See REAL & VERIFIED Reviews, by GMAT Club Members:

Reviews submitted to GMAT Club's Review Section require GMAT test report and/or school email addresses for validation. This is the highest review validation in the industry to ensure you're seeing credible information. The posts on the forum below don't require any validation; so we encourage you to view the GMAT Club's Review Section.



IMPORTANT: We will only allow reviews posted in this thread from members who have at least 30 posts. If your profile is new - you are welcome to post questions or engage in a discussion but please do not post reviews as they will be deleted or hidden. If you don't meet the 30 post minimum, but had a great experience with your admissions consultants, post it in the Verified Reviews Area instead.


Congrats to all those who got into their desired schools this year. It's time to start a thread for members to share reviews/opinions of their admission consultants.

Suggestions for your posts:

1. Search for existing discussions before asking; your questions may have been answered a few times already
2. If you are posting a review/feedback, please post it in the format of (pros/cons/bottom line) or something along those lines
3. If you have used a consultant, please answer these 2 questions:

• What elements should one consider when selecting and Admissions Consultant
  
• What worked for you and what did not?

Rules:

1. Please do not rant!
2. Please be constructive whether you praise or you criticize and build your case - this will help others make better decisions and do better research
3. Please put your rating on the performance of the consultant (out of 5)
4. Please indicate if you have actually used a consultant for your applications or you have only gone through an initial consultation or if you have had no contact at all

We welcome any feedback from the members including constructive criticism/suggestions for improvement as well as positive comments. Take both positive and negative comments with a grain of salt.

You may also consider reading:

• What to select an MBA admissions consultant
• Tips for working with a consultant
• Suggestions from a "veteran" 9/9/2011
• For more reviews see Admissions Consulting Reviews

_________________

New project wSTAT(which Schools To Apply To?)

GMATClub School Ambassador

Live Decision Tracker | Interview Debriefs

New - RC Butler - 2 RC's everyday

My review for Experts' Global.

Based on my experience, I really have to commend Experts’ Global, who, in my view, are the best for GMAT preparation as well as admission consulting and charge very nominal fee (less than half compared to the other, similar, world-class companies). To begin with, their GMAT online program got me a 99th percentile (I will talk in detail about that in a different post). Then their application approach got me into my dream school, ISB. I also managed to secure admits into some of the US Top 25, with considerable scholarships to boot!

Here some of the main points I would like to emphasize about my experience of working with Experts’ Global.

Their organized and nonsense-free approach
A critical element of Experts’ Global’s success is how well thought out and clear their approach is. The very first day after I enrolled with them, Experts’ Global gave me a planner that broke my admissions process into 20+ simple goals. To their credit, the team stuck to all of their deadlines just as well as I stuck to mine. Thanks to this, all of the steps were completed, well before the deadlines. My team was always on top of things, so I never had to field repetitive phone calls. They were able to get everything done in one go.

Great theme building
Experts' Global has an admissions team that is absolutely stellar at theme building. They are quite capable of putting together a story that will cover your past, present, and all of your plans for the future. They do so through an organized process that begins with a highly detailed questionnaire. They then pick out details, from the answers that you give,to build a strong narrative that brings together your history, current ambitions, and long-term goals. In my humble opinion, this might just be the most valuable of the services that Experts’ Global provides. An interesting narrative is what makes the difference between a profile that gets attention and one that the committee ends up overlooking.

Their ‘mentoring’ attitude
I found Experts’ Global’s admissions teams approaching the work not as consultants as such but rather as mentors. Personally, I greatly appreciated this attitude. After all, the entire reason that I decided to take up professional help was that I knew nothing about the admissions process and was hoping to find someone who would share their knowledge with me and mentor me.

They were always approachable
I definitely appreciated how approachable my team always was. They were always ready to take a call, in order to clear up any complex issue that I was facing. Their emails were always on time and perfectly clear. The key thing to remember here is that at Experts’ Global you do not work with just one person, you work with a whole team. These teams are all close knit and highly efficient.

Their excellent training resources
One of the things that I liked the best about Experts’ Global is that they are very well-informed when it comes to the admissions process. They are also sure to share all the relevant information, with their students. Months of self-research would not have produced such fine results. On the day of enrollment, they provided me a series of 20 videos that taught me everything that I needed to know, about the process- regarding managing timelines, essay writing, schools shortlisting, and everything. Similarly, later at the interview stage, they gave me a series of videos that formed an excellent resource for the interview preparation.

Experience of Interview Prep with Experts' Global

It was quite late that I learnt on GMAT Club that ISB has a 1:5 success rate in the interviews! Experts' Global, I must say, has a very rich offering for interview preparation.

Starting early
Knowing that ISB gives just a few days' notification for interviews, my process was started quite early. This really helped me prepare at ease, without any undue pressure.

A great video series for interview prep
I was given a video-series for first training myself on the interview preparation. The content was really rich but crisp. In a matter of few hours, I could attain a strong, broad approach for how I was going to face the interview. The tips around softer aspects- mannerisms, body language etc were particularly helpful.

A rich set of frequently asked questions
I was given a rich questionnaire to answer with my ideal responses, keeping my application essays in mind. I prepared answers to these questions and rehearsed in my own space, sometimes against a mirror. This really helped.

