THINGS TO CONSIDER

WHEN CHOOSING AN
MBA ADMISSIONS
CONSULTANT

An Accepted Admissions Guide

2016 Accepted
www.accepted.com
 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why Use an MBA Admissions Consultant? .................................... 3

What You Should Look for in an Admissions Consultant ..................................... 5
Run the Other Way: Avoiding Essay Writers and Application Agents. ................. 7
Choosing an Admissions Consultant: Whats NOT Important .............................. 9
Epilogue................................................................................................................ 11

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

Introduction: Why Use an MBA Admissions Consultant?

There are endless and frequent discussions on forums and message boards questioning the value of
admissions consulting. One of the more common arguments against using a consultant runs something
like this:
I know so many MBA students at top schools who got in without an admissions consultant.
It just is not necessary to use one.
Im sure if you took a poll of business school admissions consultants, the overwhelming majority
would have gotten in without the assistance of a consultant. Many also would not have taken a GMAT
prep course before applying to b-school. However, over the last thirty years test preparation has gone
from being an act of desperation, to a competitive edge, to a mainstay of the application process. Today,
to maximize chances of a top score and acceptance at the best possible school, most applicants take a
test prep course.
The same phenomenon is occurring with admissions consulting, but educational advising is currently
at the competitive edge stage. At this point, using a consultant is not crucial for some, but it is
extremely helpful for all.
The question is not whether one can get accepted to a top MBA program without a consultant. Many
are accepted without professional advising. The question is: Are the advantages of using a consultant
worth the cost?

How do these benefits justify the cost and provide a critical competitive edge?

Using an admissions consultant can:

Enable your acceptance to a better school. Better implies more professional
opportunity, increased earnings, a network with more panache, and an educational
experience more to your liking. Just looking at dollars and cents, better represents
potentially tens of thousands of dollars more in your pocket during your career.
Help you snag a scholarship. Savings: tens of thousands of dollars.
Save you the cost of reapplication.1 Applying to b-school or any other graduate
program including application fees and travel expenses can cost several thousand
dollars. When you apply one time, you save.
Reduce the time, stress, and frustration you (and those close to you) experience
during the admissions process. We can guide you so you dont go down tangents and
useless paths or flounder for weeks as you struggle to learn what we know.

1 http://www.accepted.com/mba/reapplication.aspx

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

So can you gain acceptance to a top b-school without using an admissions consultant? Certainly.
Should you try? Only if you dont value the experience, objectivity, and skill that can provide you with
returns many times the cost.

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

What You Should Look for in an Admissions Consultant

If you plan on hiring an admissions consultant2 to assist you in delivering your best possible
applications, you need to know what to ask to determine if the consultant you are talking to is
the right one for you.
The categories below will guide you in creating your questions.

Consultants Experience
Absolutely ask about her experience with your programs of interest, your demographic group, and your
industry. Yet understand that a really good consultant is always encountering new programs, changed
programs, and new types of applicants, and will excel with all of them. The consultants job is to go
beyond the stats and the stereotypes to help you present your individual, distinctive qualifications and
story. (See following point.) Also ask about her experience with various process aspects (e.g., will you
need a lot of guidance in essay development,3 school selection,4 interview prep)?5

Consultants Knowledge of Programs

Ask the consultant how he keeps current and in-the-know about the programs.

The Process
Before you talk to consultants, consider what services you need. Then ask the consultant how those
services will be provided in practical terms address time frames, information gathering, interviews/
calls, editing process, who exactly youll be working with. In a nutshell, what hell do, when, and how.

Service Differentiation
Ask what the consultant considers special and uniquely valuable about her service and expertise you
should receive a clear encapsulation of approach.6

Accessibility
Ask about the consultants accessibility by email, phone/Skype is she available on weekends, evenings?

2 http://www.accepted.com/aboutus/AboutUs.aspx
3 http://www.accepted.com/mba/essay.aspx
4 http://www.accepted.com/mba/fit.aspx
5 http://www.accepted.com/mba/businessschoolinterview.aspx
6 http://www.accepted.com/aboutus/HowWeWork.aspx

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

Candor
Do you seek the benefit of the consultants full expertise? If so, if you target a program the consultant
considers an unreasonably high reach or draft an essay the consultant considers off-target, will he tell
you frankly?

Prices
Most consultants prices are listed on their websites, but the services7 are often complex, so if you want
clarification, ask. Make sure you understand if fees are time based ($X per hour) or flat rate ($Y for a
defined basket of services).

