Certifications Typically Require the Lowest Minimum Level of Education of the Project Management Education Paths
Working in Top-Tier Management Consulting
The formal requirements to become a management consultant at one of the three tier-one consulting firms, McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Bain & Company, and to receive extensive project management training are very high.
For example, to join McKinsey & Company (n.d. a; n.d. b; n.d. c) as a permanent “allrounder,” i.e., as a consultant who is not assigned to a (functional) practice, you need an excellent/above-average university degree (e.g., bachelor, Master of Business Administration, PhD)1 or equivalent professional experience (usually more than five years).2 If you are invited to an interview based on your application, this is followed by a multi-stage selection process that takes place over several days and focuses on discussions (experience/expertise interviews) and case studies (case interviews) with consultants3 as well as the digital McKinsey assessment game “Solve” (McKinsey & Company n.d. d; n.d. e; n.d. f). The same is true of other top-tier consultancies such as Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Bain & Company.
Academic Studies in Project Management
According to Data USA (n.d.), the top three universities in the U.S. in terms of the number of project management degrees awarded are:
- University of Phoenix
- Colorado State University Global (CSU Global)
- Capella University
The University of Phoenix’s (n.d. a) Bachelor of Science in Business with Project Management Certificate follows the general admission requirements for Bachelor of Science programs. These consist primarily of an acceptable official high school diploma;4 in the case of a recognized school leaving certificate from a non-English-speaking country, a language test such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) is also required (University of Phoenix n.d. b). An essay and college entrance exams such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), American College Test (ACT), Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), or Graduate Record Examination (GRE) are not required (University of Phoenix n.d. c). The Project Management Certificate can be obtained in addition to the bachelor’s degree by taking the additional course Leadership Business Analytics but does not require any further admission requirements (University of Phoenix n.d. a).
The Project Management Certificate can also be earned outside of the bachelor’s program—in an undergraduate or graduate version, both of which require a bachelor’s degree or higher5 as a prerequisite for admission (University of Phoenix 2025, pp. 364, 373).
To be admitted to CSU Global’s (n.d. a) online Bachelor of Science in Project Management program, you must have at least two years of work experience and a high school diploma with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.80 (on a scale of 0.00 to 4.00) or a certain score on the College Board’s General Educational Development Test (GED) or, as an alternative to the GED, a Higher Education Admission Recommendation (HEAR) for rigorous requirements with at least C grades in high school courses.6
Admission to the master’s program at CSU Global (n.d. b) requires a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution with a minimum GPA of 3.00 (on a scale of 0.00 to 4.00); applicants with a bachelor’s GPA below 3 may be admitted with a master’s degree if it has a GPA of at least 3.00.6 Thus, you will need either a bachelor’s or master’s degree with a GPA of 3.00 (equivalent to the German grade 2.0 or “good”) or better.
Capella University (n.d. a; n.d. b) requires a high school diploma or equivalent and 4.5 transferable credits7 for admission to the Bachelor of Science (Project Management) program; SAT and ACT are not required for admission. In addition, international students must have a minimum score on an acceptable test to demonstrate English proficiency (Capella University n.d. a).
For the MBA in Project Management, a bachelor’s degree from an institution accredited by a U.S. Department of Education-recognized agency or from an internationally recognized educational institution (with a minimum GPA of 2.30 or higher on a scale of 0.00 to 4.00); GRE and GMAT are not required for admission (Capella University n.d. d). International students must also achieve a minimum score on an acceptable English proficiency test, such as the TOEFL (Capella University n.d. d; n.d. e).
Project Management Certifications
The Project Management Institute’s Project Management Professional® (PMI-PMP®) is one of the most widely awarded project management certifications with almost 1.5 million active certificate holders.
To register for the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam, you need a 4-year degree, i.e., a bachelor’s degree from a university or university of applied sciences, as well as 36 months of experience in managing projects within the last eight years; alternatively, a high school diploma (A levels), an associate’s degree8 or a completed vocational training and 60 months of experience in managing projects within the last eight years (Project Management Institute n.d. c; Fuchs & Consorten Unternehmensberatung n.d. a).
However, according to the authorized PMI training partner Fuchs & Consorten Unternehmensberatung (n.d. b), the verification of practical project management experience seems to be handled rather laxly: PMI expects a description of the leading activities in the form of at least 100 words. Only in very rare cases could the information be verified in detail. In this case, the information would have to be certified in writing. The applicant could provide one or more contacts to confirm the project information. It is not necessary to specify projects at the management level, but project participation is sufficient—although (formal) project leadership/management experience is required.
Conclusions
The Exhibit summarizes the key formal minimum requirements for the three basic routes to project management education. As an example of the project management education, one receives by working at a top-tier consulting firm, the role of an Associate at McKinsey & Company is used because they are the largest of the three tier-one consultancies and therefore hire the highest number new consultants. Since the most common academic degree in project management in the U.S. is a master’s degree (Data USA n.d.), this category is represented by the corresponding master’s program at the university that awards the most project management degrees in absolute terms, which is CSU Global. In addition, project management certifications are exemplified by the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Professional® (PMI-PMP®), one of the most widely awarded project management certifications with almost 1.5 million active certificate holders. Overall, the PMI-PMP® has the lowest entry requirements in terms of minimum education.
1 The specialization does not matter; an economics background is not a requirement (McKinsey & Company n.d. b). In Germany, it is possible to join at different career levels—with a bachelor’s degree as a Junior Fellow, who moves into the so-called Fellowship Program after one year (McKinsey & Company n.d. e); with a university diploma or master’s degree as a Fellow in the so-called Fellowship Program, in which one first works as a consultant for two years and then, typically with appropriate performance, is released to pursue a master’s or PhD (with full pay for one year) (McKinsey & Company n.d. f); with a PhD, MBA or relevant professional experience as an Associate (McKinsey & Company n.d. b); or with—ideally two—university degrees and relevant professional experience as an Experienced Consultant (McKinsey & Company n.d. g).
2 Requirements may vary by country or practice group
3 Not all McKinsey interviews involve case studies or follow a specific format.
4 Alternatively, a state-sanctioned U.S. high school equivalency diploma, or foreign secondary school equivalent may be accepted. Under certain conditions, a U.S. high school diploma is recognized in Germany as a subject-related entrance qualification for universities of applied sciences [Fachhochschulreife] or as a general university entrance qualification [allgemeine Hochschulreife] (Kultusministerkonferenz – Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen n.d. a).
5 A bachelor’s degree or higher from a college or university with approved institutional accreditation, or that is a candidate for accreditation, or comparable bachelor’s degree or higher earned at a recognized foreign institution or a master’s degree or higher from an institution that is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), i.e., Juris Doctor (JD), Legum Baccaraureus (LLB), Legum Magister (LLM).
6 If the applicant does not meet the requirements for regular admission, provisional admission may be granted if certain minimum requirements are met. Final admission of provisionally admitted students is contingent upon satisfactory academic progress.
7 “Credit awarded from an academic institution or program that was accredited prior to the applicant’s withdrawal from the institution; undergraduate coursework completed with a grade of ‘C–’ or better; graduate coursework completed with a grade of ‘B–’ or better” (Capella University n.d. c)
8 According to the Kultusministerkonferenz – Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen (n.d. b): Completion of a two-year program at a community college (public) or junior college (private). The education can only be attributed to the German secondary school system. It may be of a vocational or general nature. In the latter case, it can be assigned to the educational level of a gymnasium if a very specific range of subjects is chosen. An evaluation is therefore only possible on a case-by-case basis and upon presentation of a transcript of records.
References
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