Maria Wich-Vila Reviews

ApplicantLab played a pivotal role in my successful application journey, and I must acknowledge the value it brought to the table. The platform, along with its unwavering guidance and expertise, became an unwavering anchor throughout the challenging process. The strategic insights and sanity check provided by the team were truly invaluable, while the contributions made by Maria to ApplicantLab are simply outstanding. The platform created by Souvik is an absolute gem for anyone preparing their MBA applications, and words cannot fully express my admiration for its comprehensive and intuitive nature.

ApplicantLab's platform impressed me with its comprehensive and intuitive approach. Right from the beginning, it offers a structured path that makes the daunting task of crafting a compelling MBA application more manageable. Each section of the application is thoroughly addressed, with detailed guidance, examples, and actionable steps that ensure applicants stay on track and present their best selves.

One of the standout features of ApplicantLab is its strategic insights. The team's expertise shines through as they guide applicants to think critically about their experiences, strengths, and goals, and how to present them in the most impactful way. Their guidance is practical and actionable, helping applicants understand the thought process behind every element of their application. The strategic insights offered by ApplicantLab were a game-changer, enabling me to align my story with the expectations of top business schools.

Maria's outstanding contributions to ApplicantLab deserve special mention. The platform is enriched with her valuable insights, essay tips, and sample essays. Her expertise in storytelling and essay writing is evident, and her contributions provide a wealth of resources for applicants to tap into. The combination of the team's expertise creates a powerful synergy that significantly enhances the effectiveness of ApplicantLab.

The platform itself is incredibly user-friendly and intuitive. Navigating through the different sections and modules is effortless, thanks to the clean and visually appealing layout. ApplicantLab's comprehensive nature ensures that crucial elements of the application are not missed. It covers every aspect, from resume building and essay writing to interview preparation, providing applicants with a holistic and well-rounded application.

What sets ApplicantLab apart from other platforms is its affordability. Despite being the most cost-effective option available, it delivers exceptional value. The platform's effectiveness and the level of guidance provided far exceed its price point, making it an incredible investment for anyone serious about their MBA applications.

Thanks to ApplicantLab, I received admits from UC Berkeley, Kellogg, and CMU Tepper, three prestigious business schools that were at the top of my list. A significant portion of my success can be attributed to the guidance and support I received through this platform. ApplicantLab empowered me to present a compelling and authentic application that truly showcased my strengths and aspirations.

In conclusion, I wholeheartedly recommend ApplicantLab to any MBA applicant. It is a comprehensive, intuitive, and cost-effective solution that provides invaluable guidance throughout the application process. The team behind ApplicantLab has created a remarkable platform that demystifies the application journey and equips applicants with the tools they need to succeed. Don't miss out on this gem of a resource—it may just be the difference between an average application and an acceptance letter from your dream business school.

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YOU DO NOT NEED TO SPEND THOUSANDS ON AN ADMISSIONS CONSULTANT. I cannot stress enough how incredibly helpful ApplicantLab was for so good of a price.

• Resume Template – ApplicantLab’s resume template is the most concise, organized, and efficient use of space that I have come across. I had spent multiple unsuccessful weeks looking for a new template to update my resume before signing up for ApplicantLab and nothing came close.
• Essay Breakdown – This is where I spent the majority of my time on the website. Maria breaks down each essay for each school – she puts the essay prompt in the context of the school’s culture and priorities and helps you think from the admissions perspective. It was so so helpful I highly recommend to read through to spark ideas for essays.
• Unique School Info – A lot of what you have to do throughout the admissions process is show why that specific school is the best for you and Maria has so much good information about what makes each program unique that you can incorporate into your essays and interviews.
• Interview prep – She has all sorts of great interview tips and questions typically asked by each of the programs.

Maria was incredibly supportive, responsive, and helpful throughout this process. When I submitted an essay for a final polish edit, she was worried it was a little close to the deadline so she filmed a 20 minute video of her breaking down my essay and providing amazing insights to improve my essay. She goes out of her way, above and beyond. This is an amazing one stop shop that gave me direction throughout the daunting application process and helped me get into my dream schools while saving me thousands!!

