"Best" admission consulting companies?

I engaged Paul Lanzillotti from Amerasia this year and this is a detail feedback based on my experience. I am posting this review anonymously for obvious reasons. I will be more than happy to have this review verified by bb, MBA Section Directors or any of the other Moderators.

I decided to engage a consultant this year although it was a very pricey affair for me. I researched various consultants and based on the positive feedback on Amerasia at GMATClub and my initial consultation with him, decided to engage his services.

I had a very mixed experience with him and will divide this review into various categories and provide a rating on a scale of 0-5 with 5 being the best.

1. Initial consultation (4/5) – This is one area where no consultant can go wrong, right?? Most of the consultants I spoke with painted a rosy picture and tried to sell their service. Paul, as many others have suggested does not try to shove his services. Also the free consultation call that he provides is more meaningful than the free consultation offered by a lot of other consultants.

2. Input on content & Knowledge of school (4/5) – Paul had excellent inputs on content and he seemed to have a good knowledge of the unique traits of each school. He helped me bring out some finer nuances of my story and convey them effectively. He is good with words and helped me with good inputs.

3. Overall strategy (3/5) – The overall strategy of version controlling of essays etc. was quite good. However, he initially gave me the impression that he always followed great structure and that we had to maintain regular contact so that we could get everything done well in time. In the end though I got the feeling that he was quite unorganized. That takes me to the next point…

4. Time Management (0/5) – This was THE sore point of our engagement. He frequently missed meetings and rescheduled meetings at the last minute. It was really maddening to first of all find a time on his calendar with great difficulty (which would be almost 10 days down the line in most instances) and then the meeting ending up in a no-show from him. Sending him mails highlighting my concerns did not result in any improvement on this front till the end. Also, I felt that he stretched himself too thin by taking on more work than he could handle. In several calls, he would keep referring to not having slept for 24+ hours due to some or the other school’s deadlines being round the corner. I couldn’t have cared less but for the fact that in each such meeting (except one), he was never ready with his inputs which naturally meant that I had been on ‘low priority’ due to his other crisis deliverables..I found such repeated behavior on his part inexcusable in the end.

5. Client management (1/5) – I believe that for the prices consultants charge, they should be ensuring that client anxiety is kept to a minimum. My anxiety was shooting through the roof as we approached the deadline and his assurances did little to soothe it since I could see little action on the ground. While he was always respectful in his communication, both written and verbal, that did not prevent me from being almost certain that I would miss my deadline. The other major problem was that he was not very prompt in his responses. There were instances when I had to drop him multiple reminders after sending a mail for him to finally respond…I had imagined that having started off our engagement quite early, I would have been ready well before the deadline. However I got the final set of inputs from him only 3 days before the deadline and I submitted my app after another round of editing and corrections (?!) right on the deadline.

6. Final Rating (1.5/5) – Paul definitely adds value to an application. I must acknowledge his help but I don’t think I was able to put my best foot forward since he wasn’t available as much as he should’ve been. His time & client management skills are poor and this takes you to your wits end. This is especially frustrating and consequently distracting if (like most other people) you are targeting multiple schools in the same round with deadlines close to each other. If you are engaging him, make sure that you plan on completing your entire application at least 15 days prior to the deadline. That will give you some breathing space. Also, I would very strongly advise going in for a 1 school package first and then deciding on engaging him for other schools.

Would I recommend Paul / Amerasia? That’s a definitive NO.

Please PM me if you have any further questions.

As a side note, I used essaycritique dot blogspot dot com later for getting my essays for another school reviewed. Their responses were prompt, turn-around time was truly fantastic and quality of output really great; all of this was for a fraction of the cost of a consultant. This experience was a stark contrast to my experience with Paul. Although it is not an apples to apples comparison here, I just wanted to highlight that there are indeed people out there who truly care for their clients.