Julie Bowman Reviews

I could not be happier with the help Julie Bowman and Admissionado gave me throughout the MBA admissions process. I applied to four schools and was admitted to three of them (Kellogg, Ross and Tepper), with Ross even offering a full ride + a stipend. Julie helped me with every step of the admissions process, from helping me set career goals at the beginning to painstakingly helping me edit multiple drafts of each essay that I wrote. Her feedback was always thoughtful and thorough. Beyond this, Julie was also always willing to give me thoughtful advice on ANY question that I had throughout the process (trust me, I asked a lot of questions). Her experience really showed through in her answers. If you are willing to put in the hours of hard work, Julie and Admissionado are worth every penny when applying to business schools.

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I ended up applying R2 to a myriad of schools through Admissionado. I was a reapplicant to most of my schools so I decided to utilize a consultant after being skunked the last couple of years to the schools I wanted to go to.
As a non-traditional applicant who had little to no business experience, Julie Bowman was excellent at pulling out stories that could be utilized in an application. Upfront, you do have to do a lot of introspection via a bunch of prompting questions that Admissionado uses. Early in the process, I felt like the best thing was that Julie and I would talk on the phone regularly to decide exactly the correct ST and LT goals. I think that her experience in the industry allows you to craft goals that ADCOMs would look at and be like, “Yup, makes sense”. I think that is something that applicants struggle with because we really need to voice WHY we need an MBA and WHY this particular school. Julie was instrumental in narrowing down my perfect LT and ST goals. We spent weeks going back and forth on these goals and looking at industries that could connect with my best stories. I am convinced that I would not have gotten into the schools of my potential without these particular work with someone who knows that the ADCOM is expecting and like.
My resume was pretty solid when I started the process, but I do think that ~3 iterations of work with Julie spruced it up. They give you a particular template and for many, this could be an extremely valuable opportunity.
In terms of essay writing, I 100% could not have written the essays without her guidance of asking questions and really to have someone to bounce ideas off of. Admissionado has a strict timeline policy so that was helpful to know when I was going to get the essays back and plan my schedule around that. Julie’s notes back on my essays were very strong and clear. We transitioned to mostly working through e-mail at this point, but she was always available to discuss over the phone if necessary. Again, it was just nice to have a professional along with you in the writing of your essays. It holds you accountable to timelines. As a reapplicant, her other pivotal aid was looking through my old applications and getting the same editing on my reapplicant essay. I cannot say enough about how strong my essays were because of having a consultant like Julie to channel thoughts and anecdotes.
The mock interview was useful too. I think I would recommend moving that to Zoom (which I am sure they are considering with COVID making Zoom the new thing). I had already interviewed at multiple M7s in prior years so I knew what to expect, but it was useful to articulate my particular narrative from this year.
Overall, I would highly recommend Admissionado. I worked with Claudia and Rose throughout who would always respond to my e-mails promptly. Julie was an exceptional consultant who definitely knew what the ADCOM was looking for. As someone who applied to various business schools over the course of 3 years and got interviews in those applications, I can affirm that having Admissionado by my side was all the difference. With them, I got so many interviews I was considering not going to interviews. My final result led me to choose between Booth and Kellogg with a host of other offers at T10-T15 schools.
I am so thankful that I decided to bite the bullet and hire a consultant to coach me through this process. I am sure my future would be different if I hadn’t.

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I applied in R2 and had a feeling that I was already late in my admission process. Admissionado was recommended by a friend who had received an admit in R1. Initially I thought that I already had a story that I wanted to portray in my applications, but I was blown away by the amount of deep-dive my consultant made me do to refine my story and weave all my thoughts together. She questioned every additional word that did not add to the bigger picture - something that helps craft a meaningful application. We went over my essays atleast 5 times to refine it to an extent that fixed every vagueness or loop hole that we found in previous versions. I was so glad that I had somebody supporting me in the entire journey and paying attention to every detail which I may have missed due to a tunnel vision. It was not just Julia (my consultant) who helped me but the entire team was working in the background to help me. I applied to 5 top business schools and got admits from 4 of them. I am so glad that I had such an incredible team to help me!

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I worked with Julie and Claudia for a 3-school package. It was money down the drain. First, they started with a half-hearted intro call and sent me a questionnaire. They copy pasted my answers and called it my "action plan". Next, for all the essay editing, they just put 'Why?' and 'How?' after every paragraph and had no good content to suggest. My consultant didn't even bother to brainstorm essay content before beginning with a new school and gave no personal touch to my stories.

