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MDF
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"Looking For An Edge - Admission Consultants" WSJ article Updated on: 05 Oct 2011, 15:46
Originally posted by MDF on 05 Oct 2011, 12:58.
Last edited by bb on 05 Oct 2011, 15:46, edited 1 time in total.
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This was in today's Wall Street Journal - LINK

It certainly has some interesting statistics...

Quote:

Looking for an Edge
M.B.A. applicants are turning to pricey consultants to help them navigate the daunting admissions process

When Elizabeth Lo, a New York banker with an undergraduate degree in math, began the process of applying to business school, she knew she had strong quantitative skills but was less confident in her ability to handle essays and interviews.

So the 25-year-old Ms. Lo turned to M.B.A. admissions-consulting firm Clear Admit LLC for help. Although her consultant, a former associate director of admissions at Columbia Business School, never met with her in person, the consultant emailed and called as needed, prepping Ms. Lo with mock interviews and teasing out salient points from her essay drafts. The total cost for unlimited help in applying to four top-ranked schools: almost $7,000.

It is often said that the hardest part of an M.B.A. program is getting in, which may explain why applicants like Ms. Lo are willing to shell out thousands of dollars for a coach to help them through the nerve-jangling admissions process. Though exact numbers on admissions help aren't available, there is some indication of how much applicants are leaning on consultants: Twenty percent of respondents in a recent global survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council said they had used an admissions consultant to help them gather information about M.B.A. programs.

Driving demand for these consulting services is the tough competition to get into prestigious programs. Although recent reports have indicated that applications for two-year full-time M.B.A. programs have dropped this year compared with last year, top schools such as Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business still have daunting acceptance rates—roughly 12% and 7%, respectively.

Best Foot Forward
Admissions consultants say they don't just polish essays, tighten résumés and perform mock interviews; they also act as guidance counselors, helping applicants pinpoint their professional and academic goals and steering them toward schools that may be a good fit.

The goal, consultants say, is to come up with a compelling, unified story that candidates can present to an admissions committee that demonstrates why they want an M.B.A. and what makes them qualified to win acceptance to a certain program.

"We won't write someone's essays," says Scott Shrum, director of M.B.A. admissions research for consulting firm Veritas Prep and himself a graduate of the M.B.A. program at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. "Most of the value we add is in the first half of the process. We push their thinking: Why do you want an M.B.A.? Why do you want this school?"

The M.B.A. admissions-consulting industry includes larger firms with a team of consultants, such as Veritas Prep, MBA Exchange Ltd. and Clear Admit, and boutique firms with just one or two staffers, such as Sanford Kreisberg's Cambridge Essay Service or Paul Bodine Admissions Consulting.

Consultants' backgrounds vary: Some are former M.B.A. admissions professionals, while others just have an M.B.A. degree or are professional editors or writers. Some larger firms, in particular, try to match applicants with advisers who have similar interests and backgrounds.

The help doesn't come cheap. Veritas Prep, for example, offers a one-school application package for $3,700 and an eight-school bulk deal for $11,400, among other offerings. Its hourly consulting rate is $275. The Malibu, Calif., firm's most popular offering is a three-school package for $5,900, with Harvard, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School being among clients' top picks.

For previously rejected applicants, there's also a "rejection analysis" package, which includes a full review of your application and an hour-long strategy session to determine how to improve one's odds of getting in next time around. Cost: $450.

Worth the Money?
Some M.B.A. admissions officers worry that the use of consultants provides an unfair advantage to those who can afford it. What's more, it may be tough to know whether an applicant's presentation really represents the candidate or the coach, they say. One red flag for admissions departments is a polished essay but a poor score on the writing portion of the GMAT.

To quell concerns, the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants, a trade group with 85 members, has established ethics guidelines explicitly stating that applicants must write their own essays. (To find a consultant, one place to start is AIGAC.org, the website of the admissions consultants' trade group.)

As the consulting industry has grown, some business schools have become more accepting of it.

Deirdre Leopold, managing director of M.B.A. admissions and financial aid at Harvard Business School, says meeting with admissions consultants is useful to "get some field intelligence" about how prospective students view the school and its admissions process.

When it comes to success rates, Veritas Prep's Mr. Shrum says he can't pinpoint with certainty the exact percentage of the firm's clients that get accepted to the schools of their choice because the firm only tracks outcomes on applicants who report back, he says. Of those the firm does hear back from, at least 90% report success getting into at least one of their schools, he says.

The MBA Exchange, which has advised more than 2,700 clients since 1996, says 97% of its clients were accepted to one or more of their top four target schools, as verified by an independent auditor.

For her part, Ms. Lo is a fan. A client of Clear Admit, she was accepted into Wharton and New York University's Stern School of Business, two of her top choices.

What's more, she received a scholarship offer from Wharton—which she says "more than covered" the $6,999 she paid her consultant.
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"Looking For An Edge - Admission Consultants" WSJ article 05 Oct 2011, 15:47
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It is interesting they did not interview mbaMission - the largest MBA Consulting group....


Also see our internal "Best Admissions Consultants Thread"
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"Looking For An Edge - Admission Consultants" WSJ article 05 Oct 2011, 16:44
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Looking for an edge... hm... my suggestion... "dig deeper"... think about whatever you were going to say... take another hour to think about it... then go even one step further... if you have the stats... make sure your essays reads like a book (not random pieces) and make sure it tells a story. Think of your favorite story... and see if your essays read like that :)
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"Looking For An Edge - Admission Consultants" WSJ article 05 Oct 2011, 16:47
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Looking for an edge... hm... my suggestion... "dig deeper"... think about whatever you were going to say... take another hour to think about it... then go even one step further... if you have the stats... make sure your essays reads like a book (not random pieces) and make sure it tells a story. Think of your favorite story... and see if your essays read like that :)
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By the way, did you use a consultant?
Also, do you have a tip potentially to share about admissions? best-mba-application-tips-77803.html
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"Looking For An Edge - Admission Consultants" WSJ article 05 Oct 2011, 17:07
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I did not use a consultant and actually have been proofing papers for members here on gmatclub and 2 colleagues at work. After doing over 20 myself I feel like I've gotten the "template" down. Not everyone can wordsmith aka window-dress... but if you can... and you can think of how to put 4 essays into one story (each it's own chapter).. then I think you're set if your message matches your background