Hourly Services Reviews

Results speak for themselves: I was admitted to my dream school, HBS!

Melody has been an invaluable sounding board, copy editor and advisor for the past few months. I especially appreciated: her availability on short notice, her tirelessly critical eye on my essays (from version 1 to the final version 54 I submitted) and ability to continue to push me to dig deeper and demonstrate impact. I worked with her on an hourly basis on my resume and essays, and interview preparation. Melody was extremely helpful at helping me articulate my personal and work history, aspirations, goals, etc. and I consider both the money and time spent in the process as well invested.

I would strongly encourage others to work with Melody – I truly don’t think I would have had the same results without her expertise on crafting my application to showcase my story and personality.

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Melody was exception and felt like a real partner in my application process. My MBA journey was off to a bad start, I had applied and got rejected to the only school I really wanted to attend. When I began the reapplication process, I knew I needed help to nail the re-applicant essay. Melody was the perfect partner in this. I reached out to her in late July on helping me with my application but was focused on improving my test scores until early September. I had an application deadline of October 4th leaving me just 3 weeks to perfect my essay. Melody was instrumental in providing quick, direct, and invaluable feedback. There were about 4+ iterations of my essay before we were happy with the final result. With just 3 weeks to work through this, she was incredibly accommodating of my tight timelines and was always incredibly timely in providing feedback. She helped take my essay from a generic story to a thoughtful depiction of me, as a candidate. I submitted my application feeling confident that all aspects of my application were as good as they could be... which definitely contributed to my acceptance! Very excited to be attending one of the top programs in the country this coming year!

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I really did not want consulting services in my B-School admissions process because the prices seemed unaffordable but, in the midst of a mild freakout, I scheduled a free consultation with nearly every consulting service around because I thought it would at least point in the right direction for doing apps on my own. These consultations ranged from too complimentary to not believing in me at all, but none of them actually gave me time to explain why I wanted to go or why this process made sense for me except for Vantage Point's. I had a phone call with Meredith and she genuinely cared about my path and the pragmatic steps I needed to take to achieve my goals, which impressed me so much that I decided to get hourly services.

After matching with Alicia, my initial worry about money was immediately out the window. The very first call, Alicia set my expectations and assuaged my fears that I was going to be a lower rung client as I had engaged in hourly services. She even gave me her personal phone number to text her with questions. As she walked me through all of the things she would help me out with outside of the five hours I had paid for, it all felt immediately worth it. All the Vantage Point resources Alicia gave me on that first call really directed me into forming a strong narrative, which in retrospect I could not have done without Alicia guiding me. She was incredibly detail-oriented, patient, and kind throughout the whole process. What's more is that she was as much a friend, a confidante, and a valuable resource as an ex-CBS adcom as she was a consultant; she was just as excited about me turning in my apps as I was. For those looking for guidance on whether you should engage in consulting, Vantage Point, and Alicia, my response is a resounding yes!

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I applied to business school in Round 1 this year and am very glad that I had the opportunity to work with Hannah, at Vantage Point. I will be attending Harvard Business School this fall and I would highly recommend working with Hannah to anyone applying.

Experiencing an essay based admission process for the first time, I had no idea about the school’s expectations from my essays. Also, I had less than than the average number of years of work ex for my target schools, which made me anxious.

My reasons for choosing Vantage Point were two fold:
1. Personalized attention - I has an initial call with Melody and in 30 minutes she not only understood my profile well but also gave me pointers on how to present myself well in my applications to highlight my strengths and balance my weaknesses.
2. Cost effective - Although most top consultants are priced roughly the same, Vantage Point was at the lower end of the spectrum.

When I first started working with Hannah, I had initial drafts of my essays but quickly realized I was nowhere close to being submission-ready. Hannah knows exactly what each school is looking for and gave me very clear points on how to shape my essays for each. She also helped me rework and rewrite my essays so that they addressed 1) the highlights of my relatively short work ex, 2) my personality / interests, 3) my professional goals, 4) and how the schools would help get me there. Hannah's 'tough-love' really forced me to dig deeper and write essays that truly captured the essence of my experiences, where I am now & where I want to go next. The transformation of my initial drafts before working with her to the final drafts after was truly amazing.

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What I love about working with Melody is that she is able to push me to the best of myself. Working with her is a great investment to my MBA application. I reached out to Melody a little late in the preparation process while I was quite overwhelmed and confused working on the applications myself. After I reached out to Melody, she made sure she understood what I was looking for in schools and helped me strategize my application package. Her feedback to my essays was straight to the point and constructive. She made me feel that we were on the same team and she was committed to help me achieve my goals. Although she was busy, she was always able to meet the timelines that we initially agreed on. I can’t thank Melody enough!

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If you are reading this review and considering an MBA consultant, I recommend you go with Vantage Point. Below are the reasons.

