EY Thinks It Is the Harvard of the Big 4

Big 4 CEOs comparing their firm’s acceptance rates to those of an Ivy League school is soooo 2012. And soooo 2015. Deloitte Global CEO Punit Renjen used to do it all the time, proclaiming Deloitte as the Harvard of the Big 4. But the whole “we’re more exclusive than Harvard” boasting had quieted down some and we thought (and hoped) it had finally gone away for good.

Nope.

https://twitter.com/JennMcElhatten/status/1201976427085742080

Harder to get into EY than Harvard!
By @Carmine_DiSibio#EYMilestones pic.twitter.com/HpGEQPZfBd

— chandan kumar (@IMCHANDAN2) December 4, 2019

Based on those numbers, what Di Sibio said is technically correct and he probably got loud applause and hootin’ and hollerin’ from all the new Black and Yellow promotes attending the EY Milestones event.

EY’s acceptance rate is 3.5% in 2019. Harvard received 43,330 applications for the class of 2023 and admitted only 1,950, for a rate of 4.5%.

But boasting that a public accounting firm is harder to get into than one of the, if not the, most prestigious higher education institutions in the world is just dumb.

If I were to ask 100 high-schoolers whether they’d rather be admitted into Harvard or into Ernst & Young, 98% would say, “What is Ernst & Young?” and 100% would say Harvard. See, comparing the two is just dumb.

Plus, those lucky enough to make it into and graduate from Harvard with a degree in engineering, economics, computer sciences, or biology (or pretty much any degree other than accounting) are gonna make a starting salary that’s a hell of a lot more than the starting salary they would get at EY. (Unless they are an accounting grad who starts their career at EY right after graduating from Harvard, and then we’d need to question how smart they really are.)

Just stop with the comparison. Stop it.