Hi All,

I'm writing this review to provide some insight (based on my opinion and experiences) about services provided by Amerasia Consulting. Last year, at about this time, I got in touch with Amerasia Consulting after seeking the opinion of fellow GMATClubbers who had written reviews about various Consulting companies. Besides, I spoke to a few other consultants also but I thought most of them were really pricey, and Amerasia offered me nothing less than what they did in their packages. Simultaneously, I read the various posts from Paul Lanzilotti and found them to be really astute.

So then, I mailed them my profile and soon Adam set up a preliminary call with me to assess the situation and to provide his suggestions. In the very first call itself, I was prepared to take extensive notes and I did so. Adam was very clear in his suggestions and he made me think in a positive manner because he pointed out the strengths + weaknesses in my profile and told me the absolute must things that I need to do to get through in the US B-Schools. Earlier, I had spoken to another consultant and I had received the advice that at my age (34) US B-Schools wouldn't probably be a good option because they prefer younger people and thus, I would be better off trying the European B-Schools. (Please read my review till end to know why I’ve mentioned this).

However, Adam dismissed that notion and said that every B-School seeks people who are from different background, and older applicants do bring a lot of professional insight that is essential to the proper grooming of students in the class. Simultaneously, he recommended me B-Schools that would be within reach based on my personal + professional profile; of course, I debated with him the choices and he suggested me broadly what each B-School would mean from various perspectives (besides rankings). The point is that all of this discussion definitely gave me a lot of data points and food for thoughts to plan out my MBA pursuit.

Soon thereafter, our stint began and he asked me to fill a questionnaire and that helped me in solidifying my essays and in articulating my career goals. During the phase of essay writing, he helped me in refining them further and the most impressive factor is that there was no upper limit on the number of reviews he would have done (this can become really valuable if you really want to polish and strengthen your application). The pdf documents he used to provide with essay breakups were very helpful in getting me started on my own, and by writing my essays, and by acting on his review feedbacks, I definitely was able to prepare for my interviews by default :).

I must say that though I couldn’t get through in two R1 B-Schools we had worked together, I wouldn’t attribute it solely to Adam for suggesting those names. For one thing, I’ve heard that R1 was very uneven this year and secondly, I’m WL at one place and got offer for another MBA Program in the second B-School. Needless to say, the essays I had written in the R1 were very helpful in the R2, and the way Adam had pointed out weaknesses in my essays helped me in cracking essays for the other B-Schools as well. Finally, when I started getting interview calls in my R2 packages, Adam arranged a mock interview for me with another consultant in his company (along with his own set of dos and don’ts for the interview) and that proved to be quite useful as well.

Therefore, I can easily suggest that you can always go for Amerasia Consulting as your top choice because:

1) Adam is a brilliant and sincere guy, if he selects you as a client, he’ll definitely make sure that he does everything for you to bolster your package and to bring out the best aspects of your application.

2) His Knowledge of the Admission Process and B-Schools is extraordinary. I was talking to my college seniors also who had gotten through in B-Schools previously and they said pretty much the same things about the B-Schools as Adam did, so I Would tend to think that the advice coming from Adam was of very high quality.

3) While working with him, you’ll get personal attention which is very important to keep the morale high and maintain the tempo and accuracy during the application phase. Sometimes the whole process can be really nerve wrecking and you definitely need a person who can egg you on.

Disclaimer - Because of some personal/professional reasons, I am unable to reveal the names of the B-Schools I’m in, however, I *might* disclose them in the coming days, so please do not think that my review is a “hollow” one :). I have multiple offers now and one B-School I can name where I’m in is Kelley School of Business (with Scholarship).

Last but not the least, I got dinged at European B-Schools and got through in Canada and US B-Schools (I had applied on my own to the Canada B-Schools).

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Paul from amerasia for his consulting services. I would highly encourage the other applicants to consider them for their competitive price packages and through knowledge on schools. I talked to several consultancies like MBAmission, mbaprep , mbapply before deciding to go with Paul. I was very impressed with the way he explained the process to me as I was very new to this whole MBA admissions. Also he is very considerate person to work with - The reason I am saying this is from my personal experience ; I had couple of consultants reject my case because they did not think that I was competitive enough. But because of Paul's guidance I was able to get into PTMBA at Ross . If you need more information ping me.
Good luck to you all!

P.S : I am a member of this forum for almost 2 years and I was almost a silent observer.

Everyone here seems to love Amerasia for reasons I agree with, but what stuck out to me the most was not only did Adam from Amerasia help me hone/completely form my goals - but afterwards, he continuously kept my goals in mind and would send me articles relating to what I wanted to do. This level of dedication was so impressive to me as I knew I was on his mind.

