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Established in 2011, The Red Pen provides high-quality MBA consulting to candidates around the world.
Team
Our international team of consultants hold MBAs from top international programs such as Columbia, Wharton, INSEAD, Booth, NYU Stern, Cornell and Oxford Saïd. We draw on years of experience helping high-caliber students showcase the best versions of themselves in their applications. We pride ourselves on staying informed on the evolving MBA admissions space and, as members of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards when serving clients.
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I signed on with The Red Pen rather late last year 2021 and picked a 2 school package - Duke and NYU. Anju onboarded me onto the system and she's absolutely fantastic. She's the reason I picked TRP to begin with despite their offering being more expensive than the others. They helped me with a past-application analysis before we had begun our review.
They then did a step-by-step analysis of my accomplishments, based on which they helped me prepare my resume and write the essays.
What I liked most about Anju and the team was that they were willing to help out even outside of my 2 schools. I applied to Georgetown as well and they supported me nonetheless. They helped me with my follow-ups from GU and Darden. I finally cracked GU.
My rec: Ask for Anju and ask her to read everything - she's got a great eye for things like these. The rest of the team is great as well.
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Product The Red Pen Admissions Consulting
Consultant Rashmi Sonthalia
To be honest, this review doesn't fully reflect the critical role Red Pen played in my applications. I'm honoured to have been accepted to Wharton, Yale, and London Business School, and I owe it to this incredible team.
Last year: The MBA application process was one of the most daunting and time-consuming experiences I've ever had. Even though I was driven to reach great goals, juggling work, studying for tests, researching colleges, introspecting and writing my entire life was overwhelming. I'm grateful for Red Pen's presence throughout this rollercoaster, guiding, supporting, motivating, and pushing me to bring our my best.
Red Pen Team: The entire Red Pen team is passionate about assisting students. I can vouch that they are experts in their field. From the day I was onboarded until now everyone of them have been tremendously supportive, readily available and have gone above and beyond to help me.
Process: I love that Red Pen has a very structured end-to-end process that helped me introspect my career choices, identify unique stories and eventually frame them for my applications. I have a diverse background, doing this ground work was essential piece for all the applications. Also, It wasn't just one coach, my essays were reviewed by several experienced experts in Red Pen, whose inputs made the essay more impactful.
Consultant (Coach): Rashmi Sonthalia was the best coach i could ask for. She is extremely intuitive, empathetic and good at what she does . Through all of my highs, lows, and confusion this year, she has been my go-to person. It's because of her, I was able to get through a crazy number of essay versions, put all the pieces together, submit everything on time, and do my best in my interviews. I am glad that even when I thought the writings were adequate and that I was sufficiently prepared, she would not settle until she was completely convinced. She also went out of her way to accommodate my working hours. I can be a last-minute person, so Thank you for your patience.
Interview Prep: Red Pen proactively mapped me with alumus from the respective universities for mock interviews. They also organised team discussion mocks for Wharton. These formal practice mocks helped me refine my answers and be more confident in my interviews and team discussions.
Cost: Initially, I did think that they were very expensive but now having seen how much time, energy and dedication they put into my applications, I can attest that it was worth every penny. At several times, I felt they were far more invested than I was.
Highlights: Unlimited time and access with coaches(+100), Process structure, Tool for maintaining essay and resume versions, their network of mba alumnus for interviews and other inputs.
My heartfelt thanks to Rashmi Sonthalia, Anju Goele, Preeti Wadekar, Natasha Mankikar, Kimberly dixit, Mitrabina Sen and entire team for everything. Thank you for being my sherpas, without whom I might not have reached my dream summit.
Small Tip -
Please start the process as soon as possible. If you are like me you will think its easy and keep it for last min. But trust me it is not it takes lot of time, research and mental space to think and write your own story esp because you want to give your best in those 500 words. Even though I started 4 months in advance I was too late for scholarships. So please start now.. no...yesterday!
TRP is the reason I secured an MBA at my dream business school, LBS. The entire team helped me thought the process. They pushed me to explore my own story and think about my own experiences in a way I would have never been able to do myself. The MBA application process can be quite emotionally draining and frustrating although Nita, who was my lead consultant, was always encouraging and motivated me to push on.
I also feel that TRP’s process of getting feedback from a larger group of consultants was very helpful. The larger team of consultants examined each of my essays as if from a admissions committees view point and this allowed me to see how others were receiving the story I was telling.
All round I feel that I was in the best hands in the industry and I would recommend anyone looking apply to utilize TRP.
Product The Red Pen Admissions Consulting
Consultant Preeti Wadekar
The Red Pen is one of the most sort out and highly professional team who are highly skilled at what they do. They not helped me in getting in my dream school but they improved how I thought of things made my thinking much clearer and objective. They not only help with essays and other requirements but also help post completion of your essays they really support on interviews as well which makes you stand out from the crowd. I recommend this to anyone & everyone who seriously seeks a B-school admit to their dream school and aims to get a good scholarship should seek their consultancy.
If you’re planning to go for your MBA, then I suggest look no further than The Red Pen (TRP). TRP has a very collaborative approach, with different team members working on various facets of the application which as a result helps to get in different perspectives. I applied to 4 colleges, got 3 interview invites, 2 admit offers (got a scholarship too) and 1 waitlist (which might also covert 😬).
