<p>Anirudha, is working with this kind of consulting firm a common practice in India? (It isn’t unheard of in the US, but it is far from common.) Do you have peers who are doing this? Do you know anything about this particular firm’s reputation?</p>
<p>At this point, I would advise you to be careful, maybe even suspicious, but to make sure on one hand that they’re really cheating you before you start a big confrontation, and on the other hand that they’re really providing a legitimate service before you give them any more money. It does sound, however, as if they’re making promises about U.S. colleges and universities that they may not be able to make good on.</p>
<p>I am suspicious of almost all consultants. I had a boss once who said, “A consultant is a person who will borrow your watch to tell you the time…and then keep the watch as payment.”</p>