Reviews needed for Admissions Consultants in India

Question

I am applying for the 2016 season to B-schools in the USA and Canada.
I would like to know if any of you have used the services of the following admissions consultants.

1. MBA Crystal Ball
2. Admissions Gateway
3. MBAdream.in
4. August Academy

Please let me know.
Thanks in advance.

Narenn · Answer

Hi, Here you can find reviews of August Academy - https://gmatclub.com/reviews/august-academy-345345655 Best Regards, Narenn

theincredible · Answer

Hi Aravinth,

Also add General Education to the list. I have heard they are pretty good too.
 https://www.genedmba.com 
I have talked to them and met them personally. Their website seems replete with some good recommendations.
I am considering registering for their services. But I have heard a lot about MBA Crystal Ball and they have an excellent track record too

Regards,
Sayan

VijayG6387 · Answer

I just spoke to Shoaib from genedmba. Haven't yet decided, but seems like I will be picking them, as the fee of August Academy and Crystall Ball seem to be high.

rohitkumar1 · Answer

I have used all the services of MBA Crystal Ball - MAP, essay review and mock interviews. They have an excellent small team of consultants - one of them even holds IIT/ISB/McKinsey credentials and you can't ask for better than that. Very intellectually honest and do not sugarcoat facts. Also force you to think on your own so that you come up with a personalised plan of action as opposed to receiving a cookie cutter input from someone else. So far, I have admits from 2 out of 3 schools that I have applied to based on their help, and received a sizeable scholarship from 1 of those 2. If they agree to take you on, their help will definitely add great value to your application.

bschoolaspirant1 · Answer

You might want to also check out this course on Udemy called Ace the MBA Application that has very detailed advice that can be a handy tool as you go through the process! Just $30 to have some awesome videos and examples handy, some of my friends found it really useful during their prep.

CrackuM7 · Answer

Am evaluating couple of Admission Consultants from India, and it will be great help if someone who has worked with them earlier/currently working with them can share their experience.

Consultants I am evaluating -

1. Admissions Gateway
2. MBA4India
3. Reachivy
4. The Red pen.

Any help in deciding the consultant will also be appreciated.

Revenge2014 · Answer

Go for strategy4gmat : https://strategy4gmat.com/isb-admissions. Check for my Interview Debrief in signature and how these guys helped me to secure the admit. Ping me if you need more info !

pg12345 · Answer

Before paying through your nose for these consultants i would recommend you give  A friend abroad  a try .
They are basically a consultancy that provides advice from students who are in the college you are applying to .Since they are themselves students they can provide current up to date information .And they provide all services for minimal charge and as they are a non-profit they have no margins and can provide services at a minimal rate.
Currently their service is free as they are entering the market .I recommend that you give them a try

newfish · Answer

I have been on these forums for 6 years. I was working as an Assistant Manager at a top Analytics firm in India and my goal was to get into consulting after completing my MBA from a top US school.

After talking to friends and students I decided to work with Admissions Gateway. Admissions Gateway helped outline an exhaustive plan leading up to the deadlines spanning 6-7 months so that one could map everything out. I then worked with Rajdeep Chimni on building the resume. What stood out for me was that the resume was customized as per ones goals and thus a consulting resume was different from say product management. My resume took close to 22 iterations but I was happy with the final result as I learnt how to portray my experiences.

We then worked on outlining the goals. Usually you have an overall goal but we went into the specifics like which industry, how to align this with my profile, what skills I need etc. The most important part was the essays and interviews and this is Admissions Gateway’s biggest strength. I had multiple iterations on the essays for all the schools. Even my optional essays were tailored to the school I was applying to. Finally, I would like to highlight the interview preparation. Admissions Gateway helps you in how to address the questions and how to handle the interviewer.

I would also like to add that Admissions Gateway has high moral standards and they will not write your essays. Each essay is your product and they work with you to help you make it better. This helped me be true to myself and maintain my unique voice.

Thanks to Rajdeep and the team that I am attending Cornell, Johnson currently. I would definitely recommend Admissions Gateway for applying to the top programs.

Breakthenorms · Answer

Hey bud, I worked with Admissions Gateway and I would highly recommend them. They were solidly instrumental in me getting a Kellogg berth. I've posted my entire experience on MBA journey Forum. Link : https://gmatclub.com/forum/indian-autom ... l#p1853342 Hope it helps u

RitikaPahuja · Answer

Did you take consulting services from them?

nikhil.jones.s · Answer

Review for MBA Decoder.

I signed up for MBA Decoder's full board of services to apply to the Tuck School of Business . After a long and enduring journey, Namita and her team helped me secure the coveted admit from my dream school.

The MBA application process can be very comprehensive and challenging. I think Application consultancies are a great support system for this - they help us package our thoughts, journeys and personalities. But there are just so many of them out there that its really confusing and difficult to pick the right one. Many of them are exorbitantly expensive and make huge promises, taking advantage of the aspirants' vulnerability in testing times. But I found MBADecoder to be realistic, honest, committed and fantastic value for money.

I believe Namita and her team have the right mix of collaborative and direct guidance. At the start, Namita was patient and took time to learn about my background and my aspirations. She addressed some of the tough questions on why EXACTLY I need an MBA very early on and probed me to introspect. But where necessary, she also offered some straightforward and head-on career guidance. Throughout the process, she wore many hats - a friend, a professional, a counsellor and also a taskmaster.

