🚨 My Experience with MBA&Beyond – A Warning for Applicants 🚨

I signed up with MBA&Beyond for end-to-end support on 2 MBA applications. Unfortunately, the experience fell far below expectations, and I want to share specifics so others can make an informed decision:

1. Quality of Guidance
The advice I received was extremely surface-level. For example, in INSEAD’s career journey essay, I was told to write my career transitions in 2–3 lines each. The “final draft” simply lifted one line from my notes. This is not strategic guidance worth thousands of dollars, I could have done that myself without a consultant.

2. Process Deviations
What shocked me was discovering that MBA&Beyond relies on an internal AI tool to generate essay drafts, something never disclosed to me upfront before I made the payment. I was asked to create pointers, which were then fed into their AI to produce a “story.” If that’s the case, even ChatGPT could have done the same. What I expected (and paid for) was expert human judgment, how to connect my experiences into a compelling narrative. Despite my consultant being an INSEAD alum, I received no school-specific insights. The entire process felt like a black box, not real mentorship.

3. Incomplete Services
I paid for 2 schools. One application saw only partial progress, the second was never started. Yet I was repeatedly told about “value delivered” in terms of call-hours not actual outcomes. That’s not what end-to-end consulting means.

4. Defensive, Not Supportive
When I raised concerns, instead of fixing them, I was told to push my applications to next year. Access to their platform was revoked, and responses came only after multiple reminders. This felt like avoidance, not support.

5. Sales vs. Delivery Gap
During sales, I was chased daily and told my profile was “impressive.” But after payment, that energy disappeared. The difference between how hard they sell and how little they deliver is stark.

💡 Takeaway for future applicants:
MBA applications are high-stakes. If you want genuine guidance and accountability, look elsewhere. Paying premium prices for half-completed services, AI-driven drafts, and defensive responses left me stressed, behind on timelines, and without the support I signed up for.

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