"Best" admission consulting companies?

Hello, I think they are assigned based on your profile and the schools you want to apply to... I also believe its just Paul and Adam at Amerasia. I'm sure you can ask them when you do your consultation and they will tell you whats is best for your applications...

Good luck!

I wanted to put up a post about my experience, as Betsy Massar of [highlight]Master Admissions[/highlight], whom I used, hasn’t yet come up in this thread.

When I headed into the application process, I knew I had a fairly unique story to tell, but that I also had some obstacles: a 66th percentile Quant score coupled with a Humanities undergrad and a meandering career path (academia, journalism, family business, no brand name corporations or traditional MBA-feeder industries on my resume at all). In the end, I batted a perfect .1000, gaining admission to every program I applied to and no less than 3 full-tuition scholarship offers. I could not have done it without Betsy.

I’ve always felt comfortable expressing myself in writing, but Betsy (who has been a writing and communications coach at the Stanford GSB) brought the eyes of someone who knows what admissions committees are thinking. She’s great at getting your story straight and your essays as taut as possible: If I had a draft that wasn’t going anywhere she’d call me out right away before I wasted time on a dead end: “That’s not your real voice. You wouldn’t talk like that to someone you respected.” Or she’d send drafts back to me zeroing in on a certain passage where I should be “thinking bigger.” Brutal honesty + a deep knowledge of what adcoms at the various schools like + a great ear for sharp writing = exactly the kind of tough love you want from an admissions consultant. I get the sense that Betsy likes to work with clients who are already at a pretty high level, and bring a lot to the table, rather than building someone up from square one and packaging them for the adcom.

Betsy worked with me by the hour and the whole process starts off with a long phone call where you get to know eachother. This is officially an hour on the invoice, but mine was closer to two. She’ll do a “put you on the couch” kind of thing where she probes for what makes you tick. This is recorded and she sends you the Mp3, so you can refer back to it when you’re buried months later and thinking “wait, why did I want an MBA again in the first place?” After that, most of her services are via email, sending back marked-up drafts. Turnaround time was 48 hours, but I don’t think it ever took her that long. Sometimes when I was in a real rutt we’d schedule a phone call and bat ideas back and forth. This is one of the real benefits of a boutique operation like Betsy’s over the big names in this business. By exerting editorial control over whom she takes on as a client, Betsy makes sure she has time to do it right. It's not an assembly-line type of service. You don't get emails back from a guy buring through a pile of apps and making them all sound "Harvardy" without even looking at the name at the top of the essay or from a stranger with dozens of other apps dropped on his desk by the boss. Betsy's is a deep-dive, high-touch kind of service for people who are really serious about getting the most out of their consultant.

Also, she has a new book out called Admitted, if you want to get a sense of her voice & approach. I recommend her 100%, but if you want more details or have specific questions, feel free to PM me.

** FIRST POST **** LOW CREDIBILITY WARNING **

I worked on my application with Aringo and got admitted to the Tepper MBA. The moderators of this forum can reach out to me and check. I've only recently discovered this thread (therefore it's my first post here) and decided to share my experience for future generations.

When I decided to apply for MBA programs I started looking for a consultant and eventually contacted Aringo. I was assigned to an experienced consultant, and although he wasn't an MBA graduate he has done a terrific work on my application. I liked his professionalism, which was represented by the great "milking" sessions for the essays, the diligent work on the resume and the great ideas he had for the recommendations. My consultant was very helpful and resourceful, even questions that he did not know he would ask other professional at Aringo and get back to me ASAP. I also liked the way he prepared me for the interviews and his insistence on going through the little details.

What I liked about Aringo in general was the drive for the little details, the fact that the company is focused on helping the customer at any cost. They really work as a team, combining MBA graduate with consultants who has a background in marketing writing. They have this "round table" strategy, meaning that each consultant can ask for expert opinions at the critical decision points throughout the application process.
I would recommend Aringo to MBA candidates without even thinking twice. I remember looking at my essays at the end and how I was amazed by the great work.

The only thing I didn't like so much is the cost. I had financial problems at the time, so it looked like a costly package, but looking back I would say that it was worth it.

I worked with Laura Freedman at Access Education (https://accesseducation.com.sg/), and had a great experience. She is very knowledgeable about the process and you can tell that she's been doing this for a long time. I received honest and constructive feedback and really appreciated the personal attention I received.

In addition, her experience as an INSEAD alumni interviewer was a huge help. The bottom line is that Laura provided me with everything I hoped for in a consultant.

I would highly recommend anyone applying to get in touch with Laura and at least take advantage of the initial consultation. Feel free to send me any specific questions you might have.

