Smart MBA solutions for every need, every budget.

In general, no. Our pricing reflects how the work is staffed and delivered, and we don’t routinely split payments or restructure packages as a default.

That said, if there’s a genuine timing or logistical constraint, we’re open to a straightforward conversation about whether there’s a clean way to make things work. No promises, no snake oil — come talk to us.

These are fundamentally different products, built for different situations.

A comprehensive package covers the full arc of an MBA application: Discovery and Competitive Edge Positioning (including our IMPACT™ diagnostic and kickoff strategy call), a clear Action Plan, and the full Exhaustive Iterative Drafting Process for every school you’re applying to. You work with a lead consultant who owns strategy and positioning, plus a dedicated essay specialist who works at the sentence level. That dual-role model isn’t an upgrade — it’s the baseline.

The difference between tiers is scope, not quality. Silver covers the core work: strategy and essays. Gold adds what most candidates actually want and use — resume development, letters of recommendation support, interview prep, post-admit and waitlist strategy — and is the sweet spot for most applicants. Platinum adds our most intensive tools and extra perspectives, like the Admissions Committee Simulator, blind second-consultant review, premium interview prep, and additional consulting time. None are required to get strong results, but for complex or high-stakes profiles, they can add real value.

Hourly and à la carte work is different. It’s best for candidates who already have a coherent strategy and need a targeted second opinion — pressure-testing an essay, sharpening interview prep, or sanity-checking positioning. What it’s not designed to do is replace full-cycle consulting. Diagnosing the whole picture and quarterbacking a multi-school campaign takes sustained work, not a one-off session.

That’s what the consultation call is for. We’ll tell you plainly which model fits your situation — and if hourly is the right answer, we’ll say so before you spend money on the wrong thing.

It depends on who you’re comparing us to — and what you think you’re actually paying for.

Some firms charge dramatically more. Are you getting more? Sometimes you’re getting brand legacy, layers of overhead, or the psychological comfort of an ultra-premium price tag. Many of the most expensive shops quietly self-select “shoe-ins,” turn away riskier profiles, then market pristine success rates built on that filtering. If that model appeals to you, great — it’s a rational choice.

We take a different approach. Our clients range from hyper-competitive MBB candidates swinging only at HBS and GSB to unconventional profiles others won’t touch. We don’t screen for safety, and we don’t price based on optics. We price based on the actual work required to do this well.

MBA admissions consulting is labor-intensive, and genuinely excellent consultants command real market value. Below a certain price point, either the talent isn’t there or the attention isn’t. Above a certain point, the value starts drifting into “expensive because expensive.”

We sit where the value is real. Our consultants clear a hiring bar that eliminates roughly 95% of applicants, based on blind evaluation of work product, not résumé pedigree. Every engagement pairs a lead strategist with a dedicated essay specialist — standard, not upsold. The pricing reflects that caliber of thinking, that depth of process, and that level of sustained attention.

If you’re optimizing for the most expensive option, we’re probably not your firm. If you’re optimizing for sharp judgment and serious work, put us up against anyone. We’re comfortable there.

No. And the question itself tells you something useful about this industry.

Our packages are priced to cover the full scope of work most candidates actually need. We do that deliberately, because nickel-and-diming distorts incentives. Your consultant should be focused on what strengthens your application — not on whether a suggestion triggers an upsell.

There are two exceptions worth flagging. The first is rush work. When timelines compress at the last minute, maintaining the same quality requires outsized effort and reallocation of consultant capacity. We can provide rush support when needed, but it comes at an additional cost — not as a penalty, but because it genuinely takes more to execute well under pressure. Our goal is always to help you avoid this scenario through early planning, not to profit from it.

The second is highly specialized situations that fall outside the norm — things like team-based decision interview prep, GMAT/GRE tutoring, or CounterCheck™ background verification support. It wouldn’t be fair to bake those costs into standard pricing for everyone, so they’re handled separately with clear, published rates.

The principle is simple: most clients never see an extra charge. When something genuinely falls outside the expected scope, we talk about it clearly and in advance. You’ll never be surprised by an invoice you didn’t understand or agree to.

Yes — and it’s more common than you might expect.

Many candidates start with a clear sense of scope and then discover, often after the kickoff strategy call, that the competitive landscape is more complex than they assumed, that additional schools belong on the list, or that they want deeper support in areas they initially planned to handle themselves. That’s normal. The strategy process is meant to sharpen your thinking, and sharper thinking sometimes changes the plan.

Upgrading is straightforward. You can move from Silver to Gold or Gold to Platinum mid-engagement. You can add schools to your application count. You can layer in à la carte services — interview prep, resume work, the M7 Insider Audit™, blind peer review — at any point they’d genuinely add value. Pricing adjusts proportionally; you’re not penalized for starting lean.

