Admissions consultants for founders and business owners
Compare 31 admissions consultants. Besides their main focus, the most common focus areas are MBA admissions, ivy league and top schools, college admissions and international students. They most often work with founders and business owners, students and professionals. Most charge $69 to $150 per hour or session.
What admissions consultants charge
Admissions consultants to compare
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Brandon Benson
Brandon Benson is a PhD admissions consultant and mentor for graduate students and future tech leaders. He holds a PhD in Applied Physics from Stanford, with a focus on neuroscience and machine learning. He is also co-founder and CTO of an AI marketing company. His research has been published in Science and Nature. He helps clients with PhD applications, research development, and moving research into a venture.
Brandon Mack
Brandon Mack is an independent college admissions consultant in Houston, Texas. He helps students, parents, and organizations through the admissions process. He worked in admissions for 13 years, including as Associate Director of Admission and Coordinator of Transfer Admission at Rice University. He later served as Interim Director of Operations at the International Association for College Admission Counseling. He also offers equity, inclusion, and diversity consulting and meeting facilitation through B. Mack Strategies.
Brandon Monteith
Brandon Monteith is an MBA admissions consultant who also coaches rising leaders on career moves. He helps people break into competitive programs and roles and sharpen their stories. Brandon led Infinite Athlete's exit to Exos, where he ran M&A, commercial strategy, finance and investor relations. He worked at McKinsey, PepsiCo and the Atlanta Hawks earlier in his career. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and connects the sports, tech and investment communities.
Conrad Ukropina
Conrad Ukropina is an MBA admissions consultant who also coaches startup founders and career changers. He works most with athletes and people close to sports who want to move into business school, consulting, or entrepreneurship. He is a former NFL kicker and a former McKinsey Engagement Manager. He has started three companies and co-founded Lifespark. He holds an MBA, MS, and BS from Stanford. He has helped clients get into Yale School of Management.
Deans of Admissions
Deans of Admissions is an admissions consulting firm that guides students and families into selective universities in the United States and United Kingdom. Dean D. Blackman, a former Dean of Admissions at both Harvard and Columbia, founded it more than three decades ago. Every advisor on the team held a senior decision-making role in a top admissions office. The firm covers boarding schools, undergraduate, master's, PhD, business, law and medical programs.
Ian Kennedy
Ian Kennedy is an MBA admissions consultant who also coaches startup founders and executives. He served in the Army Special Forces as a communications sergeant, then earned an MBA and an MS in electrical engineering at Stanford. He later worked in venture capital at Khosla Ventures, where he supported over $1B in new financings and a portfolio of over 60 startups. He now coaches full time and takes on a few comprehensive MBA clients each cycle.
Joseph Kemp
Joseph Kemp is an admissions consultant who helps people apply to law school, MBA programs and master's programs. He also advises founders. He has worked on admissions at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University. He holds a JD and MBA from Michigan and a master's in education from Penn. He co-founded JMK & Co., a firm for unconventional students.
Katherine Manweiler
Katherine Manweiler is an MBA admissions consultant who also coaches careers. She helps clients get into top MBA programs and break into venture capital and consulting. She has a decade of work in venture capital, entrepreneurship and strategy consulting, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She once worked as a career coach at HBS. She also scored in the 99th percentile on the GMAT and has helped clients get into Wharton.
Kelly LaBuff
Kelly LaBuff is an MBA and college admissions consultant who also coaches on career moves. Kelly works as a Principal at Antler, a global pre-seed VC firm, and led 8 investments in 2024. Kelly holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a mechanical engineering degree from Stanford. Kelly has coached for 1,620 minutes on that platform.
Liza Mash Levin
Liza Mash Levin is an MBA admissions consultant who also coaches product managers and startup founders. She spent nearly a decade at Microsoft, moving from software engineer to product leader. She then directed the MSx Program and Admissions at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She is now CEO and co-founder of Boon + Gable, a workplace company. She raised venture funding and built a global marketplace, and she came to the U.S. as an immigrant.
Max Richards
Max Richards is an MBA admissions coach who also coaches current and aspiring founders one on one. He started in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, then worked in strategy and finance at a large New York children's hospital. He earned his MBA at Stanford GSB. He has coached 30+ MBA clients, and his applicants have won admission to schools including HBS, Wharton, Kellogg and Booth. He caps how many clients he takes each round.
Monica Okrah
Monica Okrah is an MBA admissions and career coach who helps high-potential professionals plan their applications and tell their leadership story. She founded Helium Coaching in 2018. Since 2006 she has coached 750+ leaders in 45+ countries on top MBA and Executive MBA programs, including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, INSEAD and London Business School. She also works as an executive search partner, so she knows how boards and C-suite leaders judge leadership potential.
