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rishabchoraria
Joined: 19 Aug 2013
Last visit: 21 Mar 2016
Posts: 17
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 62
Schools: ISB '17 (A)
GMAT 1: 770 Q51 V42
GPA: 3
Products:
21 Mar 2016, 01:45
Kudos
Bookmarks
5 Stars to August Academy (y)
After my GMAT, I was struggling to make a list of colleges I could apply for and was looking at the application essays for various colleges. I understood that it is very essential to be able to put forth my story effectively in the limited number of words. I wanted someone who has been through the process to work with me on my essays and help me make my essays effective.
I came across August Academy (www.mbaadmissions.augustacademy.in) on GMAT club. I set up a call with Karthik for an initial discussion. From the first call I was greatly impressed with the honesty and clarity that Karthik had. We had multiple discussions to shortlist colleges. Throughout the discussions he was open about his opinions and played a very important role in setting up my expectations appropriately. This way I knew I was taking a risk by applying to certain colleges and wasn’t bogged down by rejects.
Then comes the best part of the process where Karthik made me answer a large set of questions. This helped him understand who I was personally and professionally. This also gave me a lot of clarity and contributed greatly to the effectiveness of the essays. The fact that I wrote my essays gave me great confidence for the interviews as well. Thanks to Karthik I was not only able to apply to try for colleges that were a stretch for me but also got admitted to ISB HYD after a rejection last year.
What I greatly appreciate Karthik for is that he is a great listener, has a structured process and is always reachable. I started my applications only a couple of weeks before the college deadlines and had multiple calls with Karthik at 1AM in the night. He was also great at defining the priorities for every phase of the admission cycle which helped me attack the important aspects first.
I think if you are looking for someone who would work with you for your applications rather than getting your essays written like a few of the other consultancies do August Academy is a great choice.
Average time for one application-
I was short on time and with help and push from Karthik I was able to satisfactorily finish applications for two colleges in 10 days. So Karthik will greatly help you achieve your goals as long as you are willing to work hard towards it.
Cost-
Although I thought that price was high initially I now feel I got the value for my money. I not only got an admit in the college I wanted but also added structure to my thought and writing.
After my GMAT, I was struggling to make a list of colleges I could apply for and was looking at the application essays for various colleges. I understood that it is very essential to be able to put forth my story effectively in the limited number of words. I wanted someone who has been through the process to work with me on my essays and help me make my essays effective.
I came across August Academy (www.mbaadmissions.augustacademy.in) on GMAT club. I set up a call with Karthik for an initial discussion. From the first call I was greatly impressed with the honesty and clarity that Karthik had. We had multiple discussions to shortlist colleges. Throughout the discussions he was open about his opinions and played a very important role in setting up my expectations appropriately. This way I knew I was taking a risk by applying to certain colleges and wasn’t bogged down by rejects.
Then comes the best part of the process where Karthik made me answer a large set of questions. This helped him understand who I was personally and professionally. This also gave me a lot of clarity and contributed greatly to the effectiveness of the essays. The fact that I wrote my essays gave me great confidence for the interviews as well. Thanks to Karthik I was not only able to apply to try for colleges that were a stretch for me but also got admitted to ISB HYD after a rejection last year.
What I greatly appreciate Karthik for is that he is a great listener, has a structured process and is always reachable. I started my applications only a couple of weeks before the college deadlines and had multiple calls with Karthik at 1AM in the night. He was also great at defining the priorities for every phase of the admission cycle which helped me attack the important aspects first.
I think if you are looking for someone who would work with you for your applications rather than getting your essays written like a few of the other consultancies do August Academy is a great choice.
Average time for one application-
I was short on time and with help and push from Karthik I was able to satisfactorily finish applications for two colleges in 10 days. So Karthik will greatly help you achieve your goals as long as you are willing to work hard towards it.
Cost-
Although I thought that price was high initially I now feel I got the value for my money. I not only got an admit in the college I wanted but also added structure to my thought and writing.
nurik
Joined: 10 Aug 2015
Last visit: 17 May 2018
Posts: 31
Own Kudos:
Given Kudos: 5
Schools: Booth '18 (M) LBS '18 (WL)
GMAT 1: 740 Q49 V42
03 Apr 2016, 15:06
Kudos
Bookmarks
I worked with Alice van Harten (https://menlocoaching.com/). She is one of the reasons why I got admitted to Booth and thought I should share my experience here.
A bit of background. I’m from an emerging country. I thought I had a competitive background and a compelling story – I had fast track career growth, overachieving in many areas and organized some projects with social impact. I also wanted to go to Columbia and decided to apply to Columbia early decision first. With this in mind, I thought anyone with a decent knowledge of the admission process could help. I therefore decided to work with an admission consultant from a big company (listed in gmatclub admission consulting companies list) and chose to work with a consultant that was a former member of Columbia admissions committee.
Sounds great, right? But no, not really. I was wrong as hell, and the whole experience was terrible. My consultant hardly understood what my profile was. She had her own template for essays and tried to fit everything on the template, and she showed almost zero belief in my application which was demotivating. As a result, my Columbia application was not close anything that I thought of myself. It made me to realize admission consulting is not a commodity and it is very important to work with a right person.
