"Best" admission consulting companies?

Hi richmba,
Did you buy the comprehensive package, or did you use her services on a hourly basis? I am thinking of hiring her for my application.

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?

Has anybody used the B-school admissions counselling services offered by Stratusprep? (Shawn O'Connor, Vani Krishnamurthy, Samantha Merton, Vanessa Gil). please share your feedback/experience working with them?

Ironically enough I was reading an article authored by O'Connor today on Poets and Quants. The grammar errors did not inspire confidence. As it relates to your question, no, I had not heard of them until today so I'm not sure what one should expect.

"The competition is fierce, and no one – not even superstars at Goldman, McKinsey, or Blackstone – are guaranteed admission."

"Those who get into HBS do not just show how they were the best at the job they were asked to do; instead, they show how they went above and beyond (professionally, personally, and academically) in order to create the world in which the aspire to live – not simply by attending fundraisers or making donations, but by having a much more tangible impact."

https://poetsandquants.com/2011/04/25/wh ... etting-in/

Thank you for your reply Gryphon. I am getting curious because they claim highest success rate at top business schools.

My recommendation - MBA Prepschool and Tyler Cormney

Before I started applying for b-school, I felt that most of those I knew, were planning to use, or already speaking with an admission consultant. Frankly, I never expected to use a consultant and thought the practice was somewhat insincere. I was pleasantly surprised by my experience.

I certainly never thought that I'd use a consultant. Fortunately, I realized that 1) if you use the right consultant, your experience and aspirations can be distilled into a more logical and compelling story, and 2) the fee paid is well worth it, from a relative (cost of tuition) and absolute (fair value) perspective. I never dreamed of receiving an admission call from both Wharton AND Yale (I was waitlisted at Harvard, and ultimately released). My story with Tyler is not unique. I was recommended by a close friend completing his MBA at Wharton.

Needless to say, the guidance I received was a tremendous boost to my application process. By helping me identify key career themes, understand my strengths, and communicate effectively, Tyler and MBA Prepschool made my application process about as productive and successful as possible. The framework and process that MBA Prep School's instructors have built are tremendous. My essays, resume, and interviews all were dramatically improved by incorporating lessons learned using MBAprepschool. The building blocks provided paved the way to my admission to two of my top three choices.

To anyone contemplating whether to seek an admission consultant, the choice is easy, yes. And if you're looking for a recommendation. Tyler and MBAprepschool, are a great place to start.

Feel free to reply or PM me with questions about my experience. I'd be happy to pay it forward.

Following up on my earlier promise to check out Alex and Sandy... They were pretty much as expected.

Alex was down-to-earth and realistic about what value a consultant could add (mostly reassurance, in my particular case). He did try to push me a little toward a more "comprehensive" service, but it was mostly a soft-sell and he offered a less expensive alternative as well.

Sandy recommended a more "insider" approach, but that ultimately didn't quite work out (not his fault, but it's always a gamble with these things). He did tell me he was "impressed" with my story, which was reassuring.

I found it interesting that Sandy was willing to provide more concrete advice for free - in exchange for information, it seems - while Alex was a little more coy about giving advice without my signing up for a paid service.

In the end, I've decided not to use a consultant and go it alone. The most useful advice I received was from a coworker who had applied to Stanford (and had a Stanford GSB board member write his rec - a personal, thoughtful one too!) but was waitlisted then dinged.

[clarification: yes, I'm referring to Alex Chu]

Has anybody worked with MBA Exchange? I don't see any comments about them on our forum. They seem to have a very very high success rate? Its hard to believe.

They seem to be in this business for 16-17 years...If anybody has any experience or feedback about them please post it here or pm me. I would appreciate all your help.

HI everyone, thanks for the great feedbacks.

For people who have worked with Precision Essay, with with consultant did you work with? Anyone you would recommend in particular?

Thanks !

Hi All,
I am new to GMAT club. It's a great effort and the information here is amazing. I see lot of information about Sandy, Amaresia and other consultancies but no word about Accepted.con, Clear Admit and Stacy Blackman Consultancy.

Would really appreciate if people can share their experiences with these consultants.

If there is any other thread then please share the link.

Thanks in advance and Best of Luck!!

