The Top MBA Admission Consultants Of 2023

‘EMMA HAS BEEN NOTHING LESS THAN PHENOMENAL’

All of these superb counselors offer the kind of hand-holding that makes them highly popular with applicants headed for the likes of Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton, or INSEAD and London Business School, among other world-class institutions whose MBA and other business graduate programs are perennial ranking winners.

But this year, Bond towers over all of them. Her reviews would make even a rockstar blush. The assessments of her work by clients—in all, she has 67 reviews in the Poets&Quants directory of MBA admission consultants—confirm her structured, strategic and supportive approach.

“Emma has been nothing less than phenomenal to work with on my MBA application journey,” wrote Munir Tawfique, who was recently admitted to London Business School. Adds another recently admitted applicant to INSEAD and LBS with scholarship money, “What she really excels at is understanding which parts of an applicant’s character, work experience, and extracurriculars appeal to the folks sitting in the admissions office at the absolute top-notch international b-schools.”

Yet, this same candidate, a re-applicant in the overpopulated IT Indian male cohort, had been told by another consultant that he didn’t have what it takes to gain acceptance to a highly-ranked MBA program. After receiving what he calls “this stupendously demotivating piece of advice,” he engaged Bond on his behalf. “Emma, on the other hand, went against the grain, took a step further, and dove deeper into my profile,” he adds. “With the dexterity of a well-seasoned surgeon, she cut into my character to understand which parts of the story can be tailored to craft the perfect reapplication and stand out in an over-represented group.”

AN EARLY LOVE FOR WRITING AND FOR POETRY

Bond delivers her advice to clients in a softly accented voice, with a syllable-timed rhythm, that betrays her New Zealand roots. Like many from the country, she shares the stereotypical attributes of a kiwi: Like the bird, Bond is unique, adaptable and, her colleagues say, a fine sense of humor. “She is very elegant and razor-sharp,” says Matt Symonds, a co-founder of Fortuna. “She is also warm and inventive, which describes New Zealanders, and packs an admissions punch the All Blacks would be proud of,” a reference to the country’s national rugby union team.

For Bond, the craft of writing was an early and sustainable passion. A native New Zealander, she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature at the University of Canterbury in her home country. “I’ve always loved writing, right from when I was young,” she tells Poets&Quants. “I have always written and still write poetry, which is a particular love.”

Her favorite author is Katherine Mansfield, a New Zealand modernist writer and journalist. “Her short stories are incredible,” Bond enthuses. “I re-read her story Bliss last week…it’s just so elegant and sharp. My main passion was 20th Century literature and I focused a lot on Australian and NZ authors, but I still had a soft spot for Shakespeare and Keats. Every time autumn rolls around here I think of ‘Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness’!”

COACH, CHEERLEADER, MENTOR AND SHRINK

As is often the case, the nearly dozen years she has spent as an MBA admissions coach came by accident. After graduating with distinction from Canterbury, she landed a job at London Business School as a senior manager for MBA marketing and admissions. Seven years later, Bond jumped to The Boston Consulting Group as its European Recruiting Manager. She joined Fortuna Admissions as a director in 2012.

Her philosophy of consulting? “I try always to be upfront with my clients, but kind with it,” she explains. “I believe it’s crucial to build close trust-based coaching relationships because I can be working with people over a long and potentially stressful period. Many clients find the application process overwhelming at first so it’s really important to be able to guide them gently through it all step by step. I want clients to be comfortable enough to talk to me not just about essays and CVs, but also about those moments of self-doubt that everybody feels at some point or another.”

Like all accomplished admission advisors, Bond deftly plays multiple roles as a coach, cheerleader, mentor, and shrink, sometimes comforting clients through challenging moments while at other times providing a sorely needed boost of confidence to get a struggling candidate over the hump.

WHEN A TOP-TEN ADMISSION JUST WASN’T ENOUGH

One of her most gratifying moments occurred after working with a client who won a place at a T-10 MBA program. It felt like a real triumph because the previous year the candidate was dinged from his dream school.

Bond was surprised by his response to the admit. “I’ve got this great offer but what I would really want to do is reapply to my dream school,” he told her.

“Really?,” she asked. “But you have this fantastic offer from a Top Ten school. Don’t you just want to grab that with both hands?”

“Actually,” he sheepishly replied, “really what I want to do is work with you and reapply.”

Bond slipped into high gear. “We went right back to scratch,” she says, “reframed his application, and he worked really hard at doing more outreach and taking more initiatives at work. He was offered a spot at his dream school in one of the toughest admission years ever.”

HOW THE TOP MBA ADMISSION CONSULTANTS MAKE OUR RANKING

To make our annual honor roll of top MBA admission consultants, every counselor’s review had to pass a rigorous two-step process. Unlike some other pay-to-play and unverified lists on the Internet, where advisers actually have to pay a fee to allow reviews on their profiles, this is a pure journalistic endeavor, not a pay-to-play model. In our database, you’ll find both positive and negative assessments of consultants and firms (if you have had a bad experience, we strongly encourage you to share it with others so that they can avoid those issues). Whether positive or negative, no review is published unless it passes through a fine screen.

First, every review up until our deadline of August 31st had to be independently verified by Poets&Quants with both the client and the service provider. Secondly, every appraisal was then painstakingly reviewed so that only MBA consulting assignments were counted. Eliminated from the count were reviews for undergraduate or Executive MBA applicants, free introductory consultations, career counseling, case prep advisement, and group sessions for such organizations as the Forte Foundation. Those restrictions often brought down the number of favorable reviews for the top consultants and kept others off the list.

Skeptics may argue that consultants who rack up the most positive reviews are merely more assertive in encouraging their clients to write favorably about their experiences. Or that the list would exclude part-time counselors who could be just as good as full-timers but aren’t exposed to as many clients. But MBA applicants who take the time and effort to write their expressions of praise are the ultimate endorsements of superior consulting work. The more reviews any consultant has, the more credible and authoritative the result. When a client writes a positive referral for a consultant, that action goes beyond customer satisfaction: It becomes a measure of customer loyalty.