Eric Hollowaty Reviews

I had been preparing my applications for months before I hired a consultant, believing that my essays just needed a quick review and I was on my way to submit. How quickly I came to realize that wasn't the case!

I was looking for someone who was knowledgeable and possessed the intuition to shape narratives from the finer details. I had phone consultations with 14 MBA consulting firms before I decided to work with Eric at mbaMission. As someone with a modest background (average undergraduate GPA, decent work experience as a contributor on a team, some community service, GMAT score on par with top schools), I thought I was reaching for the stars when I applied to MIT Sloan - my dream MBA program. I didn't think that hiring a consultant would make much of a difference, but that's where Eric came in.

First, Eric is extremely responsive and communicative. Because I was an hourly client, he kept detailed time logs and gave me full control over how long I wanted him to review something or how detailed I wanted him to dive into an essay. I definitely feel as though every dollar I spent was well-accounted for.

Second, and most importantly, he's very good at what he does. Even though I had already written my first drafts of essays on my own, Eric was able to draw out narratives from my existing stories - helping me find ways to develop them and illustrate the details that made these stories significant or noteworthy. He guided me to showcase my strengths, and recognize how those values aligned with the school's. Essentially, through his edits, Eric helped splash color on my otherwise blah application. In the end, I got into my reach-for-the-stars school with a generous scholarship offer. I am certain that I couldn't have gotten here without Eric's help!

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Eric and I solely reviewed my candidacy for my MBA programs and worked on how to approach application questions. The result: I was accepted in my dream school (Sloan).

Throughout the process, Eric helped me because he:
1) helped me understand my profile's strength and weaknesses
2) unfolded the questions that the schools were asking.
3) was incredibly timely in getting back to my questions.

Note that I was under the deadline gun in many situations and Eric was a champ in getting back to me faster than the standard 2 days.

The only challenge was that I came from an engineering background whereas Eric seemed to have more experience with candidates with more traditional backgrounds. This wasn't a big issue - we just got hung up on minor details.

I would recommend Eric - he was very helpful but did not write anything for me and I took ownership of the applications. Read the mbaMission book, Eric goes by many of its suggestions and it pays to have read it ahead of time.

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Having decided to pursue MBA with only few months to submit application, I decided to hire a consultant to guide me through the process of application submission. At the start of the process I knew about what all was needed e.g. GMAT, recommendations, essays etc. However, I wasn't aware of nitty gritty of each step like what defines a good recommendation, or what life stories are relevant for an essay. Through mbaMission, I met Eric. He is very professional, and works with you very passionately in order to achieve your goals. Initial questionnaire and documents from mbaMission sets you up to create an outline of your essay and forces you to think hard about your life events. I really liked Eric's approach of asking the right questions, instead of giving answers and prioritizing my life stories. His feedback on essay word count reduction and creative writing style added a lot of value to my essay. I would highly recommend Eric for your MBA essays.

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I was first introduced to Eric / mbaMission by a few of my co-workers who had used the same group when they were going through the application process last year. I spoke with Eric and a couple other consultants at other firms before deciding he was the best fit, namely due to his flexibility in service offering and specific knowledge about each school I was applying to (as opposed to making generalized statements). I couldn’t be happier with the outcome—Eric is hands down the easiest, wisest and most helpful consultant I could have worked with. I opted to use the hourly service as I felt that would be the best way to get targeted feedback on what I was working on. He was great at providing exactly what I needed and stayed within my ‘light/heavy comments’ and time limit range. I used him for a thirty minute resume review, several thirty minute essay brainstorming calls, several essay reviews and an HBS interview preparation call. Each time I would submit a draft of my essay, he would send comments back well before the 2-day deadline. The level of detail and guidance he provides in his comments/questions is exactly what I needed in order to be able to successfully refine my story and not feel as though I was left stranded each time.

My most memorable moment working with Eric was the day I interviewed at HBS. We had a quick call to go over interview techniques the week prior and he had mentioned he would stay ‘on call’ to review my post-interview reflection statement if I wanted someone to take a quick glance for general thoughts. After my interview, I hung back at Spangler (my interview location at HBS) and quickly lost track of time while working on my essay. To my surprise and delight, I received an e-mail from Eric at 9pm checking in to see how the interview went and ask if I still wanted to show him my final statement before submitting. This is an example of how Eric is extremely generous with his time and makes each client feel as though he/she is his only client at the time. He remembered my story week to week even though we only chatted for thirty minutes every now and then. He is very thoughtful and really took the time to get to know me so he could provide the best insight for how I should position myself in each essay for each school. Ultimately, I got into my top choice (HBS) and wouldn’t have been able to do it without his guidance and support along the way!

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When I first made the decision to apply to business school, I was unsure as to whether I wanted to hire an admissions consultant. Looking back, choosing to work with Eric on my applications was one of the best decisions I made during the admissions process.