AIGAC Membership
The Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC) promotes professional
standards and ethical guidelines for our profession. AIGAC members (individuals and firms) are vetted
for acceptance into the organization, and adcom members at top b-schools attend annual AIGAC
conferences. Ask prospective consultants if they are AIGAC members to confirm their professional
qualification.
FYI: Linda Abraham, Accepted.coms president and founder is a co-founder of AIGAC and served as
its first president.

7 http://www.accepted.com/services/mbaservices.aspx

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

Run the Other Way: Avoiding Essay Writers and Application Agents.

A few years back, BusinessWeek published an expos on the unethical practices of certain MBA
essay writing services. These companies are not the reputable admissions consultancies that guide,
mentor, help applicants brainstorm, and then work with them to edit and polish their essays, but are the
companies that admit to actually sitting down and writing the application essays.
According to the article, the spokesmen for the companies defend their ghostwriting businesses,
claiming that they help their clients express themselves, and that there is nothing unethical about that.
In fact, they claim that most clients who use the services are international candidates and need help
putting their thoughts into English. There is no plagiarism, they insist, and once the essays are in the
hands of clients, they use them as they see fit.
Business school administrators all agree that submitting ghostwritten essays is unethical; the
essays comprise a significant portion of the admissions decision, and by turning in an essay written by
someone else, applicants are being deceptive.
The BW article then shifts to an explanation of how legitimate consultancies differ from the essay
writing firms. According to articles author, Francesca Di Meglio: Unlike essay writers, admissions
consultants provide a broad range of services, from advising on GMAT preparation and choosing
programs to preparing for interviews and providing feedback on essays. To ensure that applicants
choose a legitimate firm, Di Meglio continues, one should check that the consultancy in question is a
member AIGAC.
Its satisfying to see both the press and the schools distinguishing between consultants who guide and
edit and the essay writing services that think and write for applicants.

What about application agents?

Application agents counsel applicants and are paid by schools for procuring applications and
sometimes by both the school and the applicant. If the latter, there is a clear conflict of interest. Schools
tend to want lots of applications; it makes them look good. Applicants should be counseled to apply to
the schools where their goals are supported and they have a decent chance of getting in.
Agents paid by the schools only and not charging applicants may not have a conflict of interest, but
even more obviously are not answerable to the applicant. Their boss is the school.
In either case, the applicants interest is not primary.
Seek a consultancy that is dependent upon revenue from applicants. Your success is their success.
Your interests align.

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

What about essay samples or templates?

There is no value in using sample essays (or your friends essays) as templates and certainly none in copying
them even in part. Either abuse of the sample essays could cause your rejection. No questions asked.
Realize that many of Accepteds sample essays8 have been on our site for years so copying them
would be incredibly foolish. Admissions committee members are familiar with them, and at one
point Jonathan Fuller, Senior Associate Director of Admissions at the Ross School of Business at the
University of Michigan,9 even tweeted:10 I swear I read Lindas exact sample essay a few times in R1.
What do you think about the authors chance of acceptance?
What about that friends essays? The one who got accepted last year? Can you use hers as a guide,
template, or source of material? No. Ignoring for the moment the ethical implications, realize that
more and more schools are using a service where they check your work against a computer database of
previously submitted essays.
So learn from the sample essays11 provided on our site. Thats what theyre there for. But write your own.
FYI: Accepted.com will cease work with clients who copy and refuse to write their own essays when
confronted with the plagiarism. Unfortunately, we have had to do this in the past.

8 http://www.accepted.com/mba/sampleessays.aspx
9 http://www.accepted.com/mba/MichiganRoss.aspx
10 http://twitter.com/#!/JonathanFuller/status/7389908191
11 http://www.accepted.com/mba/sampleessays.aspx

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

Choosing an Admissions Consultant: Whats NOT Important

Weve spent some time talking about what to look for in choosing an admission consultant and what to
avoid. Now were going to switch gears and talk about what simply isnt that important:

