Case Writing Competition 2023

We are grateful to the McDonough School of Business for their support and matching contribution to the prizes.

The Case Writing Competition was conceived to increase Georgetown University's consulting and casing excellence. The McDonough School of Business sent 29% of its MBAs into the consulting industry in 2022, the largest proportion of that Class, which reflects the University's commitment to producing the best and brightest consultants. To that end, the Georgetown Consulting Club (GCC) seeks to improve its tools and capabilities to empower every generation of consultants the pass through its doors.

The Competition empowers consultant candidates by having them take the seat of the interviewer across them, and think about how candidates should be assessed. This helps them understand what interviewers look for, and become better interviewees themselves.

The submitted cases also form the basis of the next edition of the GCC Case Book. The Case Book empowers current and future consultant-hopefuls with well-written and industry-accurate cases to practice with.

GCC members from the MBA Full-time Classes of 2023 and 2024, and the MBA Flex Classes of 2023 to 2025 may submit one entry to the competition. An entry may be written by a single author or multiple authors (no more than five).

Please read the Competition Rules, Terms, and Conditions for more information.

Choose one of 6 case types and one of 25 industries to focus your case on. Write your thesis statement, which is a paragraph that describes your thought process behind your case, who the case is for, and the objectives or lessons you would like the interviewee to take away from doing your case.

Your case should include the following sections:

• Case title, type, industry, and whether it is interviewer/ee-led
• Thesis statement
• Case prompt, how to move forward, and clarifying information
• Parts of the case (quant, qual, brainstorming, etc.)
• Exhibits where appropriate
• Conclusion (recommendation, risks and mitigations, next steps)
• Interviewer guidance throughout the case

Your case must be in a PowerPoint file according to our template. Download the template and a sample case.

Good examples of cases may be found in the 2020s editions of case books, such as the Kellogg 2020, Ross 2021, Stern 2021, and Darden 2022 case books. Access the case books here (FT/FX23 only) or here (everyone else).

Questions? Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, August 27, 2023 at 11:59pm ET. Entries after the deadline will not be accepted.

Important: Please read the Competition Rules, Terms, and Conditions to avoid disqualification.

1. Ensure that your case PowerPoint file doesn't contain the names of any of the authors. Scrub the file of all personal information using the instructions here. We do this to ensure fairness, by presenting the cases submitted blind to the Judges.
2. Submit your case through the Entry Form. Only one submission is required per team of authors.
3. Each author of the case must individually submit a Release Form. Your submission is considered incomplete until all authors complete the Release Form.

Tentatively, winners will be announced on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.

The goal of a real case interview is to identify the best candidates for the job. In a mock case interview however, the goal is different: to simulate such an interview for the interviewee to practice and learn. Hence, cases will be evaluated in the light of providing that opportunity.

Cases will be assessed by Alumni Judges (to be announced) on eight criteria in two sections:

1. Case Quality (60%). Each criterion is weighted equally (15%):
   • Satisfies learning objectives. The Case should on a whole and in its parts, meet the learning objectives of the Case.
   • Relevance to cases in real interviews. Cases should not cover competencies that do not arise in management consulting case interviews, address too many issues, or run on too long.
   • Correctness, realism, and depth. Cases should have minimal or no errors, be based on real business issues and widely-accepted economic and business principles and practices, and be of sufficient depth to assess skill levels.
   • Overall flow and integration. Cases should function as a single integrated unit and flow towards a reasonable conclusion.
2. Interviewer's Notes (40%). Each criterion is weighted equally (10%):
   • How to identify and distinguish good and great candidates.
   • Clarity of direction. The notes should get an interviewer up-to-speed and directed through the case without considerable preparation. Good things to also include are contingencies if the interviewee gets stuck, and suggested times for each part.
   • Completeness and correctness of fact. “Fact” refers to clarifying information, answers to calculation, and any other interviewer guidance that should be taken as fact or axiom.
   • Quality and creativity of opinion. “Opinion” refers to sample frameworks, possible qualitative answers and interpretations of data, brainstorming ideas, and recommendations, risks and mitigation, and next steps.

Each criterion will be graded from 0 (very poor) to 5 (very good) in whole numbers. Each grade is then rescaled and summed into total score out of 100% for the case. The top scoring cases are reviewed by the Judges one more time to confirm that they are deserving of their prizes.

We encourage authors to go beyond building their case primarily around COVID-19 and its effects.

• Competition Rules, Terms, and Conditions
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Case Books
• Normalized Case Index
• Case Template
• Sample Case: McNews
• Entry Form
• Release Form