Anonymous MBA Consulting Reviews

Recently, I asked all the readers of this blog and users of beatthegmat.com to send me reviews if they have used an MBA consultant.  I suggested a specific format where they can be graded using an A-F scale, and compared across their peers so that MBA applicants can make an informed decision (a la Yelp or TripAdvisor).  This is a big upfront expense for many applicants and there is not a ton of information out there (other than promotional stuff on websites dedicated to the MBA world).   Well, I have gotten a couple responses so far and have put them below.  I will continue to update these reviews as I get them.  If you would like to submit one, please check out the below format and email me the answers at mbagirljourney@gmail.com or you can paste them directly below!  

Here is the format for the criteria:

Scale:  A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-……you get the idea, all the way to F. (A-F grading scale, N/A for services you didn’t purchase)

Consultant Firm/Name: ____________________

Package Type: _______________________(i.e. hourly, one-school)

1. Manner:  attitude/how they interact with you
2. Understanding of my Industry: i.e. via a diagnostic/questionnaire/ Q&A interview
3. Understanding of my job and accomplishments: i.e. via a diagnostic/questionnaire/ Q&A interview
4. Understanding of my story: i.e. via a diagnostic/questionnaire/ Q&A interview
5. Responsiveness:  How quickly they get back to you
6. Essay Editing:  How in-depth and consultative were they when editing your essays
7. Resume Editing:  How in-depth and consultative were they when editing your resumes
8. Recommendation counseling:  How consultative were they when helping you get your recommendations  together
9. *Interview Help:  How helpful/thorough were they in helping you prepare for interviews?
10. Overall Strategy: How effective do you feel the overall strategy of your application was, i.e positioning/overall picture
11. Any other comments you would like to tell us about your consultant experience?

REVIEW FOR MBA ADMIT:  OVERALL STRATEGY, B+

Consultant Firm/Name: MBAadmit

Package Type: One-school w/ consortium package. Added extra essays to the package as needed (applied through the Consortium so it was a bit different)

1. Manner:  attitude/how they interact with you – (A-) Good interaction, positive attitude, really felt like I had somebody in my corner, felt genuine.
2. Understanding of my Industry: (B-) In-depth questionnaire, but my industry was very different and therefore hard to understand.
3. Understanding of my job and accomplishments: (B) same as above ^^
4. Understanding of my story: (B+) I felt she understood my story and had a good grip on the best way to portray it.
5. Responsiveness:  (B-) There were a few times I was itching for her to get back to me and it felt like it was taking forever. Also, she would often say “her team” was editing essays or something to that affect, but it was pretty obvious that she runs her business completely by herself, for better or for worse.
6. Essay Editing:  How in-depth and consultative were they when editing your essays (B-) I expected more from a few of the essays, but the goals essay (main one for me) was on point.
7. Resume Editing:  How in-depth and consultative were they when editing your resumes (B-) I really don’t even remember, which means it must not have been that in-depth.
8. Recommendation counseling:  How consultative were they when helping you get your recommendations  together (A+) This made everything worth it, she whipped up my recommendations into tip-top shape. She requested that the recommenders send them to her, bypassing me for integrity, for editing. But my recommenders ended up showing me the before and after of their recommendations anyways, and wow! They were so rough beforehand that they may have been a deal-breaker for me, and I never would have known it.
9. *Interview Help:  How helpful/thorough were they in helping you prepare for interviews? (N/A) This service was available for an additional cost, but I was uninterested.
10. Overall Strategy: How effective do you feel the overall strategy of your application was, i.e positioning/overall picture? (B+) Overall, solid. I’m glad I used her.
11. Any other comments you would like to tell us about your consultant experience? So, I was a strange candidate because I was focused on schools where I had the best chance at a full-ride scholarship rather than top-ranked schools, but I felt like her strength was more geared towards the typical Top 7 or so schools. I remember her trying to convince me to apply to Harvard & Columbia more than a few times, and given her HBS experience I’m sure that’s where a candidate can get the most bang for their buck. Oh, and her prices were 1/3 of her competitors; it was one helluva deal.

