GMAT Club
July 22, 2017
ssastri

Joined: Jul 29, 2016

Posts: 0

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Amerasia Complete School Package

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I worked with Adam in the Fall of 2016, and worked on 2 schools in R1, and 1 in R2. Out of the three schools, I was accepted to Booth (with $$), waitlisted at HBS and dinged by GSB.

My background: US undergrad, MBB consulting for 5 years in Asia, 770 GMAT

As an Indian male applying to Bschools, I was part of a super competitive application demographic. My introductory conversation with Adam stood out, because in comparison with some of the other consultants, Adam was pretty confident and gung-ho about my chances at the set of schools mentioned earlier. The vibe I got from that call, as well the fact that he wasn't trying to sell me short to apply to a lower echelon of schools, is what convinced me to sign up with him

Adam was a big help throughout the process, both in terms of getting the applications over the line as well as setting up mock interviews for interview prep. I'm listing down a set of places where he helped massively, as well as a couple of things to think about if you're considering working with him

1) The MEMOS!! These are an amazing starting point, and really help clear up the ambiguity in terms of how each school is different. Given the number of essay topics, and how vague some of them are, the succinct breakdowns given in the memo are super useful. Adam was very generous, and also gave me memos for a couple of other schools that I was applying to alone

2) Adam's insistence on limiting everything to email communication is initially daunting, but it definitely pushed me to structure my thought process and communication. If we'd been communicating over calls, there's a chance that my application would have been constructed less tightly with more vague messaging. So despite my initial misgivings, the strong preference for emails was a big help.
However, if you're someone who needs to engage on the phone/ struggles with written communication, this may be a factor be cognizant about. The other point is that email interactions typically need a 2-3 day turnaround, so build a buffer in to your timeline planning.

3) In terms of the essays/writing themselves, the changes that Adam suggested were never wholesale, and he largely stayed true to the original theme. However, the tweaks he made almost always resulted in the essay coming out more polished and reading much better

4) Given that communication will be over email, the one recommendation I would have is to make timelines/checkpoints very clear for both you and Adam. I'd procrastinated during R1, with the belief that Adam may reach out to push me if I was lagging behind. That didn't happen, and resulted in a rush towards the end of R1 along with a little friction. Thankfully, we were able to get the apps over the line, but the chaos did cause stress and maybe a slight hit to the strength of the apps . By the time R2 rolled around we had clear timelines laid out, and that led to a much smoother process.

In summary, I'd strongly recommend Adam! My applications were definitely better for having worked with him

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