I’ll weigh in. I did MD Contact last year, and thought it was great. It is a basically a very condensed version of Insight, designed specifically for physicians who can’t take several days off for a program like Insight. It was a balanced mixed of info about McKinsey, doing a case to get a feel for a consultant’s role, and socializing.
In terms of getting hired: Both programs are very similar in that they give you an automatic invite to the first round of interviews (which is typically just the Problem Solving Test). So, instead of competing with the large, general applicant pool for that first interview slot, you’re competing only with those who are applying for Insight/MD contact. I didn’t feel that MD Contact gave me an ‘in’ in any other way. I connected with several McKinsey consultants, but did not develop relationships that I think gave me any sort of leg up in the hiring process. I believe that my invite to the second round of interviews was based solely on my PST score, and my invite to the third round of interviews was based solely on my performance during the second round interviews. Perhaps Insight, as a longer program, allows more opportunity to network in order to help you get an offer, but I’m not sure. As the OP mentioned, the MD Rotation is new, so I don’t know anything about it. I’d expect, though, that actually spending weeks or months working with real teams at McKinsey may put you in a good position to be hired full time at that location. But if you rotate in New York and want a full time job in Chicago, for example, the rotation may be less helpful for you in that regard.
If you think you may be interested in a career with McKinsey but aren’t sure, I highly recommend applying for MD Contact or Insight. It’s easy to apply and they’ll pay for all your expenses.. so only good can come of it. The MD Contact and Insight applications, if I recall correctly, are one in the same. You just indicate which is your first choice.
