ApplicantLab Admissions Consulting Reviews

This is what I sent Maria after receiving admission to my top school:

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! As a fringe candidate that was considered too inexperienced (2 years out of college), too young (24), and probably too dumb (2.9 GPA), I needed every ounce of help I could to craft a cohesive and persuasive story for my MBA applications. Without the ApplicantLab setup and your personal help, I probably don't receive a single acceptance. 3 acceptances later, including the Tepper School at CMU, I want to thank you a hundred times over for setting up a fantastic, intuitive, and most importantly, effective tool for MBA applications. I've referred you to everyone that will listen, and will continue to do so. Bottom line: ApplicantLab works, and it works well.

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Key message:

**Expensive firms are not the only viable option!**

ApplicantLab is essentially a series of one on one recorded consulting sessions that you can replay time after time! It's personalised, intelligent advice that doesn't have any personal agendas or biases. Here's how it helped me.

The reason I looked for extra advice was that I lacked some confidence in my profile and I also felt a bit out of the loop being so far away from the US and Europe, as I was based in South Africa. In retrospect, I think many people people feel this way; it's normal.

Maria's platform caught my eye while I was looking for supporting material. The price was far better than the traditional admissions consultants and after the free trial of the platform I took the plunge and purchased access. The beauty of an appified, online admission advice process is the following:

1. Maria's words and advice have been chosen very carefully for her videos, and you can go back and listen to them over and over
2. The platform's algorithms are smart and give you personalised advice that I found very helpful, for example in identifying your strong and weak points
3. You can work at your own pace, which means you have enough time to type down various thoughts and reflections. You simply wouldn't have that amount of time with a consultant unless you paid for huge amounts of time
4. You can get personalised, well-researched advice for any of several top tier schools at no extra cost. If you want to add a school, it's easy.

Maria and her team have clearly put a huge amount of time and effort into curating a product that I found so relevant and helpful, greatly assisting me to get admitted to Oxford in stage 4 of the 6 rounds of admissions (this year there are only 4 rounds). I was blown away.

Don't consider this a second choice to traditional consultants - the lower price point is not a marker of its usefulness or quality. It's simply due to the online nature of the offering that the price comes in more affordably. Plus, if you decide you want someone to speak to, Maria is available for one on one consultations at additional rates.

I wholeheartedly recommend ApplicantLab. Good luck!

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**I am writing this review after already having received my admissions decisions and committing to a school**
I was really on the fence about whether to shell out thousands of dollars per school to make sure I had a buttoned-up admissions package, but at the suggestion of a friend I decided to try ApplicantLab first.

Honestly, this is the best b-school related decision I made. The modules are incredibly helpful and allow you to go at your own pace. She has specific advice for each school, and in my opinion, the advice is probably as good as any other service out there - for a lot less money.

In addition to how helpful the modules are, Maria is also super responsive via email and truly goes above and beyond to answer your questions. I feel like I got to know her well, and she is really invested in your success.

I honestly couldn't have gotten into my schools without her, and I'm so thankful for her "lab" and support!!

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Before I write anything else, I want to confess one thing here:
There were two main reasons I subscribed to applicantlab:
1. It’s was just 300 bucks (~ 20000 INR)
2. It’s a HARVARD Alumna product
The low price (when every other consultant, including the Indian consultants in the world, is asking for thousands of dollars) gave me a feeling that even if it does not help I am not loosing much and the Harvard tag gave me an assurance that I am in safe hands. Plus when I attended one of its webinar (organised by e-gmat), I came to know about Maria’s experience of helping students in their applications for more than 10 years, I had little doubt left that I want to subscribe to applicantlab. So I subscribed. And I must admit, it turned out to be one of the best investment I ever made. (Trust me. I am a Gujarati and we people are known for our shrewd business and financial acumen ;)
Afterall, I got 200x return in terms of scholarship :p
What did it do (Read BEST FEATURES of Applicantlab):
- It gave me insights into my profile’s strengths and weakness.
- Gave me suggestions on how to mitigate / address those weaknesses and leverage those strengths.
- Gave me direction on how to research more deeply about my goals / vision.
- Provided ideas to approach people for informational interviews
- Helped me brain storm ideas about my personal story
- Provided prompts to brain storm stories on leadership, teamwork, persuasion, failures, etc
- Gave me school / essay specific suggestions and directions
- Kicked me right direction to research school specific details
- Helped me prepare my recommender
- Helped me build my resume
- (Bonus) Provided a tutorial on how to make a video essay (which is becoming common with more and more bschools every day). Trust me it’s a real struggle if you are not a pro in that field.
- And my favourite is the Interview Module. I will just say this “I appeared in 3 interviews so far and have cleared all of them”. And trust me I have not used a single other source but applicantlab for interviews. In a word / sentence, I would say “It is simply the BEST in the market”.
Methods provided on the module to practice your interview skills, the framework on for each for each of the commonly asked questions in bschool application interviews and more importantly what not to do for each question make the interview module the highlight of applicantlab.

