Decent, not spectacular.

Last year, I applied to only one school - M7 BSchool. I did not use any consultant then and managed to get an interview with school. However, I could not find a place in the program. After reading forums and talking to some MBA friends, I realized some mistakes in my application but even so, I was decently happy with my performance, considering I had no guidance except Paul Bodine's book.

This year, I took Admissionado's two bootcamp classes ($199 each or so) just before R1. After the two classes, I thought that I would apply to 1 school (ranked 8th-13th) myself and 4 schools (M7 schools) through Admissionado. And I jumped after they offered a 15% discount on the JrD package.

Over the next 2.5 months I worked with the consultant who an ex-M7 MBA. He was a really nice guy overall and very approachable.

At the end, I got into the school that I applied to myself and to none of the ones I applied through Admissionado. I reapplied to the M7 school I applied the year before, this time through Admissionado. Like last year, I got an interview call and (again) could not find a place in the program. I realize I might have deficiencies, so I'll try to restrict the review to the actual services provided and not just the outcome of my applications.

Positives
+ Biggest positive: That I could bounce off a story to someone without having to spend time writing and polishing it, only to have it rejected. Consultants are great for this (v/s using a busy friend or family member).
+ Consultant was nice and likable.
+ Quality of my apps improved.

Negatives
- Biggest negative: The consultant stuck to 72hr turnaround time clause of the contract. Initially, I had a lot of time so this didn't matter. However, during the crunch time of last 10 days or so before the submission deadline, I expected him to respond more quickly (meaning 36 hrs or less), especially for the smaller edits. Upon asking, he recommended that I pay more $$$ to 'expedite' my reviews. Now I know they are busy people, but it was still a ridiculous ask for something that would take him 10-15 mins to review. Not cool and definitely costed me in the quality of the app at the end.

- Sometimes the consultant would not be clear with what he wants me to change. You'd have to email a few times to get him to commit to the weakness in your essay.

- My expectation was that I would get ideas for great openings or closings for each essay. No such thing. I had to search for ideas there myself and he would just green/red flag them.

Overall:
I'm about 60% satisfied, hence the 3 stars. Since I did not have any MBA friends who had gone through the process and could review my essays, I chose to go with a consultant. If you don't have this handicap, I'd recommend tapping a current MBA student instead of spending money on a consultant.