Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: April 8, 2026

 

Consulting for liberal arts majors and humanities majors is not only possible, it is increasingly common at the most elite firms in the world. McKinsey, BCG, and Bain all actively recruit candidates from English, history, philosophy, political science, and other non-business backgrounds.

 

In fact, according to a Fortune report from January 2026, McKinsey's global managing partner Bob Sternfels publicly stated that the firm is now re-prioritizing liberal arts majors as sources of creativity that AI cannot replicate. If you have a humanities degree and want to break into consulting, the timing has never been better.

 

But first, a quick heads up:

 

McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and other top firms accept less than 1% of applicants every year. If you want to triple your chances of landing interviews and 8x your chances of passing them, watch my free 40-minute training.

 

Can Liberal Arts Majors Get Into Consulting?

 

Yes. Liberal arts majors and humanities majors absolutely can get into consulting, including at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. These firms do not require a business or STEM degree to apply.

 

According to an analysis of over 7,500 MBB hires across global offices, roughly 42% of pre-experience hires studied business or economics. That means 58% came from other backgrounds, including liberal arts, humanities, engineering, and the sciences. History, political science, philosophy, and English majors are well represented at every top firm.

 

In my experience at Bain, some of the strongest consultants I worked with had degrees in philosophy, international relations, and comparative literature. Their ability to construct arguments, synthesize complex information, and communicate clearly made them exceptional at client work from day one.

 

The key thing to understand is that consulting firms hire for aptitude, not expertise. They are looking for structured problem solvers, clear communicators, and intellectually curious people. Your major is far less important than how you demonstrate those qualities.

 

Why Are Consulting Firms Hiring More Humanities Majors?

 

The consulting industry has always valued diverse thinkers, but recent shifts in technology are making humanities majors even more attractive to firms. The rise of artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing what consulting firms need from new hires.

 

What Skills Do Consulting Firms Actually Look For?

 

Consulting firms evaluate candidates on a core set of skills that have nothing to do with your major. Having coached hundreds of candidates as a former Bain interviewer, I can tell you that the skills that matter most are the ones liberal arts programs are specifically designed to build.

 

Skill	Why Firms Want It	How Liberal Arts Builds It
Structured problem solving	Break complex client problems into solvable parts	Thesis writing, research design, argument construction
Clear communication	Present findings to C-suite executives	Essays, presentations, seminar debates, persuasive writing
Intellectual curiosity	Learn new industries quickly on every project	Broad coursework across disciplines, self-directed research
Critical thinking	Challenge assumptions and find non-obvious insights	Socratic method, textual analysis, philosophical reasoning
Leadership and teamwork	Manage workstreams and collaborate under pressure	Group projects, extracurriculars, student organizations

 

Notice that not a single skill on this list requires an accounting class, a finance textbook, or an economics degree. The core consulting toolkit is built on thinking clearly, communicating well, and learning fast. Liberal arts programs train exactly those muscles.

 

Why Is AI Making Liberal Arts Skills More Valuable?

 

This is the most important trend for humanities majors considering consulting. AI is automating the analytical grunt work that consulting firms used to rely on junior consultants to do. According to McKinsey's leadership, the firm saved 1.5 million hours in 2025 alone by using AI for search and synthesis tasks.

 

As AI takes over the "logical next step" type of problem solving, firms need people who can do what AI cannot. In a January 2026 interview with Harvard Business Review, McKinsey's Bob Sternfels identified three skills that remain uniquely human: creativity, judgment, and aspiration.

 

Sternfels went further, telling Fortune that McKinsey is now "looking more at liberal arts majors, whom we had deprioritized" because they tend to produce "truly novel" thinking and "discontinuous leaps" in logic that AI models struggle to replicate. This is a seismic shift.

 

For consulting for humanities majors, the takeaway is clear. The industry is moving away from valuing pure analytical horsepower and toward valuing the creative, judgment-based skills that a philosophy, history, or English degree sharpens. The Goldman Sachs CIO even told HBR that he encouraged his child to study philosophy because of AI's rise.

 

Which Liberal Arts Majors Are Best for Consulting?

 

Any liberal arts or humanities major can get into consulting. There is no single "best" major. That said, different majors develop different strengths. Here is how the most common liberal arts and humanities majors translate to consulting skills.