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The best on-demand platform for applicants who are self-motivated. I would recommend starting the essay writing process a little earlier if you are working alone so you have enough time to brainstorm, create drafts, and review with the supplementary services. Starting early ensures you know where you need to improve, given this is not traditional consulting. It pretty much covers everything about the schools right from the values that matter the most to them, what they are looking for as proof of work in the candidates, how to reach out to alumni and showcase interest, how to brainstorm for the essays and include examples from different strength areas, how to mitigate your weaknesses, the recommendations, resume, and even interviews.

For reference, I applied to some of the top 20 colleges and got admitted to Fuqua with a scholarship. I only used Applicant Lab for this.

On the supplementary services (I used the resume review and essay review): I found them decent and got good feedback on my work. Remember that these are "reviews", you must do a few rounds of editing yourself to truly receive the value and not waste time on basics that were already covered in the modules within the Lab.

Note on free trial: The free trial will only give a minimal view into what the Lab actually provides. I went with the reviews and purchased despite not being sure about the free trial -- and I am very glad that I did because the platform is truly quite helpful and contains everything I needed to know for my applications.

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ApplicantLab is a game-changer.

I didn't start my application in November 2022. I applied to Tuck, Columbia Business School, and Stern. I was initially planning on applying to 5 schools, but didn't have enough time to write essays. I barely had enough time to write essays for Stern, but ApplicantLab was there for me to walk me through it.

I received admission offers from Tuck (20% aid), Columbia Business School (50% aid), and Stern (100% aid).

The modules were a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, but Maria's advice on each school is spot on, specific, and really helped drive a story home

Maria is also highly responsive, and she actually answered every email that I sent her! In the middle of the application season!

I can't even believe that this is only $3xx. I would have been happy to pay more for the modules. I would recommend anyone to choose ApplicantLab over any other consulting services that are charging you thousands of dollars for ONE application.

Honestly, not sure why this platform isn't more popular because it really should be the first thing that everyone should check out.

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ApplicantLab was crucial to being admitted to my top choice! The price is unbeatable, and Maria does a fantastic job of breaking down the different components of each essay for each of the different schools.

I cannot recommend ApplicantLab enough to anyone that is applying to business school. In addition to the online services, Maria was extremely responsive to ad-hoc emails and provided a perspective that helped me think about a unique and effective way to present my story. I can honestly say that I would not have been able to successfully navigate this process without ApplicantLab and all the services/resources provided. 10/10

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Let me start this review by saying that I am a real person. I’m not paid by ApplicantLab to praise them in public spaces. I am an over-30 woman who has MANY weaknesses when it comes to MBA applications:

• On the older side of candidates
• Few promotions, never had a subordinate
• Engineering background – too common!
• Not really sure about my post-MBA goals
• GRE score is LESS than the average of HBS
• Financially constrained, could not afford personalized services

Given this, I initially did not plan to apply to HBS at all. One of my school selections has a small size of class and I was afraid that my GRE score would not be competitive, so I e-mailed Maria asking for advice. I didn’t send her my essay or anything, just a general question with a little bit of my background. To my surprise, she replied the e-mail (super detailed reply + morale boost). She pointed at the brand traits in the Lab's "Mapping" section that I could elaborate, then encouraged me to aim higher… to go for HBS instead! She also made me aware that there is a Need-based Application Fee Waiver, so even though it was 2 weeks before the R2 deadline, I could shoot my shot without losing money.

I’m glad I took that shot. Having used ApplicantLab for 3 months at that point, I could easily tailor my story for HBS even in a short period of time. Here are some modules in ApplicantLab that worked best for me:

• Career Vision
Every business school is going to ask you for a career vision. No matter how much they put emphasis on “we care more about your past performances”, it will look bad if you don’t know why you go for an MBA at all. ApplicantLab listed all possible scenarios that I could think of! This module also pushed me to think more than just “Consulting”, “Entrepreneurship”, but gave probing questions to reflect on the specifics according to my background. The “My Strengths & Weaknesses” module also addressed all the concerns I had on being too old, having few promotions, etc.

