Amerasia Admissions Consulting Reviews

Adam Hoff is the honest, objective, critical thinker that I needed to aid me in the application process. You probably need him, too.

STRENGTHS

1. Without Adam, I would have made the mistake of relying on people who are a) to close to me and already know my story or b) admissions consultants who, in trying to help their candidate, become too close to the applicant and their story.

In both cases, the adviser cannot evaluate the application objectively; they are drawing from the picture that they have constructed over hours of phone calls or years of working with you, not just what is on the paper. There is an inverse relationship between familiarity and objectivity, and that’s a big problem when admissions can only go off of what’s on paper.

I commend Adam for keeping such rigorous protocol on objective editing and application support. I feel that is rare and overlooked.

2. Without Adam, it could easily have taken me double the amount of time it did to complete my three applications. This is coming from a person who once believed the essays would be the “easy” part.

However, I quickly realized how difficult it can be to select the right story, select the right tone, and organize the essay in a way that makes sense. Balancing passion with objective business skills, for example, was just one challenge that Adam quickly advised me on. I found myself committing the same mistakes from essay to essay, actually. Adam was critical in helping me find the right approach.

3. Without Adam, I probably would have been a lot more stressed (and I like to remain pretty laid back). The application process is stressful enough as it is, so it really is helpful to feel as though you have a partner in the process that has been there, done that, and knows the application process cold. He is excellent at synthesizing information and capturing the most important points of stories that I couldn’t seem to break into compelling sound bites.

4. Without Adam, I would not have had the opportunity to have a mock interview with a well-qualified third-party who, for the sake of objectivity was completely unfamiliar with my story, and gave insightful, critical, and honest feedback. I felt extremely confident and comfortable for my first, real B-school interview.

Additional: Of course, Amerasia has a mastery of the "basic must-haves:" editing, proof-reading, school-specific guidance, etc.

WEAKNESSES

Amerasia is not the cheapest complete school admissions consulting package on the market. The program is not "cheap" when compared to some of the lowest priced consultants, but the value and ROI is well worth it. I spoke with admissions consultants from three different companies before deciding on Amerasia. It did not make sense for me to pay half the cost for what I perceived as half the service and someone reading from a Sales script. While not everyone can get admitted, if you do, the price is obviously well worth it. I don't see the MBA application process as a time to leave anything on the table.

CONCLUSION

Adam believed in my candidacy, understood my relatively non-traditional, non-linear path relatively quickly, and provided me with assistance that was invaluable.

From my experience, you can't go wrong with Adam.

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As I'm writing this review on the last days before I start my MBA at the business school of my dreams, I can't help but smile when I remember all the steps that brought me here. When I talked to Adam for the first time, I had just finished my first GMAT, I didn't have the grade I had hoped for and was starting to lower my expectations on my list of programs. "Maybe", "I guess you can try" were some of the answers I got from other admissions consultants I talked to.

But with Adam it was different. First of all, on our first free consultation he had clearly done his homework. He knew my CV, and he knew A LOT about the school, its values and its admissions process. That impressed me right from the start. Then he started telling me these great ideas of how we could highlight the strong points on my story and how to transform the weaker points (and I had quite a few) into a good story. And at the end of the consultation he said something that resulted in my final decision, and that was in my mind through the whole admissions process: "Claudia your profile is stronger that you think".

It's not that Adam didn't have a realistic view of what my odds were, what I felt from this statement was that Adam strongly believed that with my story I was a great fit for this school. After that, I improved my GMAT and we started working on the application.
Working on the essays with Adam was great. With his help, I was able to make my voice heard and to create a compelling story about me and future goals. I am very proud of my essays in general, and there is one in particular that I feel describes me perfectly.
In terms of working method, I chose to work on all the essays at the same time, if I focused on only one essay I would get stuck. Also, I ask a lot of questions. All the time. So for every comment Adam made on my essays, I would ask another question. And Adam was the most patient person in the world, answering everything, explaining how we could improve things, how the admissions office would look at each of the options.

When I was selected to the interview stage of the process, Adam arranged a mock interview with another consultant. I was very, very nervous during the mock interview, but her insights were really helpful, we worked on my weaker answers, we developed better ways to say what I wanted to say and going to the real interviews all my nerves were gone. I connected with the interviewers, I was relaxed and I said everything that needed to be said.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a consultant who is willing to go the extra mile for you, talk to Amerasia. You can talk to other consultants too, but if in the end you gut feeling tells you that Amerasia is the right choice, go with it. I did, and right now I'm packing and getting ready to start my MBA at the school of my dreams.