In other details, I applied to 5 schools in round 1 and used Adam for 4; however, by the time I got to the 5th I was just reusing stuff we'd already come up to and I'll give him the credit. While Stanford (I heard a rumor that some lady was a Stanford wiz, you guys should try to look for her if you can, I'm not sure who) and Harvard (My GPA was probably much to weak for Harvard) rejected me, I got into my first realistic choice - Kellogg! Looking back my profile and essays were cut out to be Kellogg perfect and they gave me a small scholarship to boot. I also got an interview at my backup realistic school and a full ride at my backup school!

The turn around time was fast - super fast! I was determined to get everything done before work got super busy and Adam was so good at cranking these things out over night or even five essays over the course of 2 days (he easily juggled the editing and writing of several essays at once). Not only did he crank them out though, he saved me a lot of time by being a magician with words. It would take me 200 words to describe something he could sum up in one eloquent sentence.

Perhaps, just perhaps with enough headache and work and reviews from friends I could have achieved the same goals - perhaps; however, Adam guided me through the process efficiently (weeding out much too helpful friends who had good intentions but uninformed targets) and I could not have applied to so many schools so quickly without him.

If I were you, I would start early in the process too as all admission consultants get busy closer to the deadlines. I finished early and Adam did a final review of my application and caught a bunch of typos - wahoo! He was also super flexible about answering questions outside of our 'contract' (aka helping me a bit for my 5th unpaid for school) and was in general a great person to work with! Thanks Adam and sorry this review was so long overdue!

TLDR: Hire a consultant, makes process efficient. Amerasia/Adam = a fantastic person to work with

I signed up with Amerasia just before r2 deadlines. I initially signed up for one school but added another two as I was so impressed with the service on the first one. I couldn't find much information on Jeremy beforehand but he seemed to have the right background to help me.

What I liked about the process is that right from the start Jeremy put in the effort to get to know me so that I could emphasize my salient strengths to the adcom. I liked how we worked together to brainstorm answers to all the questions together so that I provided a strong coherant application (and not just strong answers to individual questions).

I found writing essays extremely uncomfortable and I did my best to pull myself out of my comfort zone and reveal as much as I could about myself in a way I thought would impress adcoms. Jeremy had no hesitation correcting me when I sounded naive, immature etc and was generally sensitive to nuances that would not show me in the best light.
Jeremy was extremely prompt with all edits, I believe all edits were same day or next day. He even chased me up when I was slow to reply so that I would be in no danger of missing deadlines. Even through the birth of his baby he helped suggested edits from the hospital - now that is total committment.

I was interviewed at all the schools he helped me with and admitted to two. Overall I highly recommend Jeremy.

Hi All,

Here is a snippet of how I ended up working for Paul and boy..I am glad that I chose amerasia!!

Little bit of BG info. I am 30 yr/F/ Undergrad decent university from India, (EE)Masters - decent university US (3.2 GPA,EE). 1350 GRE

My desire to do a MBA started back in 2006 when I accidentally found myself browsing through pages of HBS!! But back then my personal situation did not allow me to pursue my goal. Fast forward 5 years ; after working for a top semiconductor company and a heavy manufacturing industry I decided that now might be time - It's now or never.

It's easier said than done as I had no clue as to how and where to start the whole process. I know where I stood among an extremely competing crowd and hence decided to use some professional help. All I wanted was to apply to two schools Ross and Kellogg's PTMBA .

Needless to say there are tons of professional consultants and fortunately I found this forum to be extremely helpful. I selected about 6 or 7 of them and talked to all of them.
About half of them (whom by the way are very prominent consultants) rejected my case since they thought that I did not stand a chance.
The last call I made was to amerasia. I spoke to adam and he mentioned that for my case Paul would be a better person to talk to. So ended up sending my case to Paul.

This was during sep 2011 which is a busy time for the applicants and the consultants. But Paul got back to me the very next day by email and scheduled with me for an hour of free consultation.
Needless to say all I had was my old resume since I had no clue as to how to modify the resume or do a rough draft of the essays.

He was up to the mark from the start , gave me a clear strategy how we are going to put our case to the school (I did have some unique background and exp), how to make my resume more appealing ; basically how we are going to end up getting admitted to!!!

He is someone who is blunt (not rude!) when it comes to the business. I completely trusted him in my case. We ended up doing 5 or 6 edits for each essay until we both were convinced that the essays exactly conveyed what I wanted to tell the adcom. He is some one who could extrapolate your thoughts to words and he is good at it!!!

He is very flexible in his schedule and if I needed him he made time in his schedule to talk to me - on the same day!!Also he is very experienced in working with international candidates - This helped me a lot during the process.

Did I mention that my 2 school package cost me about 50% less than what other consultants quoted me.

