There are many affordable MBA admission consultants in India who charge very low fees. And then there are premium players who aren’t competing to be the cheapest in the business.
When MBA applicants who’ve seen the charges of cheaper MBA consultants learn about MBA Crystal Ball pricing, the contrast is apparent.
How much do MBA consultants charge in India?
Admission consulting pricing depends on the scope of work you sign up for. Typically, it is priced per MBA application. The more schools you include in the service, the lesser the cost per business school.
MBA consultants in India charge between ₹5,000 to ₹1,00,000+ per application. MCB is closer to the higher end of that range in India. But it’s around 25% of what international MBA consultants charge.
Some MBA consultants may offer options to pay per hour or per MBA essay. MCB doesn’t offer these, as we think working on an important application on a piecemeal basis doesn’t add much value.
Sayamdeep Bhose was among those who had made up his mind about us based purely on perceptions. And he doesn’t hold back his punches while describing what he initially felt about us.
Thankfully, he didn’t let his prejudice affect his final decision on working with us. But he did struggle with a different nemesis – the entire gamut of MBA entrance exams, covering CAT, XAT and GMAT.
My views on affordable MBA consultants in India
How I got into 2 top MBA programs with $100K in scholarship
by Sayamdeep Bhose
I belong to the quintessential IIM (Indian IT Male and not the Indian Institute of Management!) pool. Since my childhood, I have been a dreamer. However, till a few years back, I never really had the courage to follow my dreams.
Born and brought up in Kolkata, I did my schooling and my subsequent graduation in electronics and communication engineering in Kolkata (never really had any interest in electronics, just followed the herd).
College shaped me in a number of ways and frankly speaking, prepared me for life. I had the opportunity to meet several interesting people from amongst my batchmates, some of whom have become lifelong friends.
After graduation, I had the opportunity to work in TCS and I relocated to Bangalore, which was my base location at work. I have a lot of fond memories from my time in Bangalore (made a lot of good friends and really enjoyed my time there, especially the climate).
However, within a few years in TCS, I realized that writing and debugging codes was just not my thing. Gradually, I transitioned into a more client facing role and I had opportunity to work with several immensely talented people.
It was then that I seriously thought of pursing an MBA, which would help me to understand the business side of the enterprise products that I was working on and not just the technical aspects. Thus, my fate was sealed!
I do remember the day clearly. 1st January 2020. On the morning of the new year, I decided to bell that year’s CAT. Yes, that was my New Year resolution!
I started preparing for the CAT. After a few months of self-preparation, I enrolled with IMS for their online eCatapult program.
Meanwhile Covid struck and I had to relocate back home. Life continued in the Covid and the lockdown era and so did my CAT prep. To be honest, I was never really comfortable with the support being provided by IMS and neither was I able to dedicate sufficient time to my CAT prep, owing to work pressure and other personal commitments.
I was not expecting a good percentile in CAT, given my mock performances. As luck would have it, a week before CAT I fractured my nose (yes, nose!). CAT was ruled out.
I gave XAT in January,2021 and didn’t fare well (82 percentile, if I recall correctly). For some reason (and I still don’t know why) I decided to ace the Maharashtra CET and bag a CET in JBIMS.
Essentially, I was setting a near impossible target as I had to score a 99.99 percentile (a top 10 rank out of 1.5 lakh candidates) to get a seat in JBIMS, as I was a non-Maharashtra state candidate.
After months of delay, CET was finally conducted in September and unfortunately, I failed yet again. 99.87 percentile! Ran close, but missed out by a 0.12 percentile!
I still remember the disappointment. I had already spent over an year and a half, chasing one entrance exam after another and had reached nowhere.
I took a break from the rat race for two months and decided to introspect. I had 3.5 years of work experience by that time and in my mind, I was too old for an Indian MBA (CAT / XAT programs).
It was then that I began to seriously consider taking on the GMAT. Given my experience bracket, the GMAT MBA programs abroad made more sense.
It was also during this time that I came across one of Sameer’s top MBA videos on YouTube, where he was talking about GMAT programs abroad.
