Prep MBA Admissions Consulting Reviews

I knew even before taking my GMAT that I was going to put my all into my MBA application process. I signed up for an 8-week GMAT course, put dozens and dozens of hours into studying, visited most of the schools I was planning on applying to (Wharton was a last-minute addition!), and hired an admissions consultant. I spoke to a few different companies before choosing Alex Leventhal. The differentiating factor was that for the larger companies I spoke to, I wasn’t sure whom I would be working with and simply didn’t want to take a risk on a consultant who simply wanted to review my essays on a part-time basis for extra cash on the side… I decided to go with a 3-school package with Alex knowing that I was going to apply to 5 programs and used his help with the first 3 schools that were due.

I didn’t realize how much help I would get/receive from Alex. I thought he would simply help me polish my resume a bit as well as review essays. What I received instead was a significant improvement in my resume (you cannot tell between my first draft and the final product), a complete 180 in terms of my essays (Alex can come up with a very unique and positive way to spin any story to make any candidate stand out), and remarkable confidence through interview prep as well as video essay analyses. If you are simply looking for someone to make grammatical edits for your essays and make your resume aesthetically pleasing – Alex is not the consultant for you. If instead you want to position yourself amongst other candidates in a strategic manner as well as gain in-depth essay analysis – Alex is the consultant for you. The comprehensive package is very detailed and Alex spends a lot of time making sure to get to know you as an individual – I even brought in accolades from high school that I had completely forgotten about!

I received interviews from all 5 of my schools that I applied to so as far as I’m concerned Alex was able to successfully help me market myself to all of my schools. In R1 I was accepted into Wharton with $ (VERY surprising), Yale, and Fuqua with $$$. I am still waiting to hear back from one of my R2 schools so although the journey isn’t over for me I think Alex’s work is complete.

Read More

As I researched and connected with various admissions consulting firms, Alex immediately stood out from the rest. On our initial call, he personally reviewed both my strengths and (very candidly) my weaknesses, and took time (well over the published allotment) to really understand my story and identify my chances of success at a range of programs I was interested in. I also liked that Alex would be my single point of contact throughout my application process, and would not hand me off to a junior consultant, or 'essay reviewer' team, but instead would work with me step by step to develop and execute an admissions strategy. Throughout the process his sense of humor, intelligence, ability to communicate, and creativity helped alleviate the stress and potential panic of the admissions process.

As we started working together, each interaction reiterated that Alex, a Harvard MBA, is a consummate professional and master of his trade. He identified potential friction points in my application profile, and helped me to leverage the stronger aspects to compensate for any weaknesses, building the best application possible. I did a 3 School package with Alex and was admitted to all three programs, including Tuck (my top choice). Alex’s guidance and long ‘man-hours’ spent connecting dots to logically present my story and ‘brand’ my application was undoubtedly key to my admission.

I have already and will continue to recommend Alex Leventhal to friends of mine applying next season! The two things that most distinguish him from other consultants are his creativity, and his communication ability. His ability to look at my experiences from a different angle, coupled with his unmatched writing/editing ability helped to craft captivating and complete essay responses within the prescribed word limits. I firmly believe that Alex is a uniquely skilled advisor, and that his consulting practice is unmatched. He is uncommonly bright, hard working, and efficient – his availability to me and rapid review of my work left me feeling like his only client.

Read More

Having just finished the round one application process, I strong heartedly recommend selecting a consultant who genuinely cares for your success, and Alex Leventhal proved to be the right choice for me. During the six months that we worked together, Alex went out of his way to learn about my personal aspirations and constantly pushed me to put my best foot forward. Even while spending hours on the phone at odd times to accommodate my schedule, Alex sought to dig deeper and craft a message that is uniquely mine.

Initially, I spoke to several consultants but Alex clearly stood out for his willingness to learn more about my background beyond what was on my resume. Alex took the time to assess my strengths and weaknesses, and his perspectives reassured me that he was someone I could trust and easily open up to. I started a little late in the process (as I needed to take my GMAT) but I signed up for a 4-school package in mid-July. The price is on the higher end of the range but it was worth it for the specialized attention that I received, especially given his level of experience and expertise.

Alex’s approach is tailored and balanced – as you do, we focused a lot of time on my career goals but we also had conversations about my childhood growing up in a foreign country and involvement with various activities. From these conversations, he helped me to draw connections that I had not considered before and to think more clearly about the personal decisions and relationships that got me to where I am. These sessions were invaluable for the open-ended essay questions that I encountered.

When time came for the essays, Alex was patient and honest. We went through countless drafts and spoke at length about content and structure of each essay. Alex sets a very high bar and he constantly urges you to improve. With little time to spare given my compressed timeline, wasting time was one of my biggest fears and Alex helped me to make sure I was on the right track. After each mark-up or conversation, I felt I was making good progress and that I was not overlooking any major factors.

When deadlines came around, I felt confident in my applications and did not feel overly rushed. When interview invites came around, Alex made sure that I was well prepared. After all this, I am grateful to say that I was accepted into my top choice, Wharton. I don’t think I could have come this far without Alex’s guidance and I can’t recommend him enough!