 

Major	Key Transferable Skills	Consulting Fit
History	Research synthesis, evidence-based argumentation, pattern recognition across large datasets	Strong fit for strategy cases. Hypothesis-driven research mirrors consulting problem solving.
Philosophy	Logical reasoning, ethical analysis, deconstructing complex arguments, first-principles thinking	Excellent for structured thinking. Philosophy majors score highest on LSAT and GRE verbal.
English	Written communication, textual analysis, storytelling, synthesizing large volumes of information	Ideal for client communication. Writing decks and deliverables is 50%+ of consulting work.
Political Science	Policy analysis, stakeholder mapping, understanding institutional dynamics, quantitative methods	Natural bridge to public sector and government consulting. Quantitative exposure is a plus.
Psychology	Behavioral analysis, research methodology, statistical reasoning, understanding human motivation	Valuable for organizational consulting, change management, and consumer-facing cases.
Sociology	Systems thinking, survey design, qualitative and quantitative research, social dynamics	Strong for human capital, organizational design, and social impact consulting.
International Relations	Cross-cultural fluency, geopolitical analysis, negotiation, multi-stakeholder frameworks	Great for global firms. Many IR majors join MBB offices worldwide.
Economics	Quantitative modeling, market analysis, cost-benefit reasoning, data interpretation	Most directly aligned. Econ is the single most common major at MBB firms.

 

The bottom line: your specific major matters far less than how you frame the skills it gave you. An English major who can explain how textual analysis translates to client deliverable writing will impress a recruiter more than a business major with a generic answer.

 

How Do You Get Into Consulting as a Liberal Arts or Humanities Major?

 

Breaking into consulting for liberal arts majors requires the same basic steps as any other background: build your resume, network, and prepare for interviews. The difference is that humanities majors need to be more intentional about demonstrating business interest and quantitative comfort.

 

How Should You Prepare During College?

 

If you are still in school, you have a significant advantage. Here is a year-by-year action plan.

 

Freshman and Sophomore Year

 

• Join your school's consulting club or start one. This is the single most important extracurricular for consulting recruiting.

 

• Take at least one quantitative course, such as statistics, econometrics, or data analysis. This addresses the biggest perceived weakness of liberal arts candidates.

 

• Seek a business-adjacent internship in any industry. Strategy, operations, marketing, or finance roles all count.

 

• Start reading business publications like the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, or Harvard Business Review to build baseline business fluency.

 

Junior Year

 

• Apply for summer consulting internships at MBB, Big 4, and Tier-2 firms. According to Glassdoor data, roughly 70% of full-time consulting offers come from converted internships.

 

• If consulting internships are not available, target internships at Fortune 500 companies in strategy or analytics roles. These demonstrate business aptitude.

 

• Begin practicing case interviews 3 to 4 months before recruiting season. Most successful candidates complete 30 to 50 practice cases.

 

• Attend every firm info session and coffee chat on campus. Networking accounts for a significant share of interview invitations at non-target schools.

 

Senior Year

 

• Apply broadly. Submit applications to 10 to 15 firms across MBB, Big 4 (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG), and Tier-2 strategy firms (Oliver Wyman, LEK, Kearney).

 

• Refine your "Why consulting?" story to connect your liberal arts background to genuine interest in business problems.

 

• Practice behavioral interviews with the same rigor as case interviews. Your liberal arts stories are often more compelling than the average business major's.

 

How Do You Build Business Acumen Without a Business Degree?

 

You do not need a business degree to understand business. Many of the best consultants I worked with at Bain learned business fundamentals on the job. But building some baseline knowledge before interviews will give you a real edge.

 

Start by reading one or two business case studies per week. Harvard Business Review publishes free case summaries that give you exposure to real strategic problems. Follow one industry closely and read everything you can about its trends, major players, and competitive dynamics.

 

Practice market sizing questions in everyday life. Estimate how many coffee shops are in your city. Calculate the annual revenue of your school's dining hall. This kind of back-of-the-envelope thinking is exactly what consulting firms test for.

 

According to a survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, top business schools actively seek liberal arts undergrads because they bring diverse perspectives. If you plan to pursue an MBA later, your humanities degree is actually a differentiator in admissions.

 

How Should Liberal Arts Majors Write a Consulting Resume?

 

Your resume is the first filter in consulting recruiting. According to data from top firms, resume reviewers spend an average of 1 to 3 minutes per resume. As a liberal arts or humanities major, you need to translate your academic and extracurricular work into language that signals business readiness.

