The Top MBA Admission Consultants Of 2024

Excellence in any competitive field is hard to achieve. When you are guiding a person toward a highly selective MBA program that admits a small minority of applicants, it is bound to result in many less-than-desirable outcomes.

But this year’s eighth annual list of Poets&Quants’ top MBA admission consultants proves that it is possible to satisfy demanding clients who aim to overcome the formidable admission odds of getting into a top business school. Scott Edinburgh, the 41-year-old founder of Personal MBA Coach, tops the list of 15 stellar counselors, with over-the-top reviews from enthusiastic MBA candidates who achieved their dreams with his help. More than that, his clients won nearly $12 million in scholarship support last year.

Enlisting the help of an MBA Admissions consultant is as popular as ever. “Applicants today are hyper-focused on an elite business school degree because the program brand is a lifelong extension of their own identity and values,” explains Stacy Blackman, founder of Stacy Blackman Consulting whose consultants limit their work to no more than eight clients per application round.  “MBA applicants have increasingly relied on the expert advice of qualified MBA admissions consultants because this applicant group wants every advantage. This is a ‘leave-no-stone-unturned’ applicant pool that recognizes that an experienced 1:1 partner is their fast track to their deeply-held ambitions.”

How successful are MBA coaches in helping their clients break down the doors of a selective MBA program? Few firms publicly disclose their success rates. A rare exception is Admissions Gateway, founded by Kellogg MBA Rajdeep Chimni, who says his firm compiled a record 185 admissions offers for clients to get into this fall’s M7 business schools, with one in every three clients—51 in total—gaining admission to The Wharton School. Chimni, ranked among our Top Ten consultants this year, says more than 275 of its clients received invites into the Top 12 MBA programs.

Another way to assess a consultant, of course, is his or her track record, expressed in client reviews. Edinburgh, who has been advising MBA applicants full-time for 13 years and asserts that his success rate is 96%, nabbed the number one spot on this year’s list of the most favorably reviewed coaches by garnering 38 highly favorable reviews, all independently verified by Poets&Quants.  He also earned the highest client satisfaction score–a 9.97 with the best being 10.0–among the top 15 consultants with 15 or more reviews. Edinburgh is followed by former Harvard Business School admissions committee member Devi Vallabhaneri of mbaMission, one of three of the firm’s consultants to make our top 15; Nikita Desai of Admit Beacon, Candy Lee LaBalle of LaBalle Admissions, and Rishabh Gupta of GyanOne Universal (see table below).

In the hotly competitive world of MBA coaching, it’s extremely hard to stay on top. Only three of the original Top Ten MBA counselors on our inaugural ranking in 2017 made either our most favorably reviewed or perfect client satisfaction lists: Alex Leventhal of Prep MBA, Paul Bodine of Admitify.com, and Angela Guido of Career Protocol. Last year’s winner, Emma Bond of Fortuna Admissions, made our list again but landed in 13th place.

 

RAVE TESTIMONIALS FOR ALL THE TOP MBA ADMISSION CONSULTANTS

The analysis is based on verified client reviews at Poets&Quants from September 1 2022 to August 31, 2023. During that timeframe, clients wrote 1,215 assessments of their experience with 210 admission consultants at 65 different firms. To date, the Poets&Quants‘ consulting directory now boasts a total of 606 MBA counselors, up from 567 a year earlier, at 148 separate firms, with more than 8,500 reviews. Over time, Edinburgh has collected 263 client reviews in the directory, putting him in the upper tier of successful MBA coaches for some time. Of the 15 coaches with 100 or more favorable testimonials, Edinburgh is second behind only Rajdeep Chimni (see table here). Last year, Edinburgh ranked 26th on our list of the top 39 consultants. We also single out the best MBA admission consulting firms here.

Another 11 MBA consultants this year achieved a perfect 10.0 client satisfaction score over at least eight reviews. The perfect scorers this year are led by Lindsay Sage of Sage Admit, with perfect scores from 13 different clients during the examined timeframe, followed closely by Alex Leventhal of Prep MBA, Greg Guglielmo of Avanti Prep, Eli David of Ivy MBA Consulting, and Mudit Gupta of Admissions Gateway (see table here).

