MBAPrepSchool Admissions Consulting Reviews

When I started the application process early summer of last year, I was looking for someone with a critical eye, good grasp of what schools wanted, ability to help me create a good narrative and highlight what was needed out of my experience and extracurriculars to emphasize my story, and ability to push myself out of my comfort zone. I came from an engineering background (with a few lower grades on my transcript that I felt could keep me out of the top schools) with extremely technical work experience and no formal leadership.

Working with Faisal, I was able to fully reflect and create a cohesive story that made sense for my background and for my future goals. Faisal helped me understand what to highlight and what to de-emphasize, especially coming from a technical background, in my resume and essays. He helped craft an optional essay that helped explain my academic background and lower GPA. Faisal was critical and discerning in his edits, making sure that I was saying what I needed to and not being too vague or "on" with my language. He was also great to work with on my interview prep - making sure that I was working through highlighting my strengths and exactly answering the intended questions. I felt like my essays were strong, polished, and represented me well. Faisal also pushed me to research the schools in-depth, which helped with essay creation and the interviews, since I truly felt like I knew each school in and out by the time I submitted my application.

With Faisal's help, I was admitted to four M7 schools, waitlisted at another, and received partial scholarships at almost every school. This is an outcome I would have never thought possible looking solely at my stats coming into the application process - with Faisal's help, I was able to showcase my best qualities and gain admissions to some great schools.

Faisal is very easy to talk to and work with, is timely with his feedback, and delivers great results. I highly recommend working with him!

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Christina is second-to-none when it comes to MBA consultants –she's a fantastic consultant and an even better person, mentor, and professional encourager. If you're considering using an MBA consultant, I would be remiss to not sing Christina's highest praises. She was instrumental in guiding me through the application process and helping me achieve the outcomes that I was fortunate to receive. She will push you, but it is well worth it.

I approached the MBA process with some element of anxiety – I was switching jobs after a two year program (from finance to corporate finance / strategy) and came from an over-represented background (white male in finance, undergraduate business degree) with median GPA and GMAT per the top schools that I was targeting. I had spoken with several other consultants prior to speaking with Christina; I felt that Christina was able to expertly articulate my story from just my resume and our introductory conversation. Christina is very honest and evaluates your candidacy and what might need to incrementally improve in the coming months. She focuses her time on a small number of clients in order to maximize potential success – her client's admissions statistics to the top schools are staggering.

Highlights
- What makes Christina different from the other consultants my friends have worked with is that she truly cares about you as a candidate and a person. I'd guess that she spends more time per client by a factor of 10. She would root for my personal and professional successes and would always ask how I was doing. Christina truly supported me over the last fourteen months and is still one of the go-to people with whom I share meaningful life updates
- Christina is also very honest. She would let me know when she didn't think a potential interview answer was up to snuff or when an essay was lackluster. She ensures that you put your absolute best foot forward
- Having attended HBS and guided clients towards other elite programs, Christina understands the rigor of the MBA process and prepares her clients accordingly. She makes a point to have the school selection process an introspective one – what you put into these initial sessions makes a huge difference. Christina has a swath of relationships among current and former admissions committee members and knows the strengths of each school and how your personality and professional aspirations may or may not fit
- Christina helps you "brand" yourself and creates an application that speaks to your strengths. Sometimes you may feel that Christina knows you more than you know yourself! Throughout this process, Christina consistently pushed me on my career goals (short- and long-term) and made sure that I had done requisite diligence on the schools, classes / professors, and extracurricular activities. She also encouraged me to speak with current students and alumni to get a better sense of what two years at a particular program might be like, which I found extremely helpful. If I failed to mention a logical class, professor, or activity, Christina would always ask why I chose to not include it. She will be your partner in research and is truly a teammate in the process
- Across my time in finance, I don't think I met anybody with Christina's attention to detail. From my resume to my applications to my essays to my interview prep, Christina left no stone unturned and would smatter my documents with thoughtful changes and suggestions – looking at the time stamps on her comments made me think back to my investment banking days. Ultimately, however, Christina guides her clients to have the final say on any changes
- Christina is truly a great writer. She has a very clear perspective on high-level structure for each essay, but she also offers stylistic changes that help your essay flow better and pack a real punch. She is a huge stickler for word choice and grammar and will lambast you if you have grammatical errors or repeat adjectives. She would never let me turn in an essay unless we both felt it was as good as it could possibly be