The search for a good & affordable MBA admission consultant begins
Honestly speaking, none of my friends or family members had taken the GMAT and hence I was not aware of the entity called “MBA Admission Consultant”.
The CAT or the XAT based programs do not really need admission consultants.
But for competitive GMAT & GRE MBA programs, you’d better have a good one.
I remember when I went over MCB’s website for the first time, I was shocked at their price! In comparison to many of the cheaper admission consultants, MCB was expensive and how!
Truth be told, I felt that these people were overpriced agents who send a select list of super rich and super talented candidates abroad to the best Bschools across the world. Certainly not for someone with a (below) average profile like mine!
At that time, I was fairly certain that I would not avail their service and in any case, I was sure that they would not agree to take me onboard either.
One and a half years later, my opinion of MBA Crystal Ball has drastically changed and I owe a major part of my success to them. But more on that later.
GMAT frustration
My GMAT journey was not a smooth sailing. When I look back now, I can say that the GMAT was the most challenging part of the Bschool application phase.
I took 4 attempts to reach my target score of 740 and my preparation phase (including the GMAT attempts) spread over 13 months and clashed with my round 2 applications. Not recommended at all.
My GMAT scores indirectly forced me to push my applications from round 1 to round 2. Initially, I enrolled with GMATWhiz for my 1st 2 attempts. They provided me with a personal mentor and I was satisfied with the level of support and with the quality of questions in their question bank.
Due to work and personal commitments, I did go a bit slow in the preparation phase. Finally I started scoring decently in the mocks (scored a 750 one week before the actual test) and decided to take my 1st attempt on the last of August in 2022.
Unfortunately, I messed up my verbal section and ended up with a disappointing 700 (q49, v35). Given my below average profile, applying to business schools in round 1 with a GMAT score of 700 would have been disastrous.
Nevertheless, I prepared for a month extensively and took another shot at the GMAT in the last week of September. 700 (q49, v36) once again!
I decided to enroll with e-GMAT for the next attempt and luckily I was inducted to their Last Mile Push (LMP) program, due to my “good” (well, according to them!) scores in the previous attempts.
The LMP program provided me the personalized guidance and feedback on a regular basis and my LMP mentor Rashmi played a very important role during this phase of my GMAT journey. Her precision planning and moral support kept me going.
Choosing admission consultants: Quality vs Cost
While working on test prep, I contacted Manish and decided to share my profile with him and luckily he agreed to take me onboard and assigned my mentor.
I had read MCB’s reviews and realized that they had a proven track record of working with candidates with diverse backgrounds and not just the super elite ones.
Given the high stakes involved, I simply did not want to take a chance with the other more affordable admission consultants in India who charged lesser, even though there may be some good ones out there.
I enrolled in the MBA MAP + 3 Schools admissions consulting service.
The MBA MAP helped me to work out a strategy and to shortlist the schools while the long discussions with my consultant helped me to finalize the post MBA career goals. We shortlisted 4 schools – Emory, Kelley, Kenan Flagler and McDonough.
For each school, we went over the employment reports in my target industry and the recruiting opportunities. Here I would like to mention the importance of doing extensive research on each of the target schools.
Attending the webinar seasons conducted by the Adcoms and talking to the alumni would provide the X factor while writing the essays.
A lot of schools also provide an application fee waiver to candidates who attend their webinar sessions. So attending the sessions also provide monetary benefits.
Out of the 4 schools that I applied to, I received application fee waivers in 3 of them while I got a 40 percent reduction in the application fee of the 4th school.
Once the school shortlisting was done, we started working on the essays.
To be honest, after going through the MBA MAP process and gaining immense clarity, writing the essays was not that big a challenge, thanks to MCB’s expert knowledge and guidance.
Each of the essays and my resume went through several rounds of edits and the end products were better than I had anticipated.
My consultant has been very patient and flexible throughout this journey and has been a morale booster and comforting friend in testing times. He was available even at 3 am at night for discussions. This was truly an “aha” moment for me.
