3 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

That AP story is complete crap, as is the quote, "what we really want to see is the candidates."

I do agree, however, that there are unscrupulous admissions consultants out there and feel the story should point this out. These types of consultants go so far as to write essays and recommendation letters for candidates.

Obviously, this type of behavior is completely unethical.

The legitimate admissions consultants are professional and do no conduct business in a shady manner.

Coaching can be a valuable tool for MBA applicants.

Perhaps the schools need to make their admissions process more detailed?

I am on the side of schools conducting more lengthy and detailed interviews with its applicants.

6:06 AM  

 Gatsby said...

I recently talked candidly to someone from admissions at a top school. This was at a party with friends, so she was somewhat off the record. She explained that she was tired of reading applications from overseas applicants that had all been coached by the same few consultants.

She told me that it seemed like there was some sort of template they used that made all of them sound the same. She said it was refreshing to read the occassional app that had an original voice, instead of making the same points that the consultants advise. To her, it was clear who had been coached and who hadn't, and it didn't seem that those who hired consultants overseas (at least if it was one of the popular ones) were at any advantage. In fact, they might have been at a disadvantage.

I'm sure it's different for US applicants, but I found it interesting to hear about how transparent it was to them for overseas applicants.

8:33 AM  

 Dave for MBA said...

This article is shady at best. Primarily because the article doesn't go into explicit detail as to what target area of the admissions consultants they are pursuing. The fact that Clear Admit and Accepted.com are used for comment on the article are a sure sign to me that U.S. based Admin consultants are not public enemy number one.
I would further add that the target group of applicants may be too hot to comment about. For example, I've found that applicants from India use the same template Admin Consultants. I even have numerous messages from folks in India that have asked me whether they should use them because it seemed so many others were using them. The prices were reasonable so that was the first clue that the services weren't good.

Admin Consultant pricing is high to begin with. They tend not to be reasonable in pricing unless you consider ROI on applicant acceptance or not.

Anyway, the B-schools can't comment like this lest they be targeted as being called racist or biased in some way. But I have no problem saying. Frankly, because I know it's true. Not necessarily India per se, but a few populations outside the U.S. tend to be the majority of the culprits.

12:40 AM  

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