The Application Process

Hi everyone,

Unfortunately I need to reapply this year. Last year I had bad experiences with my consultants. I almost never had the chance to interact with them. Can someone give me some recommendations of more hands on firms? I would rather talk to the founder consultants themselves.

Many thanks!

Sorry you had a bad experience! I actually had a similar poor experience when I first hired one of the larger players out there. The challenge is with a big company you just never know who you will get or how the support will change down the line.

Once the first firm didn't work out, 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 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!

Hello Lauren,

This is one of my priorities as well. People expect the best service and pay lots of money to get that. It is perfectly normal that you expected to interact with the main consultants in the firm. Let me tell you that i am extremely happy to have worked with Andre from MBAitNOW. He was the most caring consultant that i have talked to and even after i signed him, he continued that way. All of my friends got into the business schools they wanted to get into. I highly recommend to contact them. They will answer to all your questions during the one hour free consultation.

Good luck!

Every consultant will tell you they are the best but obviously that's not true. I have a video that gives you practical tips for actually evaluating consultants before you give them your business. You can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCZAYfNnuTc
Good Luck!

Ouch, that's really unfortunate. I went through a similar experience when I was applying to business schools and it made me feel miserable. My advice is to find a firm that will be willing to refund you any of the time you don't use. That way, should the worst case scenario happen and you don't get a lot of time, you should be able to get some of your money back. Hope it works out better for you this year! Keep us informed on your progress!