As a re-applicant after using a competitor admissions consultant firm last year, I can speak to a few of the ways that sets Admissionado apart in my eyes:

1. Personality. They were much better at giving my applications strong personality than I had the previous year, which I think can be very underrated and extremely helpful for someone who isn't naturally extroverted.

2. Promptness. Turnaround of materials was always better than the 72 hours they promised. I assumed that "within 72 hours" meant "72 hours", but this wasn't the case.

3. Reliability. I got into a bit of a pinch during deadline crunch time, and I was blown away by how responsive and helpful Uyen was in the final stretch. She really stepped up when I needed her most, and I am forever grateful given my outcome! I'd be amazed if I could have gotten the same level of service through another firm.

I owe so much of my success to Uyen and the team at Admissionado, they have been amazing and really helped me to put my best self forward in my applications. Especially with the half-ride scholarship on top of an already sweet offer to Kellogg, I couldn't be happier with the value I got out of working with them. My life just got way better thanks to this team!

I couldn't recommend Admissionado highly enough!

Read More

First let me talk about the results
I got admitted to MIT SDM program (my top choice)
I got interview invites from Stanford MSx, Berkeley Haas.
I applied to these 3 programs taking the help to write my essays from Yaron Dahan (he is a rock star :)). Effectively speaking I got interview invite from ALL the programs I applied to taking the help of Admissionado.
I applied to lower ranked UCLA anderson but was waitlisted without interview and eventually declined offer.

Now that speaks about the value addition I got by approaching Admissionado.

Why did I approach Admissionado? Two reasons
1) It was flexible. I knew I needed help only with my essays. I was confident I can manage the rest of application. They had the option just to do that.
2) Highly responsive. Claudia is a wonderful person to do business with. I had bad experience with other consultants who were not responding on time (it was a busy applications period).
3) Their pricing is very very economical when compared to others.

After talking to a few consultants in Admissionado, I zeroed upon Yaron because I could sense he sincerely believed I can make it to the programs of my choice. That gave me reassurance and I went ahead and selected Yaron.

Did I take the right decision? Oh yes. I can't put it in words but working with him was exceptional. He made me do all the hard work of course. But he perfectly guided me in writing the essays. The promptness with which he will come back to me with his edits is truly professional. He sometimes teared apart my essays and challenged me to come up with something better while giving me honest feedback. I enjoyed his feedback so much that I used to eagerly wait for his next edit. He nudged me back into action when I slacked off. At the end of it, he brought out the best in me. It was an intense journey of almost 1.5 years and working with Yaron made it enjoyable. I highly recommend Yaron.

Last but not the least I appreciate Claudia for being truly flexible with the package. I messed up initially with school selection and missed some deadlines. She was very understanding allowed me to use the package beyond the initial terms. Kudos to her. Nice person to do business with.

Read More

I am extremely pleased with the experience that I had with Admissionado. I was honestly leaning towards not getting an admissions consultant due to the insane prices that I had been finding. Going "all-in" or pricey hourly/a la carte services seemed to really be the only options. Then I found the Junior Deluxe package at Admissionado. It gave me everything I needed (branding, resume help, essay help, etc.) without some of the services I didn't feel the need to have like someone reading through literally my entire online application word-for-word, interview preparation, nightly phone chats, etc. My package that included admissions consulting services for 4 schools with Admissionado costed the same that I would have paid for a "full services packages" for 1 school at most other companies that I looked at.

My Admissions Consultant, Doris Huang, is incredible and I would recommend her to anyone applying to business school. As a graduate of Wharton, and also with degrees from Oxford and Harvard, she IS the sharpest tool in the shed. Every step of the way in my application process, she was right there with me. I sent her random questions/thoughts about my applications nearly every day and her responses were consistently quick, well thought out, and helpful. Her turnaround time for my essay and other application document revisions was very consistent (there is a 72-hour guaranteed turnaround, but they sometimes would return my documents even more quickly). My essays and resume went from mediocre at best to stellar by the end of it. While she never made me change my story or experiences, she made it all shine like I never thought possible, and I am confident that I would not have gotten into the schools that I got into without Doris's help.

I am very proud to have been admitted to Duke-Fuqua, UVA-Darden, and Texas-McCombs, and I am excited to be a part of The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, class of 2020, thanks to Doris and the Admissionado team!