Over a year later, I am so fortunate to have been accepted at Wharton HCM (with fellowship), Booth, and Kellogg. I attribute a massive portion of this to Christina's patience and prudent guidance, mentorship, and encouragement, and I am forever grateful for her keen professionalism and now friendship. The absolute best.

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If you take anything from this review, it should be that Christina is an incredible consultant, and in my mind, she’s as good as it gets. I can not recommend her strongly enough!

Going into the MBA process I was very nervous, as it is somewhat rare for employees to leave my company for an MBA. Therefore, I knew that if I applied and asked my supervisors for recommendations, I had to get into a program in case there were negative consequences at work. On top of that, I knew that I was in a crowded category as a white male in finance, meaning it would be difficult for me to get into a top MBA program. Christina was extremely honest and transparent with me from the beginning, outlining the significant work we would need to do on my application for me to have any chance with these schools. Fast forward a year later, and I made it into Wharton and NYU (including a $60k scholarship at NYU), and am on the waitlist at Harvard. The only school I didn’t get into was CBS, but this was my fault (I stupidly didn’t follow Christina’s advice on a key part of the application). I was thrilled to get into these programs, and given my demographic/career field headwinds + pretty average GMAT score, I attribute the large majority of my success to Christina’s guidance on essays, application forms, extra-curricular activities and interviews. There is no way I’d be in my current position without her help.

A few areas where I think Christina stands out:
• Christina has incredible depth of knowledge on each MBA program. We were able to craft every single application to the identity of the MBA program based on her unique insights about the schools culture and desired candidate.
• Christina was meticulous and creative throughout the whole process - every conversation we had she took careful notes and asked follow up questions, constantly looking for a new angle/part of my life that we could use for my application. She was able to use my life/career experiences in ways I would have never thought of.
• Christina is passionate. I truly felt she cared about my future and was fully vested in my success as an applicant. The time she would dedicate to me was way, way more than I anticipated.
• Christina has a vast pool of past applicant experience to draw from. She would constantly use past successes as food for thought with my application process.
• Christina is incredibly honest. She will not hold back. While this was a bit daunting at first, it is one of her most important qualities. She will not sugar coat, she’s going to tell you the truth, which is what you need in the MBA application process!
• Lastly, she is just a kind and caring person. The MBA process is grueling, but she always took time to make sure I was doing okay/build a relationship with me.

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Coming from a non-traditional background, I knew it would be challenging to get into the top MBA programs without a consultant who appreciated my unique background. After speaking with multiple consultants, I felt Faisal was the best fit because he genuinely tried to get to know me and did not sugar coat how difficult the journey might be.

Once we started working together, Faisal dug deep into my personal and professional experiences to ensure I put my best foot forward. With his help, I was able to tell my unique story that has made me who I am today through essays, resume, and interviews. He always had a game plan to address any concerns that the admission officers might have after reading my application.

Overall, I could not have asked for a better consultant to guide me throughout this journey. Faisal was there every step of the way, guiding and offering valuable insights. With his help, I got accepted into a top MBA program!

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By the time I was done with the GMAT and started with the applications, there were only two months left until the R1 deadlines. I talked to many consultants and went ahead with Faisal considering the fact that he had lots of experience working with international students. I believed he would understand my story and will help me put it into perspective. Working with him gave me a lot of clarity about what I want through an MBA and taught me how to tell my story in an effective and powerful way. He helped me realize my dream of getting into a top MBA program with full scholarship. I highly recommend Faisal to whoever wants help with telling their story.

