"Best" admission consulting companies?

I pm'd paul (basic stuff... what i want to do, a short 'profile', etc) but didn't get ar esponse. Should I just email their website (the Amerasia group)?

Alex did get back to me and had some good insight for me. I'll be considering him, though the cost is a bit steep.

Any others I should try?

Avi Gordon seems to have decent reviews and a pretty good range of services available depending on what you want to spend.

http://mbastudio.net/

!	Warning - single post user. High potential for a non-genuine review

I spent a lot of time researching admissions consultants, and actually had the 30-minute intro calls with 4 of them!! I decided if I was going to spend that much $, I should be sure I liked what I was getting. After to speaking with the different consultants, I decided to go with Stacy Blackman Consultants because the woman I spoke to was so helpful and eager to answer my questions. I asked a million stupid questions, and she walked me through the process from beginning to end. She also had reviewed my resume and info before the call so she had a whole detailed breakdown of how she saw my applications going. She also gave me great advice in that first phone call, so even if I had gone with another company, I would have walked away with something! But I did end up going with Stacy Blackman, and ended up loving my consultant. They matched me with her because of her background the similarity to my own, and we really connected. If you are thinking about consultants, call a few and compare, but I think you'll agree with me that Stacy Blackman is a step above the others! Just my 2 cents...

Does anyone know of admission consultants based out of India as the cost of hiring even the cheapest admission consultants based in US comes out to be a significant sum in INR.

May be this can be another outsourcing opportunity

Check out Manya Abroad. I've heard of them through friends, though I have no experience. Princeton Review outsources to them, I think.

I think Paul is out with health issues. I will ping him as well - we closed his sub-forum to keep things sane.

Anyone has had experiences with precision essays or Avi Gordon, would you please please mind sending me a PM. It will help me a lot.

Also - do these consulting companies generally spend time on one school at a time or work on multiple simultaneously?

Regardless - a daunting task

Avernusour I believe Paul is currently not working due to health reasons, would you be able to share some material given by him ?

I won't redistribute his material (or anyone else's), but you can contact him for a consultation through his website: http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/

He's pretty responsive, so you shouldn't have any trouble.

Has anyone here used Avi Gordon? He seemed really good based on an initial chat we had. Would really appreciate any more feedback about him.

Any updates upon the admission consultants. It would be helpful to hear others experience.

I strongly recommend Alex from MBAApply.

Personally, one thing I value the most is honesty. Alex will definitely bring this to you. Dude is pretty funny too.

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Just wanted to clarify something from previous posts on this thread, which is that I am very much in business right now. Thank you all for your kind comments.

We just sent off a group of applicants round one to HBS, Wharton, Stanford, Cornell, and others, as well as ED at Columbia. We are currently offering free consultations for late round one (Sloan, NYU, etc.) and for round two. PM me if you are interested in discussing your candidacy and our services. You can also visit the Ask Paul thread where you can found profile evaluations and recommendations.

Respectfully,

Paul Lanzillotti

Hi dude,

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I have not worked with Alex myself but heard lot good feedbacks about him and should be fine. Just wanna add my own experience with Stacy Blackman consultant services, she is awesome and specially if you can't believe on it you can simply purchase one of her essay guides cheap at low was $40/each , which available for most of top US b-school, and yourself can judge about it. I think it worth to evaluate her abilities before spending loads of dollars on each MBA admission consultant services.

Read all the posts that were made in this forum.. The information provided is really valuable.. However, I still haven't started with my applications as yet and I am not too familiar with the process as well.. One of the schools that I am targeting is ISB whose dealine is just around the corner.. Can anyone of you suggest any good admission consultants keeping in mind the crunch situation I am in at the moment..

Thanks..

MBA Consultant Comparison - Precision Essay vs. Amerasia
I am using two different consultants this season, both Full package - 1 school. I don't recommend doing this, I was on a time crunch and couldn't decide which I wanted to go with. Precision Essay cost a lot less and since it would basically be the same price for 1 full package from each company as it would for 1 full and 1 smaller package just from Amerasia, I went with 1 full each and figured that way if I wanted to add another school later, I would know which one I preferred. I am still in the application process and have not received decisions from either of these schools yet, but wanted to share my experience now in case it helps someone else who is deciding. I evaluated each on the following criteria:

Knowledge of Specifc School Themes: Precision: C Amerasia: A
Amerasia knew the insights of the school and what they were looking for, I don't think Precision even knew what the essay questions were if I didn't tell them

Learning about me to bring out best aspects: Precision: B Amerasia: A-
I had to keep reminding Precision of my weaknesses and plead for help in addressing them. Amerasia told me what they were and already had advice for me on the intial consultation call

Content of Edits Precision: B+ Amerasia: A
Amerasia read and edited with whole picture in mind, Precision did well in bringing more clarity out of me, but the themes I wanted to portray somehow kept getting lost. It was a bit frustrating, they would blanketly cut out sections, then later say I need more detail. Also found a typo after submitting my essay! My fault, I should have proofread better, but I later discovered this made it through 2 versions of their edits, how could they have missed that? Also lots of typos in their responses to me, not a big deal, but hard to take seriously.

Turn-around time for edits Precision: A+ Amerasia: A
Precision would sometimes send revisions back the same day and was very sensitive to my deadline. Yet to experience either very positive or very negative from Amerasia as far as response time, seems about right, and my deadline for this one is not as urgent, so pretty good to start.

Overall Value for money Precision: C Amerasia: A
I don't feel I got the full value of Precision's Deluxe package. Part of this is my fault, I did not give them much lead time before my application was due, but I was also not familiar with the process and how much time I needed. I gave them my deadline and I feel as a consultant they really should have told me you will only have time to get to the essays and a Junior package would be fine. But instead they sold me on the Deluxe, claiming it was necessary for the first one, yet I only got one resume edit (he recommended I lengthen it to two pages...huh?), no time for recommender advice, no evaluation of my application as a whole etc. all which are supposed to be included in the Deluxe. The time I needed to get the full value just wasn't there and I wish they would have been honest about that. I would consider Precision again only if I needed help with essay revisions, but as a consultant helping to shape my overall application, I would look elsewhere.

Amerasia is absolutely worth the money in my opinion, plus I see they are offering 15% off now in the GMAT Club marketplace...the decision is a no brainer. I also really like their fee structure, how you pay a lower price up front and only pay the extra $300 if you are extended an interview invite. At least that way you are not paying up front for a service you might not need if you do not get invited. I am just getting started with them but already feel good about it. Hope this comparison helps to decide, good luck everyone!

Hi Tingle,

Try Crystal Ball, Sameer. He is a great guy and it is your best bet to apply via Indian consultants for ISB rather than phoreign consultants. Just a word of warning, don't expect everything to be laid out.

Appreciate your insights BUT here's the thing.

Paul or whoever that emailed me, sounded very uncaring in his/her emails. Let me tell you my profile is above average and I say that with decency. He was busy but atleast he could have told me the process which he didn't.

Precision Essay were the complete opposite they showed intrest in me as an applicant and I am not a great fan of them as they had their faults but I wasn't perfect either and the point is if you are applying to an MBA you have to adjust.

I maybe totally wrong regarding Paul, and i don't intend to be. I don't review as I don't like to judge others services.

But I just felt its better to speak up rather than keep quiet given the huge number of aspirants that come here.

Just my thoughts, don't jump to conclusion on any consultants, take small steps rather than committing at once.

Regards.

I have reached out to the author of the thread and he had used Adam for his Consulting Help, not Paul. Sounds like that may have been a difference.