• Brainstorming, Branding & Mapping
When anyone asked, how could I put together an HBS essay a.k.a. the ultimate MBA essay in 2 weeks? This is the answer. These 3 modules made me brainstorm like crazy. I was probed to think deeper into my own experience of, for example, being innovative/persuasive, and they provided detailed guidelines on how to tell that story. In the Mapping section, I was asked to allocate the “evidences” that I had collected in Brainstorming and Branding sections wisely – different schools have different focus, and you need to tailor your story based on what THE SCHOOLS want, not what you think they want… which brings me to the next section…

• Essay Advice
ApplicantLab provides an EXTREMELY DETAILED essay advice for EVERY SCHOOL. I put this in capitalized words because if you have been window-shopping on admissions consultants, you will know that they charge for 1-school up to 5-schools packages. What if you wanted to apply to HBS 2 weeks before the deadline like I did? You cannot do that with a traditional admissions consultant. With ApplicantLab, I could easily hover over the “HBS” tab and access the plethora of information available there (the videos are plenty and 1 video can go up to 45 mins). I did it at 4 AM. No fuss.

• Recommendations
My HBS interviewer specifically mentioned that my Recommendation Letter provided a good look into my character, as my recommender(s) elaborated that: 1) I am the breadwinner of the family; 2) I bounced back after a painful layoff from my dream company. I have to give that credit to ApplicantLab’s Recommendation module. It provided a step-by-step instruction to make sure that my Recs complement what I try to convey in my essay, by cheering on my strengths and mitigate my weakness from an outsider’s point of view. You have to try the module and see it by yourself because it’s so hard for me to explain how it works here, but it works!

• Interview
Finally, the Interview module. This module contains great advice to tackle the oh-so-usual questions like “Tell me about yourself”, “Why MBA”, “Why this school”, but also the more advanced questions like “How do you deal with difficult people?”. There is also a module for school-specific interviews, like HBS Post-Interview Reflection, Wharton’s Team Based Discussion, MIT’s 2 additional essays, etc. As with the other modules, Maria provided an extremely detailed explanation for everything. I used this module to get a full scholarship too! (not from HBS – from a specific scholarship applicable to the citizen of my country, which has 12% acceptance rate, if that matters).

Having said that, I do want to be objective by providing some caveats for the MBA hopefuls here: ApplicantLab is not for everyone. I think it’s best to be used by:

• A self-motivated person
If you can pace yourself to finish all the modules and pay attention to the details provided, you will reap the most benefit from ApplicantLab. I watched Maria’s videos in between airport travels, made notes/reflect at 4-6 AM before work, then expanded the brand traits to become actual essays at 9-10 PM. I did it everyday for ~3 months. You need to be discipline.

• Someone who can self-reflect
I said it before and I’ll say it again: ApplicantLab is not a personalized service. It is created by an admissions expert who replicates herself through the videos. It gives you pointers and probing questions, but you are required to reflect upon your own experiences and put it into the “Mapping” section to craft your story. I do think you need to have enough self-reflection prior to an MBA, regardless of which consultants you choose, because the components of MBA applications require you to do just that.

• A financially constrained person
If my mum and dad make $$$ per year, of course I’d love to have a 5-school package from a traditional admissions consultant. I want my essays to be reviewed. I want to rehearse for mock interviews. ApplicantLab provides those services for small extra fees too, which some of the reviewers here have used and loved, but I could not even afford it. For me, this video-based learning is as best as I could get with my limited fund. No other $340 is as worth it as ApplicantLab, really!! If you have extra money though, you can definitely make ApplicantLab more personalized by using the extra services, as they are much cheaper than other providers.

• Someone who can get an outside help for essay reviews/mock interview.
I am fortunate enough to have a mentor who reviewed my essays, 2 HBS alumni/student who were willing to help me with free mock interviews, and many good friends who applied to graduate school before. With the foundation that was set by ApplicantLab, I could come to them prepared, and have them sharpened the points that I might have missed. If you are not as fortunate as me, you can consider using the extra services provided by ApplicantLab.

So that's it... thank you for reading my reviews thus far! Try the free version first to see if you're a match for ApplicantLab. I hope I have provided an objective review to help you choose the best admissions consultant for you. ApplicantLab was certainly the best for me, and I could not thank Maria and her team enough for enabling me to secure a spot at this prestigious institution with minimum spending. Plus point: she has great sense of humor too :) it did help during the stressful weeks leading up to the deadline!