I did not wait for a reply from Columbia and went on looking for someone else to work with. Thanks to reviews on this forum, I decided to contact Alice for a free 30 minute consultation. Although it was just a short call, it was enough for me to decide that I really wanted to work with her. During the call she showed a remarkable understanding of my profile, and offered some genuine advices how to improve my application, instead of advertising her services. I knew straight after the call that I wanted to work with her, and that was one of the best decisions I made in my mba applications.
Here is a brief summary of my working with her:
- She helped to set out the structure for essays. She does not have a fixed template for everyone. Instead, she tried to understand my background and we agreed on a structure that would highlight my strengths.
- Alice likes to micromanage every detail of application. Before submitting my application package, she went through all details of my application to ensure everything was consistent. She also has PhD from Cambridge and worked in Bain which makes it easier for her to understand business terminology.
- Helped to choose recommenders, and advised how to prepare briefings for recommenders.
- Alice really believes in you and does her best for you to succeed. I can’t stress out how important this is. MBA application is quite a stressful and time consuming process. Combined with long working hours, it is very easy to lose track of things. Having someone to keep you motivated is very important.
- We set out deadlines for completing different parts of application packages. Then we would have short Skype calls once or twice a week to briefly discuss her feedbacks and areas for improvement. Alice really pushes you to make that perfect essay.
- When I received interview initiations, Alice helped me to prepare for the interviews in a best possible way. I never thought preparing for interviews would be such a challenging task, and my performance in mock interviews improved significantly after working with her. Almost all questions asked by the interviewers were the ones that we discussed with Alice in our practice. She was also creative with her solutions. For instance, we noted that during interviews, I performed better after first 10 minutes which were “warm-up”. She therefore arranged a phone practice call just before my interview to ensure that I was prepared.
I only applied to 4 mba programs and was admitted to Chicago Booth. In retrospect, I’m very happy to get into Booth and not Columbia. I wholeheartedly advise everyone to work with Alice. Just schedule a 30 minute free call with her and I’m sure it will be more than enough to be convinced she is a good fit for you.
A bit of background. I’m from an emerging country. I thought I had a competitive background and a compelling story – I had fast track career growth, overachieving in many areas and organized some projects with social impact. I also wanted to go to Columbia and decided to apply to Columbia early decision first. With this in mind, I thought anyone with a decent knowledge of the admission process could help. I therefore decided to work with an admission consultant from a big company (listed in gmatclub admission consulting companies list) and chose to work with a consultant that was a former member of Columbia admissions committee.
Sounds great, right? But no, not really. I was wrong as hell, and the whole experience was terrible. My consultant hardly understood what my profile was. She had her own template for essays and tried to fit everything on the template, and she showed almost zero belief in my application which was demotivating. As a result, my Columbia application was not close anything that I thought of myself. It made me to realize admission consulting is not a commodity and it is very important to work with a right person.
I did not wait for a reply from Columbia and went on looking for someone else to work with. Thanks to reviews on this forum, I decided to contact Alice for a free 30 minute consultation. Although it was just a short call, it was enough for me to decide that I really wanted to work with her. During the call she showed a remarkable understanding of my profile, and offered some genuine advices how to improve my application, instead of advertising her services. I knew straight after the call that I wanted to work with her, and that was one of the best decisions I made in my mba applications.
Here is a brief summary of my working with her:
- She helped to set out the structure for essays. She does not have a fixed template for everyone. Instead, she tried to understand my background and we agreed on a structure that would highlight my strengths.
- Alice likes to micromanage every detail of application. Before submitting my application package, she went through all details of my application to ensure everything was consistent. She also has PhD from Cambridge and worked in Bain which makes it easier for her to understand business terminology.
- Helped to choose recommenders, and advised how to prepare briefings for recommenders.
- Alice really believes in you and does her best for you to succeed. I can’t stress out how important this is. MBA application is quite a stressful and time consuming process. Combined with long working hours, it is very easy to lose track of things. Having someone to keep you motivated is very important.
- We set out deadlines for completing different parts of application packages. Then we would have short Skype calls once or twice a week to briefly discuss her feedbacks and areas for improvement. Alice really pushes you to make that perfect essay.
- When I received interview initiations, Alice helped me to prepare for the interviews in a best possible way. I never thought preparing for interviews would be such a challenging task, and my performance in mock interviews improved significantly after working with her. Almost all questions asked by the interviewers were the ones that we discussed with Alice in our practice. She was also creative with her solutions. For instance, we noted that during interviews, I performed better after first 10 minutes which were “warm-up”. She therefore arranged a phone practice call just before my interview to ensure that I was prepared.
I only applied to 4 mba programs and was admitted to Chicago Booth. In retrospect, I’m very happy to get into Booth and not Columbia. I wholeheartedly advise everyone to work with Alice. Just schedule a 30 minute free call with her and I’m sure it will be more than enough to be convinced she is a good fit for you.
11 Apr 2016, 08:58
Kudos
Bookmarks
Rowdyhall
Also why are there no reviews fro MBA Exchange in the review section of this site? It seems strange that they are absent.
Seconding this... Doesn't seem like there are detailed reviews anywhere. Makes me a bit anxious.
