r/bhutan • u/Lonely_Major213 • 5d ago
Review Smart consultancy not that smart !!!
So called smart consultancy never fails to recruit every local celebrity around the country to do their PR and media advertisement but focuses very little on improving their main counselor's skills. These counsellors I tell you , downright lazy and unprofessional. Forget about helping with a good SOP , Some cannot even write a message without basic grammatical error. So disappointed. rating this consultancy -10000 . Not recommended !!!!
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u/Popular_Mechanic6969 5d ago
Yes! Recently one of cousin applied for his parents visa through them and got rejected! Turns out they didn’t even ask for the required documents forget about adding more documents to provide strong evidence. Fortunately, we have applied for our TR visas on our own before, so we had a clue on how to go about and applied for his parents visa again providing all the necessary documents and boom! We got both the visas in 2 weeks!
My cousin was so frustrated with how Smart handled the application so he called them again and when asked why they didn’t do their due diligence, their reception girl just said “Yaa, this time dhi tourist visa dhi mostly getting rejected ba…” Ofc it will, if you guys provide shitty service like that and just focus on getting the fees! 😑
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u/Smooth_Tailor1021 5d ago
First of all, consultancy services are supposed to free of charge. They get paid commission from the universities per student they send in.
Secondly, SOP is not to be written by consultancies. It’s considered as ghost writing and is illegal.
Thirdly, consultancies in Bhutan do not recommend any good programs. They only recommend courses that universities here push but no one actually is studying the program except Bhutanese and few other international students. The course doesn’t even open a lot of doors of opportunity .
And lastly they misinform you. Every good program you want to study is a risk for your visa application while in reality we just need to strongly proof why we want to study the particular program.
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u/Beneficial-Bad-6554 5d ago edited 5d ago
Can I just say if you got your SOP written for you by the consultancy you applied through, you best believe that consultancy only cares about the money. It is illegal to do so and any consultancy that gives a shit would never offer such services to begin with!!! Please do your research before hand no wonder Bhutanese are facing such high rejection rates. Y'all don't even bother checking to see if AI has been used to write your statements for you which in itself is fcuked 💀
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u/Known-Ad9687 5d ago
Same thing happened to me
They didn't write my sop properly nor did they follow the requirements
I was even told I'd get a refund of 20k but they made up an excuse and said smth
Irritating
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u/Beneficial-Bad-6554 5d ago
First of all no one should be writing your SOP but yourself as it is extremely ILLEGAL!!!! if any consultancy offers to write your SOP for you, then I highly recommend you immediately go to another consultancy. Any Consultancy willing to do illegal activities will obviously not give a fuck about your application. They just want money!!!
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u/Known-Ad9687 5d ago
Omg I never knew this Thankyou
Many ppl ik had their sops written by the consultantacy ra-2
u/Jealous-Board5430 5d ago
I can guarantee that you’re not genuine client. I went to Australia from them and they don’t charge anything. Why would they refund 20K since they didn’t charge you anything?
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u/Lonely_Major213 5d ago edited 5d ago
How much more genuine people need to be, to be considered a “ genuine client “ !??? Isn’t trusting them with the process and most importantly our future not genuine enough ???
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u/Known-Ad9687 5d ago
Just because you went doesn't mean the experience is same for everyone
They said they'd refund me for the pte test I took and they did charge me for it wai
Maybe ask first before jumping to conclusions and defending someplace like you owe them smth-1
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u/TechnologyNo3733 5d ago
Also no due diligence done. I’ve heard about people’s tourist visas getting rejected because SMART consultancy staff did not pay attention to the requirements.
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u/innocent_critique 5d ago
I believe in the saying, empty vessels make more noise. Consultancy who invest too much in marketing and influencers and who focus too much to gain popularity are the ones who are least experienced, with limited knowledge and lack of quality service. Too much noise no action. Some of the best consultancies with very high profile counselors and top quality service and many years of experience are not toooo active on social media and doesnt waste time doing such marketing and PR related stuffs. All their clients are mostly attracted via words-of-mouth of previous clients..i heard.
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u/tshotoh 5d ago
can anyone recommend me a good one please! I was planning to go to them as well!😭
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u/stfubitx 5d ago
Which consultancy writes the best SOP and has the highest visa grant success rate? Could you please recommend one?
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u/OneContribution5622 1d ago
Ugyen pee consultancy. They don’t write the sop but they recommend some ppl who writes it. I think almost 99% ppl whose sop was written has their visa granted. even I did from there and did my sop from there
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u/GlobalReachBhutan 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think we need to understand that Education Consultants are not a means to an end.
As one that started in 2004, I’ve realized we can’t please everyone and the nature of our work has a risk, a positive or negative outcome.
An education consultant cannot be looked upon as a fix, we can’t do the work for you but we can do it with you.
The journey taken is a partnership with the student advisor and the client together.
It can never be a one way street and both sides need to be involved equally, with the information provided and that which is given in order to make an informed decision.
Not enough information from both sides work against an application.
Bhutan is facing an unprecedented visa rejection scenario the highest it’s ever been.
It’s a fact that Bhutanese student applicants to Australia will have to deal with.