What we don’t do is push bigger packages upfront. If Silver is the right fit when you begin, we’ll say so. If the work later suggests Gold or Platinum would serve you better, we’ll explain why — and let you decide. The door stays open; the upsell stays off.

We offer an initial grace period at the start of every engagement. During that window, you can adjust your service level — add scope, reduce scope, or cancel — for any reason. We build this in so you can commit with clarity, not pressure. If something doesn’t feel right once the process begins, it’s better to correct course early than to force a bad fit to continue.

After the grace period ends, we don’t offer refunds. At that point, your consultant and essay specialist have committed real, finite capacity to your work. We’re a boutique firm by design, and we don’t overbook — when we say yes to a client, it means saying no to someone else. That’s how we protect quality, and it’s why the policy needs to be firm once the engagement is underway.

Rescheduling within an engagement is a different matter. If a round deadline shifts, if your timeline changes, or if life intervenes in ways that require adjusting the cadence, we work with you. Rigidity for its own sake helps no one. What we won’t do is leave an engagement indefinitely open-ended — there are practical limits to how long consultant capacity can be held, and we’ll be transparent about what’s feasible.

Read the policy, ask questions, make sure the fit is right before you sign. That’s exactly what the consultation call is for. Once we start, we’re all in — make sure you are too.

Advanced Planning hours are valid for one calendar year from the date of purchase. That’s the shelf life, and it’s intentional — open-ended engagements with no expiration tend to lose focus, and unfocused work helps no one.

Within that year, usage is flexible. You and your consultant decide how to allocate the hours: how many calls, how long, what cadence. Some candidates front-load the strategic work. Others spread it evenly. The structure adapts to your situation.

For application packages, the engagement is inherently round-driven. Your package covers the schools and rounds you’re applying to. If you need to add a round or extend into a subsequent cycle, that’s a conversation — not an automatic rollover, but not a brick wall either. We’ll work with you on what makes sense.

The underlying principle is the same across all service types: the hours you pay for are real consulting time with real people. They aren’t tokens in a vending machine. Use them with intention, and they’ll produce results.

Usually, yes — with some practical constraints worth understanding.

If you’re mid-engagement and realize that R1 isn’t realistic, shifting focus to R2 is a conversation we’re happy to have. It happens. Timelines slip, GMAT retakes push things back, work gets unexpectedly intense. We’d rather recalibrate around a realistic deadline than rush you into a weaker submission just to hit an arbitrary target.

What we can’t guarantee is that the exact same consultant capacity will be available in a later round. Our strongest consultants fill their rosters ahead of each cycle. If you shift from R1 to R2 early enough, continuity is almost always preserved. If the shift happens late, we may need to adjust — and we’ll be upfront about what that looks like.

The strategic work doesn’t expire. Your IMPACT™ analysis, your Action Plan, your competitive positioning — all of that carries forward regardless of which round you submit in. What changes is pacing and logistics, not the quality of the foundation.

One honest note: pushing to a later round is sometimes the right call, but it shouldn’t become a habit. Deadlines create productive pressure. Candidates who keep deferring often aren’t struggling with timing — they’re struggling with commitment. If we sense that pattern, we’ll name it directly. That’s not judgment. It’s us doing our job.

Honestly? Not always.

If your profile is straightforward — strong GMAT, clean career progression, a clear story, and a manageable school list — you may not need comprehensive consulting at all. A focused hourly session to pressure-test your essays or positioning could be plenty, and we’d rather you save the money than buy firepower you don’t need.

Where consulting starts to earn its keep is when you’re competing in a tough demo and the margin for error is thin. You might think you know what makes you competitive — and often you’re half right — but we’re working with your competitors every day. We see how similar profiles present themselves, where applications blur together, and which “unique” angles are actually boilerplate in disguise. One of the biggest risks at the top end isn’t weakness; it’s sounding indistinguishable from the rest of the pack.

That matters most in situations like these: you’re applying to M7 programs where acceptance rates live in the single digits; you’re a reapplicant trying to diagnose what didn’t land; you’re non-traditional and don’t fit a clean mold; or you’re juggling a demanding job, multiple schools, and timelines that don’t care how busy you are. In those cases, the cost of getting it wrong — a wasted cycle, lost momentum, or landing a tier below where you could have — often dwarfs the cost of getting it right.

The real question isn’t whether MBA consulting is “worth it” in the abstract. It’s whether the gap between doing this yourself and doing it with expert, market-aware guidance is large enough for you. For some candidates, that gap is small. For others, it’s the difference between a ding and an admit.

The consultation call is free. Use it to find out which one you are.