Admitted to Columbia!

Hi Everyone

I am 26 years old from South Africa. I am qualified as a Chartered Accountant and have completed all three levels of my CFA. I was accepted to Columbia class of 2014 early decision.

I started preparing some of my application by myself but I quickly realized that even by being the right candidate for an MBA, I was struggling to get my application to show this. I also had a hurdle to overcome in my application as my GPA was basically nonexistent during my undergrad years so I was in desperate need of help.

I am sure a lot of you who are reading this feel the same as me when it comes to using a consultant. Is it really worth the price? Well I used my 30 min free consultation with as many of the companies as I could before deciding on which service to use.

I could not justify spending on an expensive consultant. I also believed that I did not need to overdo it with the assistance. In the end of the day if you are a good candidate you should be able to do most of the application on you’re on with some valuable assistance as a supplement.

Shelly (the owner of MBA Admit) was really great. She spent time getting to know me and understanding my whole situation. I felt that she was genuinely interested in getting to know who I was and that this wasn’t just a 9-5 job that she performs.

Shelly scheduled an initial 2 hour consultation with me where we sat and discussed my plan. This is probably the most crucial thing that can be done and Shelly really helped me create a plan that I believed would work. After the initial consultation I was ready to start drafting my essays. It took me time to get into writing the essays and any questions I had Shelly was always ready to answer. The package at MBA Admit is a substantial amount less than at one of the more popular consulting companies and thus you do not have as many contact sessions with Shelly. I was slightly worried at first with this though but realized very quickly that It made no difference. So I completed my first draft and off I sent it through to Shelly.

Shelly is relatively busy so her turnaround time does vary but on the whole I was very happy with the time it took to review my essays. When I received my essays I could see how much work she had done on them. What I really appreciated was that for one of my essays I was really stuck and had only compiled random paragraphs and I sent it through and Shelly fixed it up great. Your essays are the only way to show Adcom who you are and this is where Shelly’s service really excelled! My essays looked amazing in the end thanks to Shelly.

I also received help when approaching my recommenders. Shelly helped me compile a short list of points to tell my managers in order to get the most out of the recommendation.

Other services I received from Shelly was help with my resume as in South Africa the templates used are completely different. I also had a contact session before my interview which was very insightful and allowed me to feel relaxed and prepared before my interview.

In short I felt that using a consultant really paid off. I did not have too much exposure to the application process in South Africa and without MBA Admit I do not think my application would have been a true reflection of who I am. Shelly allowed me to express who I was and where I was going. Not once did I feel that my application was a false reflection of me. This was a concern I had prior to hiring a consultant.

I do not believe that it is necessary to spend $2500+ on a consultant. I understand that everyone wants the best application but no money is going to replace the hard work you have to put in. Shelly provides the right amount of guidance for an amazing price.

Please feel free to contact me or leave comments.

I hope this helps.