From our first conversation, Eric made understanding not just my background and objectives, but also my personality, a priority. He consistently took the time to understand WHY I made the decisions I’d chosen throughout my life and my career. The effort paid huge dividends when brainstorming for the admissions essays, as Eric was able to help me choose topics that brought through my personality and accomplishments while still highlighting the aspects of my background that would be most attractive to each admissions committee. Eric’s ability to combine a deep, detailed understanding of his clients with an equally-detailed understanding of what each school is looking for is truly standout.

Another highlight of my experience with Eric was his responsiveness. My work-weeks generally average 70-80 hours; in addition, we were working on a very tight timeline (my first application was due less than 1 month after we started working together). Eric was exceptionally accommodating of my schedule and never missed a deadline, at one point even working through a wedding weekend. Eric’s responses were not only prompt, but also tremendously additive to the drafting process – each essay was returned with thought-provoking, actionable comments that kept my writing focused and on point.

Lastly, my review would not be complete without highlighting Eric’s awesome personality and demeanor. He was encouraging and supportive throughout what can be an extremely stressful process, yet never sugar-coated things; he always told me exactly what I needed to hear. Throughout the process, it was always clear that he was genuinely invested in making sure my applications were successful.

I strongly recommend Eric to anyone who is considering working with an admissions consultant – he is a thoughtful, talented and hard-working advisor. In my case, I am certain that his guidance was the difference-maker that led to my being admitted to my top-choice school (Wharton).

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Selecting Eric as my admission consultant is one of the wisest moves I made in my business schools’ applications. From the first call, he was so well-prepared that he suggested potential schools and programs that perfectly matched my career goals and profile. Eric is truly detailed-oriented; he brainstormed with me on every single essay question, drawing all my attributes and strengths mentioned in the questionnaire I had done in the very early stage of the consulting processes. When it came to the mock-interviews, he gave me invaluable feedback on each of my draft answer to the simulated interview questions, improving and broadening my views significantly. Working with Eric is extremely efficient and comfortable; he kept on his high performance while maintaining his cozy conversations.

Having been through the application processes, I realized that the admissions committees look not only for the most qualified but also for the best-fitted applicants. While the former attribute is simply shown in the GMAT score and GPA, the latter attribute must be communicated through the essays, which are usually done without sufficient effort. Admission consulting service, in my opinion, is a worthwhile investment, representing only a small portion of the total educational investment. And as in any investments, picking a correct “choice” is crucial. If you are reading my testimonial, I suggest that you just pick Eric, and I guarantee you that it will be one of your most profitable investments.

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I was a top student from a top school. I had a GMAT score above the average of the top 10 MBA programs. I had decent work and community leadership experience. Yet I was rejected from all of the schools I applied to – rejected without even an interview.

This is what led me to mbaMission. I started with a free consultation, and right away, I knew mbaMission was the right fit for me. I spoke with Liza Weale and had a great 30-60 minute conversation on whether I was targeting the right schools, the development areas in my profile, and how mbaMission could help me as a reapplicant. I came away impressed that I wasn’t being sold on mbaMission but rather given genuine, helpful guidance.

Once I decided to finally make the leap and give business school another shot, I reached out to mbaMission and signed up for a three-school start-to-finish package. On Liza’s recommendation, I was paired with Eric Hollowaty. Eric was recommended to me based on my background, school choices, and who among the consultant staff would be best able to help me.

Eric was the perfect man for the job. Working in a demanding job, and with only a few weeks to the application deadlines, I needed someone who could work with me on my schedule. I needed someone who could provide direct, succinct, actionable feedback. And I needed someone who could help me think out loud in crafting my personal statements – steering me away from dead ends and towards promising ideas and stories, without commandeering the creative process. Eric checked all those boxes and more. Every exchange – every email and every call – with Eric was time well spent.

The result was interviews with two out of the three highly competitive programs I applied to, and ultimately acceptance to a top five school. The road to MBA admission was extremely challenging, but thanks to mbaMission and Eric Hollowaty, it is one I will look back on fondly. I would highly recommend mbaMission, and Eric in particular, to all prospective applicants, especially reapplicants struggling with the decision to reapply.

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I consulted with Eric Hollowaty on 4 schools, was interviewed at all 4, and was accepted at 2/4. When selecting my consultant, I requested someone who would be honest with me at all times (no sugar coating) but who also would be my cheerleader throughout the process, and I got all that and more with Eric. He asked questions that provoked me to dig deeper on essays and interview answers and empowered me to view my own experience in an MBA-conducive way. He frequently returned my essays on an expedited schedule without charge, and his comments were analytical, insightful and always improved my work. He made himself available to me on late nights and weekends, frequently at the last minute - whatever I needed to get the most out of his services. He was 100% dedicated to getting to know me, my industry, and my post-MBA goals. I would recommend anyone seeking to enlist a consultant speak with Eric before committing to another service or person.

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Going into the Business School application process, I wanted to concentrate on strengthening my applications through my essays to make up for my ok, but not great, GMAT score.

I had participated in mbaMissions’s free online workshops, and decided to sign up for their free consultation. I chose to work with Eric Hollowaty based on his past experience and its relation to my work experience. Eric listened to what my goals were, and instead of trying to alter my goals he accepted them and helped me become the best applicant for my target schools.