Thank you so much Faisal!

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Coming from a technical engineering role in an industry that doesn’t value an MBA like other industries, I didn’t know many people who had pursued a full-time MBA. In addition, I didn’t have the best GMAT score (below the average but within the 80%) for an “over-represented male” applicant. For these two reasons, I looked for an admission consultant to ensure I put the best application forward.

While doing my due diligence, I happened to connect with a mutual friend who had used MBA Prep School and is now at Wharton. With this lead, I connected with Tyler Cormney who took the time to understand my profile and needs. He recommended Faisal whose strengths as admission consultant aligned strongly with my needs.

I knew I would not need someone to push me to write my applications. Rather, I needed someone to ensure I was telling the best version of my story. I also knew I would struggle with telling my work experience in layman terms, so I needed a consultant who has helped other engineers in a technical line of work.

I am happy to say that Faisal met and exceeded all my expectations. Faisal took the time to learn about me in order to help me craft my story in a truthful and compelling manner. I would often leave comments regarding any part of my application (essays, resumes, short answers, etc.) to gather additional feedback from Faisal. No matter how much I wrote, he always read every comment. In addition, Faisal was excellent at helping me showcase leadership examples while removing nonessential technical knowledge to tell a clear and concise story.

The school packages were comprehensive. Every part of my application was reviewed until it was ready (no edit counts) and feedback was provided within 2-3 days. This included supplemental essays after the application was submitted and even waitlist help (if needed).

Luckily for me, I was accepted to my top choice school, MIT Sloan with $80k of scholarship. I cannot thank Faisal enough! I would recommend him anyone who feels they need a razor-sharp application to get accepted into their dream school.

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My brother in law referred to MBA Prep school and I have not regretted even a single day after I accepted their services.
To start the proceeding, I had a small 20-30 minute telephonic session with Tyler and he got to know about me, what my background was and what my expectation were from MBA Prep school. After the session Tyler told me that he will assign me Santosh Prasad ( Sam ) as my admission consultant. The next day, I had session with Sam and he gave a brief of what our plan would be and how we will approach the whole admission cycles.
Sam is very professional and extremely helpful. My first task was to find the schools I am interested in applying to. I was struggling to find the school and I told Sam about it. He carefully reviewed my profile and delved deep into which schools will be best fit for me. Once the school selection was done, Sam polished my resume. He did minute but extremely significant tweaks to my resume. After 2-3 revision, my resume was all good to go. One of other advantage I had while working with Sam was time. I had approached MBA prep school around May 2018, so I had a good 6 months’ time before the round 1 deadlines. Next on our agenda were the Essays. I think essays are the most important aspect of the MBA application. We normally think that GMAT or our work experience will land us a good MBA school. From what I have seen, that is not the case. The essays introduce you to the admission committee and that is why you need consultants like Sam who can really combine the all the pieces of your personality and experience, and come up with a good story about you. Yes, you can do the essay yourself and submit them to your friend/relative to help. But getting a professional help for your essays is not a bad option. Sam used to ask me to research about each school I was applying to and come up with draft versions of essay. Once I wrote the essays, he will review each line and add comments for the important pieces I have missed. I was really happy that someone is paying so much attention to each line and word I am writing. The edits suggested by Sam were extremely helpful. For essays too, Sam took 2-3 revisions and then we came up with the final version. For one of the essays he even got it reviewed by one of the admission committee member. It just goes to say that Sam can go lengths to make his clients happy and make them succeed.
Sam also helped me for few of the mock interviews and my (never ending) adhoc questions. He never shied away from providing his honest opinion. All his replies were in time and there was never an instance when I had to follow up with him. Sam had been admission committee member for one of the most reputed MBA school and I believe this helped me a lot. He knows what an admission committee is looking for. He will remove any extra detail from the essay and add the vital ones. Sam is also very flexible and works as per your schedule. I being a working professional, really liked this part. I did not have to worry much about the deadlines and Sam would always setup meeting as per my flexibility.
I had been dreaming to do MBA from US. With help from MBA Prep school wholesome guidance from Sam, I am able to live that dream. I am happy to tell you that I got accepted in a good school in Texas. I will not shy away from referring MBA prep school and Sam for the folks who want to do MBA from US and looking for admission help. I know taking consultant help is a big economic decision and was out of budget for me too, but with MBA prep you will never regret that decision.
Thank you Sam and MBA Prep school for all your help.

