Author: Taylor Warfield, Former Bain Manager and interviewer

Last Updated: September 5, 2026

 

The EY consulting acceptance rate is an estimated 5% to 8% for entry-level roles, which makes EY one of the more realistic targets in consulting while still rejecting the large majority of applicants. This article shows you exactly where candidates get cut, what the hiring numbers behind that range look like, and what you can change to land on the right side of it.

 

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Key Takeaways

 

EY's consulting practice accepts an estimated 5% to 8% of applicants, several times more than McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, but the bar climbs sharply once you reach the EY Experience Day.

 

• EY Consulting employed 124,238 people globally at the end of FY25, up 5.4% year over year

 

• Most candidates are cut at the application form and online assessment, before anyone at EY speaks with them

 

• EY UK consulting revenue fell 6% in FY25, which tightened entry-level hiring in that market

 

• EY dropped minimum UCAS points and degree classification requirements back in 2016

 

• You can apply to only one EY programme in a six-month window, so your first pick matters

 

• EY-Parthenon is a separate and far more selective track than EY Consulting

 

What Is the EY Consulting Acceptance Rate?

 

The EY consulting acceptance rate is an estimated 5% to 8% for entry-level roles, meaning roughly 5 to 8 out of every 100 applicants receive an offer. EY does not publish an official figure. That range is built from EY's reported hiring volumes, candidate-reported outcomes, and the ratio of applications to open seats.

 

Firm-wide, EY is harder than that. Once you include audit and tax, which draw enormous application volumes relative to headcount, estimates for EY overall land closer to 3% to 4%. Consulting sits higher because fewer people apply per open seat, not because the standard is lower.

 

Scale is the reason. Bloomberg reported in 2022 that EY was on track to hire roughly 220,000 people in the twelve months to July 2023 and screens millions of resumes to do it, and that volume is spread across every service line and every country.

 

This is the pattern across every Big 4 consulting practice: massive intake, massive rejection, and a screen that runs mostly on software before a human ever reads your name.

 

How Many Consultants Does EY Hire Each Year?

 

EY Consulting employed 124,238 people worldwide at the end of FY25, up 5.4% from 117,900 a year earlier, according to EY's global revenue announcement. That is a net addition of about 6,300 consultants, and net growth badly understates gross hiring because it ignores attrition.

 

Consulting is EY's second-largest service line by headcount and generated $16.4 billion in FY25 revenue. The entire McKinsey firm is a fraction of that size, which is exactly why the McKinsey acceptance rate sits under 1% while EY's sits several times higher.

 

EY service line	FY25 headcount	FY24 headcount	Change
Assurance	130,898	127,617	Up 2.6%
Consulting	124,238	117,900	Up 5.4%
Tax	75,314	73,098	Up 3.0%
Strategy and Transactions	25,036	25,483	Down 1.8%
Total EY	406,209	393,025	Up 3.4%

 

Source: EY global revenue announcement for the fiscal year ending June 2025, published October 2025

 

Look at the split between the last two rows. EY-Parthenon sits inside Strategy and Transactions, which shrank 1.8% in FY25 while Consulting grew, so the EY-Parthenon acceptance rate moves in a completely different direction from the broader consulting practice.

 

Where Do Candidates Get Rejected in the EY Consulting Process?

 

Almost all rejections happen in the first two stages. EY's published application process for graduate programmes, internships, and industrial placements runs four stages: an application form, online assessments, an EY Experience Day, and a final interview.

 

1. Application form: you pick one programme and one location, then submit your personal details and qualifications
   
   
2. Online assessments: rank order exercises, written answers, recorded video answers, and for some programmes a timed numerical reasoning test
   
   
3. EY Experience Day: an assessment event with group activities and exercises run by EY assessors, held in person for graduates and virtually for summer interns
   
   
4. Final interview: a conversation with a senior member of the team about your strengths and your motivation for the role

 

Stage two is where the biggest cut happens, and it is the stage candidates respect least. The EY online assessment feels like a formality because it is unproctored and self-scheduled, and that is precisely why so many strong candidates lose here.

 

Here is an illustrative funnel that matches the pattern I see with candidates I coach. The numbers are round for clarity and are not published EY figures.

