Admissions Consultant Recommendations

[OldManStudent]

There are numerous lengthy posts at GMATclub about admissions consultants, and i'm wondering if anyone in here has used one. How they chose the one they did, who they used, review, etc.

 

For reference here is their thread:  http://gmatclub.com/forum/best-admissions-consulting-companies-167449.html

 

I read an old thread on here where people call admissions consultants "scams", however there is a clear difference of opinion between that and the reviews at gmatclub.  

[WinterSolstice]

My guess is that the board you linked is more pro-admissions consultants because it's a uniquely business school thing (just from my impression). I've never heard of anyone I personally know ever using an admissions consultant (regardless of whether they were applying to an MBA or an MA), but it's always been my impression that they're more frequently used by those applying to business school, or med school I guess.

 

Me personally? Yes, I do think they're a scam. But I've also had decent scores and grades. I imagine these sorts of consultants could be useful for anyone looking to build an attractive application despite very low scores. Or perhaps for an international candidate applying to a US school, and they're unfamiliar with the process. But for the vast majority of cases, I feel the grad school application process is only so complicated and possible to do solo/with resources widely available for free online.  I mean, if you need someone to look over your essays, how hard is it to have a friend or family member read it over? If you're unclear about the process, you can just ask the admissions office. To be blunt, I've never met anyone who was ready and committed to grad school (at least for an MA program) ever needing to rely on a for-fee service in order to get help with their applications.

 

*minor edits for clarity

Edited October 15, 2014 by WinterSolstice

[Gov2School]

There was a woman who used to post here named Kaneisha Grayson who was a Harvard MBA/MPA that started her own business advising MPA/MBA candidates (http://theartofapplying.com/), she seemed pretty legitimate.  If you go through the forums you can find some of her old posts.  

 

I do agree that having an admissions consultant for MPA/MPP programs is uncommon and probably unnecessary.  Having additional people read and comment on your resume/statement of purpose is certainly helpful, but not sure it requires a professional consultant.  For Business School, where you're competing against a much larger group of people, you have interviews as part of the process. and your reasons for attending may be less specific/harder to articulate, I could see it being useful to have the additional polish of professional help. 

[Kaneisha]

Hey there, everyone! I'm back in the forum again. I took some time away to focus on getting the business prepared for the upcoming season, but I'm back and ready to be of service!

 

Gov2School, thank you for the mention and for providing so much helpful advice to applicants. I could have used someone like you when I was applying.

 

I'm happy to answer applicant questions here on GradCafe.

 

PMs don't work for me (unless it's just a PM directing me to your question on the forum), because no one else can benefit from the response to the question.

 

I'm primarily an expert in helping people figure out how to strategize getting into their target schools.

 

I do not focus on helping applicants parse through the minute details between schools to help you choose between different policy schools.

 

I'm great at helping you figure out if you're competitive, but I don't like to answer those questions here in the forum as there are SO MANY other people in here who can help you with that and provide a rich discussion related to it in the "Am I Competitive?" thread. 

 

I'm great with application strategy and actions to take to strengthen your application. Let the questions begin! (Please put them in the relevant thread, rather than here, though).