The Top MBA Admissions Consulting Firms Of 2025

MBA admissions consulting is a hotly competitive business. The vast numbers of available coaches along with a sizable number of firms aggressively compete with each other for clients.

Who comes out on top?

Poets&Quants annually assesses the success of the 70 firms that have been reviewed by their clients, dividing up the business by large, medium and small firms. Firms with 10 or more consultants are considered large. Firms with five to nine reviewed consultants are deemed medium-sized, while organizations with two to four coaches are considered small. Our admissions consulting firm list is a complement to our previously published ranking of the top MBA admissions consultants of 2025.

The analysis is based on independently verified client reviews at Poets&Quants from September 1 2023 to August 31, 2024. During that timeframe, clients wrote 1,374 assessments of their experience with 210 admission consultants at 65 different firms. To date, the Poets&Quants‘ consulting directory now boasts more than 60o MBA counselors, at some 150 separate firms, with more than 10,000 reviews. It is the most comprehensive repository of MBA admission coaches and customer reviews available anywhere in the world. Readers can search for consultants based on their work and educational backgrounds, years of experience, firm affiliation, client satisfaction, and whether they had experience on a business school’s admissions committee or are members of AIGAC, the trade association for MBA admission consultants. Our ranking is based on both the number of positive reviews received by a firm during the one-year review period as well as the ration of positive assessments per reviewed consultant.

SIX OF MBAMISSION’S CONSULTANTS NOW BOAST 100 OR MORE POSITIVE REVIEWS FROM CLIENTS

For the fifth consecutive year, mbaMission came out first for being the most favorably reviewed large MBA admissions consulting firm in the world (see table below). mbaMission rose to the top yet again based on 214 positive verified client reviews, an overall client satisfaction score of 9.86 on a ten-point scale, with 21 of the firm’s consultants getting reviewed. The firm’s consultants averaged 10.2 positive reviews each. No less extraordinary, mbaMission now boasts a half dozen consultants who each have more than 100 upbeat assessments from clients, led by Katharine Lewis, with 148 reviews, Devi Vallabhaneni with 140 reviews, and Jessica Shklar, with 133 reviews.

Rival Fortuna Admissions came in a strong second, with 136 positive reviews for 5.9 positive assessments per consultant. Fortuna came in with an overall client satisfaction score of 9.90, slightly higher than mbaMission. During the one-year timeframe for our analysis, Fortuna was the only firm to receive a perfect client satisfaction score of 10.0 from a client who failed to get into a target business school. That is quite an achievement. All told, the firm has now amassed more than 1,000 positive client reviews, second best among all the firms after mbaMission. Fortuna’s Karen Hamou alone has 114 positive client assessments, followed by Emma Bond, with 97, and Heidi Hillis, with 95.

In third place among the largest firms is Stacy Blackman Consulting, with 77 reviews for 28 consultants, or 2.8 positive reviews per coach, the lowest of the three large firms. Blackman’s client satisfaction rate is 9.0. The most reviewed Blackman coach is Caryn Altman, a Kellogg MBA who once worked in the school’s admissions office, with 100 positive reviews.

And in fourth place is Vantage Point MBA Admissions, with 45 positive reviews for 14 consultants. Among the large firms, Vantage boasts the highest client satisfaction rate: 9.1.

mbaMISSION & FORTUNA LEAD THE LARGEST MBA ADMISSION CONSULTING FIRMS

Firm	Positive Reviews in Past Year	Total Reviews	Coaches with Assessments	Overall Client Satisfaction Score	Ratio of Testimonials To Reviewed Consultants
1. mbaMission	214	1,473	21	9.86	10.2
2. Fortuna Admissions	136	1,020	23	9.90	5.9
3. Stacy Blackman Consulting	77	751	28	9.90	2.8
4. Vantage Point MBA Admissions	45	220	14	9.91	3.4

NOTE: Large firms have 10 or more reviewed consultants with at least 50 independently verified assessments by Poets&Quants during the Sept. 1, 2023, to August 31, 2024 period of review.