 

Stage	What decides the outcome	Remaining out of 1,000
Application form	Resume quality, programme fit, work authorization	300
Online assessments	Numerical reasoning score, video answer quality	140
EY Experience Day	Group exercise contribution, structured thinking	90
Final interview	Motivation, service line knowledge, strengths fit	60

 

Sixty offers from 1,000 applicants is 6%, right in the middle of the range. What matters more than the final percentage is the shape of the funnel: nearly nine in ten candidates are gone before anyone at EY has spoken to them.

 

How Does the EY Consulting Acceptance Rate Compare to Other Firms?

 

EY Consulting is meaningfully easier to enter than MBB and broadly comparable to the other Big 4 consulting practices. The table below shows estimated ranges rather than published figures, because no major consulting firm releases an official acceptance rate.

 

Firm or practice	Estimated acceptance rate	What drives it
McKinsey, BCG, Bain	Under 1%	Small firms, narrow target school lists, heavy case screening
EY-Parthenon	1% to 3%	Small strategy arm that shrank in FY25, MBB-style cases
Tier 2 strategy firms	3% to 10%	Mid-size firms with structured but slightly broader recruiting
EY Consulting	5% to 8%	124,238 consultants worldwide, wide role mix, no academic minimums
IT and implementation firms	10% to 20%	Very high volume delivery hiring with lighter interview screens

 

The gap between EY and MBB is not subtle. The Bain acceptance rate sits under 1%, as do McKinsey's and BCG's, so a candidate who finds EY Consulting a stretch faces roughly ten times worse odds at MBB.

 

Within the Big 4, the differences are small enough that you should apply to several firms rather than agonize over which one is easiest. The Deloitte acceptance rate for its consulting practice runs slightly tighter than EY's.

 

Technology and implementation firms are more accessible still. The Accenture acceptance rate sits above the Big 4 range because those firms hire at even larger scale for delivery-heavy roles.

 

Why Is EY Consulting Easier to Get Into Than MBB?

 

There are four structural reasons EY Consulting accepts a higher share of applicants. None of them mean the interviews are easy.

 

• Scale: EY Consulting has 124,238 people worldwide and needs to fill vastly more seats every year than the three MBB firms combined

 

• Role mix: technology, cyber, risk, supply chain, and workforce roles sit alongside strategy work, which widens the profile EY can hire

 

• School reach: EY recruits from far more universities than MBB and removed minimum UCAS points and degree classification requirements in 2016

 

• Interview format: the EY Experience Day leans on strengths-based exercises and group activities rather than the demanding candidate-led cases MBB runs

 

That combination is why EY shows up on almost every list of the easiest consulting firms to get into. Easier is relative though. A 5% to 8% rate still means nine in ten applicants walk away with nothing.

 

How Have Recent Hiring Cuts Changed Your Odds?

 

Your odds now depend heavily on which market and which team you apply to. EY reported UK fee income of £3.78 billion for the financial year ending 27 June 2025, and within that, consulting revenues fell 6% while Strategy and Transactions grew 10%.

 

EY hired nearly 2,400 people across all UK service lines that year and admitted 59 new equity partners. Those 2,400 hires are spread across audit, tax, consulting, and strategy, so the consulting slice is a small number competing against a very large applicant pool.

 

Globally the picture looks different. EY Consulting headcount still grew 5.4% in FY25, driven by technology and AI transformation work, with more than 15,000 EY people working on AI-led client projects that year.

 

The practical read is to apply where the growth is. Technology and AI-adjacent consulting teams at EY are still hiring while traditional advisory intake tightens, and the consulting recruiting timeline for those teams increasingly runs off-cycle rather than on a fixed campus calendar.

 

What Does EY Look for in Consulting Candidates?

 

EY assesses candidates against a strengths framework rather than a fixed academic bar. The firm removed minimum UCAS points and degree classification requirements in 2016 and works with RARE to assess applications using contextual recruitment, which means your grades are read against your circumstances rather than in isolation.

 

That matters if your transcript is not perfect. Getting into consulting with a low GPA is far harder at MBB than at EY, precisely because EY's screen weighs strengths and motivation alongside academics.

 

What EY will not forgive is a vague answer to why EY. Having interviewed candidates at Bain, I can tell you the fastest way to fail a professional services interview is to give a motivation answer that would work equally well for any firm on your list.

 

How Do You Improve Your EY Consulting Acceptance Rate?

