Starting Your MBA in the Fall? Apply Now for BCG’s Pre-MBA Summer Program.

Are you interested in pursuing a career in consulting after your MBA? Do you want to learn more about what life in the “Big Three”—BCG, Bain, McKinsey—is really like? 

BCG’s Unlock summer program is designed for students who are about to enter their first year of an MBA program. It will provide participants with an insider’s view of life in consulting and at BCG, as well as the opportunity to network with BCG consultants and leaders. The flexible program will use a host of optional, virtual events (typically 60 to 90 minutes in length) between late May and late June, so that it can fit into any schedule (even those working full-time). 

Applications for BCG Unlock are available now, and due April 30th. 

To be eligible, students must be enrolled as a first-year student starting in the Fall of 2023 at one of these 41 41 full-time MBA programs. The program is not available to second-year students, or part-time or executive MBA students.

University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business Unveils Free, Pre-MBA Quantitative Readiness Course Online

Last month, the part-time MBA program at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business released a new “pathway to entry” for prospective students. Students may now opt to participate in a free, online pre-MBA Quantitative Readiness course and submit a final exam score of 80 percent or higher in lieu of GRE or GMAT scores. 

The Quantitative Readiness course is estimated to take between 20 and 30 hours to complete, and includes six self-paced modules covering various statistical techniques and applications. Each module includes practice questions and a quiz, followed by a three-hour final exam encompassing all modules. The course description states that the material is presented in such a way that students who spend the requisite time studying will be able to pass the course. 

In an interview with Poets & Quants, Patricia Russo, Managing Director of Part-Time MBA programs at Ross, said that the initial impetus behind the program was to drive applicant diversity by introducing a new mechanism to showcase readiness, one that may appeal to those with less traditional quantitative backgrounds. So far, with almost 200 enrollees in the first month, student feedback has shown that the program is meaningful. In addition to creating an alternative to standardized tests, it has provided students with the chance to refresh their quantitative skills and increase their confidence prior to entering an MBA program. It also gives them a chance to “test drive the rigor of an MBA”. Furthermore, as the program is an entryway to part-time programs where most students work in parallel, Russo notes that the act of taking the course provides prospective students visibility into the day-to-day work of juggling MBA coursework with their work and personal lives.

There is no current plan to extend the entryway to full-time applicants at Ross, but many part-time MBA program administrators from other universities have reached out with interest in the course.