The Application Process

Hi

I need an MBA consultant for services from scratch to finish; from assessing my current profile to helping me build it, helping with my entire application and finally submitting it to schools. I plan to apply in the first round of 2016 (Aug/Sep'16).

The issue is, I am from India and I don't have a typical IT/technical profile. I need a consultant who understands the education system of India very well in order for him to appreciate the complications in my profile.

The consultants based out of the US are very expensive for me since I want to apply in 6-8 schools and that would cost me about $10K, which I am not willing to spend. (My budget for 6-8 schools is about $4K) I also doubt if they have sound knowledge and understand the Indian conditions well.

There are consultants based out of India who charge much lesser. But are they good enough to get me into the schools I'm aiming for?

Should I just go ahead and spend $10K on US consultants to achieve a higher success ratio or are the Indian consultants good enough?

Please help me shortlist consultants in both US and India (name them). Thank you in advance!

Hi Abhirox,
The best way to pick a consultant is to get a recommendation from a friend or colleague who worked with someone. If you don't have any references, just look around the web and start approaching consultants who offer free consultation.

By talking with various consultants you can learn more about their background, experience with students like yourself, and evaluate whether it would be a good fit to work together.

Also, you don't need to spend $10K on a good consultant in the US. My experience showed me that students who take a package for 2-4 schools can usually get the rest of the schools done either themselves (with some help in the editing), or at least they don't need a package and can therefore go with an hourly option. A lot of material will be covered in the first few applications - resume, rec letters, and many ideas and stories about your career goals and achievements. Recycling content is not a bad idea, as long as you do it wisely.

As for your concern about the education system in India and whether an outsider can understand it- if there's a specific concern you have about your profile, you can just explain it. There are a lot of Indians applying to top b-schools, and many consultants (self include) have worked with students from India.

I would be happy to discuss you profile in person, drop me a line - yael at admit1mba dot com. and we can schedule a call/Skype session.

www.admit1mba.com

Hi

Thank you for the response. I shall mail you with my queries.

Anybody else have any suggestions for me in terms of choosing a consultant?

Hi Abhirox,

I agree most people get a reference form friend or just search the web for good consultants.Then tehy short list a couple of them and schedule free consultation with them. In the free consultation meeting, they 'interview' the consultants with their specific questions/concerns . Based on the consultants' responses, they make a decision as to which consultant best fits their needs and personality .

You may email me your resume and other profile details, and I will be happy to schedule a free consultation meeting with you.

Thanks,

Hi Abhi,

The best possible way to evaluate consultants is connecting with their previous successful admits and talk to the alumni in their consulting panel.Also you can consider how old they are into application consulting? Experience of admission consultants in mentoring applicants successfully, One more important parameter is their overall success rate. Try to evaluate on these parameters and opt for initial free consultation.

Regards
Manish

abhirox wrote:Hi

I need an MBA consultant for services from scratch to finish; from assessing my current profile to helping me build it, helping with my entire application and finally submitting it to schools. I plan to apply in the first round of 2016 (Aug/Sep'16).

The issue is, I am from India and I don't have a typical IT/technical profile. I need a consultant who understands the education system of India very well in order for him to appreciate the complications in my profile.

The consultants based out of the US are very expensive for me since I want to apply in 6-8 schools and that would cost me about $10K, which I am not willing to spend. (My budget for 6-8 schools is about $4K) I also doubt if they have sound knowledge and understand the Indian conditions well.

There are consultants based out of India who charge much lesser. But are they good enough to get me into the schools I'm aiming for?

Should I just go ahead and spend $10K on US consultants to achieve a higher success ratio or are the Indian consultants good enough?

Please help me shortlist consultants in both US and India (name them). Thank you in advance!

Hello,

I was in the same position as you and couple of friends worked with MBAitNOW and they all got into the business school they wanted. So i contacted them and talked to Andre. He was extremely helpful even during the 1 hour free consultation. He answered to all my questions very clearly and he was like a friend rather then a person trying to sell his service. I highly recommend you to contact them as well.
I hope you will get into your dream school as well!

Good luck!

I worked with Scott Edinburgh at Personal MBA Coach and I could not have been happier! Scott offers an incredible personal experience that is very hard to find. The fact that you are working with an individual and not a company cannot be emphasized enough. Don't be fooled by the big company name / support services that some larger firms have. At the end of the day you work with one person most of the time so why not work directly with an expert for the same price rather than an employee of a larger firm?

I hired a more well known name referenced on here and was not satisfied as the support died off as it got closer to the deadlines. I then reached out to Scott via www.personalmbacoach.com and was floored by the level of support I got. While we only had a short amount of time since I contacted him late, he took the time to get to know me personally and professionally and he was the one coming up with essay topics after just a couple discussions. Scott is quite tough and it works out in the end. In a very short amount of time, we did an entire HBS application and I ultimately got in. (As well as a couple other programs I turned down)

With Personal MBA Coach, you get a great balance of no BS, direct and brutal feedback while at the same time you have encouraging support throughout the entire process. Whereas with the other more well-known name I felt like I was a number in the process, Scott brainstormed everything with me from start to finish. Scott is a hidden gem in the admissions consulting space and I have sent many friends to him over the years who also had great success!

Hi,

You're based in India and based on what you've written, it seems that one of your main concerns is that the consultant understands you and your specific background (your academic history in particular). The thing is, the schools you want to get into are presumably in the US and Europe. I would worry more about whether your consultant is culturally aligned with the schools, their Adcoms and what they are looking for.

Once you get past the first two applications you should be able to recycle material from those applications into additional ones - so you don't have to buy a full package for each school. My advice is to go with a good consultant for the first school and then take it from there.

I've got a video on how to find a good consultant that you might find helpful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCZAYfNnuTc

Thank you all for your responses.! I have better clarity now regarding this.

Hi Abhi,

I am also from India and i had the same question in my mind. In my first year i worked with a consultant from India but i was not happy at all. He did not seem to be able to handle my application process well and i could not get accepted to any of the schools i applied although my gmat score was enough to many of the schools that i applied to. The other year i worked with Andre Torres from MBAitNOW, which couple of my friends worked with before and recommended me and now i am doing my MBA in UCLA Anderson. An MBA is already really expensive and you make big sacrifices both mentally and economically, so i would suggest you to hire an American consultant because it is your future we are talking about. I highly recommend you to benefit from the 1 hour free admission consultation of MBAitNOW -> https://bit.ly/1JMltjM. You can ask any specific question you want to ask and they will guide you.

Good luck!

Not having the typical IT background isn't necessarily a bad thing! I know US based consultants are expensive, but think of it this way...do you want to go to a US based school? Who do you think will be better prepared to help you do that? Someone local or someone in the US? Don't worry about being able to connect, Skype is a great invention and I've worked with a number of clients that are based in India or Asia and we always find a way to make it work.

Not having the typical IT background isn't necessarily a bad thing! I know US based consultants are expensive, but think of it this way...do you want to go to a US based school? Who do you think will be better prepared to help you do that? Someone local or someone in the US? Don't worry about being able to connect, Skype is a great invention and I've worked with a number of clients that are based in India or Asia and we always find a way to make it work.

Dear,

Please e-mail me your admission essays and SOP. May be I'd be of any help.

Thanks,