 

Seven things move the needle, and most of them happen before you ever meet an EY assessor.

 

Tip #1: Pick one programme and commit to it

 

EY lets you apply to only one programme within a six-month period for graduate roles, internships, and industrial placements. Spraying applications is not an option here, so research the service line properly before you click apply.

 

Tip #2: Apply in the first week the window opens

 

EY states that unless a vacancy says otherwise, applications close as soon as the set number of roles are filled. Applying in December to a window that opened in September is how strong candidates lose out to average ones.

 

Tip #3: Build a resume that survives a 20-second screen

 

Your application form and resume are the single biggest filter in the entire process. A strong consulting resume leads every bullet with a quantified result rather than a description of your duties.

 

If you want a second set of eyes on yours, my resume review service comes with unlimited revisions and a 24-hour turnaround.

 

Tip #4: Treat the online assessment like a real round

 

Rank order exercises and recorded video answers feel low stakes and are not. EY provides practice assessments through its candidate portal, and skipping them is a self-inflicted wound at the exact stage where most candidates die.

 

Tip #5: Get a referral before you apply, not after

 

A referral will not let you bypass the assessments, but it does get your application read by a person instead of sorted by a system. Consulting referrals work best when you have had two or three real conversations with someone on the team you are targeting.

 

The channel data backs this up. Among EY consulting candidates who reported how they got their interview on Glassdoor, 52% applied online, 33% came through campus recruiting, and only 11% came through an employee referral, which tells you how underused that route still is.

 

Tip #6: Prepare for a case even though EY is not MBB

 

The EY Experience Day and final interview can include a business case or group exercise, especially for consulting roles. The EY case interview is less rigid than an MBB case, but candidates who have practiced structuring problems stand out sharply in a room full of people who have not.

 

If you want to get up to speed quickly, my case interview course covers the structuring and math fundamentals in about seven days.

 

Tip #7: Name the service line in your why EY answer

 

Generic motivation answers fail. Name the team you want, the client problem that interests you, and the specific thing in your background that points there.

 

The same specificity belongs in your EY cover letter, since recruiters read it as a preview of how you will talk about your motivation on the Experience Day.

 

A 5% to 8% EY consulting acceptance rate sounds brutal until you see where the rejections actually cluster. Nearly nine in ten are eliminated by an application form and an online assessment they never took seriously. Fix those two stages and you have already outrun most of the field.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Is EY consulting hard to get into?

 

Yes, though it is easier than MBB. EY Consulting accepts an estimated 5% to 8% of applicants compared with under 1% at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. The difficulty is front-loaded, since most candidates are eliminated at the application form and online assessment stages before any EY employee speaks with them.

 

What is the acceptance rate for EY consulting internships?

 

EY does not publish internship acceptance rates, but summer internships are generally harder to win than full-time graduate roles because the cohorts are smaller. Internships are also the main feeder into full-time consulting offers, which makes them worth prioritizing. Applying in the first weeks of the window matters more for internships than for any other EY programme.

 

Is EY-Parthenon harder to get into than EY Consulting?

 

Yes, considerably harder. EY-Parthenon sits inside Strategy and Transactions, which employed 25,036 people globally in FY25 and shrank 1.8% that year, against 124,238 people in Consulting. EY-Parthenon also recruits from a narrower list of schools and runs a case interview process much closer to MBB.

 

Does EY have a GPA requirement for consulting?

 

EY removed the requirement for minimum UCAS points and a degree classification in the UK in 2016 and now assesses applications using a strengths framework and contextual recruitment. Some individual programmes still list academic preferences, so check the specific vacancy page before applying. In practice, a lower GPA hurts far less at EY than at McKinsey, BCG, or Bain.

 

How long does the EY consulting hiring process take?

 

According to Glassdoor data, candidates applying to consulting roles at EY report an average of about 52 days from application to hire, against roughly 30 days across EY roles overall. Those numbers come from just 16 self-reported consulting interviews, so treat them as directional rather than exact. Graduate cycles often run longer because EY Experience Days are scheduled in batches.

 

Can you reapply to EY if you get rejected?

 

Yes. EY's stated rule for graduate programmes, internships, and industrial placements is that you can apply to only one programme within a six-month period, so a rejection means waiting out that window. Use the time to fix whichever stage you failed rather than resubmitting a near-identical application.

 

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