My journey with TRP started in early December and I had barely over a month left before the R2 deadlines. Moreover, my GRE score was also on the lower side. However, inspite of the paucity of time and a low score, TRP helped me prepare a winning application and as a result I got into one of the top 10 B-schools in the world, along with offers from other schools.
I’m extremely thankful to my consultant, Jinal Sanghavi without whom this wouldn’t have been possible. Jinal really understood my story well and helped me identify and highlight my strengths, and position my weaknesses better. Throughout the iterative process she gave me valuable insights that really strengthened my application and also assisted me in articulating and refining my career goals which made my reasoning for pursuing an MBA even more compelling. She helped me craft a solid narrative that eventually helped me ace the interviews!
I’m also very grateful to both Anju and Namrata, who also worked with me on my application and were there to support me throughout the process.
Anju was instrumental in helping me develop my resume and encouraged me to really introspect to bring out my most notable achievements. Also, Namrata was always there to guide me whenever I had an query and also helped me identify prospective recommenders for the LORs.
Finally, I would definitely recommend signing-up with TRP so that they can work their magic on your application and help you get into the school of your choice!
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Product The Red Pen Admissions Consulting
Consultant Dhiraj Daryani
In summary, it was the best decision for me to work on my MBA applications with TRP instead of the consultants my friends have hired (2 of them got into Wharton).
I had a relatively set path I've thought out for myself both during and after the MBA, but my motive and story were a little fuzzy but was strong enough. This is where TRP came in. The first few sessions with the team were intense and they did the job - revealing the gaps. Along the journey, Dhiraj and team provided the required structure and guidance to meticulously articulate the thoughts I wanted to convey, to the best of my abilities. All elements of the applications were thoroughly covered - different form of goals, the reason to choose a particular university, identification and refinement of critical events in my life story, finally putting it together for various parts of the application, and preparation for the interview.
I am impressed most by the fact that the TRPs structured yet fluid process and guidance helped me focus on the right elements to maintain a smooth story. I'm deeply thankful to Dhiraj, Ankita and Anju who helped nail my first choice in the first attempt.
Product The Red Pen Admissions Consulting
Consultant Preeti Wadekar
The entire team of TRP was extremely professional since the day I signed up with them. Their professionalism is matched only by their willingness to go over and beyond when it comes to helping aspiring candidates put their best foot forward. They were able to make sense of the jumble of thoughts and ideas that I shared with them in the first few calls and helped me craft applications that I was proud of. I received multiple MBA admits (with sizeable scholarships) in the programs that I applied for with them. I was able to use the material I created with them to receive admits with scholarships from other schools that I applied to on my own as well.
Signing up with TRP early in my applications journey is probably one of the smartest things I did! Thank you so much, especially to Preeti, Ridhi, and Anju for their endless support.
Product The Red Pen Admissions Consulting
Consultant Mitrabina Sen Khare
At the onset, I had a detailed discussion with Preeti Wadekar regarding my target schools, following which my consultant, Mitrabina, was identified as the best fit. I worked primarily with Mitrabina and Ankita for my applications, resume and interview prep and found them to be super helpful, given that I started my process roughly two months from the deadlines. They customized their approach to suit my requirements, while also accommodating for my work schedule. The process was efficient, and didn't involve more than 4-5 iterations, which I appreciated the most, apart from the candid feedback that helped bring out the best output. I would 100% recommend TRP!
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Product The Red Pen Admissions Consulting
Consultant Preeti Wadekar
My experience with the Red Pen for US MBA applications was great! I used their comprehensive services for Round 1 of the 21-22 cycle, and have an admit offer from my dream school (with a full-tuition scholarship), plus other admits and interview invites (which I declined for personal reasons).
They have a well-structured process, from the beginning when they spend a lot of time getting to know you and your stories and then help you structure those according to each school's essay prompts. They use an online system that's easy to navigate and saves a lot of confusion between draft versions.
Coming from a non-traditional background in an over-represented demographic, and targeting top US B-Schools - I was quite anxious about how this would turn out. You are paired with a Lead Consultant and a Content Specialist, and I was paired with Nikhilesh (a Wharton MBA himself) and Ankita. They gave me immense support throughout the process and helped me with countless edits on even the most abstract essays, finally even going over each detail of the online application forms. But that's not to say that you won't have to put in the effort yourself! You need to do your own research and need to be very clear about what you want from your MBA.
Highly recommend the Red Pen's MBA services.
Product The Red Pen Admissions Consulting
Consultant Farhan
I was very fortunate to be mentored by the Red Pen team. Right from resume building, school selection, STAR stories, essays, recommendation advisory to interview preparation, the process was very smooth.
The team designed their approach to my preferred method of working and gave me invaluable insights at every juncture of the process.
The consultants at TRP are world class and the management is very professional and invested in their client's success.
I worked with Farhan, Najeshda and Anju. All of them were experts in their respective domains and helped me transform my application from mediocre to one that would stand out.
I would recommend TRP to anyone who is starting their journey of MBA admissions or even those who need some supplemental help.