The mbaMission Podcast

Ep 48 | How to Choose an MBA Admissions Consultant

• mbaMission • Season 2 • Episode 48

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If you are applying to business school -- and especially if you are applying to the most competitive MBA programs -- having an admissions expert in your corner can significantly improve your chances of admission success. At mbaMission, we help our clients unlock their most powerful stories and present their strongest possible profiles to the admissions committees. So, how do you choose the right admissions consultant for you? In this episode of the mbaMission podast, Harold Simansky, Jeremy Shinewald, and Susan McInerny discuss the qualifications and skills you should look for when selecting a consultant. 

Book your FREE 30-minute MBA admissions consultation with Harold, Susan, or another one of our experienced MBA admissions consultants by filling out this form.

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When we hire someone, there is absolutely zero compromise on someone's ability to communicate in a written and verbal manner. always ask people, know, if you wanted to craft a movie and I offered you Steven Spielberg or the chief movie critic from the New York Times, who do you want on your team? I imagine you take Steven Spielberg all day long. good consultant on one hand should certainly say to you, listen, I think your strategy of only applying to Harvard and Stanford is risky. But a good consultant would also say, listen, if those are your dream schools, I'm in it with you. I'm your champion. Okay, so we're here to talk about choosing a consultant. And I think one thing that people should really be keeping in mind is just the connection between the consultant and the client. Just are you going to enjoy working with that person? think, Susan, you in fact call that first call, that fit call, what do call it, a chemistry call? Yeah. Prior versions of my life doing this, I called it a chemistry call. the resources of the firm, the background of the consultant, there's all the things you know to sort of look at. But in the end of the day, it's that chemistry, that ability to work with someone who's going to push you to a better product, who you're comfortable with, who you're going to be able to tell your full story to. That kind of chemistry is what's going to define whether the investment in the relationship really gives you everything you want. implied but you're gonna get a sense that this person has time for you that this person is already giving you their attention you should be getting that from MBA mission someone will have read your profile they'll have questions for you they'll have thoughts for you and part of being a full-time team which applicants shouldn't take for granted this is a This is an industry that is populated by part-timers who are plugging in and they're working with one client here and they're plugging in. They're no longer plugged in. They're gone for a year or whatever it might be. That's not us. This is what we do. We're here today doing this podcast. We create resources and we have a full-time team that is training and they're available to do these calls when you need them, not on their lunch break or on the weekend or something like that. Maybe that comes out as implied. when a professional like Susan is on the phone with someone creating that rapport, but I think it's certainly something that applicants need to think about and be aware of if they're going to these calls and just kind of like, you know, oh, I had a good chat with this person. That's not the same thing as I've got a dedicated professional on the other side ready to listen. Right. And who's going to work with me? I always tell people, people ask questions like how many iterations is it going to take? What's the time? I always say, we're going to work it until if I were you applying again, it would pass my bar. And I would feel like there was nothing more we could do to improve. That's going to be a lot of hours. You need somebody who has that number of hours in order to work with you. Also, you have to recognize you're going to be spending a lot of hours with this person. You're lunch break consultant. oh That is the consultant that many other firms, that is just, that's not the way to build incredible client experiences. And so think that's a huge, huge differentiator for us. But I think that should just naturally come out through the poison connection and preparedness of the individual doing that consultation. Yeah, no, I think that's absolutely right. But then I have a question really, Jeremy, in your role as obviously hiring consultants over the years. So I'm sure there is a type of consultant or a type of person. Like, what are you looking for? Because again, something of a little bit of a bracket. Listen, MBA mission, we do our job very well. You can see our reviews. So Jeremy, who are those types of people that you choose as I think about choosing consultants? Yeah, I mean look I think you're right. You can see our reviews. We've been named firm of the year five years in a row. That doesn't come from some sort of window dress and that comes from just hiring excellent people. I'm glad you're asking that because the umbrella of firm of the year is just many, many happy clients and many happy clients are driven by excellent consultants. So what are we looking for? When we hire someone, there is no absolutely zero compromise on someone's ability to communicate in a written and verbal manner. I was a speechwriter. I know every word that comes across, it's a book or an article, is