Read More

Alex came highly recommended by several of my friends who had attended too MBA programs. As I was determined to stay in NYC, I opted for a 2-school package (NYU & Columbia). In our first conversation, Alex was honest with my chances as I was below the average GMAT and GPA for the previous year’s class entering class.

My experience with Alex was top notch. He spent a significant amount of time getting to know me, my career goals and my aspirations which helped go beyond the mindset of answering each question and essay independently. Instead, he saw value and opportunity where I saw trivialities. He pushed me take risks and focus on building a holistic and compelling story with a mix of past achievements combined with my post-graduate vision. For example, I had chosen to write a second essay for the NYU application but given my background and my experiences, he persuaded me to create a presentation for the personal expression, which ultimately ended up paying off.

Alex also prepared me for the interviews. He understands what the schools are looking for and given the time he had previously spent learning about me, was able to help me close the gaps on difficult questions and guide me towards more thoughtful answers.

With his help, I went from looking like a beaten up Volkswagen into a BMW M5. Whether it was the resume, the essays, or the interview, Alex brought valuable experience to the table when I needed it most. Most importantly, I felt that he took the time to understand my background and story. I ultimately was accepted and am excited to begin my MBA classes this fall.

I would recommend Alex Leventhal to anyone applying top MBA programs. He is sincere, passionate, smart, and knows what he is doing. Also, he was very accommodating to my work schedule and last minute questions.

Read More

When searching for an MBA admissions consultant, I looked for someone with a track record and who was honest, genuine and bold. I reached out to several services and found that they all lacked one of those qualities. Alex was different – he had the track record, he was honest and genuine, but most importantly during our initial consultation he exhibited the boldness that I was looking for. He wasn’t afraid to reach for schools that seemed unattainable given my background (mid-market IB, large private school, few extracurriculars). Although he didn’t promise any miracles, he did guarantee an application that would be better than what I could put together on my own, and he delivered!

The process was stress-free and we completed a significant number of applications in a short amount of time. Initially, I struggled with crafting essays that set me apart from my peers, but Alex helped me find my story through multiple soul searching sessions. During the drafting portion of the process, Alex helped me hone my writing to express more passion about the topics that mattered most to me. Lastly, Alex made himself available at all times, even during the holidays (important given round 2 January deadlines). Ultimately, together we produced a story that I felt was unique to me.

When interviews came around, his mock-interviews helped tremendously. He even went out of his way to create mock group interviews. The feedback he provided was invaluable and was key to my success during the actual thing!

I recommend Alex highly!

Wharton 2016

Read More

When I decided to apply to business school, I was intimidated and overwhelmed by the process. I hadn’t initially considered an admissions consultant, but I had a number of close friends that worked with Alex and they felt strongly that his guidance had helped them gain acceptance to their top programs. It was clear from our first call that Alex would be an invaluable and necessary resource for my application process: He was not only experienced and knowledgeable about the process, but he was also refreshingly honest and genuinely invested in my journey to business school. After even our first call, Alex made me feel confident that I was a strong applicant and that he would pay careful attention to my strengths, intentions and career interests to help me get into the best possible program for my trajectory. Given my nontraditional background, I knew that I could not go with a more cookie-cutter, large admissions consulting company that would try to fit me into an MBA mold. I needed a personalized approach from someone that had a nuanced and thorough understanding of the admissions game.

Working with Alex was truly a wonderful experience start-to-finish and I couldn’t imagine making it through the process as smoothly and successfully as I did without his guidance. He takes an incredibly personal approach that not only helped in writing my essays, but also made him an important confidant when I became overwhelmed by the inevitable stresses of the application process. The stress of applying to business school can be debilitating without a voice of reason. Alex’s patience, attention to detail, and incredible mastery of essay writing pushed me to rework and perfect my essays. His sense of humor and personable nature made him a pleasure to work with, even at the most difficult hurtles. I was accepted into four top schools including my two top choices, Wharton and Kellogg. I am certain that my acceptances were a result of our thorough conversations about my work experience and career trajectory, which he used to help me craft powerful essays and a brilliantly coherent narrative from my previous work experience. Given my less tradition work experience, I’m certain that Alex’s unique ability to see my narrative from various angles and help me rework my essays into sophisticated career statements was absolutely integral to my admissions success.

I would recommend Prep MBA to anyone without hesitation. Without his guidance, I would have made many missteps and so I feel Alex helps clients realize their full potential in the admissions game. He has an amazingly strong grasp on the application process and what a top school is looking for, so he is a powerful resource for any applicant. While there are many strong MBA admissions counselors, I know from conversations with friends that Alex is unique in his personalized approach, attention to detail and investment in his clients. He is incredibly smart and passionate about his business and the success of his clients. Friends of mine that have used Alex have all maintained close friendships with him and frequently update him on their progress in business school. I absolutely intend to do the same, which should reflect how collaborative and invested Alex is in his clients.

