ExpertCollective - A Review

So a few weeks ago Josh Hohman from ExpertCollective had left a note on my blog regarding a survey compilation that he thought would be useful for MBA applicants. He was requesting me to review this report so that it could reach potential applicants. I read the free report and found the material interesting - so i decided to review the full report.

While I was in the preliminary stages of applying to business schools, one of the primary hurdles was to find genuine and personal information about the school from people in the school - staff and students alike. This, I understand, is a considerable issue for international applicants like me. This report aims at providing an answer to that issue.

Format:
The report basically has students of various business schools answering a standard set of nine questions. The students are from Stanford GSB, HBS, Columbia Business School. There's also a mini profile of each student - giving us the GPA range (ranges of 0.5), GMAT range (range of 50) and the pre-MBA professional background of the student.

The free report has 6 students - 2 each from Stanford, HBS and Columbia.
The full report has 35 students - 28 from Stanford, 3 HBS and 4 Columbia.

Pros:
The format is no-frills. The questions are not usual and are focused on helping an applicant as against getting a profile of the student. The report does not have a lot from the same person, but the standard questions allow the reader to easily compare across profiles. There is no unnecessary fluff in the whole report - just one interview after another one. Pretty sleek and effective.

Cons:
The list of questions is not extensive; but i'm not sure how to fit in more questions without making the report heavy. Also, standardized is not gonna help people with individual questions - but that is a standardized report anyway. The biggest drwaback for me is that the full report is heavy on Stanford. 28 out of the 35 responses are from Stanford.

Verdict:
It might be useful if you cannot visit schools - but as of now, I can imagine this being helpful only for Stanford applicants. I am not sure of the price - so thats for you to check as well. People have different price points! Bottom line - download the free report and check for yourself.

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated to the person or the website mentioned in this review. I'm doing this simple to point applicants to a resource that they could find useful. Please dont hold me responsible for your experiences with this website or the resource under discussion.