Rachel League
Rachel League is an MBA admissions consultant and career coach. She helps people who want to enter investment banking, private equity, venture capital, business school, or early-stage startups. She also coaches public speaking, pitch delivery, and storytelling. Rachel worked at Citi, Morgan Stanley, a multibillion-dollar private equity fund, and a VC firm. She earned her MBA at Wharton and founded a startup that was accepted into eight accelerator programs.
Shelle Leanne
Dr. Shelle Leanne is an MBA and Executive MBA admissions consultant. She helps applicants get into top business schools in the United States, Europe and Britain. She has worked in a Harvard admissions office and in Stanford's Office of the President. She has coached for over 30 years and has helped over 1100 admits. Her clients come from over 83 countries, and many have won scholarships, including full-ride awards.
Subham Kedia
Subham Kedia is an MBA admissions consultant who helps applicants build their positioning, essays and interview skills. He is a venture investor at Hilti Venture and holds an MBA from Wharton. He also worked at McKinsey and Thoma Bravo. He works best with engineers, STEM graduates and people from VC, PE, consulting or deep tech, especially international applicants who need to explain strong profiles to US admissions committees.
Vidhan Bhaiya
Vidhan Bhaiya is an MBA admissions consultant who helps students shape their stories for admissions committees. He is a deferred admit to Harvard Business School's 2+2 program and founded Dr. Brinsley, which makes footwear for people with diabetes. He worked at Pillar VC, a seed-stage fund. He has coached students since his undergrad years. He helps with early whiteboarding, college selection, resumes, essays and test prep.
Alan Young
Alan Young is a management consulting coach who also helps prospective medical students and startup founders. He holds an MD and an MBA. He worked as a surgical physician at Kaiser Permanente and built a consulting career at Deloitte, Accenture, Slalom, McKinsey & Company and Point B. He taught MCAT and GMAT prep for Kaplan. He now mentors UCLA undergraduates and advises founders in healthcare technology, artificial intelligence and data analytics.
Erin Shuba
Erin Shuba is an MBA admissions consultant who helps professionals and entrepreneurs with big career and business moves. She is a Harvard Business School graduate and a former McKinsey consultant. Before that, she served in the Navy, where she led 31 nuclear trained electricians. She has also run her own search fund and now serves as Managing Partner and Founder of Exeter Road Capital.
Maya Brooks
Maya Brooks is an MBA admissions consultant who helps applicants, especially aspiring founders, get into top business schools. She has helped more than 30 MBA clients. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and founded 2 startups, one of them venture backed. She also works with non-traditional candidates whose backgrounds are out of the ordinary.
Sameer Kamat
Sameer Kamat runs MBA Crystal Ball, an MBA and MS admissions consulting team based in Mumbai. The team helps applicants, mostly from India, get into top business schools abroad. It started as an MBA portal and later added MS, MiM, MeM and PhD application reviews plus career counselling. The team has reviewed thousands of applications. It works with a small and selective set of clients and serves them online in many countries.
Carla Coury
Carla Coury is a career coach who helps students, MBA candidates and early-career professionals get from uncertainty to job offers. She was Executive Director of Career Management at Tulane University's Freeman School of Business, where her team reached a 100% MBA offer rate. She also directed Tulane's campus-wide career services and ran the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program in the Gulf South. She has worked in the field for 30 years.
Ian Kahng
Ian Kahng is an executive coach and consulting recruiting coach. He works with CEOs, founders, senior leaders, and candidates aiming for consulting offers. He worked at McKinsey and later managed profitability across 80+ companies at Teamshares. There he coached first-time CEOs who took over acquired businesses. He holds a Georgetown leadership coaching certificate from an ICF Level 2 program. He has also tutored ACT prep since 2012.
John Koelliker
John Koelliker is an advisor for startup founders and a coach for people building careers in tech and applying to top MBA programs. He is the CEO and co-founder of Leland, a coaching platform. Before that he worked in product at Uber, LinkedIn, and Curated. He earned his MBA at Stanford GSB. He also works with people who want to join startups or apply for product roles.
Paul Orlando
Paul Orlando advises startup founders on growth, unit economics and market timing. He directs a startup accelerator at the University of Southern California and teaches classes there. He founded the program in 2014 and selected 250+ companies for it. Founders he guided raised $350M+. He also founded AcceleratorHK, Hong Kong's first funded startup accelerator, and served as Interim Head of Growth for a Series A company.
