The Top MBA Admissions Consultants Of 2026

Scott Edinburgh built his reputation one client at a time. In 2026, 55 of them put him at No. 1.

The founder of Personal MBA Coach once again sits atop our annual ranking of the most favorably reviewed MBA admissions consultants, racking up 55 highly positive reviews in a single year with a near-perfect client satisfaction score of 9.98. Edinburgh blew past last year’s No. 1, Rajdeep Chimni of Admissions Gateway, who logged 45 positive reviews and a perfect 10.0 client satisfaction score.

The consultant ranking is based on verified client reviews in the Poets&Quants consulting directory from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2025. During that timeframe, clients wrote 1,408 assessments of their experience with 76 admissions consultants at 41 different firms.

MBA ADMISSIONS CONSULTANTS FROM INDIA MAKE A STRONG SHOWING

In our annual assessment of the top MBA admissions consultants, many familiar names and faces return year after year. Among them are Candy Lee LaBalle, a former first-place winner who currently serves as president of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), Devi Vallabhaneni, Jessica Shklar and Katharine Lewis of mbaMission, and veteran solo practitioners including Sam Weeks and Petia Whitmore.

One notable difference on this year’s list is the continued emergence of consultants based in India. Ten of the top 25 do their advising from India, which has long supplied the largest number of international students to selective MBA programs. Three of the top 10 all hail from Chimni’s Admissions Gateway, including Shabri Malik and Nisha Kaul.

All of these counselors are helping candidates on a full-time basis and bring years of experience to the job. They are not recent graduates or students moonlighting for a few extra bucks. Among the 25 consultants with the most favorable reviews, 17 different firms are represented. mbaMission and Admissions Gateway boast the most, with five consultants each in the top 25.

Also worth noting just outside the top 25: Susan McInerny of mbaMission, who posted a 10.0 NPS across 14 reviews, and Pamela Jaffe of MBA Pathfinders, who posted a 9.86 NPS across 14 reviews. McInerny, a Harvard MBA, has worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York and Los Angeles, in private equity in California, in consulting with BCG, and in the nonprofit sector. “I genuinely enjoy building relationships and connections, and there is nothing I look forward to more than getting behind resumes and CVs and into what applicants truly care about while helping them to see themselves in a new light,” McInerny writes at her P&Q consultant profile.

A Columbia Business School MBA with more than 15 years in the business, Jaffe built her practice around the conviction that effective admissions consulting requires as much industry fluency as admissions knowledge – a model that continues to generate strong client feedback.

A CORRECTION – AND AN EXPLANATION

Poets&Quants has been assessing the admissions consulting industry for a decade. We take that responsibility seriously. Which is why it matters that we got this one wrong.

The consultant rankings we published earlier this year have been withdrawn and rebuilt from scratch. A full re-extraction and reanalysis of the underlying data was necessary, and when the dust settled, the numbers had changed. 

We are not proud of the original version. We are confident in this one.

The process behind these rankings involves 18 steps of manual data manipulation – filtering, de-duplication, and scoring calculations applied across thousands of verified client reviews. Somewhere in that process, errors crept in. A second data extraction, triggered in part by a credible concern that at least one consultant in the dataset was not delivering the kind of hands-on service clients believed they were paying for, introduced further complications. Some data did not survive the transition intact.

Compounding matters, the firm size thresholds cited in the original firms article were wrong – a mistake that caused confusion among firms trying to understand whether they qualified for inclusion. Because the same underlying dataset drives both the firm and consultant rankings, the problems carried across both.

For clarity, here is how the consultant ranking actually works: it captures verified client reviews submitted between September 1, 2024 and August 31, 2025, for MBA application services, from students in the Class of 2022 or later. First-year consultants are excluded, consistent with longstanding practice. One consultant was removed from the dataset following the integrity concern noted above.

The methodology used has not been clear or transparent for consultants in the past. This reissue attempts to remedy this, as will steps taken resulting from a full audit of the process.

ONE ESTIMATE: 80% OF CANDIDATES TO TOP 10 MBA PROGRAMS USE SOME FORM OF CONSULTING

Despite declines in applications, particularly from international candidates, getting into a highly selective business school remains a challenging task. That’s because the very best programs boast deep applicant pools overflowing with exceptionally talented young professionals. That reality contributes to the use of admissions consultants in helping candidates tell their stories effectively.

Admissions consulting has also grown alongside the rising complexity of MBA applications. Schools expect deeper introspection, clearer career goals, and highly polished essays. For applicants juggling demanding jobs, that can be difficult to manage alone. The result: demand for consulting support remains strong.

“The market is maturing but the need is growing,” says Petia Whitmore, founder of My MBA Path and one of the top 25 (see table on page 2). She estimates that as many as 80% of all applicants to top 10 MBA programs leverage the help of a consultant, whether it’s ApplicantLab, a $349 do-it-yourself platform for applicants, or a $10,000 comprehensive package of hand-holding services to apply to three programs.