Finally I ended up getting into both the schools (One of them even offered me a scholarship!!). I owe a big thanks to Paul and amerasia. If anyone needs more information please feel free to PM me and I will be glad to share my thoughts with you.

I had an amazing experience with Amerasia Consulting. I applied to 6 schools in the fall of 2011. When I began working on the applications, I was terrified about the prospect of addressing the essays prompts and worried whether any of my experiences would suffice for the top bschools. More specifically, I was concerned about bringing these stories to life.

Drew really helped me achieve what I was worried about doing. I would never have been able to write with such clarity and concision without his help. We went back and forth a number of times regarding points, length, language and tone, but he was always patient and helpful. I think I have two full threads on gmail with our conversations.

Amerasia also set me up with mock interviews and reviewed the entire application to make sure there were no issues. Overall, I am glad to recommend their services to anyone who is pursuing the top programs.

Paul Lanzillotti is like the Rick Ross of MBA admissions - that is to say, he is the BOSS.

I used Paul on a 2 school package this year and cannot recommend him enough. While I browsed through and spoke with several admissions consulting firms, Amerasia was the only one that stood out. The initial call lasted almost two hours and made it very clear that:
1) Paul knows a LOT about business schools and how to position you best with each and
2) Paul really cares and wants to see his clients succeed. While other firms tried to lower my expectations because of my fewer years of work experience than most applicants, Paul raised my confidence and told me to consider some Top-7 schools rather than the Top-20 that I was considering.

The choice to use Paul was easy – but the editing process (thankfully) was not! Paul was never afraid to tell me if a draft was completely off point, yet was always able to provide thoughtful suggestions on how to recover. Paul and I started way early, spoke nearly every week and spent months editing and honing my essays.

The best thing about Paul was that from our first call, he already had a strategy on how I could connect the dots of my academic and career experience to tell a story of myself. He turned my unique background from what I perceived as a weakness into a major strength! Paul could also bring out insight from our talks that I was previously unable to bring out on my own. By the time my interviews came around, I knew my story and what I had to offer so well that the process went very smoothly. Paul’s months of guidance definitely were to thank!

Beyond this all, Paul was always an excellent sounding board and a calming influence during the stressful months before and after sending in my applications. Overall he is a cool guy as well and fun to work with, even through the monotony of editing essays.

Thanks to Paul’s help, I was accepted at Kellogg, a dream school of mine! I wholeheartedly recommend Paul & Amerasia to anyone looking for the most insightful consultants who are behind their clients 100%.

Edited to add: I've been a long-time reader of this forum but didn't feel compelled to post until now. My review is legit. Feel free to PM me for more details. =)

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I think an admissions consultant is invaluable in the MBA application process. First, my background. I'm 31, with 8 years of experience in finance, female, 3.7 GPA from a public university, and 720 GMAT. I'm looking to transition out of finance and into entrepreneurship.

In round 1, I applied to Harvard, Stanford, and Chicago without a consultant. I got dinged from H/S and interviewed at Chicago.

For the interview prep, I contacted Stacy Blackman Consulting, Sandy, and Amerasia. Sandy was booked up; I spoke to a woman at Stacy Blackman and Adam at Amerasia. The woman at Stacy Blackman was nice but I didn't feel we connected. When I spoke to Adam, he gave me pointers on Booth and didn't pressure me to sign up for his services. This was really nice, 'cause I had a million things going on and couldn't make a decision anyway.

Adam's pointers on Booth were spot on. Unfortunately, due to my crazy work schedule, I didn't adequately prepare for my interview (I worked until 3 AM the night before my interview). I didn't have time to get excited about the school and went into my interview with a lackluster attitude. Needless to say, I wasn't admitted.

In round 2, I hired Adam for his essay and interview services. I applied to Wharton and Kellogg, schools that he noted were friendlier to older applicants. Here's how the essay writing process went: I turned in a first draft for Wharton, he (very nicely and bluntly) told me it had to be completely re-worked. My essays painted me as unfocused, and my reasons for transitioning from finance to entrepreneurship weren't well-supported. It took about 3-4 drafts before I got it right. My essays pre-Adam and post-Adam were dramatically different; my friends commented that my post-Adam essays drastically improved. Here's what I consider to be Adam's biggest strengths in essay prep:

- He's very good at helping you organize your story and painting you in the best light. He knows immediately when something sounds wishy-washy and will help you re-work it. He understands the strongest aspect of your application and will help you highlight this.
- He's good with essay structures and will help you break down your story into a concise, easy-to-follow narrative.
- He provides solid advice on how to attack each essay, what to avoid, what to focus on, etc.
- Lastly, Adam is great to work with. His upbeat attitude and follow-up emails helped me stay on track during the grueling process.