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Working with MBA Prep School was a wonderful experience - and I recommend working with Tyler and Santosh to refine and develop anyone's business school applications.

From the beginning, Santosh was both honest and forthright about my business school goals, and guided me on the best way to approach the process. We had spoken on the phone for two separate 30 minute sessions, and he really made me understand what to expect. He spoke to how I could effectively use my time, and how much work the admissions process required for the number of schools I planned to apply to.

We got started working together quickly after speaking on the phone, and I cannot express how helpful he was in getting the process started. I applied to 3 schools with him, and a 4th with some assistance. He's incredibly knowledgeable about individual MBA admissions processes, and was a valuable guide in navigating my goals and tasks, keeping me engaged in the process. Our time was spent mining my professional and personal accomplishments, while understanding how to present my strengths and weaknesses to present an overall polished and unique application. He helped me develop a fully thought out idea for my goals, and how I could effectively present myself as a business school candidate. Most importantly, he guided me on really thinking about why I'm interested in business school, and understanding what I want to get out of it in terms of furthering my career. Without working with him, I'm confident that my applications would not have been as polished as they turned out to be, and I wouldn't have as clearly defined goals as I do now.

I highly recommend working with Santosh. Since working with him I have been accepted to my top choice Business School, and am awaiting responses from the other schools to which I applied. He is wonderful to work with; he's honest, timely, organized, and conscious of your concerns and how you want to present yourself as a business school applicant. He was able to help me leverage my professional accomplishments to strengthen my application and achieve my goals.

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I first connected with Santosh in December 2018: at that time, I was still in the process of shortlisting colleges and writing the requisite examinations like GRE and TOEFL. It was my first attempt ever at filling Masters Applications abroad. Santosh, within a very short span of time, transformed into a genuine stakeholder to my success. His availability far surpassed anything that I had ever imagined: whether it was odd hours or last minute rectifications, he was always ready to help. Added to that was the fact that he knew the nuances of what the specific schools look for and how to not only structure an amazing application, but also to keep me motivated during the process. I got into my dream school at Anderson (UCLA), exactly 6 months after I first wrote GRE. This wouldn’t have been been possible without Santosh and MBA Prep School.

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Do you feel that you have all the right ingredients for a strong MBA application but you are struggling to put it together in a recipe which will result in the dish of a lifetime? Well that was me when I started down the MBA application path. I knew my career goals and I knew I was at the right point in my career where an MBA could help me boost the next phase of my career. I had taken GMAT and had a good score and I had my recommenders lined up. But I was struggling to communicate my story crisply and effectively.
A very close friend of mine had gone down this route few years back and I talked to him for advice and he said he faced pretty much the same challenge and recommended seeking help from a professional. I investigated few MBA consultants and I got in touch with Faisal via MBA PrepSchool. I was quite impressed with all the glorious recommendations that Faisal had online but what sealed the deal for me was the introductory call that I had with him. In that half an hour call, Faisal asked insightful questions and I knew I had found the person who can help me pen my story.
Faisal can be very critical with his feedback when required and can also be very encouraging when required. While Faisal did have a defined framework that he worked in, he adapted that to make it work with my timeline. The experience Faisal has in this field also proved very useful to me and helped me approach the whole process more confidently. I strongly recommend Faisal for MBA application counseling.

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