Ten Of The Best MBA Admission Consultants

Alex Leventhal of Prep MBA

9. Alex Leventhal: An HBS grad and philosophy major undergrad, Los Angeles-based Leventhal worked in pharma/healthcare consumer products prior to my MBA, and then post MBA worked in life sciences tech and management consulting. Before founding Prep MBA, his admissions consultancy, he’s been employed by such global firms as Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, Eli Lilly, and Siebel Systems. This is a return trip to the top list for Leventhal who finished tenth last year.

Five-Star Review Excerpt: “I did a 4-school package with Alex and applied to the very best schools: HSW & Columbia. It was an ambitious goal, and most would have suggested a “safety” school but Alex knew that I wouldn’t settle for anything less and that despite my over-representation, I stood a good chance if I put in the effort. Ultimately, I received interviews with three of four schools (Stanford, Wharton and Columbia) and got into both Wharton and Columbia. I also received a six-figure merit scholarship at Wharton! In my day-to-day job of private investing, our ideal situation is to generate 10x returns on our capital (i.e. invest in companies that ultimately generate 10 times our initial money into the company) and many in my industry search for years to find such opportunities. In the case of Alex and my merit scholarship, this statistic was clearly true! I would recommend Alex in a heartbeat and have already done so to friends. Applying to business school is not an easy process and having a consultant like Alex working tirelessly on your side can really improve the odds!”

Harshad Mali of mbaMission

10. Harshad Mali: After graduating with the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 2013, Mali struck out on his own, co-founding a consulting start-up to address the operational and product commercialization challenges faced by small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies. Among his peers on this list, he’s a relative newcomer, having become an admissions consultant for mbaMission slightly more than two years ago. This is his first appearance among the most favorably reviewed.

Five-Star Review Excerpt: “Before I was connected to Harshad, I’d spent several months narrowing my list of schools, visiting, thinking about why I wanted to go to school, what matters to me, and what I wanted to do when I grew up. In December, I found myself planning to apply R2 having done a lot of thinking, but with no essays or concrete application, progress made. After a 30 min “real talk” consultation with Harshad, I was off. With his support, I turned the many thoughts into compelling coherent applications. His support and guidance were critical to my success, and ultimately contributed to me getting accepted at both Wharton and Kellogg.”

Kate Richardson of mbaMission

10. Kate Richardson: In her four years as an MBA admissions consultant for mbaMission, Richardson has advised nearly 200 applicants to top MBA programs. A Booth MBA, with a bachelor’s in psych from the University of Illinois, she got early experience in the business, working as an admissions fellow at Booth as a student, reading applications and doing on-campus interviews with candidates from 2006 to 2008. After earning her MBA, she worked for several years in management consulting at Axiom Consulting Partners, a boutique strategy execution firm. Originally from the Chicago area and having spent most of her professional career in Washington, DC, Richardson now does her consulting work from Columbia, South Carolina.

Five-Star Review Excerpt: “After looking at the extremely competitive admission statistics for top business schools, I decided to work with consultant Kate Richardson to identify strategies to differentiate myself. I was immediately impressed with Kate during our initial brainstorming session. Kate challenged me to think of a breadth of life, academic, and work experiences that would show why I wanted to attend business school and why I would be a desirable student. This discussion proved instrumental in crafting responses to essay prompts and interview questions. Throughout the application process, Kate motivated me to write essays that were unique and consistent with my story. During our revision sessions, we would discuss what I wanted the admission committee to learn from my essays and how potential responses would contribute to my overall application. I was also impressed with Kate’s knowledge of top business schools. She had very useful advice about the types of responses that each school would find more compelling.”

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