 

Here is how to reframe common liberal arts experiences for a consulting resume:

 

Experience	Weak Framing	Strong Framing
Senior thesis	Wrote 80-page thesis on economic policy in post-war Europe	Analyzed 50+ primary sources to develop data-driven policy recommendations, earning top honors from a 3-person faculty panel
Research assistant	Assisted professor with research on voting behavior	Built dataset of 10,000+ survey responses, identified 3 statistically significant predictors of voter turnout, and co-authored published findings
Student org leader	President of the philosophy club	Grew membership from 15 to 60 students (300% increase), managed $8K budget, and organized 12 speaker events per semester
Tutoring or TA role	Tutored students in writing	Coached 25+ students individually, improving average essay scores by 18% through structured feedback methodology

 

The pattern is simple: quantify everything, emphasize impact over activity, and use verbs that signal analysis and leadership. If you want expert help turning your resume into one that lands interviews, check out my resume review and editing service. It includes unlimited revisions with 24-hour turnaround.

 

How Do You Network Into Consulting From a Non-Business Background?

 

Networking is critical for consulting recruiting, especially if you attend a non-target school or come from a non-traditional background. According to LinkedIn data, over 80% of job placements involve some form of networking.

 

Start with alumni. Search LinkedIn for graduates from your school who work at consulting firms. Send a short, specific message asking for a 15-minute informational interview. Mention your major and express genuine curiosity about their career path.

 

Attend every on-campus consulting event, even if your school is not a target. Firms like Deloitte and Accenture recruit broadly, and showing up consistently builds name recognition with recruiters. If your school has no consulting events, reach out to firms directly through their websites.

 

Join case competition teams. Many universities have open consulting case competitions where liberal arts students can demonstrate analytical thinking in a team setting. Placing well in a case competition is a powerful resume line and conversation starter.

 

How Should Liberal Arts Majors Prepare for Consulting Interviews?

 

Consulting interviews have two components: case interviews and fit (behavioral) interviews. Liberal arts majors often underestimate how well their training prepares them for both.

 

How Do You Answer "Why Consulting?" as a Humanities Major?

 

Every consulting interview includes the question "Why consulting?" As a liberal arts or humanities major, you need a clear, confident answer that connects your academic background to your interest in business problem solving.

 

Do not be defensive about your major. Never say something like "I know my degree isn't typical for consulting, but..." That frames your background as a weakness. Instead, own it as a strength.

 

A strong answer follows this structure: what your major taught you to do (analyze complex problems, construct arguments, learn new domains quickly), what excites you about consulting (the variety of industries, the intellectual challenge, the client impact), and why this specific firm (culture, values, areas of practice).

 

For example: "Studying history taught me to take massive amounts of unstructured information, identify patterns, and develop evidence-based recommendations. That is exactly what consultants do, just in a business context instead of an academic one. I am drawn to consulting because I want to apply that same analytical process to help companies solve their toughest problems."

 

How Do You Handle Case Interviews Without a Business Background?

 

Case interviews test your ability to break down a business problem, analyze data, and deliver a recommendation. The good news for liberal arts majors: the underlying skills are ones you have been practicing for years.

 

Writing a thesis is structurally identical to solving a case. You start with a hypothesis, gather evidence, analyze it, and present a conclusion supported by 2 to 3 key arguments. The only difference is the subject matter.

 

The one area where humanities majors may need extra practice is case math. Consulting cases involve calculations like market sizing, profitability analysis, and breakeven math. None of this requires advanced math. It is arithmetic with large numbers. If you can multiply, divide, and work with percentages, you can do case math.

 

I recommend starting case prep at least 8 to 12 weeks before your interviews. Complete 30 to 50 practice cases, focusing on building a repeatable approach to frameworks, math, and recommendations.

 

If you want a step-by-step system to learn case interviews quickly, my case interview course was built for exactly this. It is especially popular with candidates who do not have a business background. The course walks you through proven strategies in as little as 7 days, saving you over 100 hours of trial and error.

 

How Do You Stand Out in Fit and Behavioral Interviews?

 

Fit interviews ask questions like "Tell me about a time you led a team," "Describe a challenge you overcame," and "Why do you want to work here?" This is where liberal arts majors often have a significant advantage.

 

Humanities students are trained storytellers. You know how to build a narrative arc, choose the right details, and land a compelling conclusion. These are exactly the skills that make behavioral interview answers memorable.

