I am really excited that I will be heading to HBS this fall and have enjoyed using Beat the GMAT throughout my preparation to get some really valuable insights into the exam and the MBA admissions process. Thanks for all the great content!
Anyone who has worked in marketing, finance, consulting, IT, etc. would lose their job if they asserted that it is better to have no data than some perhaps imperfect data when making a critical decision. Thus, I was a bit shocked by Brian's response below.
I agree with Brian that overall success rates (something like "95% of our students get into one of their top 5 MBA schools") from MBA admissions consultants are completely worthless since consultants can get clients to apply to huge safeties in order to inflate this statistic.
But there ARE consulting firms (like Stratus Prep, which full disclosure, I and many of my friends in NYC used) that release admissions success rates school by school. This is incredibly useful data and is not nearly as susceptible to manipulation. For me, I would definitely rather know that I am using a firm that increases my chances of admission to HBS by 5x than a firm that just won't release any success rates. That would not inspire confidence for me.
Tavi, I know that you had questions about Stratus Prep's stats which I think Shawn (Stratus Prep's founder) answered below. But if it's any help, I can tell you I have known about 10 people who used Stratus's services, and we all found Stratus Prep's stats to be accurate at least within our group of friends and co-workers. Certainly not everyone gets into every school at Stratus Prep but they are very, very successful at HSW (I am living proof), and they will be very honest with you about your chances and the micro success rates of folks with your profile. I always found them to be very honest and straightforward.
One other thing that I think bears mentioning. In his post, Brian failed to mention a couple of important things that I learned from reviewing this site over the last 18 months. Last year, Kaplan bought Manhattan GMAT (so one has to believe they are now basically one and the same). I actually found Stratus because I didn't want to got to MGMAT after they were acquired by Kaplan as I wanted a smaller company with the most expert GMAT instructors. Also, I assume that Kaplan/MGMAT did not consider admissions firms like Veritas and Stratus which offer (I believe, far superior) GMAT prep and thus directly compete with Kaplan/MGMAT. Also, one has to wonder what sort of payment Kaplan/MGMAT receives for referring clients. Certainly, they did not shut down their own admissions firm to refer clients to another company out of the goodness of their heart, did they?
Just some food for thought on a Monday morning.
Good luck to everyone applying to HSW this year. My advice, be very personal in your applications it was definitely what set me apart!
JB
) input as to possibly the most suitable consulting firm for such cases. 