On Monday, I found out I was admitted to Kellogg. I also received an interview invite from Wharton, with decision still pending. My only regret during this process is not hiring Adam earlier in round 1. I am so grateful to Adam, not only for his help in essay-writing and interview prep, but also for being a cheerleader, a great motivator, and for keeping me focused when I was being pulled in so many different directions. For anyone considering a consultant, I strongly recommend Adam.

I used Amerasia consulting for my applications to two top ten schools because while I am reasonably confident in my application, I work in a quantitative industry and wasn't too sure I was going to express myself clearly on paper. Also, I lacked a staple of a perfect application: a decently high percentile GPA from my undergraduate institution. Finally, as we all know, business school is a life-changing decision, so I wanted to make sure my applications were top-notch, well thought out, and fully represented my strengths.

I spoke to a few consulting firms, and quickly found Amerasia to be by far the most helpful right off the bat. During other free consultations, I was told the usual: I have a decent profile, they can set me up with a consultant, I just need to sign and pay. Amerasia was completely different; I took 5 pages of notes during my 1 hour free consultation (with the actual consultant I would be working with), and could quickly discern that I was getting valuable, useable advice. Also, I found the fee to be reasonable, and I also liked the fact that they do not charge you for interview counseling unless you actually get the interview.

During the application process itself, my consultant was incredibly helpful. He listened to my life story, helped me pick out my biggest strengths, and really saw to it that these characteristics were well represented in my essays. He was not afraid to tell me bluntly that sometimes my first drafts wouldn't work and that I would have to write another. I also procrastinated greatly during my month of application writing, and my consultant kept me on track by shooting me quick emails, reminding me to stay on track and get certain drafts/revisions done. I've heard that other consultants seemingly get swamped during busy times, but mine was thoroughly consistant and timely in terms of returning comments on essay drafts, emailing me answers to my questions, and just generally keeping me on track.

When I was invited to an interview with my top choice school, my consultant yet again saved me. Having a mock interview beforehand was more helpful than I could've imagined, and his knowledge of admissions practices/commonly asked questions/school-specific questions was instrumental in my preparation. When I had a strange and unique post-interview situation and had no idea what to do, the first thing I did was email my consultant, who immediately responded with helpful and correct advice.

To make a long story short, I highly recommend Amerasia Consulting for MBA admissions. The money was well worth it to be admitted to a top 10 MBA program of my dreams. If you have any questions about any of this, feel free to PM me.

I think an admissions consultant is invaluable in the MBA application process. First, my background. I'm 31, with 8 years of experience in finance, female, 3.7 GPA from a public university, and 720 GMAT. I'm looking to transition out of finance and into entrepreneurship.

In round 1, I applied to Harvard, Stanford, and Chicago without a consultant. I got dinged from H/S and interviewed at Chicago.

For the interview prep, I contacted Stacy Blackman Consulting, Sandy, and Amerasia. Sandy was booked up; I spoke to a woman at Stacy Blackman and Adam at Amerasia. The woman at Stacy Blackman was nice but I didn't feel we connected. When I spoke to Adam, he gave me pointers on Booth and didn't pressure me to sign up for his services. This was really nice, 'cause I had a million things going on and couldn't make a decision anyway.

Adam's pointers on Booth were spot on. Unfortunately, due to my crazy work schedule, I didn't adequately prepare for my interview (I worked until 3 AM the night before my interview). I didn't have time to get excited about the school and went into my interview with a lackluster attitude. Needless to say, I wasn't admitted.

In round 2, I hired Adam for his essay and interview services. I applied to Wharton and Kellogg, schools that he noted were friendlier to older applicants. Here's how the essay writing process went: I turned in a first draft for Wharton, he (very nicely and bluntly) told me it had to be completely re-worked. My essays painted me as unfocused, and my reasons for transitioning from finance to entrepreneurship weren't well-supported. It took about 3-4 drafts before I got it right. My essays pre-Adam and post-Adam were dramatically different; my friends commented that my post-Adam essays drastically improved. Here's what I consider to be Adam's biggest strengths in essay prep:

- He's very good at helping you organize your story and painting you in the best light. He knows immediately when something sounds wishy-washy and will help you re-work it. He understands the strongest aspect of your application and will help you highlight this.
- He's good with essay structures and will help you break down your story into a concise, easy-to-follow narrative.
- He provides solid advice on how to attack each essay, what to avoid, what to focus on, etc.
- Lastly, Adam is great to work with. His upbeat attitude and follow-up emails helped me stay on track during the grueling process.

On Monday, I found out I was admitted to Kellogg. I also received an interview invite from Wharton, with decision still pending. My only regret during this process is not hiring Adam earlier in round 1. I am so grateful to Adam, not only for his help in essay-writing and interview prep, but also for being a cheerleader, a great motivator, and for keeping me focused when I was being pulled in so many different directions. For anyone considering a consultant, I strongly recommend Adam.