Besides general essay editing, they don't help much. Even when I asked about general school stuff via emails, they straight away refused to help without additional dollars. Many times, I used to get emails that I should take rush service for $250. It was very frustrating that they were more focused on selling more services than concentrating on improving my work.

Also, I wouldn't trust Admissionado's 5-star reviews on GMAT club. Most of them would turn out to be paid reviews. They also offered me a $100 discount on a service if I gave a positive review. I consulted with them on 3 schools - dinged everywhere. I did 4 schools separately - got invites from all of them. I would suggest reconsidering partnering up with them if you are new to this whole MBA admissions process as things may seem to be going great, but the results would speak differently.




************* ORIGINAL REVIEW **************
I have been using Admissionado's services for essay editing and resume preparation, and I can totally vouch for their services. I started my application process with zero knowledge of the essay writing techniques, but the way Claudia and Julie helped me to ease out the complete process made me confident in applying to multiple schools. Not only do they guide you with the school for which you are using their services, but the personalized action plan provided by them also helps you to work on other applications confidently.

Julie and Claudia are professional and friendly at the same time and are ready to help you with any needs during the application process. MBA applications can be a stressful exercise, but with Julie's skills and support, I was confident in the material I submitted for my applications.

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To say the least, I am really impressed with Julie's work on my business school application. I normally don't write these types of reviews, but I think this case merits one. I come from a non traditional background and didn't really know how to apply for business school. After a pretty in-depth initial discussion with Claudia, I was paired with Julie, one of the more seasoned professionals at Admissionado. All in all, I am satisfied with my decision.

Basically, how it works - we had a thorough first talk where I discussed my past experiences, short and long term goals, and how business school fits in the picture, and then I began writing. I would write a draft and a few days later receive her copy, not really with edits, but more with comments (like 2 times the size of the actual essay) on how I should organize, what areas I should leave out, and what areas I should expand upon. After about 4 or so exchanges, I could really see how my essays evolved, becoming coherently organized and laser focused. And given that I was still in control throughout the entire process, I became more confident and motivated with what I was writing.

In conclusion, people will go either way about hiring or not an admissions consultant and the decision really depends on your current situation and where you are coming from. I come from a non-trad background and was looking for an extra set of experienced eyes throughout the process. Admissionado, one of the oldest and most reputable admissions consultancies out there, provided just that. If you are hesitating, I would just plan a free consultation to learn more.

As for me, I took the leap and don't regret it. I applied in late October and received the admissions call before winter break from Columbia - couldn't be more happy!

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I am very happy with services received from Admissionado, and in particular, with the work done by Julie Bowman. Admissionado and Julie were very professional, effective, and responsive. Julie was able to guide me through the process step by step on a timely basis. The most important aspect of Julie is that she was bright to connect my story/background with what the admission committee was looking for in an appropriate language. Her knowledge and experience working with a diverse group of candidates were key in my successful essays and letters of recommendation. I would like to highlight that she was very assertive in her comments and suggestions to me and my recommenders. In addition, Admissionado program was good and effective. From the beginning to the end, I received a very personalized service. They paired me with the right consultant considering my b-school options and background. In the first few sessions, expectations were set with a clear agenda which then facilitated us to manage time and workload better. Moreover, the Admissionado’s revision and feedback policy within 72 hours was convenient and effective, and helped me to prepare and plan ahead. Thanks Julie and Admissionado for their great job.

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Julie and the team at Admissionado were incredible in helping me package up my life's experience in a really compelling way. They took the time to understand my work, personal and extracurricular background before diving into providing suggestions for how I package everything together. The team had a knack for identifying 'winning' ideas, while gently dismissing those that weren't right.

Whether on Skype or over email, their light-hearted attitude helped keep the mood positive, even during the more stressful parts of the application process. Julie in particular was an absolute joy to work with and I would highly recommend working with her.

Stoked to have been admitted to my three dream schools.