In case, you still have doubts about applicantlab, read this:
When I applied earlier this year in R1, I was in-between jobs (had to leave the previous one without having a new one in hand), but still it did not affect my chances much because I had covered it that weakness well through other parts of my application and I could do that only because of Maria & her applicantlab.

About myself: Mostly I will be matriculating at Kelley but awaiting a couple of other results before I make a final decision.

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I was a reapplicant to schools this year when I found ApplicantLab. I heard about the tool through the Forte Foundation's MBA Launch program and tried out the free trial.

After just an hour working with the tool I could tell that I needed to buy it. It's a one-stop-shop for organizing all of your brainstorming and applications. Filling out the tool is actually fun because there are some great features such as writing out your stories and dragging and dropping the traits that it represents. Then, when you want to write about certain traits, you can use a filter to bring up the stories that best represent those traits.

However, the absolute BEST part of the lab is that Maria makes videos where she goes through ALL of the top business school applications and explains the rationale behind the questions and has rock-solid approaches to take so that you can respond.

If I didn't have access to the videos, I would have spent many hours of unnecessary time thinking about what Maria explained via her informative and entertaining videos.

On top of that, I bought a few hours of review time from Maria herself. Not only was ApplicantLab itself relatively inexpensive, but Maria's hourly rate (about $150) was much less than other consultants (some charge $300-$500?!?!).

Hiring a consultant for $4000+ is just insane, ApplicantLab is ~$300 and you will get absolutely equal or better value.

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About me: I am an Asian male working in IT consulting (but not from India). I just got admitted to Wharton in R1 as a reapplicant. Last year, I was rejected after wait list.

As the school didn’t provide feedback after rejection, I was seeking any possible way to enhance my package besides English and interview practice. That’s when I came across ApplicantLab. I tried the free module and immediately decided to purchase it because it specifically pointed out the strategy for people like me who want to transition from IT consulting to strategy consulting. That REALLY surprised me because I thought such tool like many admission books in the marketplace can only provide general advice, but Maria did an amazing job making an interactive platform able to tailor to each one’s situation.

Compared to the price of 1-on-1 consultant package, ApplicantLab is totally a steal. As it has one flat price regardless how many schools I used, it really has more than what I could use. Particularly, the “Prewriting” module is super helpful. It not only has a detailed “Review advice” for each essay question but also has a check list for me to check if my essay covers everything. In addition, like other reviews had said, Maria is very helpful and replied very fast for additional questions I have. There were several time she replied even within one hour!

Lastly, as my interview last year didn’t work out. I also purchased 1 mock interview with Maria. Maria’s feedback is extremely helpful and to the point to me. Even though she gave feedback right after the mock interview, she was able to capture everything I said and gave detailed feedback for each question. I got several insights into adcom’s mindset and developed better answers throughout our discussions.

In short, I would highly recommend ApplicantLab for every one even already having 1-on-1 consultant package. Thank you, Maria!

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I used ApplicantLab for my applicants to Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton in Round 1, and was accepted to all 3. Private admissions consultants were so so expensive and not an option for me, so I took the leap, and could not be happier about my choice.

The service is unconventional as a concept, but superbly executed by Maria and is (to me) a gamechanger. I had questions about how effective an online system would be, and am blown away by how much direction it gave my essays and my interview prep. I felt super comfortable with my essays by the end of the process, and went through so many fewer iterations than I read about from other applicants. I cannot imagine any admissions consultant service being more helpful or adding more value to my admissions process.