He even went on to help me in one of the essays of Kenan Flagler. This school was not included in the package.
It goes on to show that MCB really cares for the success of their clients.
On 2nd January 2023, 3 days before the submission deadline of 2 of the schools, I went for my 3rd GMAT attempt. I had prepared rigorously in the last few months under Rashmi’s guidance and had worked extensively in my weakest section (CR in verbal).
I was confident of doing well this time and had even scored a 750 in the last mock, two days before the actual test.
However, I scored a 690 (q49, v34) on test day. Disappointment would be an understatement.
I was shattered and seriously contemplated giving up on the applications.
Once again, both MCB and Rashmi played vital roles in pulling me up.
Looking back now, I can say that this was my lowest point in this entire journey. Anyway, I concentrated on the rest of the applications and finished them and submitted them.
After I had submitted all my applications, it was basically a waiting game for me. I used this opportunity to retake the GMAT one last time.
Many schools give the opportunity to retake the test even after submitting the application and in my opinion, one should always make use of this opportunity, if he/she is not satisfied with the score. I prepared for the test for 2 weeks and gave it on 25th Jan. Bingo! I scored a 740 (q50, v40)!
Shortly after that, I started receiving interview invites. I received interview invites from Georgetown, Kenan Flagler and Emory.
I enrolled for the interview package with MCB and prepared once again under my connsultant’s guidance. The 2 mock interviews that he took, helped me to structure my thoughts properly while answering the behavioral questions. The interviews went smoothly for 2 of the schools.
The MBA interview was conversational and had mostly behavioral questions. I was very satisfied with my performance in the McDonough and the Kenan Flagler interviews, but felt that I had underperformed in the Emory interview.
The results, however, were surprising.
My MBA application results
I received a ding from Kenan Flagler. But I received admits with scholarships from both Emory Goizueta and Georgetown McDonough, along with close to $100,000 in scholarships.
This goes on to show that MBA interviews are highly unpredictable and one cannot be sure of receiving an admit or a ding till he actually gets one.
Keeping in mind my goals, I have chosen Emory Goizueta and am looking forward to spending my next 2 years in Atlanta. I hope to settle in USA long term, but we’ll see where that goes.
I am glad that my journey of 3 years is finally over. When I made that pledge on 1st Jan 2020, I didn’t anticipate the struggle that would follow. I guess perseverance and patience helped me sail through in the end.
Going back to the point about affordable admission consultants, the total scholarship I got is many times greater than the admissions consulting fee I spent.
There are MBA consultants in India who charge lower than MBA Crystal Ball. But I’m not sure if I’d have got any admits without the same level of support, leave alone the scholarships.
Having gone through and seen it all, here’s some advice from my side to future applicants:
- Take the GMAT a year or two before you plan to submit your applications. You never know how long it would take to get to your target score. DO NOT compromise on your GMAT score.
For Indian IT Male engineers, the GMAT is essentially the deal breaker, especially if one is applying in the highly competitive round 2.
While a high score will not necessarily guarantee an admit, a low or a below average score will almost certainly lead to a reject. So do try to get 20 or 30 points above the class average of your target schools. - Concentrate on your extracurriculars. I did not. This was the weakest part of my application and hence I had to over rely on the GMAT, backed by essays, recommendations and interview.
- DO NOT ignore the other parts of your application (essays, resume, recommendations).They are equally important.
- Apply as early as possible, preferably in round 1 or EA.
- Drop a mail to Manish from MCB and experience the magic of the crystal ball, the moment you decide to tackle the b-school applications 😉
- Remember the first 5 points.
This is Sayamdeep, signing off!
Don’t let preconceived notions about our pricing, or who we work with, stop you from reaching out. Drop us an email to get the conversation going: info [at] mbacrystalball [dot] com
Also read:
– These applicants beat the odds to get MBA scholarships
– The tough life of Indian IT Male applicants
– From waitlist to scholarship: MBA Consultancy experience
– Rejected applicant despite a 760 GMAT score gets effective consultation to make it in UCLA Anderson with scholarship
