WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE HIRING AN MBA ADMISSIONS CONSULTANT
First off, you may think this is selfless self promotion, but let's reframe for a second. If you are aspiring to enroll at one of the top business schools like Harvard, Wharton or Stanford (which only admits 5 percent of applicants) you will likely need professional help to gain admission. Competition for spots at these schools is incredibly intense and an MBA admissions consultant could improve your chances drastically.
Ask yourself:
How well can you answer essay questions?
If you started working on the MBA application essays yourself, are you currently running short of ideas?
Or, are you running out of time?
Maybe you are just not as strong of a writer, or not confident in what you are writing?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, strongly consider hiring an MBA admissions consultant.
Hire an MBA admissions consultant early
Decide to hire a consultant? Get one early. Do not go for the table scraps at the end, lock one down as soon as possible. If you want consulting services too late in the MBA application process you are probably going to get the left over consultants that are there. But you are also handing you incomplete MBA application essay (that may not be the best quality) over to someone else. There’s only so much that anyone (even if you are the world’s greatest writer or editor) can do to help you polish that essay given how much time is left and how off-point the essay may be.
Ask for writing samples and experience
When you select a consultant, you’ve got to know how many years experience they have and how many clients they’ve worked with. And on top of that, ask if you can see some writing samples, not just the polished ones at the end, but you want to see some that have track changes on. This is key, as this is a window into your future working relationship.
Make sure the MBA admissions consultant is not in-between jobs
Paul Lanzillotti, admissions expert and founder of Amerasia Consulting, said that in his personal experience (managing all the GMAT prep employees as well as the admissions consultants at Veritas Prep for years) you just can’t rely on someone who is in-between jobs. You don’t necessarily need someone who is on the admissions committee. But what you do need is someone who has your back, who will show up for you. Someone who will stay up all hours of the night for you application when it’s crunch time.
Avoid relying on The Harbus Guide
The Harbus MBA Essay Guide is an unofficial compilation of Harvard MBA application essays written by students that were admitted to HBS. The problem comes in when you start tackling your own MBA essays after reading this guide. The problem is you don’t know the background of the person who wrote that particular essay. You won't understand the mechanics, so you’re trying to reverse engineer or reverse blueprint your own essay. You won't really know what Harvard or Stanford or any other school is looking for to begin with.
The result? You end up with a Frankenstein-looking essay. The essay kind of looks good but it has a bunch of different ideas mashed together. The themes are not consistent, there is no thesis or main idea that has been put forth clearly. It basically looks like you borrowed the essay from somebody else - which is pretty much what you’re doing if you rely too much upon finished essays. You won't understand the strategy, the mechanics behind the message. Specifically, your message that you should be getting across given your background. Therefore, avoid this at all costs.
What does Amerasia Consulting do differently?
At Amerasia Consulting, we use a contextual approach. Our team believes that you have to start with a deep understanding of the audience. This means knowing the DNA of each school, so that you can write directly to the person reading your file. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all plans or a lot of copying and pasting, which is reflected in our prices. Each school is its own undertaking and enterprise and we treat it as such.