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How to Choose the Right MBA Admissions Consultant

November 1 2022 By The MBA Exchange
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Applying for a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) program? You benefit from the assistance and support of a top MBA admissions consultant.

The MBA Exchange has a 25-year-plus history working with the best MBA admissions consultants out there, with the benefit of a team that includes multiple former admissions committee members from top business school programs including Harvard, Wharton, MIT Sloan, Columbia, Kellogg, and Booth. Check out The MBA Exchange Consulting Team roster!

At The MBA Exchange, we carefully hand-match candidates with the best MBA admissions consultants for their background, goals, and needs, ensuring that you can make a positive connection with your consultant. Here are some of the key points we advise you to take into consideration when dealing with the MBA admissions consulting scene.

Who needs an admissions consultant?

Who can benefit from working with an MBA admissions consultant? Let’s see, that’s pretty much everyone who doesn’t have a 4.0 GPA in a rigorous major from an Ivy League college, an 800 Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT™) score, and a blue-chip resume loaded with prime leadership positions.

You can benefit from working with top MBA admission consultants if you want to gain admission to a full-time, traditional MBA program, or if you’re targeting part-time MBA program or executive MBA (EMBA) options.

If you lack years of experience in MBA admissions, personal contacts within the admissions industry, and a whole-picture understanding of MBA admissions worldwide, no worries! Top MBA admission consultants have all that, combined with the personal touch you need to perfect your unique candidacy.

How to choose the right MBA admissions consultant

The MBA admissions consulting market contains lots of options. How do you know which MBA admissions consulting firm, or which MBA admissions coach, is right for you? It’s a process, among a wealth of other admissions processes! Here are some suggested steps.

Choose an MBA admissions consulting firm whose consultants have experience in both admissions and business. That’s the combination that will help you build and then present your most compelling candidacy.

Do your due diligence through objective third-party websites. Read what past applicants have to say about working with the various firms. Require independent and well-documented proof of past admissions success and client satisfaction. Why invest your future in someone who can’t prove their claims?

Considerations and concerns

Consider the professional associations to which the MBA admissions consulting firm belongs. These organizations (e.g., IECA, HECA, NAGAP, AIGAC, Better Business Bureau etc.) have strict membership requirements and ethical standards that confirm the quality and trustworthiness of the firm and its consultants.

Consider value even more than price. Saving a few hundred or even thousand dollars won’t be very comforting if you get second-rate service and fall short of your goals. Services priced with an hourly rate may look like a bargain, but a comprehensive consultation ensures that you discover and address all of your weaknesses.

Interviewing your consultant

Once you’ve found a promising prospect, it’s time to test for fit. Have a direct conversation with the head of the consulting firm to align your goals and expectations. Be sure that you and the firm share the same view on your MBA admissions potential – before you sign up and pay.

Expect personalized advice that’s customized and shared with you exclusively. MBA admissions consulting firms that blast out individualized advice via Internet forums or blogs to applicants they don’t know are really helping your competitors – for free.

Making the decision

Trust your gut: the way the firm treats you as a prospect is indicative of how they will treat you as a client. Are they prompt, professional, empathetic, accessible and responsive? Do they understand you and believe in your potential for admission?

What do admissions consultants do?

As an MBA applicant, it can be a challenge to objectively assess your own candidacy and application materials. Do you know how to offset a low college GPA? What’s the best way to present your story in essays and short answer responses? How important is your GMAT score, and would a Graduate Record Examination (GRE ®) score be better for your particular strengths?

Answering any or all of these questions requires the big-picture view that only an expert MBA admissions consultant can provide. Your candidacy has to compete with thousands of superstar applicants. A great admissions consultant can help.

When you work with an admissions consultant, you benefit from an expert review of your candidacy and application materials. The best admissions consultants specialize in understanding the whole package of your dreams, goals and potential, effectively shaping your application to show all that you are and can become.

At The MBA Exchange, we reinvent and revamp your whole brand, presenting the most exciting, shiniest version of your candidacy to MBA admissions committees. Our proprietary frameworks and knowledge base can align your candidacy with exactly what adcoms at your target schools are looking for.

When you’re partnered with a team of top MBA admission consultants, you don’t have to face the application process on your own. Your confidence and creativity can be unleashed when you have one of the best consultants in the biz at your back.

How admissions consultants help applicants

At The MBA Exchange, you can benefit from a full range of MBA admissions consulting services, a la carte or in package form with our Comprehensive Consultation offering. Here are some of the ways we can boost your candidacy.

Essay storytelling and goals

We’ve got you covered when it comes to assistance with an MBA essay that emphasizes your unique story and demonstrates cross-cultural sensitivity and diversity to admissions officers – our MBA essay editing cred has gotten us into the book “65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays”!

Our team also provides support with resume preparation, suggesting ways to also demonstrate your business skills and leadership acumen beyond the limitations of your job title and description. We’ve got proven strategies to earn an MBA with a low GPA, even one as low as the mid 2’s.

Interview prep

Consultants with The MBA Exchange don’t just help you with essay editing. We also provide targeted personal coaching for admissions interviews, with resources including unlimited practice time with nearly 30 simulated interviews via an exclusive, web-based video facility used by the world’s top MBA programs, as well as real-time mock interviews and videoconference critique sessions for each of your interviews.

If you’re facing Wharton Team-Based Discussions (TBD), we’re the first firm to provide real-time preparation and practice for this unique admissions challenge, with resources developed by members of our staff who actually served as Wharton TBD facilitators.

We even offer a full, confidential audit of your social media profile!

GMAT prep

Taking on standardized tests by yourself can be a lot. We hook you up with top-quality GMAT and GRE tutoring and test-anxiety support. With the right GMAT prep, you can crack a top score and boost your candidacy that much more.

Waitlist support

If, after it all, your candidacy is waitlisted, you can count on The MBA Exchange to wait it out with you. We offer school-specific strategies and tactics to maximize your chances for success, sticking with you until you’ve got a final decision from all of your targeted MBA programs.

Finding your match: the best MBA admissions consultants for you

As a prospective MBA candidate, you need to be well-matched with your MBA admissions consultant. That’s why The MBA Exchange takes such care with the process of finding the best MBA admissions consultants to effectively support your candidacy. With our team of top MBA admission consultants, you’ve got a wealth of options. We offer Hourly Consultations, Specialized Consultations and Comprehensive Consultation services.

We start the process by reviewing your detailed evaluation questionnaire, then complete an analysis to guide you toward the right target schools and MBA programs for your skills and goals. When you work with The MBA Exchange, you get the benefit of the more than 5,000 admissions campaigns we’ve completed since 1996, a reservoir of experience we can draw on for you.

Don’t base your decision about an MBA consultant on flashy “insider” offerings and one-time “special deals.” For this kind of investment, you want the best MBA admissions consultants, with a proven track record of customer satisfaction and success – and The MBA Exchange has that record. Get started with your free, confidential, and complimentary candidacy evaluation online today.