Written by Sameer Kamat

How many MBA applicants take the help of MBA admission consultants while applying to the top schools. If estimates from the survey conducted by Poets & Quants (P&Q), a leading & highly-respectable MBA portal, are to be believed, the numbers are astounding. Up to one third of the applicants to the top 10 MBA programs hire MBA admissions consultants. For the top 3 (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton), this number goes up to 50%.

Written by Sameer Kamat

Writing MBA essays is considered by many Indian MBA applicants as the most difficult part of their MBA applications. Jon Frank, founder of Precision Essay, understands the pain areas pretty well as he has helped many Indians get into the best MBA bschools across the world. He concludes his 5-post series on MBA essay tips written specially for Indian applicants.
If you missed the earlier posts, here’s the full series:
MBA Essay Tip #1: Undo the adcom’s preconceptions about India
MBA Essay Tip #2: Don’t be so quick to throw away the tech background.
MBA Essay Tip #3: Focus on SOFT skills. Leadership, not tech.
MBA Essay Tip #4: Be creative. Take Risks.
MBA Essay Tip #5: Don’t kid yourself.

Written by Sameer Kamat

If estimates are to be believed about half of all applicants who apply to the top schools like Harvard, Stanford and Wharton make use of the services of MBA admission consultants. That makes the tough competition tougher for deserving candidates. The severely skewed demand-supply equation of MBA applicants to MBA seats makes it a fertile ground for many applicants to try out unethical approaches.

Written by Sameer Kamat

Admission officers of the top Bschools are changing their perceptions about the good MBA admission consultants and the value they add to the tough admissions process. Read this post –> MBA Admissions Consultants: How the best business schools view them.

The fight for talent is getting tougher and bschools want applicants who have done their research well and can present themselves as mature, knowledgeable & high-potential candidates. The best MBA Admission consultants in India and across the world help applicants put their best foot forward. Many Indian applicants who know that the odds are against them (if you are wondering why, read this post: Indian MBA Applicants more likely to be rejected from top b-schools). For the serious applicants the question isn’t about whether they need a consultant, it’s more about which one would be the best one for them.

For the Indian applicants, premium admissions consulting is a relatively new service. So concerns about quality and pricing frequently come up.

Written by Sameer Kamat

It’s common practice on discussion forums for MBA applicants to approach peers (including competitors!) and admission consultants in droves for free advice on everything from whether an MBA is right for them, to choosing the right bschool, to tips in essays. And there are more than enough folks to respond to such queries, including us. Marketing, a necessary evil of the business world! We’ve got to have a presence out there, so people have a way to evaluate us.

However if you have carefully analysed our responses on various threads that we are active on, you would have realised what we are going to talk about in this post. In our discussion forum responses, we are more than happy to answer general questions about strategies and dilemmas. But when it comes to providing a list of the best schools for any candidate, we shy away. If you push us too hard, we might ask you for your choices and provide our high level inputs.

When everyone is more than happy to recommend top business schools based on a GMAT score and a few lines about work experience, industry and role, why are we shooting ourselves in the foot by not doing the same? Why do we

Written by Sameer Kamat

The MBA applicant from one of the elite engineering institutions in India had posted some very basic questions on a discussion forum about his application to the toughest bschool in the world. And the query ended with – ‘Deadline is very close. Please answer urgently!!!’

This is not an isolated case. If you spend enough time on the MBA forums you come across many such queries that make you wonder if the people posting it are really serious about their MBA plans.

No doubt, these are smart, intelligent people who can do wonders if they get the right opportunities (which is what a top MBA is all about), but their attitude towards the MBA application process leaves much to be desired.

Here are 5 signs that you are NOT serious about your MBA application.

Written by Sameer Kamat

What would you do if someone sends you a message on Facebook asking for your views about a certain product or service you have used?
That would depend on whether you know the person or not, right? With a friend you’d be free and share an honest opinion. With a stranger you’d be extra cautious. You never know who that stranger really is – could be a genuine prospective client or someone from your company or maybe a competitor trying to find out the general sentiments prevailing in the market or maybe some creep trying to get too friendly.

Written by Sameer Kamat

We generally don’t post testimonials on the blog, though we do have a bunch of them on our main site. But this one is a little hat-ke and we thought we should share it with you. When Shipra was revelling in her euphoric post MBA MAP phase, we asked her if she’s be willing to share some feedback about her experience. We’ve already got several feel-good testimonials (all genuine, by the way) on our MBA Crystal Ball Facebook page. So we thought Shipra would do something similar. Instead, what we got was an elaborate 5-C Model that could give Michael Porter (and his 5-Force Framework) a run for his money.

Written by Sameer Kamat

MBA Crystal Ball reached out to Graham Richmond, co-founder of Clear Admit, to get his views on a few burning questions that are frequently on the minds of Indian candidates. Graham has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Business Week and..ahem…MBA Crystal Ball (I know, I know, we need to be more subtle with our hints). After completing his MBA from Wharton, he joined Wharton’s MBA Admissions Committee. So pay close attention to his advice, my friends. It might just get you into the school you’ve always dreamed of.

Written by Sameer Kamat

Accepted.com has been at the forefront of MBA Admissions consulting since the early 1990s. Linda Abraham, founder of Accepted.com, shares her knowledge and experience with MCB readers on a range of topics: choosing the right schools (using rankings, two year versus one year programs, brand vs scholarships), top-5 mistakes to avoid in an MBA interview, top-10 do’s and don’ts for MBA essay writing, what you should be doing 6-9 months before you apply and much more.