Pedro Guerrero
Pedro Guerrero advises early-stage startup founders, with a focus on B2B companies. He is the founder and CEO of Aloi Tech, a Mexico-based AI company that automates tax compliance for large enterprises. Aloi has raised more than US$4.3 million before its Series A. Pedro also worked in private equity at Advent International and Nexxus Capital. He holds a Stanford MBA and helps founders find product-market fit and plan their path to top MBA programs like Stanford GSB.
Rebecca Eckstein
Rebecca Eckstein is an executive coach and educational consultant. She helps C-suite executives, emerging leaders and entrepreneurs, and she also guides high school students and parents through college planning. She holds an ICF PCC credential and an MIT certificate in Neuroscience for Business. She has over 1,200 coaching hours and 30 years in education. She works by phone with clients in the United States and other countries, in all industries.
Lisa Tsou
Lisa Tsou is an advisor and coach for startup founders and students. She came to coaching after a long finance career on Wall Street. She mentored startups with Techstars, CTIP and the Greif Center at USC. She ran the coaching program at Women Founders Network for seven years. Since 2013, alumnae of that accelerator have raised over $100 million in funding. She also helps students build strong college applications using story and strategy.
Alaina Hartley
Alaina Hartley is a venture capital coach who helps startup founders, people breaking into venture capital and management consulting, and college applicants. She worked as a Principal at Greycroft, where she led pre-seed and seed consumer products investments from October 2022 to June 2025. Before that she worked as an investor and consultant. She also held roles at Disney, Snapchat and Wells Fargo Securities. She has guided several students through college applications.
Ben Hokenson
Ben Hokenson is a career, college admissions and entrepreneurship coach. Since 2020, he has worked with 100+ one-on-one clients from 20+ countries and six corporate clients in four countries. He spent 466 hours as an advisor at Crimson Education with 60+ clients. He is a venture fellow and serial founder. He has consulted for Goldman Sachs and Molson Coors, and he has helped clients win pitch competitions and get into schools like Harvard, Stanford, Brown and MIT.
Grant Stierwalt
Grant Stierwalt is a management consulting coach who helps students and early-career candidates prepare for consulting jobs and MBA programs. He also coaches on communication, public speaking and startup founder topics. Grant worked at Bain & Co and served as a Bain recruiter who prepared students for interviews. He later led wholesale at birddogs, where he grew the business from $0 to $4M. He is now an MBA student at Stanford GSB.
Jason Chen
Jason Chen is a venture capital coach who helps people break into venture and build startups. He was a partner at Contrary, an investment firm, from 2019 to 2025. He led deals in Orchard Robotics, Nomic and Endeavor AI. He is now a board partner and advisor and keeps angel investing in companies like Ramp and Clara. He also started two companies of his own, Vesper and PareUp.
Side by side
| Coach | Focus | Hourly rate range |
|---|---|---|
| Brandon Benson | Grad school and PhD and Ivy League and top schools | $70 to $150 an hour |
| Brandon Mack | College admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $130 to $300 an hour |
| Brandon Monteith | MBA admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $70 to $145 an hour |
| Conrad Ukropina | MBA admissions | $70 to $145 an hour |
| Deans of Admissions | College admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $70 to $130 an hour |
| Ian Kennedy | MBA admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $70 to $145 an hour |
| Joseph Kemp | Law school admissions and MBA admissions | $70 to $145 an hour |
| Katherine Manweiler | MBA admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $70 to $145 an hour |
| Kelly LaBuff | College admissions and MBA admissions | $70 to $130 an hour |
| Liza Mash Levin | MBA admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $80 to $230 an hour |
| Max Richards | MBA admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $70 to $145 an hour |
| Monica Okrah | MBA admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $80 to $230 an hour |
| Rachel League | MBA admissions | $70 to $145 an hour |
| Shelle Leanne | MBA admissions and Ivy League and top schools | $80 to $230 an hour |
| Subham Kedia | MBA admissions and International students | $70 to $145 an hour |
Common questions
How much does an admissions consultant cost?
Most admissions consultants charge $69 to $150 per hour or session.
What else do these admissions consultants help with?
Common focus areas include MBA admissions, ivy league and top schools, college admissions and international students.
Prices and research
- Are College Admissions Consultants Worth It?
- How Much Do MBA Admissions Consultants Charge?
- How Much Does a College Admissions Consultant Cost?
- Coaching Packages and Prices: Hourly vs Monthly
- Coaching Rates Per Hour by Coach Type
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- Do Certified Coaches Charge More?
- Executive Functioning Coach Cost
- How Many Coaches Are There?
- How Many Coaching Sessions Do I Need?
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Last updated September 2026.