[Anonymous]

Hey everyone,

I am CPA certified auditor working for one of the Big Four. Recently I have been thinking about going to Business School to get my MBA because eventually I would like to transition into consulting. I talked with some old undergrad b-school buddies of mine who are all in top MBA programs and they said a lot of the top MBA programs (HBS, CBS, Stanford, Wharton, Booth etc.) find Big 4 people unoriginal and boring and don’t prefer to accept these specific individuals over the Investment Bankers and Consultants.

My question to you all is if this is actually true in that top MBA programs don’t tend to accept Big 4 people because of the fact accounting is “boring” to them and doesn’t offer anything to their program. In fact is it even possible to break into a top MBA program as a Big 4 auditor/accounting person. If this isn’t true how much work experience is needed to break into a top MBA. Moreover to achieve my consulting dreams would an MBA be worth it at all?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[jgrfan1]

I went to a top 15 or so MBA program full time. There were plenty of classmates w/ Big 4 experience and CPAs. It is a very useful skill set when coupled with a general business graduate education. That said, I think being a manager at Big 4 is as if not more valuable than an MBA from a top 5 school. There are way fewer people with this credential than the 1,000s of MBAs that get turned out every year.

What type of consulting do you want to do? If it is something like marketing does not have much to do with firm valuations or financials then a CPA would not necessarily help. If it is valuation or strategy or acquisitions, a CPA is very valuable. Most MBAs look down on nitty gritty accounting but it is usually b/c they do not have a firm understanding of it. If you want to work in corp finance or consulting that in any way touches a firm's financials, a CPA is something that can differentiate you and lends to your expertise as a financial professional.

Good luck.

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[Author]

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