Hey e1984:
Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I just wanted to add that it was just Adam and me a few years back. Thanks to a little hard work, great clients, and of course these forums, we have grown quite a bit since then. We have almost 20 consultants on staff now, each one personally vetted by Adam and me. Drew Hoff is simply excellent and I personally feel very fortunate to have a consultant like him on staff. In my experience its rare that you get the trifecta of real passion, the right priorities and of course, expertise. That's what Drew brings to the table. Hell, that's what Adam brings to the table - as well as every single one of our consultants. Holla!

Anyway, if you have any questions about Drew or Amerasia or the average rainfall in the Amazon basin - please email us at mba@amerasiaconsulting.com.

Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti

Hey sfz85:

If there is anything I can do at all to help address any questions you have about Drew or Amerasia, please do not hesitate to reach out to me - mba@amerasiaconsulting.com.

Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti

After a significant amount of debate between the "Big 3" consulting shops and Tyler Cormney of MBAPrepSchool, I went with Tyler. And I could not be happier.

I was introduced to Tyler through a friend who used Tyler through his admissions process (who matriculated at Sloan). Although moderately reluctant to spend money on something I could possibly do on my own, I realized that an MBA admissions consultant could be very helpful – not to mention, it seemed that >50% of applicants who matriculated at a brand name school used a consultant.
As such, I began researching various MBA admissions consulting firms (the Big 3) and speaking with their past customers. Although some of them did seem happy with their experience, I estimated that about 2/3rd were either 1) woefully unimpressed with the work 2) felt ripped off 3) did not get into a top school 4) were given a “guarantee” of admission that amounted to worthless 5) felt like they were going to provide a cookie-cutter approach.
With this information at hand, I quickly moved to secure Tyler’s services.
What differentiates Tyler from everyone else is that he is incredibly creative, incredibly knowledgeable, wonderful listener (he remembers absolutely everything) incredibly disciplined, and intensely focused on crafting a compelling narrative. My undergraduate school was impressive, my GPA was not, and my leadership background was not particularly interesting – however, Tyler was able to help me craft an incredibly, fascinating story to tell the admissions committee. Even more importantly, he was able to help me better understand/determine what I want to do with my life.
In summary, getting into a top notch MBA school is very hard – there are hundreds of other people just like you and I with similar GMAT, GPA, and leadership experiences. The key (that I reluctantly learned) is that you must separate yourself from the rest of the pack by crafting a compelling narrative – at which Tyler is second to none. I highly recommend Tyler – so much so that I referred my younger brother to him (he is now matriculating at Kellogg). Tyler is absolutely, unequivocally worth every penny.

Misterchipper, thank you very much for posting a review!

if you have a minute, would be great if you could post this one here too: https://gmatclub.com/reviews/

You can use this link https://gmatclub.com/reviews/select.php

Feel free to email me for verification

I am thankful to folks at Indusminds (https://www.indusminds.com) for all that I have managed to achieve in the last year. After the disappointment of applying to business schools and getting no interview calls in the last 2 years, the time and effort of people at Indusminds helped me get an admit to a world class school and a waitlist(hopefually an admit soon) to an awesome school in the mid west!

I first came across Indusminds through the BW forums. Once i got around talking to one of the consultants, i came out quiet impressed by the plan offered by the company and decided to sign up for one application to start and ended up writing 3 of my applications with Indusminds.

I believe the unique offering is the 2 consultant approach where each one of them brought in their own thoughts and opinions. The plan was well laid out and not once did I not find them available to help me out. Another stand out feature was that they did not put a limit on the number of drafts required for an essay. I was told by my friends that other consultants had a pretty rigid process and hardly gave any leeway. A few essays were settled in 3 drafts and a few of them took a dozen phone calls and quiet a number of drafts to hammer them out.

Both the consultants I worked with, ie Nikhil and Biplav bought different perspectives to the essay questions and also the overall application approach. I believe this was the factor that worked out the best for me. The approach and the plan was individualized as per my needs and I found their contributions coming in, in terms of leading me on the right way, asking me the right questions helping me introspect. Furthermore they offered a whole different perspective to other schools that I engaged with Indusminds on.

They also proved to be a great help for the interview process, the mocks were scheduled as per my needs and I found the feedback really helpful to prepare me better for the real thing.

Overall, I would highly recommend Indusminds to anyone who feels that they deserve to be in the best schools in the world. Thanks to Nikhil and Biplav, that I am on my way to my dream school for which I had tried hard to get in over the past two years. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me and I will be happy to talk about my experience in detail.

Here is the link to their website https://www.indusminds.com/

I think I will be trying out MBA Essay Critique when the time comes, maybe also try to book Sandy for a mock Interview.

