Thank you for bringing this up. Allow me to happily clarify. I can assure you that not a single post has been removed or that anything has been changed to benefit anyone. I hope you realize that GMAT Club has been around for 8 years and it would be quite a waste of all that effort? I guess think of google who would start inflating the organic search results of paid search sponsors - they would ruin their reputation and nobody would use google anymore. I don't think Google would want to do it and neither would I - the benefit is simply too immediate and too small to warrant such shortsighted and greedy move.

Historically GMAT Club has had a very strict policy back in the day when any time a new consultant other than approved (Accepted, Veritas, and MBA Apply) would show up, they would be removed/banned/etc. I don't know why or how it evolved but that's what several of the moderators felt was right and I was happy to support this.

We have since opened up the Ask Admissions Consultant forums to ALL admissions consultants. We do not charge anyone to post/participate. That seemed to make the most sense and has benefited the community, though it has made the "Ask Admissions Consultants" forum a bit of a zoo.

We do have some real estate on the site to advertise and we offer that space to vendors including Google. It is not performance based, it is just placement and if a vendor wants to have exposure, they can get it. If 500 people sign up or 1, there is no differences. This allows us to fund projects and keep the development going and pays for several people's time including my own but if you take into consideration how much time I have spent/invested and keep investing and how much I got paid back, my hourly rate is extremely low, hence I have a real job.

As to the posts of M7, see it reproduced below. Here is specifically what was posted and I don't think that was posted in the spirit of GMAT Club or in the spirit of helpfulness. I frankly thought this person has had a very negative experience with her but in reality, he/she never have even used her services. I felt this was an unfair post and added no value compared to the hate it contained - do you disagree? I think one way do this post would be to quote/provide sources and perhaps links to reviews (maybe fix 4 spelling errors) - that would be a fantastic post. I contacted M7 and upon the exchange, removed that post. (I have contacted a number of other users who have posted/reviewed consultants with clarifying questions or asking to add more color to their experience. Sometimes to validate their extra positive review or sometimes to understand if a certain consultant had poor practices. This was the only time I ever removed anyone's post in this thread outside of spam, which by the way, we do not delete, just move to a hidden forum).



Now, if you feel that I have inaccurately represented Stacy's services, do a search on GMAT Club, there are plenty of posts of various degrees (positive and negative). Here is one. I think that's a legit post and i have no plans to do anything with it. Just for the background, I have a very involved full time job (I don't live off GMAT Club) and a family which keep me very busy. I don't have time to mess around with a guy who has nothing else to do but complain and be ridiculous. However, I will spend time to keep GMAT Club free of trolls and elitists that I have seen on another forum in 2002 when I started the GMAT Club. PM me if you have any detailed questions - I am not a fan of mass-CC emails.
_________________

Founder of GMAT Club

Just starting out with GMAT? Start here... | Want to know your GMAT Score? Try GMAT Score Estimator
Need GMAT Book Recommendations? Best GMAT Books

Co-author of the GMAT Club tests

Find out what's new at GMAT Club - latest features and updates

I frankly think people should rate the consultants they use on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 (like redjam). Take a look at any survey or employee evaluation or even some MBA recommendation forms - thats what they do. You give a clear idea of where the service quality experience was located for that person.

Constructive criticism and the need to not hurt the interests of admissions consultants is fine, but given what they charge I personally think they can face a public evaluation when there is so little out there to know what to expect. Know that consultants no matter how accomplished are not magicians who can turn a no-hoper into a sure thing. But they are supposed to increase your chances (else, why hire them?). There is always a risk of abuse of things in life. Yes there will be jerks who use consultants and then come back and rant. But there will also be people out there who run into jerk consultants who charge top $ and then don't deliver.

Anyway, thats what I feel and I will post my experience for what it turns out to be.

[Please note that this is a throwaway account I crated for this post. For reasons of anonymity I don’t want to use my real user name. I am happy to verify all that follows with a moderator.]

Hi All,

I’ve seen this thread progress over the last several months and have found it very useful. Although I had initially intended to stay out of the conversation, I thought it might be helpful if I shared my experience working with Paul from Amerasia.

After taking a Manhattan GMAT course I had initially planned on signing up with MBAmission (given that they partner with MGMAT). However, after reading earlier posts on this thread I thought I might want to reach out to other consultants as well, one of which was Paul at Amerasia.

Of all my initial consultations I scheduled Paul’s last. As soon as we got on the phone Paul got down to business. What I really liked about Paul was that he dug deeper than the other consultants had. For example, my GMAT is over 750 and my GPA is in the mid 3 range with a double major at a top University. While other consultants thought this was a huge plus, I liked that Paul was honest and said that because one of my major GPA’s was a low 3 and the other was a high 3, it wasn’t going to hurt but it also wasn’t going to be a huge help. Additionally Paul and I went over my career goals “story.” He pointed out that if it was my dream to work in field X but I only had experience in filed Y it would make more sense for my story to be focused on field Y.

After signing up with Paul he set up a recurring 1 hour weekly meeting. Over the last several months Paul has helped me work through all of last year’s essay’s in preparation for this year’s applications. One thing that has really impressed me in working with Paul is his ability to pick which stories are most relevant at each school. To me, this has been extremely helpful.

