"Best" Admissions Consulting Companies - 2014

As a 32 year old consultant with a family and after a difficult 2013 MBA application season, I realized that it was now or never for getting into business school. In 2013 I applied to three northeast schools—Wharton (FT), Columbia (FT), and Stern (FT)—and was ultimately dinged from all three after interviewing at two and being wait-listed at one. I needed an edge to make sure that my next application season was successful and my last. While I spoke with several MBA admission consulting companies, after reaching out to Tyler Cormney and having my introductory interview with Esther Choy I knew I had found that edge with MBA Prep School.

After my initial conversation with Esther there were four reasons I selected MBA Prep School and especially Esther Choy and Faisal Khan to coach me for my 2014 application season:

• Their high historical success rate,
• Their school selection strategy aligned with my goals (i.e., diversify among top schools vs. go downstream with schools)
• They had the most collaborative and warm culture among the firms I interviewed (e.g., kicking off the essay writing process Esther said, “now the fun begins”—and she meant it!), and
• As a collaborative team, Esther and Faisal could provide a more rounded perspective regarding my application—Esther described it as getting both the “cup half full” and the “cup half empty” perspective.

While the application process was still a lot of work, it was a lot more fun than my previous go around and I felt more confident having a team supporting me in the process. I even looked forward to our update calls as the brainstorming process was so enjoyable. Some of the areas that Esther and Faisal helped the most were in the following:

• Capturing a compelling MBA vision,
• Brainstorming the most powerful story ideas to communicate my vision and leadership strengths—with a team based model, this meant I got an extra “outside opinion” early in the process of writing an essay,
• Teaching me how to structure the stories for the most powerful effect,
• Providing editing recommendations, i.e.: pointing out areas warranting elaboration, but especially for suggesting areas to remove content and details to make room for the most powerful story elements, and
• Providing guidance about selecting the most powerful recommenders among my pool of options.

However, beyond the more immediate goal of getting accepted to business school, I feel like working with Esther and Faisal has given me tools that will make me more successful in business. The experience has made me not only both a better writer, but also more able to communicate a compelling vision in broader contexts. Currently working in consulting, I foresee this having immediate benefits with:

• Communicating my personal vision and strengths to colleagues and clients,
• Pitching our company’s vision to clients to win projects,
• Developing compelling client recommendations that clients actually want to read, and
• Creating a more compelling individual performance narrative that allows me to earn a higher performance rating and achieve a more rapid promotion timeline.
• Getting higher grades on MBA class essays

Ultimately, I was accepted to all four schools I applied to--Wharton (EMBA), Columbia (EMBA), Kellogg (1Y FT), and Tuck (FT)—and even earned a sizable scholarship from Kellogg. While I was expecting good things to come out of this application season, after my previous year’s application season performance, I was not expecting this level of success. That’s another of the many reasons I’m so thankful for Esther and Faisal’s help, guidance, and ability to make the process more fun that made this experience so successful and rewarding. If you’re looking to learn the tools that will make you more successful in the b-school application process and in business in general, look no further than Esther Choy and Faisal Khan at MBA Prep School.