scrutinized by my brain. I can't turn that off. And so there are lots of individuals out there who are unqualified or underqualified doing this work and claiming they're excellent. They have no written communication skills. And so there have been many times where I've had people who... I'm sure, we've rejected admissions directors from top schools who said, I'm sorry, we really want to hire you, but you don't have the fundamental communication skills to help another human being express themselves. So we have a, maybe I'm going too far into the woods on this, but we've got a series of written tests, not grammar tests, like editing and writing tests that people must take. You guys took them. before they even get through the basic level with us. then after that, there's a unanimity on our hiring team that has to have everyone has to agree that they've this position to help people. And then after that, there's training that goes on for months and there's mentorship. And this is not the firm where you went to Wharton, you're hired, you start Monday. And there are firms like that. don't know how, I don't think it works for them, but I don't know how applicants aren't scratching beneath the surface to get there. But I mean, at the core of it, we've got lots of people on a team who have admissions experience. Doesn't matter. They are excellent writers and communicators. right. MBA Admissions team. Since we've worked with tens of thousands of applicants over the past two decades, we can give you our honest opinion on your chances and help you put together your very best application. That is not a sales call, but rather your first session with one of us for free. We can give you a profile evaluation, answer specific questions about the process, review your resume, talk about your school choices, and so much more. Sign up at MBAadmission.com slash consult. We look forward to working with you. When it comes to having admissions experience, and I know that is what many people are looking for, but Susan, you had a great line as far as, should I use someone who used to be dean of admissions at somewhere? Should that be my consultant? always ask people, if you had a great idea for a movie, you wanted to craft a movie, and I offered you Steven Spielberg or the chief movie critic from the New York Times, who do you want on your team? I imagine you take Steven Spielberg all day long, and that's the difference between somebody who knows how to build the product and someone who is seasoned at reviewing the product and critiquing it. Exactly. don't need someone here to critique you. You need someone here to help be your creative partner and your coach throughout this process and guide you through it. You don't need someone here to look at the end product and go, eh, that could be a little... I mean, listen, is somewhat related to that. And I think all of us have seen this is we'll get a call from someone and we may be a great fit for them. And then they'll say to me, you went to MIT Sloan, Susan, you went to Harvard Business School. That's why I am hiring you because you went to MIT Sloan. want to get into MIT Sloan. I'm hiring Susan. She went to HBS. I want to get into HBS. Susan, HBS graduate, how do you think about that? What do you say? I mean, I haven't been there in 30 years. I'm at my 30th reunion year. So a lot has changed, number one. We stay up to date. And part of the advantage of MBA mission, for me, honestly, when I joined, is that everybody does it full time. So we spend a tremendous amount of effort, individually and collectively, talking to these admissions committees, understanding the latest, not just at your school, but at every school. And you don't take applicants that are applying to one school, right? I work with applicants applying on average to five schools. You have to know everything about all of them. So there's no, that dividing line of I need a person who went to my school is rarely the right decision for an applicant. And I think applicants need, as you say, there are those, there's the, were you on the admissions committee? Did you go to the school I went to? And what is your success rate at that school? And can I jump in on success because that is a peeve of mine and I've been talking to applicants about this forever. And first of all. the outrageous success rates that some people tout are of course unverifiable. if you wanna say that 99 % of your applicants are going to their top three schools, if you really wanna say that, back it up. Give me the back-to-the-day. And I'll recommend that all of our clients go to your firm. you're really, really getting 99 % of applicants, so if theoretically that is true and it's not, but if it is true, I mean it's a nice way of. making someone feel like an out of control, like a process that feels a little out of control for them is suddenly in control. It's just not real. The other part of that is that, let's say it is real, it just means that they're helping applicants who don't need help, right? So if I only picked the applicants who were otherwise gonna get in, who I knew were slam-dunks, what are we worth as a firm? So we wanna be able to say to someone, and we've talked about it, we haven't been through a full podcast. Yeah, we about it. Applicants who surprised us. We want to help applicants who need help getting over the fence. And like if we were to say to those people, all those people we talked about, on that point, I'm sorry, we can't help you. We think there's risk involved for us. We have to protect our success rate. What if we were? Right. Right. And listen, I think there's always attention here, right? As a good consultant, a good consultant on one hand should certainly say to you, listen, I think your strategy of only applying to Harvard and Stanford is risky, a good consultant would also say, listen, if those are your dream schools, I'm in it with you. That's part of that is that there's nothing predictive about that. Let's say theoretically, 99 % of the applicants who work for me got into Harvard. It doesn't mean that you're going to get into Harvard. You are your own applicant. And so we would rather just be honest with you about your chances and just say, look, we have value in our profile. Here are your strengths. Here are your weaknesses. Here's where we think this is going to go. There are a lot of. elements that are out of our control. The person who reads your file may have a bad day, they may have a great day, and you might not get in. We're here to help you put your best file forward, and that's why, again, that's why we're all full-time, we're all communicators, we all understand this process extremely well, and we're just gonna work with you to put your best out there. There's no easy answers here. Yeah. One thing I'd also say, as you look at different firms and different consultants, frequently you're just going to need more. You're going to need more help with things. You're going need more resources. You're going to really need to have a better understanding of the process overall. And I think one thing that we do very well is just we have a whole range of resources depending on what your needs are. you're not just hiring the consultant, you're gaining a suite of resources, or at some firms, you're not gaining that. So ask what tools there are going to be for you on your journey at this other firm that you're looking at, and then say, okay, well, at IBM Mission, wow, I'm gonna have a whole layer of support, I'm gonna have whole set of, let's say, essay examples critiqued through on track, or I'm gonna have... uh know, resume templates provided for me or brainstorming documents created for me or insider's guides called for me or learning about X program about Harvard, about Stanford, about Wharton, about Duke, about Darden, about Tuck in the on track platform laid out for me. And I'm going to be able to be, I'm going to start that process of getting conversant in these schools through on track. I could go on and on about our resources. That was like uh a very quick rundown. But the point is, You're not just getting an awesome full-time consultant. You are getting a whole platform of resources that are there to support you. it's so vast, but it defies description, but it truncates your research and it gives you those tools and examples that make your process easier because you have these reference points that others aren't going to provide you with. And also then you can start applying to more schools and the more schools you apply to, your risk is mitigated. So I think that's really the bottom line. Yeah, I think what we're talking about here is full-time individuals who, and you've got your choice here, we're not just picking the person for you. So you've got the ability to develop rapport with that individual. They're not the, what do we say, lunchtime consultants who went to Wharton, you start Monday. These are people who are doing this as a professional colleague. You've got a whole layer of resources on top of this. It's just a different ball game here. And I think that's why virtually all of our team members have won consultant of the year honors or perfect 10 honors. at Poets & Quants, why we lead what we've won five years in a row. We've been firm of the year at Poets & Quants. We lead GMAT Club at five-star reviews by, I think, 1,300 reviews at this point. I mean, it's just, I see it as the chasm is enormous. would hope, my hope is that by the time applicants are just, they're not figuring out which firm they want to work with, they're figuring out which consultant they have the best rapport with at our firm. Different level of service. No, absolutely. if you really want to see that in action, by all means sign up for one of our free consultations. Talk to one of us and we'll be very honest with you in terms of whether or not we're the best consultant for you or Susan's the best consultant or Jeremy or Harshad. For whatever reason, Harshad and Harold. People always confuse and it's not unusual for me to say, you know what, you're better off with Harshad. And you know what's another great place to start? Just go and see the time and effort and passion we put into this YouTube channel. This is what we're doing for free. Go check out our free resources. Go check out the Complete Start to Finish Guide online on our website. Go check out our Insiders Guides, our interview guides, and you'll see what we're doing for free. There's so much more out there for free that we're putting out than like the core resources, if they exist at all, that other firms are creating. Great place to end it, I think. Thank you for joining us today at the MBA Mission Pocket. Do you want to learn more about your target business schools? Check out OnTrack by MBA Mission, where we have in-depth modules on all the top business schools, covering everything from what makes them unique to how to tackle the application essays and short answers, and so much more. You can also practice for interview and video questions, all done on your schedule, on demand. We appreciate your dedication to our podcast, and we want to offer you 30 % off any OnTrack subscription. Use the code MBAMPOD. to get 30 % off any OnTrack subscription, check it out at ontrack.mbadmission.com.