Paul Lanzilotti Reviews

I highly recommend Amerasia, especially Paul. Last year, I decided very late in the game (basically <2 months before R2 deadlines) to apply to business school, and was introduced to Amerasia by a friend who also had a good experience with them.

Even though he had a number of clients and I had a very tight timeline, Paul still took me on and helped out every step of the way, from selecting schools, to editing essays, and prepping for interviews. Prior to working with Paul, I spoke to a number of other consultants, and found that the majority of them used scare tactics. They insisted that that I needed an “expert” to help put together my application, that there was no way I was going to make it alone.

In contrast, when I spoke to Paul (and Adam), neither were pushy about their services. In fact, during the chats I had with each of them, they gave me a lot of tips for each school, running through the differences in the programs, and ways that my profile would fit. If I wanted to, I could’ve used those tips alone to outline my essays. That being said, I do believe that Paul truly adds another level of insight to the process. He takes the time to ensure that the schools you ultimately work with him are the best ones for you – I got into both of the schools that we worked on.

When we started working together, Paul and I had very long weekly calls, drilling down and tailoring my story for each of my target schools. My first essay draft, however, was a disaster – luckily, Paul was there to get me back on track. After countless hours and numerous essay drafts, I was finally ready to hit the “submit” button.

Once I got interview invitations, Paul was there, with a comprehensive list of questions for each school. At this crucial stage, he really works to make sure that you shine during the interview; he made the time to help me practice as much as possible, until I felt 100% confident and comfortable with my answers. Paul is extremely dedicated, often moving his schedule around to ensure that he was available to get on calls at any point during the process, whether it was for a burning question or to serve as the voice of reason when the applications seemed to consume my life.

The most crucial part of Paul’s services was his help in making me stay on point throughout the entire process. Whenever my essays veered off topic, or whenever I hit writer’s block, he was there to brainstorm with me. This was crucial, as I was working a stressful job that required travel and irregular hours. Paul kept me calm, organized, and focus through the entire process. The decision to work with Paul was quite clear – the application itself is a huge investment in time and energy, both of which are at a premium when working a demanding job. Bringing Paul into the mix meant that I had someone who had seen numerous successes, and could help steer me in the direction that I needed to go.

Did I recommend Paul to my friends who are applying this year? Yes! I can't stress how much help he was in the process, and I am now happily at my first choice school.

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Guys,

This is the first review I am writing for anyone ever. That should tell you something about how much I value what Paul did for me. I got through one of HSW.

I applied with a bunch of my other friends who used many different consultants including Sandy, Stacy Blackman etc. So I have a pretty good understanding of the benchmark and I can firmly say that Paul goes out of his way to make sure that you not just get into ‘a’ but ‘the’ B-school. Here are the things I loved about him:
Dedicated – Paul is super dedicated to his clients. I feel way more comfortable with verbal communication as compared to written – particularly when it comes down to essays. Paul was great on this front – he spent hours with me discussing my essays – brainstorming the content, discussing the structure and fine-tuning the language. He never said no to a request for an extra call and I think that is very valuable.
Patient – when you write your essays, everyone has a staring viewpoint on what they want to write. And in most cases than not, the final essay turns out to be very different (at least for me). This is perfectly fine but what is really important is the process of getting to the final version. Paul is fabulous on this front as he is very patient and follows a policy of “either you convince me or get convinced by me”. Till then he will keep working with you on your essay. In some cases the essays got to final version in 3-4 drafts but I have some essays which took 10 drafts !! But not once did Paul say a yes to a sub-optimal version. This was also the part that made my experience with Paul ‘Enjoyable’. MBA applications are very stressful and the last thing you want is a consultant who pushes you or does not listen to you.
Strong on structuring – paul has a good logical way of thinking and is not just ghost writer. Being an ex-management consultant myself I was impressed by that. He would always think about the flow of the essay which is very easily lost when you trying to fit everything you have in your mind in 500 words.
Great writing skills – this might not be relevant to many but was very important for me. Paul was very helpful is making my essays more tight and to the point. Also he was able to make them more ‘spicy’ which made it more readable from a readers point of view as compared to a bland version that I would typically send to him.
Interview help – this was an icing on the cake and way beyond my expectations. Paul discussed with me multiple questions for the interview and prepared me well. We spent hours discussing bullets points for different categories of questions and this surely made me super confident walking into the interview.
Net net – go ahead and hire him without any worries. You won’t regret it.

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