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I had an amazing experience with Amerasia Consulting. I applied to 6 schools in the fall of 2011. When I began working on the applications, I was terrified about the prospect of addressing the essays prompts and worried whether any of my experiences would suffice for the top bschools. More specifically, I was concerned about bringing these stories to life.

Drew really helped me achieve what I was worried about doing. I would never have been able to write with such clarity and concision without his help. We went back and forth a number of times regarding points, length, language and tone, but he was always patient and helpful. I think I have two full threads on gmail with our conversations.

Amerasia also set me up with mock interviews and reviewed the entire application to make sure there were no issues. Overall, I am glad to recommend their services to anyone who is pursuing the top programs.

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This is a review for Adam from Amerasia. I consulted with Adam for a complete package for one school, and then worked with him ad-hoc on some essays for other schools.

From the beginning Adam was very knowledgeable about the culture of each school. During the consultation, he gave me tips and insight into schools that I had not known or considered. I also consulted with 5 or so other admissions consulting companies but Amerasia was the most personal experience. Other companies made me feel badly about my qualifications, while Adam addressed my candidacy with more finesse and kindness. He had a more diplomatic and positive attitude.

Adam was incredibly useful in helping me put together my essays and resume for the one school. He not only edited the essays but helped with the content, idea creation, and helped me when I was stuck with the basic problem of what my long-term goals should be. When helping me craft my essays, when I was stuck on a particular question, Adam provided examples that he drafted from scratch that helped me to address the questions. This showed me how much effort and time he was putting in towards helping me achieve the very best essays.

Adam had such a pleasant disposition. He completely motivated me and helped me to get into the zone to attack the applications & essays. He was great to talk to...he simply just had style. I was admitted into one of my top two choices.

I whole-heartedly endorse Adam from Amerasia as the best MBA admissions consultant around.

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Hi All,

Here is a snippet of how I ended up working for Paul and boy..I am glad that I chose amerasia!!

Little bit of BG info. I am 30 yr/F/ Undergrad decent university from India, (EE)Masters - decent university US (3.2 GPA,EE). 1350 GRE

My desire to do a MBA started back in 2006 when I accidentally found myself browsing through pages of HBS!! But back then my personal situation did not allow me to pursue my goal. Fast forward 5 years ; after working for a top semiconductor company and a heavy manufacturing industry I decided that now might be time - It's now or never.

It's easier said than done as I had no clue as to how and where to start the whole process. I know where I stood among an extremely competing crowd and hence decided to use some professional help. All I wanted was to apply to two schools Ross and Kellogg's PTMBA .

Needless to say there are tons of professional consultants and fortunately I found this forum to be extremely helpful. I selected about 6 or 7 of them and talked to all of them.
About half of them (whom by the way are very prominent consultants) rejected my case since they thought that I did not stand a chance.
The last call I made was to amerasia. I spoke to adam and he mentioned that for my case Paul would be a better person to talk to. So ended up sending my case to Paul.

This was during sep 2011 which is a busy time for the applicants and the consultants. But Paul got back to me the very next day by email and scheduled with me for an hour of free consultation.
Needless to say all I had was my old resume since I had no clue as to how to modify the resume or do a rough draft of the essays.

He was up to the mark from the start , gave me a clear strategy how we are going to put our case to the school (I did have some unique background and exp), how to make my resume more appealing ; basically how we are going to end up getting admitted to!!!

He is someone who is blunt (not rude!) when it comes to the business. I completely trusted him in my case. We ended up doing 5 or 6 edits for each essay until we both were convinced that the essays exactly conveyed what I wanted to tell the adcom. He is some one who could extrapolate your thoughts to words and he is good at it!!!

He is very flexible in his schedule and if I needed him he made time in his schedule to talk to me - on the same day!!Also he is very experienced in working with international candidates - This helped me a lot during the process.

Did I mention that my 2 school package cost me about 50% less than what other consultants quoted me.

Finally I ended up getting into both the schools (One of them even offered me a scholarship!!). I owe a big thanks to Paul and amerasia. If anyone needs more information please feel free to PM me and I will be glad to share my thoughts with you.

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First off a bit about me. I am from India and work in the Semiconductor High Technology area in the Silicon Valley. I am 34 years old.