Thanks again Maria!! And if you're already a self-driven, motivated applicant, then there really is no need to shell out thousands - the system works superbly.

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I used ApplicantLab for my Round 1 applications this season, and it is truly amazing (and I made it into my top choice schools!)
Maria has put a lot of time and effort into developing this tool that pretty much answers every question you have (or even questions you should have had but hadn't thought of) and walks you through each step of the application process. The questions that Maria lays out on the tool are meant for you to be introspective and think about what truly matters to you, and in the process, create essays that are true reflections of who you are as a person. The best part about ApplicantLab is that it does not interfere with your creative freedom at all, but in fact, encourages it. Also, Maria's essay advice is tailored to each specific essay for each school, and is absolutely fantastic. Her videos in particular are super helpful, and make you feel like you always have someone who is looking out for you. Maria's advice is always honest and straightforward, and helps you not get freaked out by the plethora of misconceptions out there on MBA forums.
Maria herself is such a lovely person. Every time I emailed her, she always took the time to provide detailed answers to my questions and really looked out for me.
Overall, dare I say that this tool can more than replace any admissions consultant - and for such a reasonable price, it is SO worth it! Thank you, Maria!

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I used ApplicantLab for my MIT Sloan Round 1 application and I plan to use it for my Round 2 apps as well. I am using ApplicantLab for 5 MBA apps and I'm sure I could choose more.... and it's just one flat fee! Anyways, I received my MIT Sloan acceptance call last Tuesday for Round 1 with a full fellowship!! I am over the moon and I owe a lot to Maria's ApplicantLab!! I know it wouldn't have been possible without the help of ApplicantLab's step-by-step (like incredibly granular) instructions on how to structure my ENTIRE application. Maria gives solid guidance on whichever path you decide to take with your apps (e.g. she provides great feedback on each of the pics for the Booth main essay, as well).

I thought the "Review Advice" in the pre-writing section was INCREDIBLY helpful as I had trouble distilling what I thought would be relevant to the Sloan community. It definitely pushed me in the right direction and I have to give a significant amount of credit to Maria for helping me get there.

The flexibility of the self-pace style of ApplicantLab was also a boon as I was able to get assistance on my app whenever I wanted without relying on calling a consultant who may or may not answer the phone right away.

For those who are worried that ApplicantLab isn't personalized enough... don't fret. It goes very in-depth and highlights your traits that are desired by each school. You just have to do some thinking while in the brainstorming phase -- the same kind internal digging you'd do with a regular consulting service.

In sum, ApplicantLab was a very valuable resource during my R1 application cycle and I wouldn't be in my current position without it! 10/10 recommend if you want bang-for-the-buck help getting into a top MBA program!

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I was rushing to submit my applications for R1 and I only had 4 weeks to draft several compelling essays! My GMAT was a median score, so I was quite stressed and frankly overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done.. it was a slow start.

I stumbled upon Applicant Lab on the GMAT club and read good reviews. I thought I would give it a try since at this point, I had to use my time very efficiently.

Applicant Lab was very helpful in directing my energies towards productive brainstorming, drafting and final editing. There was also a diagnostic section in the beginning that assessed my profile and gave specific instructions how I can strengthen my application i.e. given a median GMAT vs. really smart people all around the world. This encouraged me and helped me craft a compelling and targeted story.

Maria is very hands-on and helpful. I loved the videos as it makes her come to life, like the 'MBA Alumni Friend' you could bother! Of course I reached our to other MBA alumni for advice on my applications, but they are obviously very busy people and I couldn't bother them on the details. Maria (through applicant lab) gave me the nitty gritty for each essay/ recommendation question on my application and wow- this was mighty helpful!

Fast forward several weeks after, I got into my top choice school - INSEAD with a FULL scholarship!! Using the applicant lab 'frameworks' and Maria's advice on my scholarship essays were a big help. I couldn't be happier and I would definitely recommend Applicant Lab in a blink of an eye. :)

Thank you Maria! You are doing amazing things.

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