ALL FOUR LARGE FIRMS ARE WELL-ESTABLISHED AND HIGHLY REGARDED

All of the largest firms are well-established and highly regarded with strong reputations for helping candidates gain acceptance into top-tier MBA programs. Founded 21 years ago in 2004 by UVA Darden MBA Jeremy Shinewald, mbaMission is staffed by full-time consultants from the world’s top MBA business schools. The firm is exclusively recommended by Manhattan Prep and Kaplan GMAT. mbaMission last year made a bold move in launching what is very likely the most comprehensive guide to MBA admissions ever attempted. Dubbed onTrack, it’s meant to be the ultimate sherpa for candidates on the grueling journey toward acceptance by highly selective MBA programs–at a tenth of the cost of an actual admissions consultant. The innovative product features 450 videos, dozens of learning modules and brainstorming exercises, 50 background and goal-specific lessons, 15 essay samples, eight resume examples, and 17 specific school modules.

Fortuna, which bills itself as “a dream team” of former gatekeepers to the world’s best schools, is peopled by ex-business school admissions pros from such top-tier institutions as Wharton, INSEAD, Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, London Business School, Chicago Booth, NYU Stern, Duke Fuqua, IE Business School, and UC Berkeley Haas. The firm was founded 13 years ago in 2012 by Matt Symonds, the co-founded of QS and the World MBA Tour, Judith Silverman Hodara, then the acting director of MBA admissions at Wharton, and Caroline Diarte-Edwards, who had recently left INSEAD after seven years as its MBA Admissions Director.

Of the largest firms, Blackman is the oldest, having been founded in 2001 by Kellogg MBA Stacy Blackman. Her first client hoped to be admitted to MIT’s Sloan School of Management but had a below-average GMAT score. Blackman helped him get an admit, and he gladly referred the firm to others.

Vantage Point MBA Admissions, co-founded in 2016 by Columbia Business School MBA Melody Jones, is the youngest of the big MBA admissions firms. Vantage Point says it offers a highly customized approach to clients, with a dedicated consultant, access to a former adcom, current students at an applicant’s target schools, and post-MBA professionals from top firms such as McKinsey, Google, Amazon, PE firms.

In the medium-sized category, Admissions Gateway in India took first place, with 71 reviews, or 14.2 per consultant, and a client satisfaction score of 9.97. It was the highest number of positive assessments per reviewed coaches of any firm, large or small. Menlo Coaching was second with 45 positive reviews, or 5.6 per consultant, with the highest client satisfaction score achieved by any large or medium-sized firm: a nearly perfect 9.98. In third place is MBA Protocol, with 39 positive reviews for eight consultants, or a 4.9 ratio of positive assessments for every reviewed consultant. MBA Protocol, recently renamed from Career Protocol, earned a 9.97 overall client satisfaction score (see below).

ADMISSIONS GATEWAY & MENLO COACHING TOP MEDIUM-SIZED FIRMS

Firm	Positive Reviews in Past Year	Total Reviews	Coaches with Assessments	Overall Client Satisfaction Score	Ratio of Testimonials To Reviewed Consultants
1. Admissions Gateway	71	389	5	9.97	14.2
2. Menlo Coaching	45	384	8	9.98	5.6
3. MBA Protocol	39	327	8	9.97	4.9
4. Square One Prep	33	69	7	9.85	4.7
5. Gatehouse Admissions	32	181	9	9.97	3.6

NOTE: Mid-sized firms have five to nine reviewed consultants with at least 30 independently verified assessments by Poets&Quants during the Sept. 1, 2023, to August 31, 2024 period of review.

Among the five small boutique firms, Personal MBA Coach won out again. It placed first last year as well. Behind the firm are Sam Weeks Consulting, Military MBA Consulting, MBA Prep School, and MBA Pathfinders.

PERSONAL MBA & SAM WEEKS TOP BOUTIQUE MBA ADMISSIONS CONSULTING FIRMS

Firm	Positive Reviews in Past Year	Total Reviews	Coaches with Assessments	Overall Client Satisfaction Score	Ratio of Testimonials To Reviewed Consultants
1. Personal MBA Coach	45	325	4	9.98	11.3
2. Sam Weeks Consulting	43	113	3	9.79	14.3
3. Military MBA Consulting	18	38	3	9.89	6.0
4.MBA Prep School	16	153	4	9.75	4.0
5. MBA Pathfinders	15	81	2	9.80	7.5