Consultant Shopping

Hey GPAlbatross - that's a great question and hopefully it's OK for us to be jumping in here - and also hopefully some past applicants will pipe in on what they've done in terms of researching their consulting options. We wanted to offer our (admittedly biased and very opinionated) take on this question. As with any industry, there's a whole spectrum of skillsets and approaches among the admissions consultants that are out there, and there's unfortunately not that much transparency either, as you've discovered. Not sure what the solution to that problem is but we do have some advice on the EssaySnark blahg about how to choose a consultant - you can review a variety of posts in the category "the admissions consulting industry" here (many are free but some are behind our paywall).

Much of our guidance in those posts comes down to questions you can ask about the consultant's experience/amount of time doing this, Also you should make sure you get a good fit to you for working style. Just as an example, we do all of our work in writing with our peeps, working online/via email to review stuff and give feedback. Lots of consultants do much more over the phone and some offer almost all feedback verbally. There's pros and cons to each approach and most people have a strong preference as to how they want to move through their process. So that's a first thing to check.

Price is also obviously important but just be aware that there's some great advice being offered at the lower price points and just as often, some really questionable advice bandied about from those who charge a bundle more. You didn't even mention that factor in your question but we wanted to offer that reminder, since price != quality in this regard.

In terms of your actual questions:

• ALL consultants should be able to help someone with a low GPA; this is a very common scenario and if they can't offer specific advice and recommendations (or even a solid opinion on whether your GPA is truly "low" or not) then move on. A consultant should also be well versed in terms of which school cares more about GPA and what would be considered "low" at the specific school(s) you're targeting, since it can in fact vary from place to place.
• Similarly, changing careers is incredibly common among all MBA applicants these days, so ANY consultant should be able to help you with this - and again, this is a line of questioning you can use for screening. If you don't have a specific conversation around what your goals are and how you will need to be positioning them then the consultant will be missing something important. Career goals should be a key part of an initial consult and of every step of the process.
• If by "particular area" you mean "geography" then there may in fact be bigger differences in terms of consultant ability, particularly if you're targeting Europe or Asia and you're talking to American consultants. We've seen lots of variation in how much consultants are even aware of ex-U.S. programs (we once saw one consultant responding to a question on an MBA board from someone asking about "Ivey business school" who talked about "Columbia, Yale, and Dartmouth" - which was pretty distressing). If by "area" you mean discipline/industry/career specialization then that's also a very good question and again, lots and lots of variability. Our experience working with many consultants over the years (as peers) has shown us that some become experts in these different dimensions of the MBA and others really have a more superficial knowledge. So, knowing what you want to do with the MBA is going to be helpful as you research consultants - but at the same time, a quality consultant will also help guide you through that discovery process. You should not need to have all the answers ahead of time. This is a good litmus test: If you feel like you know more about the bschools you're targeting than the consultant you're talking to does - and yes we've heard of that happening - well...

Anyway that was probably more than we needed to say. Hope that helps at least a little, and hopefully others will chime in too!! Good luck with your apps this year.

EssaySnark