Bottom line: I would recommend one uses Bethany for particularly tough essays, she decodes them well. If you do 80% of one application with her, it will help as she will get the bigger picture of your app and her suggestions are more in depth.I asked Bethany (her GMATClub name) to review 4 out of 5 essays for INSEAD. And will request her help with Booth in the coming few days. My story is a bit different, I used
Stacy Blackman for my first two essays, was bankrupted after that, and could not afford more schools with them. StacyBlackman was great for overall story building, short-term/longterm goals. I already had a good idea of my short term, but SB helped me firm up the longterm goals section. Anyway, that's relevant for the following reasons mentioned:
Pros for Bethany:
1) Turn around time: here's a comparison, StacyBlackman has a strict 48 hour policy. They apparently don;t even need to acknowledge that they have received your essay/edit till that time. Its frustrating when you have back to back deadlines, I didn't know if my consultant was working on it or not, and I had Wharton and Kellogg two weeks apart with Duke right after Kellogg. The consultant actually exceeded that 48 hour deadline, didn't pick up my calls to check, and sent it to me 3 days later. Was frustrating since I paid so much for dedicated service, really made me appreciate Bethany's one day turn around time.
2) Grammatical consistency/ROI for cost: A+
3) My "story" was already in place - however, I had made that story for U.S. schools, so my INSEAD app story was a bit shaky. She gave some good suggestions on changing my tone for this school, modifying some points etc. Some people above have mentioned that her suggestions are more on the grammatical side, as opposed to qualitative suggestions. I can't say that with firmness, I think if you call her attention to a particular paragraph or point and ask her opinion, she gives quite cogent answers.
Cons:
Don't really have one, here's a mixed point -
1) Bethany - one suggestion, this will increase your work, but you should request a one paragraph summary of the applicant's backgrund (or their resume). Just for increasing the insights on the actual points. Anyway, just a suggestion, I think she's doing a marvelous job!