The Top MBA Admission Consulting Firms Of 2023

TOP MEDIUM-SIZED FIRM: CAREER PROTOCOL

Angela Guido, Founder & CEO of Career Protocol and Poets&Quants Resident Expert on MBA Careers

It is probably not a coincidence that the top medium-sized admissions firm, Career Protocol, was created by a former mbaMission consultant, Angela Guido. She spent nine years at mbaMission from 2009 to 2017 before setting out on her own. Her team of seven consultants has taken a dramatically different approach to the business, heavy on executive coaching that extends a full year into a client’s MBA program.

Befitting her philosophy degree from Yale University, Guido attempts to bring clients to an understanding of the fundamental truths about themselves. “I’m a student of human nature,” she says. “I think of my life as an experiment in what it means to be human. Over many decades of exploration, trial, and especially error, I’ve learned that the highest purpose I can aspire to is just simply to be loving towards all of life. My work is about helping people love their lives through understanding and communicating themselves, connecting deeply with other humans, and building meaningful friendships.”

Not surprisingly, then, candidates who pick her firm are seeking more than the advice necessary to get into an elite MBA program. “What we do is vastly different from what other firms do,” maintains Guido, a Chicago Booth MBA and a former Boston Consulting Group recruiter. “It includes an in-depth discovery process that takes six to ten hours of the coach’s time just to get to know the client. The coach helps them choose an entire portfolio of schools and helps them brainstorm essays for up to six schools, not just the three they will do together with their coach.”

She calls it the firm’s 3+3 program. “This is why our success rate for all clients who completed our full 3+3 program since the inception of the firm is 99.2% and if we average out the scholarships our clients have earned over the years, it’s over $86,000 per person,” says Guido.

“We provide a fundamentally different service. It is pedagogical, developmental, and focused on the client’s long-term success, well beyond just MBA admission. It’s a much higher cost and much higher investment from our end, but it’s a constant fight to educate our prospects on this fact. Our primary strategy is just to do the best work we can do on behalf of our clients and then let that and them speak for itself.”

The Most Favorably Reviewed Medium-Sized MBA Admissions Consulting Firms

Firm	Reviews	Client Satisfaction Score	# of Reviewed Coaches
1. Career Protocol	60	9.9	7
2. Menlo Coaching	50	10.0	8
3. Gatehouse Admissions	23	10.0	7
4. MBA Exchange	18	9.8	8

THE TOP BOUTIQUE: PERSONAL MBA COACH

And in the boutique category, Boston-based Personal MBA Coach comes out on top. Founded in 2008 by Scott Edinburgh, the firm has helped hundreds of applicants find their way into highly selective MBA programs. He alone has 228 five-star ratings in the Poets&Quants‘ directory. Edinburgh earned his MBA at Wharton after a bachelor’s from MIT Sloan. He has worked in management consulting, travel and hospitality, financial services, consumer products and healthcare for Deloitte Consulting, JP Morgan and the InterContinental Hotels Group. “Beyond mastering the admissions process, I have an in-depth understanding of pre-MBA careers and exactly how to position these experiences to open the doors at the top MBA programs,” he says.

A recent M7 candidate had this to say about his consulting skills. “Scott was tremendous,” the candidate wrote. “He was highly professional, responsive, and a pleasure to work with. He is not going to write your essays for you make no mistake. Instead, he will help you best tell the story that is true to you, making sure that the writing is consistent and concise. I found the process the most helpful in the interview stage. Again the answers are all your own, but I felt a ton of confidence going in that I would not have had if not for his help. Scott ultimately helped me get accepted to two M7s and waitlisted at another highly selective one. Not only did he make my applications better, but he also made a very stressful process much more relaxing than it otherwise would have been.”

The Most Favorably Reviewed Small MBA Admissions Consulting Firms