Mock interviews followed by feedback
I then underwent mocks with Experts' Global. The first mock was nervous and I was telling long stories. The strict but constructive feedback, together with the recommendation to watch the videos all over, was given. As a good mentee, I worked on the feedback and was happy to see a rich improvement in the second mock. The third mock was quite smooth and I was given a go-ahead by my interview mentor at Experts' Global.

I was told some specific questions that I was likely to be asked (being a bit late for MBA, not needing it at all for my projected career goals) and to my pleasure, when these questions were asked in the ISB interview, I was able to answer them confidently.

This combination of standard training (videos and preparation of answers to FAQs) together with the personalized training (in the mocks and suggestion of likely, askable questions) is a great approach for interview training.

Experts Global, you sure are experts in your field! Keep up the good work!

Review for Sia Admissions.

The service that SIA has provided to me was simply top notch. From the first moment I got in touch to the final submission of my application I received amazing support coupled with personal touch.

Susan was always there for me when I had queries regarding my application. She always responded within a day with very detailed feedback. When I was working on my essays and application Susan asked the right questions that made me reflect on my past experiences and get the best stories for my essays.

I also received unlimited support from Susan and Sia. Not matter how small the query was, Susan was always willing to help and guide me through the process.

I cannot recommend Susan and Sia high enough. I don't regret purchasing this product from Sia. On the contrary, I can't believe anyone else would have provided me with better support. Sia has exceeded all my expectations.

Review for August Academy.

Coming off an unsuccessful application season I decided to work with August Academy on 3 schools (1 reach T5 school, 2 competitive T10 schools). Karthik was very encouraging from the beginning and I really appreciated his systematic ways of working (using Asana to manage tasks, delegate, and follow-up). We revised the career narrative, spent a ton of time refining the resume and then moved to essays. The inputs provided by Karthik were very useful and he seemed deeply invested in my success. I succeeded in getting 2 interview calls from the T10 schools and eventually received 1 admit with scholarship and 1 waitlist which are great results given my profile.
_________________

.
.
.
.
.
GMAT Debrief - 770
bb's "The Definitive GMAT Study Plan" - 2016 Edition
Must read forum topics before you start your MBA application

For Menlo Coaching

Summary: 10/10 - You won't find anyone else who brings humanity into this process and has your best interests at heart at all times.

I worked with both David and Alice and I was blown away by their level of engagement with my application. What really sets them apart is that they're not willing to shy away from giving you the hard truth - and sometimes telling you that maybe an MBA isn't the best thing for you or that your selection of schools doesn't really match your long-term interests.

Early Engagement
I worked with David through Menlo's Early Birds Program where you work with other MBA aspirants to get a head start on the MBA application process and get an opportunity to shore up any weaknesses in your profile before it's too late. Working with other applicants brought together sharing of best practices and increased accountability to move ahead in the process. What really surprised me about working with David is the lengths to which he went to ensure that I was in it for the right reasons. David and Alice understand that the MBA is a massive investment (in time and money) and try to ensure that you know this and that this makes sense in the context of your life/career. David was patient, always replied to my rambling and anxious emails and brought a sense of calm and order to this process. We chatted multiple times through Skype/phone/emails to ensure that I had a "Decision Tree" that would inform my MBA strategy based on how other factors in my life shaped up.

David was encouraging when I needed it and firm when I was straddling - like when I kept postponing my GMAT and hadn't taken a single official test yet.

Application Strategy
I worked with Alice for the rest of my application. Her philosophy for the essay was that it is something that needs to reflect my life story and something that I should be proud of decades from now - not something I'm whipping up just for the application. Alice not only holds that high a bar for you but also for herself. We chatted about my story over several hour long calls. Alice patiently listened, probed where appropriate, offered me her perspective on some of the challenges I've faced, and teased out key themes from my life. It felt less like brainstorming for essays and more like a mix of life coaching and someone interviewing me for a long-form article in the New Yorker about my narrative arc.

I'd always considered myself fairly savvy about this process as I'd read up a decent amount and talked to enough people to understand how things "really worked". Working with Alice and David was humbling because you learn how much more there is to this process from what is shared online. Alice and David are incredibly savvy, keep abreast of changing dynamics, and give you practical advice to help make your application the best it can be.

When some family tragedy struck and I put GMAT and applications to the side, David and Alice were there with a sympathetic ear and encouragement when I wanted it and with tough love when I needed it. Both of them could shift to a career in motivational speaking and wouldn't be out of place!

Setting you up to succeed
When you work with Menlo, you're not just working with David and Alice - you're also working with professional editors and communication coaches to take your essays and interviews to the next level. When there was a wide gulf between my GMAT practice tests and my actual performance, they referred me to a GMAT tutor who was incredible to work with and helped me get over mental blocks while I took the test.

True to the meaning of coach, Menlo will ensure that you are sharing your story in the best way you can and will teach you skills that you can take away and apply to other aspects of your career instead of just telling you what to do.

In addition to helping you with the applications, Menlo also set up lots of events with industry professionals and current students to make sure you're prepared to succeed at business school once you get there!

P.S. It is incredibly competitive to get a slot with David and Alice, so I highly recommend reaching out to them early!