My advice would be very simple - do your MBA first! Experienced hires with no consulting background or MBA face an uphill struggle (especially in the current market climate). There is a credibility gap when presenting you to clients (right or not) that will always make consultancies wary of employing you - and certainly liable to hire you only at junior levels. With a strong MBA behind you all credibility issues vanish and in a normal recruiting environment you will have firms fighting to recruit you. If you cannot get into a top school then you are in any case fighting a losing battle to get into consulting while the market is this fragile, since there are so many candidates out there right now.<br><br>Hope that helps. T