REVIEW FOR HBSGURU:  OVERALL STRATEGY C+

Consultant Firm/Name: HBS Guru

Package Type: One-school package.

1. Manner:  attitude/how they interact with you – (C) Sometimes he seems like he is in my corner, sometimes it seems like he is trying to churn out as much as possible as quickly as possible.  Also, there is a certain level of professionalism that is just not there, which I expected for the price.
2. Understanding of my Industry: (C) There was no questionnaire, just a short phone interview and I still don’t think he really understands how my industry works.
3. Understanding of my job and accomplishments: (C) Similar to the above.
4. Understanding of my story: (B-) Similar feedback to the above.  I think there are opportunities in “my story” that we aren’t addressing.  He seems very formulaic.
5. Responsiveness:  (A+) He is very responsive, very quick.
6. Essay Editing:  How in-depth and consultative were they when editing your essays (B-) I think my essays are better for having him involved than I would have done on my own, but we would go back and forth on so many rounds of edits where he would sometimes change things back to the way they were originally.  I think he goes through these very quickly and just churns them out without a lot of thought.
7. Resume Editing:  How in-depth and consultative were they when editing your resumes (B-) Again, my resume is better for him having worked on it.   A lot of back and forth and sometimes editing his edits, saying he didn’t understand them and not remembering that he was the one who asked for it to be there in the first place!  In the end though, it was was worth it even though it could have probably been done more efficiently and in less time.
8. Recommendation counseling:  How consultative were they when helping you get your recommendations  together (N/A) I haven’t really gotten very far in this respect and did a lot of work on my own.  He did provide some good examples that I can show my recommenders though, which is helpful.
9. *Interview Help:  How helpful/thorough were they in helping you prepare for interviews? (N/A)
10. Overall Strategy: How effective do you feel the overall strategy of your application was, i.e positioning/overall picture? (C+) Overall, I think we could have been a lot more thorough in understanding what I do, how I do it, accomplishments and the overall picture.  I don’t think we got there.  I think he has a formula of what he thinks works and he just has people stick to that.   And maybe he is right, time will tell.
11. Any other comments you would like to tell us about your consultant experience? When doing my research, I kept hearing how he is straightforward.  I really was drawn to that because I thought straightforward=detailed feedback.  It doesn’t.  I think, overall, he should spend more time on his clients, give more detailed feedback and be more consultative.

REVIEW FOR CLEAR ADMIT:  OVERALL STRATEGY B+

Consultant Firm/Name: Clear Admit

Package Type: 5-School

1. Manner: Good attitude — candid about my weaknesses and also suggested areas to highlight as strengths. B+

2. Understanding of my industry: Limited. I had to explain quite a few details to him (at length). I think this is understandable as my industry is somewhat esoteric. B

3. Understanding of my job and accomplishments: Generally understood what I was doing, but occasionally needed details about industry specific points, which is understandable. B

4. Understanding of my story: Considering how much time we put into the questionnaire and into going over my story, I felt he knew my story quite well. B+

5. Responsiveness: Generally responsive. There were times when he seemed to have missed materials I sent him, but again, given the volume of materials we were preparing for my Round 1 applications, that was understandable. B+

6. Essay Editing: A good mix of broad strategic guidance and specific line-by-line edits. B+

7: Resume Editing: Limited editing of my resume. I found the edits fairly limited and generally focused on pushing me to provide more details and quantitative backing for my accomplishments. B

8. Recommendations Counseling: Limited as my recommenders were fairly independent, had done MBA recommendations before, and were not keen on having their work edited. He assisted me in reviewing the information packages for my recommenders, but made few specific changes. C+

9. Interview Help: N/A

10. Overall Strategy: Overall, very solid positioning. He knows the schools quite well, and was able to identify key aspects to look into for each. B+

11. Any other comments you would like to tell us about your consultant experience? No further comments.