I took the GMAT twice in 2011 scoring 610 and 640 respectively. The second exam was in late September. Since the application deadlines were right around the corner, I was torn between retaking the exam to improve my score and continuing with the application. After about two weeks of deliberation, I decided to continue with the application.

Given my lower score and interest in California schools, I decided to go with an admission consultant. After speaking to a couple of consultants, including a local consultant, I was not really convinced much.

Then, I read a lot about Amerasia consulting on the GMATclub threads. I was impressed with Paul Lanzillotti's depth and experience and the ease and geniality with which he addressed people's questions. Also, it appeared that Paul didn't look down upon low GMAT scores. I got in touch with Amerasia about their two school package. Adam got in touch
with me and provided some initial guidance on what to expect. He was very clear upfront that given my lower GMAT score and interest in some top schools, my chances were at best 50-50!

I was then put in touch with Drew. Drew was professional from the word "go"! He setup a 30-minute call to understand what were my expectations and what to expect out of working with him. He followed this up with a very good questionnaire to get a better sense of my background, personality, and what were the best aspects about myself to showcase.

We decided that I'll use my two school package for UC Berkeley Haas and UCLA Anderson.

Then Drew wrote up a really unique strategy memo that outlined what was unique about each school and how to take a crack at their essays. For the first memo, he clearly outlined

the protocols for us working together, including response times and document exchange plans. I think this was very good since it setup a solid foundation for our working relationship and kept things professional. My schedule was another challenge since I had a two week vacation planned in December.

Then we got into the guts of writing essays. I came up with an initial set of essays and Drew went to work magically transforming the way the words were presented without making any change in the meaning I wanted to convey. In a sense he made my essays richer. Within 3-4 revisions, I could see how it was totally amazing compared to where we started.

Then came a small challenge of meeting the word count/page size limits. Again Drew snipped words intelligently without any noticeable impact on the quality of the essays. One of the big areas of focus for Drew was to turn the attention from everyone else in my essays to me. This was especially present in essays about my family.

Most important to notice in this effort was how we was appreciative of every essay version while being constructive in his suggestions for corrections. He always got back with his feedback on time.

Completing work on one school made things easier for the second school. However, Drew didn't take his feet off the gas pedal even once. He stuck to doing the same quality of work and sticking to the same schedule. Eventhough he was working with other applicants, he always made me feel that I was his only applicant!!

We got done with the essays about two weeks before the deadlines. Then Drew helped complete the applications by doing final reviews of what I wrote as answers to supplemental questions.

Within a few days of submitting my application, I got invited to interviews at both schools. Drew was immediately available to provide guidance on how to prepare for excelling on the interviews. He did a 30 minute mock interview in which he asked pretty much the standard set of questions of any MBA interview. For a couple of questions that I got stuck on giving really long answers, he helped trim the answers to be simpler without loss to the essence of the answers. For questions such as "have you applied to any other schools?", Drew suggested that I provide honest answers and the interviewer can be trusted to use this information responsibly.

Needless to say, come March, I was admitted to all the schools I had applied to. While I was very surprised at the result given my GMAT score, Drew had a HUGE role to play in my success. I can't thank him enough.

In closing, I'd very strongly recommend Drew and Amerasia consulting for an excellent job done in admission consulting. Their professionalism, integrity, genial nature, and very
well developed communication infrastructure is unparalleled.

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I was initially looking for Paul or Adam since I heard good things about them. Since they were both booked up, Adam referred me to his brother Drew. Even before I committed to the 3 school package, Drew set up a initial talk to go over what was included in the full package. His in-depth knowledge of the schools I wanted to apply to sold me on asking for his assistance to help me with my applications.

I selected the 3 school package and selected two top 10 private schools and 1 Consortium school. Drew not only helped me with essays, but also how to approach recommenders, my resume, interviews, and general application strategy. I think a lot of people believe consultants just write your essays for you, but that is totally not the case. Drew only helped me focus down on what i really wanted to do and encouraged me to write about my passions while cleaning up my grammar and overall essay strategy. We worked mainly over email and we sent revisions back and forth for my 3 schools. He definitely helped me a lot during the essay writing process and i don't think i would have been as concise and clear without his assistance.

When i started to get interviews, Drew helped me prepare over the phone and calmed me down when i was getting jittery. I ended up applying to 5 schools total, 3 of which Drew helped with. I got admits to 2 and I would definitely recommend him to others if they are looking into Amerasia.

