From Aringo: *Awesome* Application Self-Assessment Tool

I found it pretty useful.

Really though, you have to remember it is a tool to help get you to purchase their service. I'm competitive or better at the schools I applied to, if I have strong essays and recs. Obviously I can't assess that objectively. The key is that medium ranked essays, recs, application will likely drop you to a stretch at your target schools.

So naturally you then want to purchase their help as that guarantees you a "strong" rating in these areas.

I didn't use a consultant, but in hindsight I kind of regret not investing at most 5% of the cost of school into getting in.

seems like bullshit to me. yes you can get a better idea of how competitive you are in terms of objectiveness, but the overall application process is marred by a myriad of grey areas. you can be competitive on this point system and still get dinged.

i wouldn't really use this as a metric for admission by any means.

As for assessing your essays strength, I see they also have another evaluation tool on their website to help you analyze your essays and evaluate your application based on what they call "admission drivers".

The Devil's hands are idle playthings.

I would agree the metric is virtually meaningless, because there are so many human factors involved in the process. You can run into people that love your background or people that hate it at virtually any school.

That said it's fun, and somewhat valid. Funny story, I had a 39 and saw that the scale only went down to 61 and was discouraged/confused. Saw I skipped the the entire section 3! Once I filled that in I was a 69.5 or if everything is strong or a 61 if everything is moderate. I feel that's pretty spot on as my non-traditional background puts me in the into the stretch/competitive realm for top tier schools and competitive for that second tier. Pretty much how my gut feels.


Also, absolutely random fact (solely because my fiancée taught me this just today) "myriad of" is incorrect English. You should have said "marred by a myriad grey areas". It sounds terrible when spoken, but for some reason is correct English. (cue NBC The More Your Know) Absolutely blew my mind.

This seems pretty spot-on! Granted, it's hard to say how your application is, but this can help you figure out where you stand depending on execution.

Hopefully it eases any fears about being delusional. Or helps others make wise decisions on what schools to focus on.

That's a very good point, it can help you aim for the right programs for you and set realistic goals.

Whatever, just don't rely on it too much and don't give up on a school just because this tool is telling you that you have no chance.
You should do your research and select the programs which best fit you and your goals, don't worry too much about admission chances.
Then, build strong application and apply!

Does anyone understand why you need to drop 0.5 point if you are applying to NYU in first round? Is it easier to get admitted to NYU in 2nd round??

If I had to guess it's because their infamous waitlist, which probably makes it harder for first round applicants.

This thing is a joke. Especially considering where it put me relative to the invites I have received from schools!

Where did you apply and what was the point gap?

My score was right around 60, yet I was interviewed and waitlisted at Stanford, interviewed by Haas and Anderson, and dinged by HBS. In my eyes, that is fairly decent when the calculator shows me 10+ points off of those schools on average.

Wow, that's a big gap... any idea what made the difference? any elements in your profile that were not calculated by this tool but worked in your favor?

Don't try so hard to figure out the numbers, the admission process is not exact science and should not be put in mathematical models.

And speaking of exact science, they have another tool when you analyze your application and give points according to admission drivers:
https://www.aringo.com/admissionDriversPublic-com.asp
Check it out, it's interesting...

I get the general idea but it's way too complicated... there are better ways for MBA applicants to waste their time. Did you really dive into it?

I took a quick look at this system, didn't understand how am i supposed to score my own essays?