Read More

Prior to starting my MBA application I reached out to different MBA consultants. I wanted independent opinions about my admission chances since as a European I was not sure if I would be able to make it into one of the Top-10 programs. During the initial consultation with Alex Leventhal, he gave me his honest opinion about my chances. He told me that it would be possible to make it into my top schools Haas and LBS but that I could end up getting none as well. I appreciated his honesty and that was one reason why I signed up with him. The second reason was that I wanted to work directly with Alex because of his longtime experience.

Working with Alex was great. Like during the initial consultation he would always give honest and very critical feedback, which could mean rewriting whole essays. I felt that this was necessary for me to tap my full potential. Since it was sometimes tough for me to find the necessary motivation after work obligations I was thankful to have Alex on my side who provided me with extra motivation. After our regular Skype calls I felt energized again to give my applications an extra push.

His methodical process of brainstorming ideas and clearly defining the career goals upfront help me writing gripping essays and tailor them to the specific school. His long experience was great when he explained what different schools are looking for in an applicant and how to understand and answer the essay questions accordingly. The response time and his availability were flawless despite the time difference of 8 hours (Europe and west coast). I also did a Mock interview with Alex, which was included in my package. At the end he was completely honest in his feedback and highlighted the areas which needed improvement.

I was thrilled when I received the news that I was admitted to both LBS and Haas. I felt that with the coaching and support from Alex the quality of my application reached a different level. I can wholeheartedly recommend Alex also to European applicants.

Read More

While business school has always been a priority of mine, before I kicked off the application process I was feeling a bit lost in terms of my career goals and I was not even sure of which schools I would be targeting. I was immediately put at ease in my initial call with Alex, as his deep expertise and enthusiasm was evident. Perhaps most importantly, I knew that he was not going to let me waste my time (or his!) on applications that were not going to cut it, while sharing my goal of gaining admission into some extremely competitive schools.

Although I had been hesitant to hire a consultant for fear of ending up with applications that were missing my own, genuine voice, Alex’s thorough process led to just the opposite. The basic groundwork that we did on my career goals and story gave him a ton of insight into who I am, what motivates me, and what I value, and allowed him to make some fantastic recommendations for my essays. This pre-application groundwork also included thorough development of my career goals, which I have found myself going back to often – in networking conversations, interviews, reviews at work – and I don’t expect that to change.

We were on opposite coasts throughout this process, but Alex was never more than a phone call or e-mail away. He is truly a one-man operation, which you would never guess by his attentive response rates (particularly as deadlines loom!). I highly doubt that in-person sessions would have enhanced my results in any way. My first choice school, Columbia, not only accepted me but sweetened the deal with a $30,000 merit fellowship. Suffice to say, I am thrilled and I found working with Alex to be extremely well worth the investment. Would recommend to anyone and everyone.

Read More

I approached a number of consultancy services before I decided on Alex Leventhal from Prep MBA. Alex’s service stood out because he really took time to understand my case instead of applying a cookie cutter approach. In the initial meeting he mentioned the positives and negatives of my case without BS. His honesty, humor, and no-nonsense way of approaching the essays stood out over others. I immediately signed-up for a 3 school package and ended up only using 2 because I got into my first choice school, London Business School.

The structured approach that Alex takes is instrumental in writing winning essays. His approach spends a significant am time on the initial phase where we focused on understanding “My” reasons for an MBA, my past, my future plans, and my school selection. With this understanding, the essays were straight forward and the focus was on conveying the stories in a convincing fashion. This process of discovering and conveying my story was not easy, but my writing skills and my narrative significantly improved as a result of the meticulous approach he proposed. Throughout the process I always got responses from him within a day.

The other aspect that really stood out was his inputs on my interviewing. I had never formally interviewed before so this was really important to me. His style encourages you to be yourself during the entire process and engage the audience while rectifying errors that causes you to lose their attention.

I would strongly recommend Alex to anyone looking for an honest, hardworking, meticulous, and extremely smart admissions consultant to work with. You will not only get great personalized help with your essays, but you will also gain skills that will be useful in many walks of life.

Read More

Alex provided critical guidance throughout the admissions process, and I wholeheartedly recommend working with Prep MBA if you are considering applying to business school. I actually called Alex after receiving impersonal and poor advice from another major consulting firm during a round 1 application, which proved unsuccessful. Alex read my initial essays and explained that my character and personality hadn’t emerged effectively. Through his in-depth personal assessment process, Alex really took the time to get to learn about all aspects of my story- from my family background, to academic interests, to personal quirks, and of course professional goals. With the assessment as a springboard, we worked together to hash out the key themes that cut to the core of both my personal and professional narratives. Narrowing down a topic and picking poignant examples proved more difficult and emotional than expected, but Alex was painstakingly persistent. His tough but supportive and humorous manner really helped bring out the best of my work. This coaching style also proved extremely helpful in preparing for interviews, as he put me on the spot with questions that I hadn’t come across online but which actually came up in the interview. Thanks to Alex, I wrote a very strong essay, excelled during the on-campus interview, and was accepted to Harvard Business School in round 2. Alex is not only a great consultant, but also a great guy with whom I look forward to staying in touch.

Read More