Some additional thoughts on Amerasia:

1) Paul works hard – each week, in advance of our meeting, Paul will send over updated drafts of all my essays with thorough comments and ideas about restructuring. After each meeting Paul sends over the notes from our call as well as a few homework assignments.

2) Turnaround is quick – I have all of Paul’s contact information. On the one occasion I needed a 6 hour turn around I just sent him my document, texted him, and had it back three hours later.

3) Big picture – when Amerasia looks at my application they look at the entire package. All of my essays for any individual school are worked on in tandem. What I mean by that is that Paul and I have a clear picture of the story we are trying to get across in my application. We view the essays, the letters of rec, and the resume as individual pieces of a puzzle. Paul makes sure everything fits together and is consistent.

Lastly – to those of you working or considering working with a consultant: Even though I have full confidence in Paul and his services I still read articles and books on admittance strategies. It’s your application so take ownership of it. If you don’t hear back from your consultant, call them on their cell. If they don’t change their ways, fire them. It’s your future - don’t let someone else mess it up. A consultant can help improve your application but do your own homework.

I know gmatclub is now asking for a numerical score out of 5. Obviously I haven't completed my applications but have worked with Paul for about 2 months. I've emailed back and forth with him nearly daily and had phone calls at least once a week if not more often. Thus far I have nothing to complain about: 5/5.

More info/light on this:

The K0 PM'ed me, so he/she is a real user.
Their username was registered in the fall of 2010 (somewhat seasoned member) but they do not have any posts.
The username does contain the first name of the poster, so I guess that somewhat explains the incognito post.
_________________

Founder of GMAT Club

Just starting out with GMAT? Start here... | Want to know your GMAT Score? Try GMAT Score Estimator
Need GMAT Book Recommendations? Best GMAT Books

Co-author of the GMAT Club tests

Find out what's new at GMAT Club - latest features and updates

Hi MDF,

you raise a good point, I should have been more clear.

Applying for next year. Ideally, I'll submit 5 apps first round.

Yea its early, but its also a huge amount of work. Harvard essays are already out and I assume the others will follow in the next month. Paul has me work on last years essay so that I get practice explaining my story and making sure it flows correctly. Each essay takes several iterations to get right. Once that's done everything has to be tied to my resume and then I write a template for my letters of rec to make sure that fits as well.

In my earlier post I note a time when I needed Paul's help on something right away. Paul suggested that i sign up for a campus event which required an essay. I didn't look at the registration time line until the day it was due...

Last year I helped one of my co-workers do her apps and I realized exactly how much work it can be.

Also, i signed up about 2 months ago because many of the consultants had discounts for people that signed up way in advance.

Its definitely on the early side but my working style has always been to get stuff done as soon as possible.

After a couple of rejections this session, I wanted to build up an app strategy for the next session with the help of an expert and recently worked with Sameer of MBACrystalBall dot com.
After the initial introductory session, he analyzed my profile - both strengths and weaknesses - based on the information from our interaction and my answers to the questionnaire (he'd sent me to fill up).
Sameer came up with a detailed Crystal Ball report which covers all the aspects of my profile and not only that, it also comprises a list of bschools, categorized in 5 different tiers. But the process did not end here - I reviewed the report and finalized a list of 6-7 schools to apply to. Then we had a wrap up call to discuss about the report in details and come to a specific set of conclusions.

Overall experience was very satisfactory because of -
1. In-depth profile analysis and honest feedback.
2. Valuable insider's view from Sameer regarding goals, different schools, programs etc.
3. Great value for money.
4. Sameer is really nice person to interact with and always ready to help.

The first post has been updated to include links to all reviews in this thread. If we missed any please PM me or redjam17
_________________

Founder of GMAT Club

Just starting out with GMAT? Start here... | Want to know your GMAT Score? Try GMAT Score Estimator
Need GMAT Book Recommendations? Best GMAT Books

Co-author of the GMAT Club tests

Find out what's new at GMAT Club - latest features and updates

Did you ever get their pricing? Can you send to me?

I am new to the site but wish I'd read through this forum before I started this process. The list of questions to select a consultant is really good. I wish I had that list when I talked to the companies. I decided to only speak to two firms (SBC and Veritas) because my friends had used them and could personally recommend.

I plan to wait until I rewrite the GMAT (or GRE am still deciding which to do) but I plan to use Stacy Blackman for essay help. I didn't have a bad experience with Veritas, the woman who did the free call was helpful, but I thought she was too positive since I know I have some weaknesses. After I spoke with her I thought of many more questions that I wish I had asked. So it's good to give yourself a day or so in between phone calls so you can process the info. I spoke with Lisa at SBC for the free call and thought she did a great job answering all my questions. She was very experienced and gave me honest and constructive feedback about my experiences and what I needed to work on. She was also very knowledgeable about each school's programs and cultures. I like how the company matches people with consultants before they pay. The only issue is the cost for comprehensive, so I'm planning to use them to help with my essays.

I was surprised to see that some people use multiple companies. Who has used more than 1 service at the same time? How did you decide how to divide the work up? Did you have the different consultants help with the same school? I'm now considering hiring 2 firms to help with essays.

Guys,
Which companies offer essay editing on per item, not hourly basis?

I am doing my school research and alumni' interviews, therefore I don't need an ultraexpensive per-school package. Instead, I'd like someone to check essays and only them.

So far I identified two options: Precision Essays and Ivy App Success (the guy did not reply yet )
Are there other options out there?