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Product Amerasia Complete School Package
Consultant Drew Hoff
I found Amerasia on GMATClub and reached out to them 3 weeks (yup, 3 weeks) before MBA deadlines for 2019 intake. At that point, I'd just re-taken my GMAT, had not started on any of my applications, essays or recommendations. I remember asking Drew if I should just wait to apply for 2020 intake to avoid rushing through my applications. However given that I'm slightly older, he advised me to go ahead with this round.
We started working on the essays straight away. Drew had a very structured approach towards the entire process. He had detailed memos for each segment of the application, from recommendations to essays to interviews. This made it less overwhelming as it broke down the entire process into smaller and more achievable segments. I found this extremely helpful as I was working under extreme time constraint.
Drew was very responsive with emails. He was giving me feedback on my essays and applications through the Christmas and New Year's period, taking only Christmas day off. It was easy to schedule calls with Drew when I needed to discuss my applications over the phone, especially since I'm located in South East Asia.
Here's my background: I am South East Asian, studied Economics and Statistics for my undergrad, worked as an analyst for 5 years in telco industry, and had a 710 GMAT score.
I applied for 3 schools - Harvard, Stanford and Wharton. I was accepted to Harvard and Wharton and was waitlisted for Stanford. After being waitlisted to Stanford, Drew shared some detailed guidance on the waitlist process and how to improve my chances, i.e. writing additional essays.
I found the entire experience to be very pleasant. Drew was extremely supportive throughout the entire process and gave direct feedback about essays and my interview responses.
Hey Cuppy! Thanks for sharing your views about Drew. Since this was the top item when I searched for Drew Hoff reviews, I wanted to share my opinion here too. Hope that is fine by you.
Drew is a nice guy. My first chat with him was great too, he showed me that he understood my profile and gave me a lot of confidence.. something that not everyone does on the first call. So I ended up choosing him. Some good things about him: he cares about you, he is nice (most of the times), he agrees to talk when needed to answer questions or brainstorm (most of the times).
However, it is not all smooth. Atleast my experience was not. Firstly, he has temper problems.. I would not expect him to lose his patience and shout, which he did on a few occasions. Additionally, he very regularly forgets to attach the right document and also forgets to send the email on time. He will constantly miss on the 3-day / 4-day to get back promise. Also, I do think that the efforts are not top tier all the time. He definitely improves the application everytime you send it but I dont know if he really thinks about your story in depth. Did not feel that the service was great.
Though I do remember more of the bad stuff than the good stuff, and I definitely had high standards based on the promises (and ofc the price).. so overall I would give him a 2/5 or a 3/5 if I take the shouting and the bad behaviour out of the picture... which I hope was a one off..
I do think that he is a nice guy though if you want to make a friend not sure if he as nice a consultant. Maybe my experience was not the best so I would recommend the following at the minimum:
1. Ask him to introduce you to atleast 3-4 of his past clients and ask them questions about what was good and bad, etc.. also know that he will only connect you with people that think nicely of him so keep that in mind and make sure to ask the right questions
2. Speak with him a few times and properly define ways of working.. don't get too impressed by his first chat.. his job is to impress you
3. The strategy memos are nice but dont take that into account when deciding, they are not that helpful.. you'll find stuff on the internet