Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Before embarking upon the process of looking and selecting an Admissions Consultant from range of options, we'd like to present you with few tips to help you make your own decision when choosing admissions consultant:

First of all you need to think whether you need an admissions consultant or not?If you have an excellent academic record and an exceptional track record beyond academics you may not need an admissions consultant.However if you have some weaknesses, then an admissions consultant can help you to neutralize these weaknesses before you apply or address your weaknesses in your application.
A consultant can help you to develop positioning(how can you differentiate yourself from others?) and then help you develop the best way to articulate this positioning.

Next, you need to think about how to go about selecting a consultant.Keep the below mentioned points in mind:

1) Compile a list of all the consultants you may want to work with. A good way to compile this list is to talk to friends and family, recent applicants and to go online and do your research.

2) Once you have a good list, narrow down to a select few based on the following criteria:

a) Academic background of the consultant: Have they been to a leading university themselves?

b) Admissions Consulting Experience: How much and what type of experience do they have? Have they been an interviewer for their university? Have they worked in an admissions office at a leading university? What type of clients have they worked with?

c) Admission Consultant Work Experience beyond admission consulting: Are they a branding or marketing expert who can help you position yourself? Have they worked in countries or industries you want to work in?

d) Are they a university agent or an admissions consultant?: There is a key difference between the two and it's important to know that. A university agent is representing the university and getting paid by them - so if you know you want to go to that university or the set of universities that agent represents it makes sense to go to the agent. Leading schools generally do not have agents - why is that? This is because universities such as an Oxford, Harvard, Stanford, don't need to 'sell' themselves - their brands are so strong that the acceptance rates are between 8%-15%

e) Services offered: Do they provide you customized services? Is there a robust process that they follow? Is it an extensive process or just an editing service?

f) Consultation fees: Cheaper isn't always better! If they are too cheap they are probably not offering an extensive service. I have heard of a company that says they have consultants from Ivy League Schools and charge Rs. 15,000 (USD 300) for applications to 4 schools. Now if you assume that this would take 20 hours of the consultant's times (usually its a lot more) then this mean the 'Ivy league' consultant is charging USD 15 per hour - the same rate you can get stamping books at your graduate school library in the US!

3) Meet the consultants you are considering and make sure you feel comfortable working with them.

Hope this helps!

Thanks!