Huh... very interesting! Paul used to be the lead MBA consultant for Veritas, so chances are good you may get 2 interviews with the same person!
Will be interesting - please report back after the interview if you don't mind. I am very curious.
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Dear GMAT Club members,

Has anyone used the services of Veritas Prep for admissions consulting? Would you please comment on your feedback--whether you found it useful in terms of
1) whether your objectives of hiring a consultant were met?
2) helped you prepare the great application packet (essays, resume etc.) that you wouldn't were capable of otherwise?
3) overall truthfulness of the claims made during a sales pitch.

I am told by Veritas Prep that most b-schools look for Quant score only, My Q is 50 and V 34 (Total 690). How much of that is true?

Thanks a lot.

Hi Simmy818,

I have some questions for you regarding veritasprep as I would be joining it too. Can you please answer the following questions:
Dear GMAT Club members,

Would you please comment on your feedback--whether you found it useful in terms of
1) whether your objectives of hiring a consultant were met?
2) helped you prepare the great application packet (essays, resume etc.)
3) overall truthfulness of the claims made during a sales pitch.

I am told by Veritas Prep that most b-schools look for Quant score only, My Q is 50 and V 34 (Total 690) and I'm not sure whether i should re-take the GMAt. THey told me that if I do and get a higher score, it will surely help, but not required. How much of it is true that b-schools look for Q score more than V?
Any other positive/negative experiences with VeritasPrep?

Thanks,
reach2bhush.

I'm looking for a recommendation on which consulting company to use. I spoke with a few of them already and bottom line is this: I want to work with someone who graduated from the school to which I'm applying. (For me, that'd be HBS.) Just makes sense to me.

I'm considering using Sandy but a friend told me he can be bit offensive though she put up with him. Has anyone used HBS Admissions Consulting? or Admissions Consultants (super generic name)? or Vince Prep (specializes in Japanese students but my non-Japanese friend referred me)? I'm leaning towards one of those but want to hear other people's experience...

Thanks!

***For other people's benefit, I was able to get a free review from some of them which gave me another data point to evaluate them on...

Hi, MbaMission seems to have almost all consultants who graduated from Harvard BS. Check their web site.
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To say that only the quant score is looked at by most schools is to say that the Verbal section is there on the exam for no reason at all. Each school looks at the Quant score in a different light and its relevance may be different for different applicants. If you're from an over-represented applicant pool in which a lot of applicants score more than 700, you might give it another shot and see how things go. But to draw a general conclusion that schools only look at the quant score seems a little off.

I got a question about why I chose not to hire a consultant in the end, so I'll answer here (sorry if it's off-topic).

In brief: I got pretty far on my own the first time around. I got an interview and was waitlisted before eventually being rejected. I had three friends review an early draft of my app and didn't give my recommendation writers any guidance. I feel better prepared this time, have a decent idea of why I didn't make it this cycle and (apologies in advance to everyone who chose differently) ultimately decided it didn't *feel right*.

At the end of the day, it's a personal choice. No judgment. (For context: nobody else looked at my undergraduate applications... my friends, parents and high school counselor/teachers really wanted to and I said no to all of them. To have three friends look at my MBA app was already a big step.)

690 is more than adequate. Every admission consultant I spoke with has agreed that anything in the middle 50% is adequate. Harvard's 50% scores 700 and above but that's an exception. 690 is basically 700.

Your GMAT score, at the end of the day, is only 3 characters long. It can only have so much of an impact. It is important if you had a low GPA and / or went to a no-name undergraduate university.

Aside from those cases, you should spend your time on your application. Write something that will blow away the AdCom. I'm using one admissions consultant now that has been really helpful:

https://www.hbsadmissionsconsulting.com

I can't see anything on Clear Admit so I'll add my experience.

I never actually engaged with an admissions consultant per say but I did purchase both the school guides and interview guides for Yale, Dartmouth, and HBS.

The information in the guides can be found all over the web but I thought that Clear Admit did a great job of collating and presenting the information in an easy to read, logical format, and I would definitely recommend that you purchase these documents as the cornerstone of your research into b-school as they will save you hours of trawling the web. Throughout the documents Clear Admit adds their own thoughts and ideas regarding the info, and while these sections are good I thought that they could expand them and perhaps include several perspectives (I guess they have to keep something back for the actual consultant services).

The interview guides are good also but I would recommend that you only purchase them once you are awarded an interview as they are of limited use before that. Also, each of the interview guides includes a generic section that is recycled from one to the next. I would have preferred to see those sections as a separate document rather that mixed into each guide.

My experience with Clear Admit was good overall and while I can't offer any advice regarding the quality of the higher priced consulting services I can certainly say that their research is solid and as a company they put out high quality material.