Read More

I sought out a consultant to support in the MBA application process because I had weak test scores (GRE score in GMAT equivalent was 640) and a GPA that didn't set me apart (3.33). However, I had great work experience and knew I could get into schools provided I could reach the interview stage. I felt that a consultant could help me craft a cohesive narrative that could get me to that stage.

When I first started working with Cindy, it felt like a conversation. She wasn't scared of working with me, despite my low scores, and I felt she sincerely wanted to help me get into Tuck, which was my dream school (I enroll in the fall!). Cindy recognized my strengths and helped me ensure my essays brought those out so that the admissions committee could see them as well. I believe she was extremely successful, as I was also accepted at several other schools, including Ross and Darden.

My favorite aspect of working with Cindy and Admissionado was how well they prepped me to begin writing my essays. Their MBA Action Plan assessment helped me recognize my areas of strength as well as my areas of weakness. While I had short and long-term plans, they helped me crystallize these ideas and articulate them in a manner that was cohesive and engaging, which is critical for any application. They also helped me identify aspects of my background that would be useful for some of the less traditional essays (e.g., Fuqua and Darden).

Cindy was straightforward and honest with me. I would often send her multiple versions of essays to get her read on which worked best and she always responded promptly and with very helpful, constructive feedback on the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. Additionally, if I was struggling with an essay, Cindy would send me a really useful outline, which laid out how many words I should write about X and ask me a slew of questions to make me really think about what I wanted to say.

The entire time I felt like the process was completely unique to me. Additionally, I loved how Admissionado has fun with the essays and it’s not as much a calculation. My finished product was awesome! I never expected my essays to be so polished and perfect.

Read More

I am a Chinese applicant who needed to stand out from a fiercely competitive pool. My consultant, Connie Chen, guided me through the whole application process and helped me receive admission to my top choice of school. During our collaboration, I found that she was very accessible, conscientious and an expert. Whenever I raised a question to her, she would respond to me with thoughtful advice in a timely manner.

She provided me strategic guidance on how to put my personal stories and essay questions together. More importantly, she knew how to motivate me to discover personal highlights, as well as my uniqueness. Although some of these are normally overlooked by ourselves, it turns out they did help me stand out among those applicants with similar applicants. Connie is awesome!

Additionally, she is really good at motivating me to go through everything to find what I truly want to do. This enlightenment closely connected the dots of my personal files together, resulting in a well-prepared application. Moreover, she held a mock interview with me and provided detailed insight. I can confidently say that without her help, I may not have gotten into my top choice of school.

Overall, Connie is not only an excellent person, but also a professional consultant. Our collaboration went well and smoothly. Thus, I highly recommend Connie to other applicants!

Read More

I applied to 7 Schools last year and didn't even receive an interview call from any. I used their service for one school and thought I would replicate the same advice for other 6 schools. I didn't know I was guided by the wrong person and hence I spoiled all my applications.

Initially I thought I got the best advice, and David was way better than anyone in the world. But I was proved wrong this year when I found that there were so many big loopholes in the advice provided to me.

One of the examples I could remember is David asked to me to create a resume with an objective line at the top. This is the BIGGEST mistake anyone can do in his/her resume. When I showed my last year resume to alot many people this year, everyone was laughing at me asking "Did you seriously apply to B Schools with this resume?". I now realize that it was full of tons of unnecessary information. So, did I pay such a large amount to make the worst resume?

Another example I could remember is "He asked me to add I want to take professor XX classes to get YY". This year I realized one should not do that unless one has really attended the classes from that professor. So, it was a weak point in my essays.

Since I was naive, I didn't know much about the application process. I used to ask alot many questions to David in order to make sure I was understanding well. I asked David to get on to Skype call rather than email chains so that we can get better understanding on how the things needs to be worked out. But after 2 or 3 Skype calls, they started asking me to pay additional $300 per hour for support. I believe if I am paying them such a big amount for one school help, I should get what all I need. There shouldn't be any limitations. But I was proved wrong and some how I had to restrict myself.

This year I applied to a couple of schools and I am holding a couple of admits with huge $$$ but again with hardly 15% of what I paid them for one school. And this 15% of the amount has been used for 10 school. Strange, right? But it worked.

I think all my hard earned money has been wasted! :(

Read More

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.

