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This semester, as a senior who is almost finished with my major and minors, I decided to challenge myself by taking a graduate-level course for credit. I enrolled in “EM 244: Intro to Management Consulting,” a 2-credit, half-semester course taught by Professor Partha Ghosh. Although this class doesn’t fulfill any distribution, major, or minor requirements, it counts toward my graduation, and I’ve found it incredibly valuable for my career aspirations in management consulting. This class is part of many others offered by Tufts Gordon Institute, which has real-world industry experts teaching a variety of courses. These courses can also transfer to Tufts School of Engineering graduate-level courses if you decide to pursue a degree there after completion of your undergraduate degree at Tufts. Courses vary from full semester (13 weeks) to short-term durations (4 or 8 weeks). This course, like others offered by the Tufts Gordon Institute, is designed to ease students into graduate-level studies. For any undergraduates considering taking a similar class, I highly recommend it. Whether or not you plan to continue your education at the Tufts School of Engineering or another graduate program, the experience of learning alongside graduate students and tackling complex projects is invaluable.

One of the reasons I chose this course is because it aligns with my professional goals. The course, at its core, aims to help students become familiar with the art and science of management consulting, build confidence in defining and addressing complex strategic issues through an understanding of emerging trends—such as geo-economic, environmental, geo-political, technological, and demographic shifts—and learn how to influence outcomes through analytics-driven insights and creative problem-solving. We explore frameworks and analytical techniques that can help clients and organizations make calculated strategic choices, weighing various business models and technologies with different risk profiles. This deep, structured approach is exactly what I’m looking to master as I prepare for a career in consulting.

This class meets virtually once a week for about 1.5 hours, and in addition to weekly live tutorials, we are assigned weekly tasks, including reflections or team-based assignments. Before each class, we watch six short videos that help prepare us for discussions on the management consulting profession, necessary skills, and we hear key insights from experts in this industry. What I love most about these sessions is the exposure to real-world consultants through panel discussions—hearing their daily experiences and perspectives makes consulting feel more tangible and insightful.

Professor Ghosh himself is extremely knowledgeable, resourceful and committed to helping his students succeed and has created a learning environment that feels engaging, oriented to the real world and draws on experiences from all over the world owing to his journey that has taken him all over the world and allowed him to engage with clients from all backgrounds and countries. Professor Ghosh has spent over 40 years in the management consulting profession and thanks to this class, I am slowly getting a much clearer picture of the consulting industry and what it takes to thrive in it.

If you're interested in registering for this class or any other graduate-level courses taught by the Tufts Gordon Institute, I suggest reaching out to the Gordon Institute or directly emailing the professor. Even though I’m only halfway through the semester, I’ve already learned so much—from strategic problem-solving to teamwork—and I'm confident this course will continue to shape my approach to consulting as I move forward in the semester.