Having a Degree for the Program in Question

Some applicants think that theyll have a better shot of getting into a top school if they have an
admissions consultant who went to a top school or who has a degree in the program in question (e.g.
an MBA admissions consultants with an MBA, or more specifically with an MBA from your target
program).
While the logic there may seem sound (If she got in, then Im sure she can help me get in.), I urge
you to think a bit more broadly.
First of all, applications change year to year. The fact that one admissions consultant went to a top
b-school and another didnt, doesnt indicate that one of them will be better at helping you create
a winning application over the other. A consultant doesnt need to be a doctor or run a company to
know how to ace a med school or MBA application. Skills in financial modeling arent important
when guiding someone who is applying to b-school. An in-depth knowledge of human physiology is
irrelevant when editing medical school experiences or an AMCAS essay. And knowing how to brief a
case doesnt mean someone knows how guide you in developing your law school personal statement.
An admissions consultant needs to know how to help you tell your story in a clear, coherent, and
compelling way. Moreover, not being affiliated with a school (as an alum) may allow a consultant to
encourage clients to look beyond stock choices or the alma mater to explore other schools.
Finally, I would like to point out that many admissions committee members dont have program-
specific graduate degrees either. You dont need a JD to work in a law school admissions office,
and you dont need an MBA to work in a business schools admissions office. But the admissions
committee members do know how to evaluate an application. Just as graduate schools make a big deal
of seeking diversity, the road leading to those schools is populated by different points of view, different
approaches, and different backgrounds. Admissions consultants reflect that diversity.
In my opinion, whether or not consultants have graduate degrees is irrelevant to their ability to help
applicants. What is important?
1. Outstanding editing skills.
2. Mentoring mojo.
3. Experience with and insight into the admissions process.

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

Applicants looking for a consultant should seek someone with those three qualities.
4. Wild Claims about Success Rates
I recently encountered a new MBA consulting firm (who shall remain nameless) that touts a success
rate of 93.5% for clients who applied to two target schools and a 100% success rate with clients who
applied to four or more schools (meaning that their clients got into at least one of the schools they
applied to). These numbers apply to about 70 assignments.

Are these stats legitimate?

The credibility of these numbers depends on the approach of the consultancy. If the consultancy simply
steers applicants to schools where their numbers are above average, then the companys clients will
have a high acceptance rate. However, these applicants may miss getting accepted to higher-ranked
programs because they didnt try to apply to them since the consultancy deterred them (to protect its
own acceptance rate).
If the company refuses clients who want to stretch or are plain old unrealistic and takes the approach I
outlined above, or if the company leaves out of its stats clients who dont have a good chance (which
is what this company did), then the numbers are plausible. Are they reflective of what you can
anticipate? No. Do you really want someone advising you so his or her numbers look good possibly
to your detriment?
FYI: Accepted.com doesnt track acceptance rates by client because we take on clients who either
just want us to review a little or who want to stretch and take their chances at higher ranked, more
intensely competitive schools. We tell the latter group of clients what we think of their chances, but
we will work with them.
We have, however, tracked acceptance rate by school for our clients. In the top 15 programs, our clients
enjoy an acceptance rate that is typically 50-100% more above the schools overall acceptance rate.12

12 These are unaudited statistics that Accepted has compiled for internal use. They reflect the acceptances for clients who applied to a given school
as a percentage of all clients who applied to that school and informed us of the outcome of their application. It does not include those who applied and
withdrew the application or those who simply didnt tell us the results.
While we do recommend applying to safety schools, we dont insist upon it. Furthermore, we dont remove from our statistics late round applicants
or those who applied to non-recommended programs.

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 Things to Consider When Choosing an MBA Admissions Consultant

Epilogue

I hope you enjoyed learning about the benefits of using an MBA admissions consultant and what
to look for when you are choosing one. Of course the only way to really understand how the art of
admissions consulting works is to jump in and explore our expert services yourself.
When you work with an Accepted MBA admissions consultant,13 you access an informed advisor and
ally with demonstrated expertise.
Our consultants provide:
97+ years of collective MBA admissions experience. Weve worked with applicants
applying to schools all over the world. We have experience with the admissions process
that you lack. And probably dont want to have.
Objectivity Its difficult for you to be objective about yourself. Its easy for us.
Editing skills Professional writers have editors because their writing benefits from a
knowledgeable, critical eye. The same is true for the writing of non-professionals (i.e.
applicants).
An individual mentor dedicated to your success backed by a team of former admissions
directors, award-winning published authors, Ph.D.s, and professional journalists.
Why struggle alone? Or worse, turn to friends and family who simply dont have the insight you need.
The question really becomes, how could you not consider an Accepted.com consultant?
Especially since were going to make it easy for you. Real easy.
As a Choosing an Admissions Consultant subscriber, wed like to offer you a free introductory
consultation.14 This will allow you to experience the benefits of advice tailored to you and you alone.
Talk to you soon!

13 http://www.accepted.com/aboutus/aboutus.aspx
14 http://info.accepted.com/mba-free-profile-evaluation/

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