When I started working with Eric, I had already formulated my “story” for the most part, so I didn’t feel the need to purchase the full school package. I instead opted for the hourly option and used Eric to help fine tune my essays for the three schools I ended up applying to in Round 1. Our process was pretty seamless and while we only technically worked together for 3 hours, Eric’s feedback on my essays helped me shape the other parts of my applications and prep for my interviews.

I worried that using a consultant would change the voice of my essays and sound disingenuous, so I did thorough self reviews of my essays before sending them to Eric. From there, Eric helped me highlight and extract aspects of the essays that I might not have realized were important pieces of my experiences and character. I really appreciated that Eric acknowledged both the effective areas of my essays as well as the areas that needed improvement. He worked efficiently within the time constraints I set for each essay review (3 hours goes by really quickly!) and returned my edited essays to me ahead of schedule every time.

I think the best part about working with Eric was the enthusiasm and excitement he showed when I was accepted to the three programs I applied to. He was very supportive throughout the entire process, and was just as thrilled about my acceptances as I was. Thanks Eric!

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I applied to HBS, Wharton, MIT and Columbia and got into 2 schools of my dreams and waitlisted from the other two! Few years ago, I worked with another bulge bracket consulting firm, applied to same schools and only got interview invitations from two schools(I withdrew from the process before having the interviews). I contribute much of this success to Eric. Comparing my past experience and stories from 10+ close friends and colleagues who have worked with different MBA consultants in the past 1-2 years, I can say with confidence that my experience of working with Eric was by far the most productive and helpful.

Having worked as an analyst at an investment bank, I would describe working with Eric as such: (1) he was my “associate” at times, giving me detailed and extremely hands on comments/advice when necessary, (2) but also a keen “managing director” at other times, guiding me with high level comments that sometimes shifted entirely the topics/stories to elaborate on essays (critical as this served as the backbone of my entire application). (3) And at all times, he made sure I was actively incorporating comments and doing the thinking/writing, which was important in maintaining my voice and sounding genuine and personal throughout all the essays. These three I believe are key success factors in getting into top schools.

Specifically, key attributes which set Eric apart were:
- Timeliness, Efficiency & Approachability – He always gave me feedback before the promised deadline and was always available/approachable for any short or long comments/questions (for example, he will look at your essays on the plane, at his sister’s wedding during weekends or very early/late in the day, if necessary). He is extremely flexible and if possible, never make you intentionally wait the entire 48 hour response period guided by MBA Mission. While you are aware that the consultants have the whole 2 days to get back to you, frustration will build when your consultant is unwilling to flexibility work around it. With Eric, this will not be the case.
- Sharpness & objectivity – Eric knows what the admissions are looking for and quick to point/pull them out from your various life-long anecdotes. For example, having an investment banking background, I feared that my career background and aspirations would sound too dull/typical for the “why MBA and career goal?” essays and came up with a career goal that was geared towards a more seemly unique industry. I was excited to have come up with a more unique story for MBA essay purposes and presented to Eric, who quickly commented that it did not sound convincing/genuine enough and would serve me negatively. He advised that I stick to my original/true career goal but worked with me in really specifying/shaping the details of the examples/motivations, which led to a very dense, effective essay. In writing more personal essays, I again feared that my life story would be too dull (it seemed I did not have a failure, success or family-related anecdotes that critically stood out), but with a what may seem like a typical story, he really pushed and challenged me to go layers further in conveying the motivations for particular actions I took in the past. Again, this led to an extremely dense and personal essay which I believe served me well, being one of the more over represented candidates from finance background.
- Depth and exhaustiveness of feedback/advice – Again, Eric knows what is/is not important in the eye of admissions and he will give you an exhaustive comment on the key points you should focus on (some often going over couple paragraphs in writing or through phone calls, whichever he judges to be more efficient/effective). For example, on my personal essays, he provided detailed comments on stories I should eliminate but highlighted parts he felt I should deep dive into by asking me “why did you feel this way?”, “what made you…”, or “your response to these motivations conflicts with other motivations, think again” etc,. These various detailed “why” comments really pushed me hard to think, think and think and led me to write an essay that was deeply personal and genuine. You want your consultant to be able to push you to think but at the same time spend time thinking only on stories that matter so at the end, you end up actually finishing the essay on time. So equally important on that end is that he will make sure you don’t waste your time “thinking” over parts that are not critical.

Eric is one of the most professional individuals I have come across in any field; every moment you are working with him, you can tell he is genuinely dedicated to his career and reputation as a consultant (this compares to some other consultants who has other jobs on the side or working as a consultant as an in-between job). During the 6 months I worked with him, I thought how great it would be to have a colleague/boss with similar working style/work ethic like Eric!

Finally, personally, he is sincere, nice and just extremely pleasant to talk to. I have a brother and a cousin who will be applying to MBAs next year, and I will recommend no one else but Eric!

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