“Given both the economic and geopolitical uncertainty, the post-business-school journey is perceived to be riskier than it was earlier,” adds Rajdeep Chimni. “In this context, the MBA is perhaps too expensive, and there is slightly more burden on applicants though the overall value proposition is good. This year our candidates received 51 offers to Harvard and Stanford. Many received financial aid ranging from $140,000 to $174,000, which makes attending business school a no-brainer. However, international applicants should be cautious of paying full tuition to a top-20+ school unless they can easily afford it and want to attend for the life experience.”

‘JUDGMENT IS STILL IMPORTANT’ IN THE AGE OF AI

With fewer international applicants in the pipeline, domestic demand remains healthy, adds Scott Edinburgh, while international applications have been softer. That pattern mirrors what many business schools themselves are reporting as geopolitical uncertainty and visa concerns weigh on some international applicants. Edinburgh says the market has been uneven this year but resilient overall. “The beginning of the year was very good,” he says. “The winter months slowed down a bit, and then late spring picked up again.”

Even the widespread use of artificial intelligence isn’t changing the fundamental needs of candidates, according to Whitmore. “AI can give you advice but how applicable is it and what you do with it is missing,” she says. “Judgment is still incredibly important.”

Those judgment calls – helped along by an admissions coach – are at the center of the Poets&Quants assessments. Rave reviews overflowing with gratitude are common for every one of these counselors. One of Edinburgh’s clients, accepted to five M7 MBA programs with scholarships, sings his praises. “From the very start,” the candidate told P&Q, “Scott helped me develop my personal narrative and set myself up for admissions success. He helped me realize the importance of being able to quantify and explain the impact of my extracurriculars and pushed me to achieve even more… As a procrastinator trying to juggle test prep, applications to many schools, and a hectic work schedule, Scott’s process and outline of deadlines was critical to making sure I had everything prepared in time.”

Says a military veteran recently admitted to Chicago Booth’s MBA program: “Scott was the single best decision I made, without a doubt! I plan to enter the class of 2028 next fall at Chicago Booth with $100k in merit-based scholarship aid, and a huge part of that outcome is a direct consequence of his help. Scott advised me on each and every step in my MBA journey, from start to finish, and he was constantly available to answer the questions I had.”

THE TOP MBA ADMISSIONS CONSULTANTS OF 2026

#	Consultant	Firm	Positive Reviews	Client Satisfaction Score	Cost
1	Scott Edinburgh	Personal MBA Coach	55	9.98	$500/hr, $14,750 (3-school)
2	Rajdeep Chimni	Admissions Gateway	45	10.0	$250/hr, $10,500 (3-school)
3	Shabri Malik	Admissions Gateway	32	10.0	$350/hr, $10,500 (3-school)
4	Candy Lee LaBalle	mbaClarity	31	9.97	$440/hr, $7,600 (3-school)
5	Sam Weeks	Sam Weeks Consulting	31	9.90	$600/hr, $10,000 (3-school)
6	Saagar Varma	The Narratives Inc.	29	9.62	$400/hr, $4,000 (3-school)
7	Nisha Kaul	Admissions Gateway	28	10.0	$350/hr, $10,500 (3-school)
8	Devi Vallabhaneni	mbaMission	26	9.88	$775/hr, $14,300 (3-school)
9	Gavriella Semaya	mbaMission	25	9.96	$440/hr, $10,000 (3-school)
10	Shruti Parashar	GOALisB	23	9.87	$6,000 (3-school)
11	Aparna Pahwa	Admissions Gateway	22	9.95	$350/hr, $10,500 (3-school)
12	Rishabh Gupta	GyanOne Universal	21	10.0	$7,000 (3-school)
13	Lindsay Sage	Sage Admit	20	9.95	$425/hr, $9,000 (3-school)
13	Petia Whitmore	My MBA Path	20	9.95	$495/hr, $11,950 (3-school)
15	Kelsey Kephart	EmbarkMBA	20	9.80	$400/hr, $7,500 (3-school)
16	Sridhar	Open Admits	20	9.75	TK
17	Emily Sawyer-Kegerreis	Military MBA Consulting	18	10.0	$8,250 (3-school)
17	Mudit Gupta	Admissions Gateway	18	10.0	$350/hr, $10,500 (3-school)
19	Niketa Desai	Admit Beacon	18	9.89	$300/hr, $6,700 (3-school)
20	Katharine Lewis	mbaMission	17	10.0	$775/hr, $14,300 (3-school)
21	Heidi Hillis	Fortuna Admissions	17	9.94	$495/hr, $10,000 (3-school)
22	Greg Guglielmo	Avanti Prep	16	9.94	$295/hr, $9,895 (3-school)
23	Neha Sundesha	Seven Hats Consulting	16	9.69	$500/hr, $8,000 (3-school)
24	Emma Bond	Fortuna Admissions	15	10.0	$495/hr, $10,000 (3-school)
25	Jessica Shklar	mbaMission	15	9.87	$14,300 (3-school)

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