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I had a great experience using Admissionado to help with my essays for one school. I didn't choose my top school, but instead chose the school that had the longest career goals essay so that I could really flesh out my ideas, and then re-work in a shorter form for the other schools' essays.
Julie and I had an initial phone call and then the rest of our correspondence was over email. During our call Julie asked me if I would consider another career path to discuss in my essay. This career path wasn't something I had thought about before but did make a lot more sense for me given my background. However, Julie didn't push me at all and I felt totally comfortable saying no. I went forward with writing my essay about this new carer path and after going through the process, I realized that it is actually what I want to do post-MBA!
I was a little concerned about doing so much of our correspondence over email (you have to pay more for phone) but this actually worked out fine overall. Julie is very detail-oriented and I felt that she was able to address all of my thoughts/questions well over email.
I sent her an initial rough draft of my career goals essay after the phone call, and I couldn't believe the extent of edits that they sent back! The pages of edits were much longer than the essay itself...but this shows how much work needed to be done. I guess if I had one complaint, I would've preferred to work in Google Docs instead of Microsoft Word so it would be easier to share comments back and forth.
Ultimately I got into 4 out of the 5 schools I applied to. I ended up on the wait list for my top choice school UCLA. I received significant scholarships to UW Seattle, USC, and a full ride to BU. I got into UT Austin with no $$. These results definitely exceeded my expectations.
Julie was not only helpful with writing the essays but I did ask her the occasional odd question throughout the process and she was very helpful.
If you can afford the investment, I'd highly recommend working with Admissionado! The money I got back in scholarships more than made up for the cost.

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Bottom Line Up Front: I'm a vet and Admissionado was vital to me gaining acceptances to HBS and UVA Darden. It was also key in gaining interviews with Penn and MIT (which I didn't convert to offers but got valuable interviewing experience).

I started my MBA admissions journey about a year ago. As an active duty Army junior officer, I was looking to transition out of the military and realized that an MBA was the best exit strategy to maintain the lifestyle and level of growth that I had achieved up to this point. Soon after I made the decision to get an MBA, I decided to shoot for the moon.

I had a GPA and extracurricular stats in line with HBS norms, less work experience than typical military applicants with some unique jobs, and had a GMAT below average at first which I then was encouraged to improve by Julie (which was a great suggestion) to a level still below but closer to average. All this lead us to believe it could be done.

Julie was excellent from Day 1 and was there to answer literally every question about the process that I could think of (and there were many). She really helped me craft my story that got across who I truly was and what I brought to the table. I was definitely put off by the sticker price, but man I would spend it again in a heartbeat. I had zero experience in selling myself because of my military career and REALLY needed help presenting my unique perspective.

They didn't ghost write anything, and I know that if I had asked they would not have entertained that thought. I really appreciated the integrity they brought to the process. I did the work, they just helped me explain myself clearly, concisely, and eloquently.

I didn't realize how badly I needed Admissionado until I had my free call with Julie, but once she explained what they were all about and gave me some very valuable (and free) advice I was all about it and don't regret my decision in the slightest.

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I chose to hire an admissions consultant because I didn't want to risk the chance of having to reapply and didn't trust myself to be able to put my best application together alone. Truthfully, my main deciding factor in selecting Admissionado was their price point. In comparison to other services, they were by far the most reasonably priced and I even received a discount on the Junior Deluxe package. Definitely be aware that the lesser price does not mean lesser service. From the very start when I worked with Claudia, she was super friendly and helpful and was there for any questions I had. The whole team has the same vibe that they portray on their website being an easy-going, fun, caring group of people. The majority of my interaction however came with Julie and she was the one with whom I conducted my initial phone call and who worked with me on my essays. She helped me tremendously right from the start on our phone convo in helping me understand exactly what I could get out of an MBA, drawing out my reasons why my short/long term goals, and how to best articulate my story. From there I returned to her a survey (which is critical so I recommend you spend a lot of time answering completely) and she put together my Action Plan which was basically my road map for my entire application. She helped me pick out my best stories, strengths, and weaknesses and was very patient with me on revising my essays multiple times. She kept trying to dig deeper and deeper to get the best info out of me and into my essays, and she phrased questions to me that really made me think. Julie was always positive, encouraging, helpful, and prompt. It was a stress-free process to communicate with her and use her revisions and notes to develop a polished essay. In the end, I was accepted to UCLA which was the school we had worked on together, so mission accomplished. Admissionado also provided tons of published material on resumes, application tips, essay help, etc. which I used extensively. If you want a streamlined approach from a consultant to help align your best possible story and nail your essays then the Junior Deluxe package from Admissionado can't be beat.

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