Consulting · figures from each school’s own report
Big 4 consulting after an MBA: Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG
The four audit networks run large consulting arms; 51 of the 56 schools on this site that publish an employer list name at least one of them.
Management analysts: U.S. median, May 2025
$101,860
$101,860 sits between the 25th percentile and the median
| 25th percentile | $77,950 |
| Median | $101,860 |
| 75th percentile | $133,370 |
| Workers counted | 898,280 |
| Median, New York-Newark-Jersey City | $124,390 |
| Median, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont | $126,730 |
| Median, Boston-Cambridge-Newton | $135,640 |
| Median, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | $105,090 |
All employers and levels together: a post-MBA consultant at a strategy firm is paid well above this median, as the school reports show. How this is calculated.
Built by Radif Partners · figures checked · Method · Editorial policy
Big 4 consulting means the advisory and consulting businesses of Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG, the four global audit networks. They hire MBA graduates into strategy units (Monitor Deloitte, Strategy& at PwC, EY-Parthenon) and into larger technology, operations and risk practices. 51 of the 56 schools on this site that publish an employer list name at least one of them: Deloitte appears at 32, EY at 27, PwC at 27, KPMG at 6. At 7 schools a Big 4 firm is named and none of McKinsey, BCG or Bain is, which makes the Big 4 the main consulting door for those programs. The firms publish no salary grid. The BLS puts the median management analyst at $101,860 in May 2025, and schools whose consulting hires lean toward Big 4 and technology work report lower consulting medians than those dominated by strategy firms. EY's own figures show consulting at 30.8% of its global revenue.
Four networks, several consulting arms
Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG began as audit firms and remain the four largest. Each now runs consulting businesses next to audit and tax: technology implementation, operations, risk, human capital, deals advisory, and a strategy unit at the top. Monitor Deloitte, Strategy& at PwC and EY-Parthenon recruit MBA graduates on the same campuses and with the same case interviews as McKinsey, BCG and Bain. The other practices hire MBA graduates as senior consultants or managers, often for a specific industry or function.
Because the networks also audit companies, regulators limit the consulting they can sell to their own audit clients. That rule shapes their client base more than their recruiting, but it explains why consulting is run as a separate business line in their results.
Which schools name them
We counted, in each school's employer list, the names of the four networks and their consulting arms. Deloitte is the most widely named; EY appears often through EY-Parthenon (17 schools), PwC often through Strategy& (11 schools).
| Network | Consulting arms listed | Schools naming it | Largest count reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deloitte | Deloitte Consulting, Monitor Deloitte | 32 of 56 | 14 at Columbia |
| PwC | PwC Advisory, Strategy& | 27 of 56 | 18 at Columbia |
| EY | EY Consulting, EY-Parthenon | 27 of 56 | 12 at NYU Stern |
| KPMG | KPMG Advisory | 6 of 56 | no count published |
The more telling figure is where the Big 4 recruit without the strategy firms. At 7 schools, among them BU Questrom, Fudan, IIM Ahmedabad PGPX, Indiana Kelley and Queen's Smith, a Big 4 network is named and none of McKinsey, BCG or Bain appears. For those programs the Big 4 are the main consulting employer, and the school's consulting figures describe Big 4 pay more than strategy pay. At the largest schools the two groups appear together: Columbia reports 18 PwC and 14 Deloitte hires next to its strategy firm counts.
Vanderbilt Owen or Indiana Kelley: the faster payback for you
Higher 10-year value
Vanderbilt Owen
| Vanderbilt Owen payback | 5.5 years |
| Indiana Kelley payback | 6.4 years |
| Vanderbilt Owen 10-year NPV | $70,498 |
| Indiana Kelley 10-year NPV | $4,892 |
The networks in their own figures
The networks publish global results each year. These cover every service, audit and tax included, and are quoted as each release gives them.
| Network | Year | Global revenue | Consulting or advisory line | People | Countries and territories |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deloitte | to May 2025 | $70.5 billion | not given in dollars | over 470,000 | more than 150 |
| EY | to June 2025 | $53.2 billion | Consulting $16.4 billion; EY-Parthenon $6.2 billion | 406,209 | more than 150 |
| KPMG | to September 2025 | $39.8 billion | Advisory $16.4 billion | 276,030 | 138 |
| PwC | n/a | site refused our requests | n/a | n/a | n/a |
By our division, consulting is 30.8% of EY's revenue and EY-Parthenon 11.7%; advisory is 41.2% of KPMG's. Deloitte reports growth for its consulting units but no dollar amount. PwC's sites returned an access error to every request we made, so no PwC figure is written here. The headcounts include auditors and tax advisers; none of the releases gives the number of consultants.
Pay: what can and cannot be said
No Big 4 network publishes an MBA salary. The Bureau of Labor Statistics gives the floor for the whole occupation: management analysts earned a median of $101,860 in May 2025, with a first quartile of $77,950 and a third of $133,370. The schools show the gap with the strategy firms indirectly. Schools where consulting hires are mostly at the strategy firms report the standard strategy base; schools where the Big 4 and technology practices weigh more report lower consulting medians, and schools that split consulting lines put technology consulting below strategy, as the strategy consulting page shows with each school's own labels.
The strategy units are the exception. EY-Parthenon and Strategy& appear in the same employer lists as the three strategy firms, at schools such as Chicago Booth and Kellogg, and recruit the same candidates; their offers are not public either. For the national distribution by city, use the calculator at the top of the page, and for the pay of strategy firms, consultant salary.