The Evolving Relationship between Admissions Consultants and Business School Admissions Officers
Clear Admit co-founder Graham Richmond was featured in a Bloomberg BusinessWeek article this week about the relationship between MBA admissions consultants and top business schools. Though the article quotes some school officials who say they are wary of consultants who may “help too much,” it does point to efforts by reputable admissions consultants such as Clear Admit to promote ethical standards and protocols in the admissions consulting process.
In fact, Clear Admit’s Richmond was a founding member six years ago of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), which requires members to adhere to a set of principles for good practice. And he sees a clear trend toward stronger and stronger relationships between admissions consultants and top business programs, as evidenced by the growing number of schools that have hosted AIGAC conferences on their campuses. Those schools – which total 11 to date – include the Kellogg School of Management (AIGAC conference 2008), Columbia Business School (AIGAC conference 2009), Harvard Business School (AIGAC conference 2010) and the MIT Sloan School of Management (AIGAC conference 2010), just to name a few.
Meanwhile, representatives from more 20 schools have attended and/or participated in AIGAC panel discussions and other events. And as Richmond pointed out in the Bloomberg BW piece, more and more admissions directors are giving interviews to Clear Admit and other consultancies than was the case a decade ago. We will feature interviews with admissions directors at more than two dozen top schools as part of our current Admissions Director Q&A Series, which we will be releasing over the course of the next two months.
“I am not suggesting that these programs all ‘recommend’ that applicants use an admissions consultant,” Richmond says. “Having said that, the fact that they have all opened up their campuses to AIGAC conferences and/or traveled to our events to serve on panels suggests that they recognize the need to work with us and are seeking open lines of communication,” he continued. He also noted that top programs also recognize that AIGAC consultants reach tens of thousands of top-tier applicants each year, representing a valuable marketing channel.
So though some may still characterize the relationship between admissions consultants and business schools as chilly, those of us here at Clear Admit take heart in knowing that admissions directors at top programs increasingly recognize the valuable role ethical consultants can play for prospective applicants as part of the admissions process.
Related articles
- Admissions Director Q&A: Isser Gallogly of New York University’s Stern School of Business (clearadmit.com)
- Admissions Director Q&A: Columbia Business School’s Mary Miller (clearadmit.com)
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