Student Consulting

Washington and Lee Student Consulting is a student-led organization that provides pro bono consulting services to businesses and not-for-profit community organizations.

Mission Statement

Washington and Lee Student Consulting (WLSC) aims to establish sustained professional relationships with our clients and inspire meaningful engagement within our members.

WLSC prepares our members for successful careers by honing professional and personal skills and providing hands-on experience. Our members provide innovative, workable, and impactful solutions to organizational challenges faced by our clients.

About WLSC

WLSC is a co-curricular program is housed in the Williams School but is open to all students, regardless of major. Members will register for BUS 197 as a one-credit course that counts towards the Experiential (EXP) graduation requirement. Recruitment takes place during Fall term and is open to sophomores and juniors who meet the 3.3 GPA requirement. Recruitment for interested first years takes place in the Winter term.

WLSC purposely takes on a broad range of projects so that its members are exposed to diverse professional experiences and sub-specialties of consulting. Members meet on a weekly basis to develop professional skills, engage with guest speakers, and present and provide feedback on each individual project.

During the year, members work on semester-long consulting projects in groups of 3-4 students, and an experienced member from each team is assigned the role of project leader. Teams are also assigned alumni mentors with whom teams can use as resources for projects and professional development. Clients are referred to the group by faculty and staff, community members, or alumni.

Past projects have required teams to produce everything from marketing plans and social media strategies to human resources audits and community surveys. Students have implemented new accounting software systems, conducted economic assessments, prepared feasibility studies, and developed websites. In sum, each project is unique, and students gain a wide variety of valuable experiences from their time in the organization.

The range of work that students produce makes them especially marketable as they look for internships and jobs in the consulting industry and beyond. Graduates of the program have gone on to launch successful careers with leading firms such as Bain & Co., the Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co, Kearney, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Deloitte, and PWC, among others.