I would encourage anyone who’s serious about earning an acceptance letter to a top-10 MBA program seek out Tyler’s consulting services. Before hiring Tyler, I interviewed other MBA admission consultants and quickly found Tyler’s approach to the application process, supported by MBAPrepSchool’s videos and useful tools, was the best fit for me – comprehensive, well structured, and logically thought-out. I had excellent resources to walk me through literally EVERY step of the application process.

Tyler’s contributions didn’t stop there. His background in creative writing helped me think critically about how to craft application essays that really brought my strengths to the surface while framing my story in a way that told a compelling story. With Tyler’s coaching, I produced applications that far exceeded what I could have produced on my own.

As an older (early 30’s), non-traditional applicant, the odds were certainly stacked against me but with Tyler’s assistance, I earned an acceptance letter to a Top-5 MBA program! I can’t recommend Tyler’s services enough, thanks Tyler!

Please feel free to contact me to verify

I tend to stay fairly quiet on these forums but I wanted to write about my experience with Stacy Blackman Consulting because I think it will be helpful for others and I have also read some incorrect information here so thought I could try to clear away some misconceptions/rumors. So here goes, the story of my experience working with Stacy Blackman Conslting: I started my MBA process about 2 years ago. I was reading articles, doing general research and then decided to hire an admissions consultant in order to gain every advantage. I spoke with at least four differerent companies and quite honestly had a hard time telling them apart. The people on the phone were nice, seemed smart and were very helpful. No desire to bash any of these companies and cannot even remember the names of all of the ones I spoke to, but it was some mix of the ones I find on GMAT Club. I finally spoke with Amy at Stacy Blackman Consulting. She actually told me to wait a year to apply and retake the GMAT and work on a couple of things in my background. This was the first time that someone seemed to actually care about my application and was not just in a hurry to have me write a check. That left a very big and positive impression on me. I followed her advice, raised the GMAT by 70 points and returned about 7 months later to talk again. Again, she was helpful and informative and incredibly resposnive.

When I decided to sign up the first step was finding my consultant. I read in one of the posts above that Stacy Blackman has more of a team approach but this was not true - I worked with one dedicated consultant the whole time. So in choosing a consultant I reviewed a few backgrounds and then spoke with two of them on the phone. It took about a week for me to find my match. I ended up working with Fiona who was absolutely incredible. She has been consulting for several years (maybe 5?) and went to Harvard. She is an incredible writer and cheerleader and so organized, professional and impressive.

Fiona helped me with every part of my application with incredible patience. Although I thought she went above and beyond in many ways, especially my interview prep, the biggest thing she helped with were the essays. The essays that we ended up with were very different from what I would have written about without her help. I spent far less time on my career than I would have expected and she encouraged me to write about other things that I might not have otherwise included. We went through many checks, 11 revisions on one set of essays alone.

As I said before I also thought the interview prep was amazing. She spent time with me on the phone, gave feedback and seriously prepared me in a way that benefitted me so much. I was relaxed (more or less) and knew what to expect. She was my point person all the way through though I did take advantage of other Stacy Blackman resources three times. Fiona also managed that for me. First I had an extra liaison named Maggie check in with me right away and I did decide to show her one essay that Fiona and I had been through so many revisions of, we both agreed that it would be nice to have someone else take a look. She gave some feedback that was helpful and Fiona and I worked through it together. Second, at one point I had a very random, school specific question and Fiona asked someone else on the team who had served on that admissions committee. And lastly, my flight test - which had to be with a different consultant because that is the point of it, to have an admissions person review it like the real thing, seeing it for the first time. That exercise was incredibly useful and again, Fiona managed that and then helped me incorporate some of the feedback. So I felt that I was anchored with one point person the whole time. But Stacy Blackman has a lot of resources at their disposal and I definitely took advantage of many of them.

I only worked with one company and so can only speak to them but I interfaced with a lot of people at SBC and every single interaction was extremely professional and positive. Now the results...I am going to Stanford. I also was admitted to 2 other top schools and received one scholarship. I was not admitted to Wharton. So I hope that this was helpful - it is my way of saying thank you to Stacy Blackman Consulting and Fiona and hopefully helping those of you who are at the beginning stages of this process.

Hi, if you have a chance, could you pleas submit a review here please?
https://gmatclub.com/reviews/

Hi,

Does anyone have any reviews for Paul Bodine? Not for his book but for his individual consulting services?

I'm interested in knowing if he helps strategically with the applications, and how responsive is he (whether he's too busy to respond).

I have tried the search but have had no luck.

Thanks in advance!

He has been quite a fixture here on GMAT Club for quite a while: members/member-15601.html
Has over 1,500 posts but has not been as actively involved since leaving Accepted a few years ago.

Thanks for the link. Even though he posted often in the evaluation section, I can't seem to find reviews. I'm thinking of working with him on my applications this year. Seems like he'd be a busy guy and I'm not sure if my essays would get sufficient attention from him.