Guide 10 of 10
Published by InGenius Prep · Figures checked 27 August 2026
MBA, law, medical, and PhD are four different markets. What changes in each.
Graduate admissions consulting is sold as if it were one product. It is at least four, and the differences are structural rather than cosmetic. Business, law, medical, and doctoral programs use different decision-makers, different timelines, different evidence, and different price levels. A firm that is genuinely good at one may have no useful experience in another. This guide sets out how the four markets differ, what the current data says about each, and which advertised claims fall apart when you check them.
| Market | Who decides | What moves the outcome | Cycle shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| MBA | Admissions staff plus alumni or student interviewers | Career trajectory, quantified results, post-degree plan, interview | Two or three rounds, roughly September to April |
| Law | Admissions office, numbers-led, rolling | LSAT and undergraduate GPA medians, personal statement, timing of submission | Rolling from September; earlier is materially better |
| Medical | Committee plus interviewers, multi-stage | MCAT, science GPA, clinical and research hours, secondary essays, interview | Primary from May or June, secondaries through summer, interviews to spring |
| PhD | Departmental faculty, often specific professors | Research fit with named faculty, writing sample, letters, prior research output | Deadlines cluster in December; decisions from February |
Volume has stabilized after a surge. GMAC's Application Trends Survey 2025, covering 515 MBA programs at more than 300 schools in 41 countries, reported MBA applications up 2 percent year on year after a 13 percent rise the year before. The composition shifted more than the total: full-time two-year programs grew 4 percent while executive, flexible, and part-time formats fell 10 to 15 percent. By region, applications rose 25 percent in East and Southeast Asia, 11 percent in mainland Europe, and 10 percent in India, while the United States slipped 1 percent, the United Kingdom 4 percent, and Canada 35 percent.
MBA consulting is the most mature and most transparent of the four markets on price. Poets&Quants reported hourly rates in the range of roughly $315 to $425 across named firms, and three-school packages spanning $1,500 to $12,250, with some candidates spending as much as $20,000 across three applications. One firm's three-school package had risen from $6,680 to $11,100 over nine years. Work in this market is heavily interview-driven, and the applicant's professional record is largely fixed before the engagement starts.
Law is the market where numbers dominate and where the data is public. Every ABA-approved school publishes a 509 disclosure with its LSAT and GPA medians and acceptance rate, so you can price your own candidacy before paying anyone. The most recent cycle was competitive by every measure: the average LSAT median across ABA-approved schools rose 1.79 points, 28 schools posted medians of 170 or above against five a decade earlier, and the sector average GPA median reached 3.65, up from 3.36 in 2015. First-year enrollment hit 42,817, up 7.9 percent year on year. Average acceptance rate across schools was 36 percent, but seven schools admitted under 10 percent, with Yale lowest at 4.06 percent. Applicant volume was running about 20 percent ahead of the prior year as of late December 2025.
What consulting can and cannot do here follows from those facts. It cannot move an LSAT score, which is what test preparation is for. It can help with school list construction against published medians, submission timing in a rolling cycle, addenda that explain a weak semester, and scholarship negotiation, which is a real and underused service.
The largest and longest process. In 2025, 54,699 people applied to United States MD programs and 23,440 matriculated, with applications up 5.3 percent over 2024. First-time applicants rose 8.4 percent while re-applicants fell 3.6 percent. Total enrollment reached 100,723.
The volume of writing is what distinguishes this market. After the AMCAS primary application, most applicants complete secondary essays for each school, often dozens of prompts within a few weeks, followed by interviews that may use a multiple mini-interview format. Consulting engagements here run longer, sometimes across a gap year, and often include the school list, activity descriptions, secondary turnaround, and interview practice. Ask specifically who does secondary review and how fast, because a two-week delay in returning secondaries is a real cost in a rolling process.
Doctoral admissions is the market where consulting is least standardized and least necessary for many candidates. Decisions are made inside departments, frequently by the professors who would supervise the work, on the basis of research fit rather than a general application file. Funding is typically attached: Duke, as one example, commits five years of stipend, tuition, and fee support to its PhD students, plus six years of health and dental premium coverage. A funded doctoral offer is a job offer as much as an admission.
That changes what help is worth buying. Contacting faculty before applying, framing a research statement around a specific lab's open questions, and preparing a writing sample matter more than polished narrative. Current faculty in the field, including your child's own undergraduate advisors, are often better placed than a general consulting firm.