All the best for the MBA hopefuls out there in navigating your application journey!

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It was a few days before New Year's when I received my much-desired GMAT score. At that time, I was eager to wrap up the application endeavor quickly - after all, I got into a good school in Round 1 and I was hopeful my new GMAT could allow for scholarship. However, fate had other plans for me, and I'm glad I discussed my situation with Maria, who helped me understand the selling points of my profile better. Her encouragement and pep talk boosted my determination to aim higher in Round 2, and without her, I would not have dared to apply to MIT Sloan, which I always considered out of my league. With only two weeks left until the application deadline, I had to work hard, but ApplicantLab's resources were instrumental in helping me flourish. A few months later, I received the happiest call of my life from Sloan at midnight.

While I had already sorted out other parts of my application (resume, recommendation, behavioral interview etc) in Round 1 with the help of many resources and people that I'm eternally grateful for, including ApplicantLab, its detailed guide on the essay section was invaluable. I had never written a cover letter or made a video essay for a business school before, but the insider guide that ApplicantLab provided helped me focus on what to expect. Having appealing stories is still essential, but the guide gave me confidence in crafting essays that showcased my best self while ticking all the boxes. The guide also helped me choose between schools as it highlighted the qualities that each school values and how they aligned with my desired goals for an MBA experience. Overall, I highly recommend ApplicantLab as a great resource for anyone looking to apply to top MBA programs.

I want to give a special shoutout to Maria, Carin, and the whole ApplicantLab team. Without their support and resources, I wouldn't have been able to achieve my dream of getting into MIT Sloan. It's also important to note that the effectiveness of a self-guided tool like ApplicantLab course greatly depends on how you use it. If you find yourself feeling unsure or inexperienced as an applicant, ApplicantLab's consulting services might be fantastic complements to your journey. In any case, you can't go wrong with ApplicantLab - an exceptional and cost-efficient resource!

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Using ApplicantLab was a miracle that saved me in my application to B-schools! I was so concerned with studying for GMAT that I started working on my essays only one week before the first school's deadline (and I didn't score very well on GMAT either).
I applied to 8 top business schools over 15 days and I got admitted to 6 of them. The only rejections were from Harvard and Stanford, which were absolutely understandable.
If it weren’t for the step-by-step guide and helpful tips at each step of the process, I would definitely not be able to join LBS with 70% scholarship. ApplicantLab guided me at each step from brainstorming to creating a compelling resume and writing essays. In addition, the hidden humor in the explanations and Maria's smiling face at the videos made the process of preparing application materials way easier!

One of the important aspects of the lab was its psychologically-optimized process. I had a writer's block, but the smooth steps of the lab helped me to overcome this issue by helping me to do a single task at a time.
For me, the flexibility of the service was super helpful. Having limited time, I used the lab at any time of the day, from early morning to late at midnight. It was like having a consultant by my side at each time of the day.

And one the surprises while using the lab was that when I asked Maria a question, she answered my question with great detail, her email was about 1-2 pages long! I did not expected such an attitude

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I'm like most who was extremely skeptical about online MBA admissions prep especially since ApplicantLab was less money compared to other platforms out there. Overall, I was extremely impressed by the format, responsiveness, and quality of the ApplicantLab. I spent a fraction of what would of have paid at one of those other expensive competitors but felt like I got my monies worth. The turnaround feedback for the resume + essay review was a very quick around (24-48 hours) and each document was marked up with the comments of the reviewer. Another highlight is that everything was pretty simple to navigate and go through online. I would recommend the platform to anyone who is looking for a cost effective option to online tailored MBA admissions help.

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I signed up with ApplicantLab just before R2 and applied to 7-8 schools (M7 & T15) using it. Absolutely loved the interesting and funny way in which Maria presented the relevant tips and guidance through her videos and how the tool provides very handy pointers to approaching the essays and other parts of the application.

The success ratio of my applications with ApplicantLab (4 Admits including Stanford, 1WL, 2 Dings) was better than the ratio with a much higher paid traditional consultant (1 Admit, 1WL, 4 Dings).

So highly recommend ApplicantLab over other traditional consultants. The low cost of the tool is just an added bonus!

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