All of these consultants have earned rave testimonials from clients who more often than not believe they would never have passed muster without the skilled hand-holding of a trained professional. None of this comes cheap, of course. At Fortuna Admissions, for example, a three-school package of help costs $9.750, or 11,350 if you choose one of the firm’s directors or senior experts. Edinburgh’s firm puts a $10,750 pricetag on a three-school package, charging a hefty three grand more if he is assigned as the primary coach.

‘GOING ABOVE & BEYOND TO SHARPEN MY STORY’

But few complain about the pricing, especially if they get results. The reviews for Edinburgh are similar to many received by other consultants on the list. “Scott is the kind of guy who picks up the phone when you call,” writes one candidate who successfully got into an M7 MBA program. “Having worked in client services for six years before applying to MBA programs, He helped me every step of the way: from writing my CV, to selecting the right schools, to being strategic with essay topic choices, to managing various priorities when deadlines loomed, to interview prep, and even through the anxious waitlist period. I can easily say that Scott is top-notch in the space. He is consistent, smart, reliable, and knows this arena inside and out.”

A successful Wharton applicant with a low GPA and an average GMAT believes Edinburgh was the difference in his admission to the school. “Scott went above and beyond to help sharpen my story and connect it with my short and long-term goals,” the applicant writes. “He was honest with me throughout the process and was very personable, making it easy to work with him. He and his team were exceptional in helping me edit my essays and crafting a strong story to communicate to schools.”

Yet another candidate, who has first set his sights on lower-ranked schools, says he ended up with three acceptances and more than $300K in scholarship awards along with two waitlist decisions out of five applications. “Scott encouraged me to aim higher,” adds the applicant. “I have no doubt that Scott’s assistance was instrumental in achieving this outcome, particularly regarding essay reviews and interview preparation. Applying to MBA programs is a daunting experience, and I chose to work with Scott because I didn’t want to leave any stone unturned…While his services aren’t cheap, I am positive that the investment paid off multiple times over given the amount of scholarship I received, much of which I attribute directly to the quality of my interviews, essays, and overall story.”

 

Most Favorably Reviewed MBA Admission Consultants Of 2024

Consultant	Firm	Positive Reviews	Client Satisfaction Score	Cost
1. Scott Edinburgh	Personal MBA Coach	38	9.97	$500 hourly, $13,750 (3-school package)
2. Devi Vallabhaneni	mbaMission	29	9.72	$700 hourly, $13,600 (3-school package)
3. Niketa Desai	Admit Beacon	27	9.85	$300 hourly, $6,700 (3-school package)
4. Candy Lee LaBalle	LaBalle Admissions	26	9.96	$400 hourly, $3,800 (1-school package)
5. Rishabh Gupta	GyanOne Universal	20	9.90	No hourly assignments, $4,200 (3-school package)
6. Paul Bodine	Admitify.com	19	9.79	$330 hourly (w/ 10-hour minimum), $14,995 (3-school package/$2K more for Stanford)
7. Rajdeep Chimni	Admissions Gateway	18	9.89	$350 hourly, $9,500 (3-school package)
8. Sam Weeks	Sam Weeks Consulting	17	9.94	$450 hourly, $10,710 (3-school package)
8. Heidi Hillis	Fortuna Admissions	17	9.82	$475 hourly, $11,350 (3-school package)
8. Petia Whitmore	My MBA Path	17	9.82	$395 hourly, $9,950 (3-school package)
11. Thomas Locke	Forster-Thomas	16	9.94	$400 hourly, $8,100 (3-school package)
11. Gavriella Semaya	mbaMission	16	9.87	$425 hourly, $9,700 (3-school package)
13. Emma Bond	Fortuna Admissions	15	9.93	$475 hourly, $11,350 (3-school package)
13. Pascal Michels	Menlo Coaching	15	9.93	$500 hourly, $17,000 (3-school package)
13. Debbie Choy	mbaMission	15	9.87	$575 hourly, $11,800 (3-school package)

DON’T MISS: HOW TO SMARTLY USE OUR MBA ADMISSIONS CONSULTING DIRECTORY