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Everyone here seems to love Amerasia for reasons I agree with, but what stuck out to me the most was not only did Adam from Amerasia help me hone/completely form my goals - but afterwards, he continuously kept my goals in mind and would send me articles relating to what I wanted to do. This level of dedication was so impressive to me as I knew I was on his mind.

In other details, I applied to 5 schools in round 1 and used Adam for 4; however, by the time I got to the 5th I was just reusing stuff we'd already come up to and I'll give him the credit. While Stanford (I heard a rumor that some lady was a Stanford wiz, you guys should try to look for her if you can, I'm not sure who) and Harvard (My GPA was probably much to weak for Harvard) rejected me, I got into my first realistic choice - Kellogg! Looking back my profile and essays were cut out to be Kellogg perfect and they gave me a small scholarship to boot. I also got an interview at my backup realistic school and a full ride at my backup school!

The turn around time was fast - super fast! I was determined to get everything done before work got super busy and Adam was so good at cranking these things out over night or even five essays over the course of 2 days (he easily juggled the editing and writing of several essays at once). Not only did he crank them out though, he saved me a lot of time by being a magician with words. It would take me 200 words to describe something he could sum up in one eloquent sentence.

Perhaps, just perhaps with enough headache and work and reviews from friends I could have achieved the same goals - perhaps; however, Adam guided me through the process efficiently (weeding out much too helpful friends who had good intentions but uninformed targets) and I could not have applied to so many schools so quickly without him.

If I were you, I would start early in the process too as all admission consultants get busy closer to the deadlines. I finished early and Adam did a final review of my application and caught a bunch of typos - wahoo! He was also super flexible about answering questions outside of our 'contract' (aka helping me a bit for my 5th unpaid for school) and was in general a great person to work with! Thanks Adam and sorry this review was so long overdue!

TLDR: Hire a consultant, makes process efficient. Amerasia/Adam = a fantastic person to work with

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I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Paul from amerasia for his consulting services. I would highly encourage the other applicants to consider them for their competitive price packages and through knowledge on schools. I talked to several consultancies like MBAmission, mbaprep , mbapply before deciding to go with Paul. I was very impressed with the way he explained the process to me as I was very new to this whole MBA admissions. Also he is very considerate person to work with - The reason I am saying this is from my personal experience ; I had couple of consultants reject my case because they did not think that I was competitive enough. But because of Paul's guidance I was able to get into PTMBA at Ross . If you need more information ping me.
Good luck to you all!

P.S : I am a member of this forum for almost 2 years and I was almost a silent observer.

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I first got in touch with Amerasia at the beginning of the summer when I had decided on a preliminary list of business schools to apply to. Before calling Amerasia I spoke to a consultant at Stacy Blackman. However, the consultant I spoke to on the phone was not necessarily the consultant I would be working with during my application process. Working abroad, I was wary of going through the application process alone. At the same time, I knew I would need someone who could really understand my story and help me articulate it such that business schools would be able to understand the breadth of my experience.
The hurdles I knew I would face were an average GPA and barely two years of work experience upon matriculation. The quality of my work experience of helping start up a company abroad would need to be the focus of my application.
After talking with Paul at Amerasia Consulting for an hour during the free consultation I knew this was someone who I would be comfortable working with and someone who had experience with similar stories as mine. With several years experience in the admissions process, Paul was very clear with the entire application process during our initial phone call. I decided to enroll for the Full Engagement services just days after our phone call.
Based on my profile, we decided on 7 schools that we could work towards, and because we got an early start we were able to focus on each application individually and carefully approach each essay. Where I would have used the same essay for each school, Paul helped me understand what particular schools looked for in the “short/long term goals” essay for example. This way I found Paul’s guidance tremendously helpful as I navigated the business school application process. Initially we would talk on a weekly basis, and I never felt as though our conversations had a set time limit or that I was a burden. As deadlines approached, we would even meet twice a week depending on what was left to do.
After being offered an interview at one of my top choices, MIT Sloan, Paul was able to provide me with a lot of insight into how Sloan conducts interviews. With their ‘behavior interview’ approach, I was unfamiliar with how I would need to prepare. After a few mock interviews and reviewing my application with Paul I felt much more comfortable going into my interview.
I highly recommend Amerasia Consulting to help you through the MBA admissions process. I haven’t thought twice about the money spent, it was well worth it after being admitted to a top 10 MBA program.

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