For the application itself, I am extremely satisfied with MBADecoder's support. Namita regularly seeks feedback from industry professionals on the content, ensuring that the application stays relevant and practical while not compromising on elements of passion. Unlike many other consultancies, MBADecoder does not limit the number of iterations on an essay and offers support on the auxiliary essays too! Namita works nights, weekends and stays with you till the time you hit the submit button and even after.

For the interview too MBADecoder's services exceeded my expectations. Namita set up mock interviews in no time and helped me progressively prepare for the final test. The perfectionist that she is, I had to send Namita voice clips for a hotlist of questions that she created. I had a sore throat on some mornings but can't emphasise how much this helped!

MBADecoder has a very balanced team. Namita brings a lot of knowledge and experience, the external reviewers bring a fresh perspective and the editing team ensures that our essays stay concise.

Finally, I just want to re-emphasise on Namita and her team's commitment. I believe this is crucial in a time when we aspirants can become desperate and vulnerable. And MBADecoder I think is one of the few consultancies that possesses this. I would highly recommend using MBADecoder!

bhaskarm · Answer

Hello

Inviting the Indian applicants who have already taken assistance for global MBA programs. It will be of great help if you can share the reviews of the admissions consultant you hired. You may share the name and location of the consultant if you want to. Please share the fee structure for the consultation. I don't know many who have pursued international MBA. So, need help from you to find a good and affordable consultant. I want to submit my strong MBA applications, having both of my kidneys intact

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

bhaskarm · Answer

Please provide reviews of more consultants affordable for Indians.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

jazyb · Answer

Hi, 
Can you please share their contact information?

Thanks.

delta009 · Answer

Hi Bhaskar,

My vote would go to Gyanone in Delhi.

After evaluating a number of top consultants, I decided to work with Rishabh from Gyanone. My decision was inspired by the knowledge he demonstrated of my target schools and how he quickly helped identify some key strengths of my profile in our very first meeting. It also helped that unlike a few other very good consultants, Gyanone's pricing was not exorbitant, despite an impressive track record. Neither did Gyanone come across as pushy, in trying to get me to enroll with them (which was the case with another top consultant I was evaluating).

Rishabh makes great efforts to understand your profile and consequently helps bring out the aspects that make your candidature unique. I was very close to the application deadlines when I completed my GMAT, Rishabh helped me with school selection, carefully considering my profile and my post MBA goals, and put together a well laid out plan to meet each of my deadlines. While Rishabh is thoroughly professional, he has often gone beyond his call of duty to offer me valuable advice and suggestions on multiple fronts. 
The best part about working with Rishabh was that he was always willing to accommodate your needs and requests, be it scheduling a late hour phone call or helping with some last minute tips for an application that I wasn't working with him in the first place.

His deep insights into each of the program allows him to map the candidate’s profile and strengths to what the school is looking for. It allows the candidate to formulate his best strategy for each application. What I learned from his inputs helped me in my other applications that I had worked on my own.

In the interview prep stage, Rishabh made a careful selection of questions to prepare me through mocks and provided detailed feedback. Thanks to this, I was prepared and confident, and most of my interviews went quite well. In the end, I secured multiple US Top 15 and Top 20 admits, all with sizeable scholarships.

I owe a huge part of my success to the guidance and mentoring I received from GyanOne. They're certainly a bang for the buck and Rishabh is definitely a great person to work with. I recommend Gyanone wholeheartedly.

MBAmeteora · Answer

Hi, This is Shreya and I will be joining Darden this year( Fall 2019) with a 50% scholarship. Want to share my experience with PythaGURUS for admissions consulting. This has truly been long overdue from my side.

I started looking for MBA programs in 2017, when I took my first GMAT exam and secured a 710.

That was the first time I interacted with Jatin. Having contacted several other consultants at that point, I felt Jatin was the most honest about my level of competitiveness and was a consultant who did not believe in giving false hopes to a candidate. Even though I secured an admission with Rotman that year, I decided to wait a year and improve my profile.

Next year, I reached out to Jatin after reading all the inspiring stories of the admits. Again, Jatin was blatantly truthful about my standing in the colleges I wanted to apply and the crunch of time in which I wished to do so. This always helped me stay grounded and put my best foot forward and displaying my best in the applications.

The beauty of the process at Pythagurus is that the process is very structured and has been broken down into several steps important to the application process. Jatin even provides detailed instructions, formats and examples for each step, which I found very helpful. The way he pushes you to rewrite essays until they do not bring out your uniqueness truly allowed me to introspect. The entire process helped humanize my story and made my application unique. Receiving an interview call from Darden was truly unexpected. Post that getting the admit along with a scholarship was just surreal.

Thanks Jatin for the constant efforts and guidance!

MS6971 · Answer

Thank you so much to Goalisb team (www.goalisb.com) for helping me with structuring my thoughts, which helped a lot to give out best of my abilities. Because of the interactive sessions, the application essays and writing answers to the questions turned out easy and even boosted my confidence for every interview. The extent of my gratitude goes beyond what words can say.
From weakness to strength, from grass to grace and from nothing to something. The knowledge and concern you have imparted upon me has been a great asset throughout my interviews. My interviews and the way my essays shaped up went successfully just because of the team at www.goalisb.com . The team's experience has helped me out of all the difficulties. This journey would not be possible and smooth without your guidance. Thanks

KeepMovingForward · Answer

Hi all,

This is my review of mbadream.in.

These guys are offering admission consultation at half the price of what others are. But do not trust them. They will help you for the first draft of the essay and once they have your money they won't even read your message or call you back.

They help only some handful of people and the rest of the people are cash cows for them. Do not get fooled.

Thanks!

Reviews needed for Admissions Consultants in India

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia