The first MBA expense: Consultants

For all foreign MBA aspirants, getting a consultant is the first commitment you make towards your MBA.
For the uninitiated, a consultant helps you draft your MBA application and guides you through applying to B-schools abroad.

[Note: MBA consultants only help you with the application part, not the post-admissions process, eg. VISA, funding, etc.]

A quick note about MBA applications for people who are not familiar: An integral part of the application is explaining your story and motivation for pursuing an MBA, and how your past experiences have shaped you into a person who deserves to get into a top B-School. Over the years, this explanation has taken a standardized form for respective B-Schools. The consultants specialize in converting your experiences into knitted-together stories that portray your evolution and justify your motivation for an MBA.

Should you get a consultant?

The first thing I hear from people in this conundrum to finalize an MBA consultant is — Is it worth it?

Research about MBA consultants: https://poetsandquants.com/consultants/
Poets and Quants directory is a comprehensive source to research about consultants around the world filtered by their past experience, firm, form of service (independent/firm), etc.

People generally mention that they have friends/seniors/siblings who have been through the process and would be able to help them with the MBA applications. Fair. You might have your trusted people who can guide you, but what helped me make my decision were the following factors:

1. Track record: Generally all the consultants (or at least the ones you should consider) would have a track record of getting admits from their target schools. I strongly believe in past performance as an assessment criterion and hence, it gave me confidence that these people know what they are doing. On the other hand, your friend/sibling has done just his/her application- you don’t have a lot of data points to evaluate the probable outcome.
   Example: I worked with a firm with a 100% acceptance track record for women candidates in M7 schools. This metric was pretty promising for me to consider them strongly.
2. Availability of vast resources: Because of the number of applications that these firms or consultants handle, they have a vast amount of material at their disposal for reference. They know what has worked in the past, which story needs to be drafted in what sense, and how to portray a profile to optimize for acceptance by a B-School. Their experience has inherently created an internal feedback loop that keeps on improving their model every year with a considerably large number of data points.
   Example: I referred to close to 10 other applications of candidates who had a similar profile or did something similar in their career. All of these were successful applications and hence, I was able to gauge the form your story needs to take.
3. Connections and ecosystem: These consultants have been in the space for a long time and know about the nitty gritty of everything in the MBA abroad space. Not only during your applications/interviews would you have access to the alums and insights from the admissions committee, but you would also get access to many post-admission help (VISA, funding, etc.) through their tie-ups.
   Example: For my Wharton TBD (team-based-discussion) preparation, my consultant helped to organize mock TBDs with current Wharton students who had been through the process and gave actionable insights on the performance of each candidate in the mock TBD.
   Post getting the admit, the firm also provided a free funding consulting service through one of their partners along with sessions on VISA application.

For me, there was an additional factor to consider a consultant which was- I wanted someone to manage my application for me, keep track of the progress and deadlines, and accordingly take follow-ups from me to do the work. I wanted this so that I do not slack off amidst my GMAT preparation and job. Hence, it was a no-brainer for me to get a consultant.

The dark side of it

It has all been too rosy that I told but there I have also realised the dark side of this MBA consulting game.
The inflation in the consulting fees has been going over the roof.

The firms have been exploiting the FOMO of the students by not taking a consultant and being left out of the crowd which does. The fear of being the odd one out by not taking a consultant and realizing the opportunity cost of not getting an admit (another cycle) is too scary for people to decide against it. The collective fear of students has manifested itself into a spiral where each year it only gets worse. An MBA abroad has become an ambition out of reach of people with humble backgrounds because of an upfront cost to consultants, creating a very high entry barrier.

Conclusion

Getting a consultant surely helps you in the entire application process. But it also costs a lot — depending on the type of consultant you go with.
Is the value worth the money — you need to evaluate based on the firm’s/consultant’s performance and your financial situation.