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Hi Patrick! Welcome to the community! Marks are important, in the sense that the HR people at a consulting firm will use marks as a way to filter applications. Don't forget though that consulting firms are looking for signs of success. This is not limited to academic success, and can also include sporting achievements, leadership of community groups, or other noteworthy achievements. Which consulting firms are you thinking of applying to? Best wishes, Sally

Patrick, Apologies for the delayed response (your post was for some reason scheduled for moderation). This is a great question, and it really helps to highlight the perverse incentives that the education system can impose on students. The education system tends to push clever students to challenge themselves academically, but this may not turn out to be useful for career purposes. Out of interest, what are the harder subjects that you are considering? Are they relevant for jobs like banking and consulting? I agree with you that harder subjects can provide you with more opportunities to challenge yourself and enhance your intellectual skills, but you also need to keep your goals in mind. Three (3) points to consider: 1. Relevance of the content - Are the courses directly relevant for consulting/banking? That is, do they provide practical information that would allow you to be more effective at producing value for your boss and the client on day one? They probably don't. It's worth noting that 80% of the content you learn in class will never be directly used once you enter the workforce. 2. Demonstrating success - Unfortunately, you will not get rewarded for "challenging yourself". You will get rewarded for demonstrating success. If you are a high achiever, then I appreciate that this can be hard to come to terms with because your natural inclination will be to want to push yourself to see how much you can achieve. What you need to appreciate is that consulting firms (like your future clients) only really care about outcomes, and they don't really care that you picked difficult subjects. If you feel you can excel in the hard subjects, by all means take them. For bright students, easy subjects can sometimes become boring, and so harder to focus on and do well in. 3. Long term impact - In the short run, you want to get job offers and high marks can help you land interviews. In the long run, your marks may or may not matter. There is every chance that you may want to pursue further education (e.g. masters, MBA or PhD). For Masters and PhD programs your undergraduate marks (and subjects) are likely to be relevant. For MBA programs your work experience, work references and GMAT scores will carry most of the weight. Does this help?

If you were an undergraduate student considering your career options, would you say that management consulting is the most intellectually stimulating career path you can follow out of undergrad? Interested to hear your thoughts x