Read More

I am an Indian applicant coming from a highly competitive pool. Hoping to apply in Round 1 for the Fall, 2018 enrollment, I reached to about 20+ top admission consulting firms from all over the world. Of all the consultants I spoke with, my interaction with Regina from Admissionado was certainly the best. Even though I had a good GMAT (760), I liked the fact how she was interested in my story and my aspirations contrary to many of the other consultants who were mainly interested in numbers. Our conversation was very personal, and I felt that she believed in my story. It was extremely important for me to work with someone who is positive about making things happen than with someone who’d tell me to aim lower and focuses more on data points/GMAT.

I signed up for the Deluxe package as I knew nothing about the whole MBA admission process. Thankfully, Regina was patient with me, educating me on the entire process step by step. It started with me filling out a long questionnaire, which pretty much captured every important aspect of my life. After which, I had a discovery/strategy session with her wherein we discussed what my goals are, how do these goals relate to my prior experience, why do I want an MBA and what schools would be a good fit for me. That call really helped me in finalizing the schools I could apply to and to begin researching on them. To top that, Regina was super responsive in putting up an application timeline to make sure that we meet individual college’s deadline comfortably.

Once I had some clarity on the pointers we discussed, I put up the first draft of my essays. Now that I look back, I will admit that the first draft of my essays was horrible. After reviewing the first draft, Regina dissected every single line of my essay, questioning my plans and asking clarifying questions. I was amazed to see the level of thought she had put in those essays. Given that I never wanted someone else to tweak my choice of words, I appreciated how she put her questions in comments instead of making any direct edits. We went back and forth for about 6-7 drafts, but every time, she motivated me by saying that we are getting closer and that we will do this as many times as it takes to get it polished nicely. I got multiple interview calls after I submitted my Round 1 applications. I was sort of nervous about those as the last time I sat for an interview was around 4 years ago when I got recruited in the firm I currently work with. To help me overcome that stress, Regina scheduled mock Skype interviews with me, making sure that I get that interview experience and be aware of how I come across.

My interviews went great, and I converted my top choice with scholarship – The Wharton School. I could have never done this without all the help and support I got from Regina and her super awesome team. Throughout the entire process, I found her like a friend with whom I could discuss all my silly questions. I can confidently say that she now knows me as much as most of my close friends and family. Overall, a five-star service!

Read More

I worked with Julia Hazen and the Admisisonado team using their Junior Deluxe package and I cannot recommend them enough! I went 3 for 4 on admissions decisions and got accepted into UVA-Darden, Northwestern-Kellogg, and Berkeley-Haas. I highly recommend this package for the following reasons:
Attitude:
The application process is obviously very stressful. However, the Admissionado team does an amazing job of being incredibly positive, which helps soothe any anxieties and pumps you up to take on the monumental task of submitting apps. This is something I did not even consider in a service prior to signing up but is probably the thing I valued the most throughout the process.
Value:
I had a good fundamental profile and am a confident interviewer. I mostly wanted help navigating the process and writing the best possible essays – so I did not want to pay for things such as LORs and interview prep. The junior deluxe package was by far the most cost-efficient and flexible package I found, which allowed me to get exactly what I needed without breaking the bank.
Quality:
None of the above matters if they service wasn’t up to standards. However, the resume review process was efficient, transparent, and very effective. My essays improved immensely due to their help, and they helped me hone in on the experiences and narrative that best shined through to the admissions committees.

I cannot recommend this service enough!

Read More

I first heard about Admissionado from two close friends who had purchased Junior Deluxe packages last year - they were both subsequently admitted into top 5 schools. My friends had overwhelmingly positive things to say about the consultants at Admissionado, so I was already 99% sure I would sign up even before my intro call.

I knew that I would need a lot of help crafting my story and working through my essays, especially given my rather hectic work schedule. I was paired with Lee - she came highly recommended by one of my friends. Lee was incredibly helpful throughout the application process. She really invested a lot of time and effort in getting to know me and understanding my career trajectory, long-term goals and aspirations. She was incredibly thoughtful in singling out the stories and experiences that best highlighted my strengths as a candidate. More importantly, she was very candid about the aspects of my profile that required a lot of work. She was right there with me every step of the way, and her input was invaluable in my application.

The interview preparation process was equally daunting and stressful. Lee was very accommodating of my erratic schedule. We had several mock interviews via skype (even at odd hours of the day) - Lee made sure I was mentally prepared and confident in my story.

I had an incredible experience working with Lee and Admissionado! As challenging as the application process was, we had a lot of fun navigating it together. I would highly recommend them to everyone (regardless of level of familiarity with MBA applications) contemplating an MBA!

Read More