The MBA Summer Prep Playbook: Build Your Case Foundation Before School Starts

Only 19% of new McKinsey hires today are MBAs, down from over 80% in the mid-1990s. The pipeline is narrowing – and the competition is tightening.

Most incoming MBAs spend their summer doing nothing, assuming they'll find time to prep once school starts.

Most don't.

Re-recruiting as a second-year is harder than it used to be – fewer spots, more competition, and no internship offer to fall back on. Your best shot at breaking into consulting is securing that internship as a first-year.

First-year recruiting moves fast. Applications go out in October. Interviews hit in January. That means your entire prep window is the fall semester – a stretch when you're also adjusting to a new city, new classmates, and a full course load.

The candidates who show up ready didn't get there by cramming. They used their summer strategically.

This live session with Management Consulted is built for incoming MBA students who want to use the next few months the right way.

Our instructor, Catherine Lee – ex-BCG, ex-Deloitte, Harvard MBA – has sat on both sides of the table. She completed 40+ consulting interviews across her undergrad and MBA cycles, received offers from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Kearney, Deloitte, and Oliver Wyman, and has conducted 80+ interviews as a hiring-side evaluator.

She knows exactly where MBA candidates show up underprepared – and what to do about it.

In this session, she'll walk you through a summer case prep roadmap with specific milestones so you have a strong case foundation already built before school kicks off. Second-year MBAs recruiting this fall will find it useful too.

Looking for a case prep system? Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to talk with Katie about our programs.

Schedule 15-Min Consult with Katie →

More about Catherine

Ex-BCG | Ex-Deloitte | Ex-Silver Lake | Harvard MBA

Catherine was formerly a consultant at BCG’s New York office and Deloitte’s Toronto office, a growth-equity investor at Silver Lake, and the co-founder and COO of a Series B startup.

Across her undergraduate and MBA recruiting processes, Catherine received offers from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Kearney, Deloitte, and Oliver Wyman, successfully completing 40+ interviews. As an interviewer, she has conducted 80+ case and behavioral interviews across undergraduate, graduate, and experienced-hire candidates, including both traditional and non-traditional backgrounds. This gives her firsthand insight into firm-specific evaluation criteria, casing styles, and how hiring decisions are made.

Catherine’s coaching style is practical and efficient, providing specific, targeted feedback to help candidates develop strong case-structuring instincts, problem-solving and analytical reflexes, and the communication polish required to stand out in highly competitive recruiting processes.

Want to work with Catherine? Join Black Belt for a proven system to break into consulting.

Resources:

• Join Black Belt for a structured, end-to-end system to break into consulting (80% of Black Belts land one or more offers)
• Create a free account to access Case Interview Foundations – a 7-day case interview crash course
• Watch more McKinsey, BCG, and Bain case interview demos on YouTube