 

The best fit answers follow the STAR format: Situation, Task, Action, Result. But what separates great answers from average ones is specificity and quantification. Instead of saying "I improved the process," say "I reduced turnaround time by 40% by implementing a new review system."

 

Prepare 8 to 10 stories that demonstrate leadership, teamwork, analytical thinking, resilience, and drive. Draw from academic projects, extracurriculars, internships, and personal experiences. If you want a complete system for mastering fit interviews, my fit interview course covers 98% of the questions you will be asked.

 

What Types of Consulting Firms Hire Liberal Arts Majors?

 

Consulting for humanities majors is not limited to one type of firm. Liberal arts graduates work across the full spectrum of consulting, from the most prestigious strategy firms to specialized boutiques.

 

Firm Type	Examples	Openness to Liberal Arts	Entry Path
MBB	McKinsey, BCG, Bain	High. Actively recruit diverse majors from target schools.	Campus recruiting, direct apply, referral
Big 4	Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG	Very high. Hire from 100+ schools and all majors.	Campus recruiting, online application
Tier-2 Strategy	Oliver Wyman, LEK, Kearney, Roland Berger	High. Value analytical ability over specific degree.	Campus recruiting, referral, direct apply
Boutique/Specialty	Putnam, Altman Solon, Simon-Kucher	Moderate to high. May prefer domain knowledge.	Referral, direct apply, LinkedIn outreach
Non-Profit/Public Sector	Bridgespan, Dalberg, FSG	Very high. Mission-driven work attracts liberal arts grads.	Online application, networking

 

The Big 4 firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) tend to be the most accessible entry point for liberal arts majors at non-target schools. These firms hire thousands of consultants per year and actively recruit from a wide range of universities and academic backgrounds.

 

What Is the MBA Pathway for Liberal Arts Graduates?

 

If you do not break into consulting directly after undergrad, the MBA pathway is an excellent alternative. In fact, many liberal arts graduates deliberately plan for this route.

 

The typical path is to work for 2 to 4 years after your undergraduate degree, then apply to a top MBA program. According to admissions data from Harvard Business School, roughly 20% of admitted students come from humanities and social sciences backgrounds. Business schools actively seek liberal arts graduates because they add intellectual diversity to the class.

 

An MBA from a top 15 program essentially resets the playing field. MBB firms recruit heavily from these programs, and your undergraduate major becomes much less relevant. MBA graduates enter consulting at a more senior level (typically Associate or Engagement Manager) with higher starting compensation.

 

If you plan to go the MBA route, focus your pre-MBA years on building a track record of leadership, impact, and analytical work. Roles in non-profit management, government, media, education, or corporate strategy all provide strong MBA application stories.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Do consulting firms care what you majored in?

 

No. McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and most other consulting firms do not require a specific major. They evaluate candidates on problem-solving ability, communication skills, leadership, and intellectual curiosity. According to McKinsey's careers page, the firm welcomes applicants from all academic disciplines.

 

What GPA do liberal arts majors need for consulting?

 

Most top consulting firms look for a GPA of 3.5 or higher at target schools, though the threshold can vary. At non-target schools, a higher GPA (3.6 to 3.8+) helps demonstrate academic excellence. Your GPA matters as a signal of discipline and capability, but it is not the only factor. Strong extracurriculars, internships, and interview performance can offset a lower GPA.

 

Can you get into McKinsey, BCG, or Bain with a humanities degree?

 

Yes. All three firms hire humanities majors every year. An analysis of MBB hiring data found that roughly 18% to 20% of pre-experience hires at these firms came from social sciences and humanities backgrounds. History, political science, and philosophy are among the most common non-business degrees at MBB.

 

Is it harder to get into consulting as a liberal arts major?

 

It can require more intentional preparation, but it is not fundamentally harder. Liberal arts majors may need to take additional steps to demonstrate quantitative ability and business interest, such as completing a statistics course, securing a business-related internship, or excelling in case interview preparation. The interview itself is identical for all candidates regardless of major.

 

Should you get a minor in economics or business?

 

A minor can help, but it is not necessary. If you enjoy economics or business courses and they fit your schedule, a minor demonstrates quantitative comfort. However, a single statistics or data analysis course combined with a strong GPA and relevant internships can achieve the same effect. Do not add a minor solely to impress consulting recruiters if it comes at the cost of your GPA or extracurricular involvement.

 

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