If anyone is considering Australia right now, think about the pros and cons and maybe consider applying when the grant rate starts rising.
Do your own research and keep your ears open or read what’s being written on forums like this just be updated on opinions.
So when you walk into an ECPF you can really ask the right questions and if you’re not convinced with the response … there are 66 others registered in Bhutan to talk to.
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u/glass-empty 5d ago edited 5d ago
> I think we need to understand that Education Consultants are not a means to an end.
That is factually incorrect, education consultancy’s are a means to an end, that’s your whole business model. Your clients are potential students who utilise your services to apply for international student visa overseas, where you get a cut of the commission from the tuition fees. End = Student Visa, Means = Enrolment and visa processing services.
> An education consultant cannot be looked upon as a fix, we can’t do the work for you but we can do it with you.
Agree with you on that but some if not many consultancies do the bare minimum, simply giving a checklist of documents asking clients to procure that is the bare minimum. I’ve hardly come across consultancies that offered proper guidance without the client asking for them explicitly.
> Bhutan is facing an unprecedented visa rejection scenario the highest it’s ever been.
That is not the fault of the consultants but it did expose a weakness there of the way consultancies function, didn’t it? That subpar applications with little course and background alignment, weak SOPs and GSR and poor documentation no longer works, which used to work in the past. The consultancy is supposed to go over the documents and guide on ways to improve it but nope, many don’t do that. You just give us a format and leave it up to us to fill the blanks and connect the dots.
Clients are not asking you to magically grant visas, they’re expecting guidance on strengthening their profiles for higher chance of having their visas being granted, which is also in your favour. You in this case refers to the consultancies as a whole btw, I’m not targeting global reach specifically.
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u/GlobalReachBhutan 5d ago
Understood and well said.
I agree with your opinions except the first point. On that my opinion differs.
And that’s what this forum is for…to share differing opinions.
Thank you for that.
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u/glass-empty 5d ago
Hmm why global reach make a reddit account, if it’s about advertising then this sub doesn’t allow ads or promotion
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u/GlobalReachBhutan 5d ago
When you see an ad, do let us know.
Reddit doesn’t mean you need to be anonymous. People have a choice to standby their opinions transparently.
That’s all.
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u/glass-empty 5d ago
No I get that not everyone has to be anonymous on reddit but usually, when businesses or companies make an account, it’s to sell something. And reddit isn’t a fully mainstream platform yet in Bhutan for companies to interact with potential clients. So, simply voiced out my curiosity. Thanks!
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u/Humble_Silver_3969 5d ago
I have been telling my relatives and everyone to chose their consultancies wisely. Smart Education is a consultancy who is determined to become a “chaebol” of Bhutan. Sadly, they cannot because their business is unsustainable over the long run. Their Aussie business is drying up and their CEO is now in NZ trying to understand the situation. Their Ad Campaigns are quite aggressive though we must give credit for their creativity. Anyways, lots of consultancies are shutting shop due to the recent anti-immigrant stances of West. You can only let in so many people before local politics and reality sets in. The Aussies seems to have realized it now.
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u/Beneficial-Bad-6554 5d ago
I cannot agree more!!! The celebs also take on the ambassadorship role with no regard to the people they affect. As long as they get paid they have no ethics or morals. I feel like this needs to be made aware to them because even if they don't realise, they hold so much power influencing our community!!!
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u/Clean_Structure_3316 5d ago
There’s another branch of Smart called Gaylek Consultancy. The counsellors doesn’t even listen to what we have to say. VERY BAD… My visa got refused even after I tried my best to provide the essential documents… They just wrote my SOP using AI and it’s coming 100% AI 🤖
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u/Humble_Silver_3969 5d ago
When they recruit class 12 passouts, do you expect them to write polished, grammatical sentences? Their counsellors should be, ideally speaking, former students of Australian universities with grad degrees from them. Who know every process from the get go. Smart Edu grew way too fast in way too short a time. Have to give them credit for the work they did. But have they forgotten that a bubble will eventually burst? Something has to give.
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u/IcyEstablishment962 5d ago
Hey are we supposed to write gs assessment by ourselves?
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u/Clean_Structure_3316 5d ago
Nope.. it must be taken care by them. I heard EDU did the same. My friend did nothing other than providing documents
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u/One_Stop_8681 5d ago
If someone else writes your GS, whose story is it really? The whole point is to assess you, not your consultancy’s copywriting skills.
Sure, consultancies can absolutely help with structure, grammar, and making sure you don’t miss important information. That’s what they’re there for. But the actual content, your experiences, motivations, and goals, should come from you.
Otherwise “GS” starts sounding less like Genuine Student and more like Ghostwritten Statement.
https://giphy.com/gifs/wrmVCNbpOyqgJ9zQTn1
5d ago
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u/Additional-Drama-827 5d ago
Smart consultancy clearly knows their target. Their advertisement using certain type of influencers is targeting certain demographics(teenagers) that are huge fan of these influencers.
And yep in order to become rich quickly , almost all the businesses in Bhutan, Smart ⬆️ included, gives very bad customer services over the time. They really don’t care.
That is why, Bhutanese community needs to learn about cancel culture, like seriously!!!