First, the results: for context, I am a re-applicant. Last year I applied to three schools and did not get admitted to any of the three. This year I applied to four -- Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, and Booth. I RECEIVED YES CALLS FROM ALL FOUR, with substantial merit scholarships from Wharton and Booth. The results alone speak for themselves. Meredith at Vantage Point (and her team at-large) was absolutely critical to my success in this process.

Second, since I am a re-applicant, I had previously engaged two large firms in the MBA consulting space. The first big-name company was an absolute disaster of an experience -- my assigned consultant added significant stress to the process with a very condescending attitude, which led me to my second experience with another big-name firm. The second one was helpful more on the tactical level than strategic, which was to be expected given that I went with their hourly service.

I want to be transparent about my previous engagements with the two other firms so as to highlight why Vantage Point (and Meredith in particular) stand out in this field. At the start, she recommended that I go with the hourly service in lieu of the comprehensive (this recommendation was in my best interest despite the fact that I'd be paying her less), and throughout the process engaged my "project" as if it were her own in the sense that she never feared giving big, strategic feedback (e.g. that I should re-write an entire essay because things didn't read right in terms of level of detail, or because it didn't sound like my voice came through) without being imposing. This was exactly what I needed, and I believe is the most helpful approach for people in the MBA application process.

Furthermore, Meredith was a cheerleader and extremely supportive throughout the process. She REALLY cares for her clients.

The MBA application process can be grueling, and picking people who will be on your team and in your corner is crucial. I hope you make the right decision for you (for me that meant Meredith), and good luck on your journey!

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Melody was a fantastic resource and cannot recommend her enough! I worked with her on an hourly basis since I decided to use a consultant relatively late in the process (I had already written first drafts of all of the essays). Melody was tremendously helpful in helping me refine my story and ensuring that every word of each essay and my resume supported that story. Her feedback was always constructive and relevant and reflected a high level of detail despite me being an hourly client. Furthermore, Melody is extremely professional: she initiated an introductory phone call to discuss my goals, accommodated my timelines, clearly communicated how much time each request would take, and never tried to upsell me. She also following up with me throughout the interview process and offered support and tips. Thanks to Melody I got into 3 of the 4 Top 10 schools I applied to (including my dream school) and was awarded one full merit-based scholarship!

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Meredith came highly recommended from a friend of mine - and I am SO happy I found her! From our very first chat, Meredith was honest, warm and encouraging. She took the time to understand my desires for wanting to pursue an MBA, and challenged me to craft authentic and engaging essays. Coming from a somewhat non-traditional background, Meredith's help was also invaluable in helping me hone each bullet point on my resume to cut through on my experience and accomplishments.

I genuinely believe Meredith's guidance is what made the difference in helping me receive acceptances (and scholarships!!) from 4 of my top choice schools! Could not recommend her more highly - thank you Meredith!

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To start, Molly was a critical component of my MBA application process. Without her help, I do not think I would have put forth nearly as strong of an application and ultimately would not have had the acceptances I received.

I came to Molly as a re-applicant. She first helped with a complete evaluation and worked with me to reposition my profile. Following this, I primarily worked with her on my essays and then on interview prep. Throughout the process, Molly was very forthcoming with constructive criticism and did not hold back any of her thoughts. This candid feedback was what really elevated my application and was critical to getting the best application to adcom. Molly was also very timely in her responses and throughout my time with her, I felt that she was 'invested' in my success.

At the end of the day, I was admitted to 4 schools (including my top choice) and waitlisted to a 5th. I also received scholarships from 2 of the schools. For reference, I only applied to top 15 programs.

Overall, I could not speak more highly of her and would recommend any applicant to work with her! Thank you Molly!

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Had an excellent experience working with Alicia and with Vantage Point! I was pretty skeptical of admissions consultants when I reached out, but my initial chat with Melody (Vantage founder) and correspondence made me feel way less pressured than I did in speaking to larger firms that were just trying to upsell me some package that I didn't really need (had been waitlisted year before so was at least close to understanding what to do). Alicia was very warm and delivered feedback in a constructive, optimistic way that made it easy to take her advice! Very glad to have gone to a small firm that clearly cares about its clients! As for Alicia, her feedback as a re-applicant to be less formal and let my personality shine through a bit more, critiques on how to restructure my resume, and the awesome advice on bringing a "hook" to my essay writing all made me feel soooo much more confident this year about the process! Also as a former CBS adcom, her insider knowledge of what CBS cares about and how to highlight my future contributions to them made this feel like a slam dunk. She was able to draw my attention to things that I would have never thought about in my previous app and I felt like an expert on this process by the time I clicked submit! She was very available and did not make me feel like I was less of a priority by not buying some giant comprehensive package. Would highly recommend!!!!

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