than their target-school peers. The door isn't closed. You just need to bring more on your resume.
Methodology: This analysis is based on 200+ publicly listed LinkedIn profiles of consulting interns at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Oliver Wyman, Kearney, EY-Parthenon, and Strategy&, plus a broader pool of 317 consulting intern profiles across all firm types. "At offer time" refers to experiences listed 10 months before the internship start date. This article is part of Extern's analysis of 2,500+ intern profiles across five industries. All figures are aggregates; no individual data is published.
Bifei Wang has spent 17 years focused on human flow and the growth of young professionals, spanning international education, career training and coaching, and recruitment process outsourcing. Over 7 years at Extern, he has had one-on-one sessions with thousands of students exploring careers in consulting, finance, tech, marketing, and data, giving him a firsthand view of how the job market has shifted for early-career professionals and what it actually takes to break in.
About the Author
Bifei Wang has spent 17 years focused on human flow and the growth of young professionals, spanning international education, career training and coaching, and recruitment process outsourcing. Over 7 years at Extern, he has had one-on-one sessions with thousands of students exploring careers in consulting, finance, tech, marketing, and data, giving him a firsthand view of how the job market has shifted for early-career professionals and what it actually takes to break in.
