GMAT Club

** Junior Deluxe Reviews

The Junior Deluxe package provides targeted, intensive mentoring on the essay portions of the application. The cornerstone of the Junior Deluxe is the intensive back-and-forth Draft Development Process.
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Based on 117 reviews
July 22, 2018
ShengChao

Joined: Oct 26, 2014

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Admissionado Junior Deluxe + Resume Review + Interview Prep Services Review

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I signed up for a 1-school Junior Deluxe Package + Resume Review Service after reading the free resources (50 MBA essays that worked) by Admissionado. Besides the generous amount of sample essays, the insights/commentary into why each essay works were honest and quirky. I was quickly convinced that they were the MBA admission experts who can help me with my application.

It turned out to be the best investment ever, and I received admission to INSEAD (my top choice). Victoria, an INSEAD MBA alum herself, showed no-nonsense to kick things off: drilling on my background, professional experience and career goals to produce a strong why MBA, why INSEAD story. During the essays editing process, her feedback was spot-on, with detailed explanation on the what(s) and why(s) that were tailored for the school. She did an amazing job to highlight the significance of my professional work (As a Tech Consultant assuming multiple roles, I have a hard time telling others what I do, let alone summarizing them in few paragraphs) There was one essay that I could not produce the right content as suggested, but Victoria and the editing team had been patience and encouraging, and provided valuable tips and essay ideas for me to close the gap. Along the 1-month plus journey, I never felt daunting or uneasy, only feeling safe and assured that my essays were getting better after each edit.

I also found the interview prep service to be extremely helpful as the mock interview sessions set a clear expectation on the dynamism involved in an actual Q&A. As I was travelling the ring-road in Iceland that time, Victoria was very accommodating to adjust her time to my availability. Also sincere gratitude to Claudia, Admissionado's Director of Operations, who coordinated my engagement with Victoria. I really appreciate her pro-activeness to check with me my application status/progress.

The MBA application journey is stressful and no easy feat. If you are ready to put up a fight and do not settle for mediocrity for your essays/application, I would recommend to go for Admissionado, specifically Victoria to other applicants!

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July 05, 2018
pp89

Joined: Mar 13, 2016

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Self-reported Score:
700 Q48 V39

I signed up for a 5 school JRD package with Mark and it was the best decision ever. With Mark’s help, I got into several M7 schools (with scholarship) and will be attending my dream school (one of HSW- and I come from an extremely overrepresented community- so the odds were stacked against me). Mark is extremely smart (he was a Stanford GSB grad himself) and extremely humble. With his advice, I was able to arrive at strong post-MBA goals based on my background (we went through several iterations for this- he didn’t let me stop till they were rock solid). What I especially liked about Mark was that he wouldn’t just edit something or cut out irrelevant parts of the essay, but he would give out a detailed explanation as to why he is doing what he is doing. There were several times when I had a writer’s block but Mark was quick to respond to my Emails and help me brainstorm (He would turn around essays way quicker than the 72H guarantee that Admissionado gives you; Email responses were always within 6-8 hours). Also, the editing team does a great job in polishing your essay (making sure the tone is right and that you don’t appear arrogant or shy). There were many instances when I just couldn’t figure out a way to trim down the essay to the word-limit, but Mark and Admissionado’s editing team did a phenomenal job in assisting with this as well. I was completely satisfied with the output of each and every essay and don’t believe it could have been any better.

The other area where Mark’s coaching really helped me was with interview prep. I strongly recommend you choose this add-on option if you get through to the interview stage. He coached me on my tone, the type of words that I have to use (for example- rewording “hard-working” as “tenacious”), the way I need to structure my responses to “curve balls” and the time limits I should try to stick to for all the responses. Though it was supposed to be a 1H call, it went on for way over and there was never any rush from Mark (the same thing happened during the introductory call).

I used a different consultant last year and didn’t get in anywhere (no interview calls either), but that changed this year- all thanks to Mark. I would strongly recommend Admissionado for helping YOU get into your dream school. Also, not to forget- their Operations team (Claudia and Lauren) does an amazing job in responding to your queries.

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June 01, 2018
Venkat1122

Joined: May 26, 2015

Posts: 6

Kudos: 4

Verified GMAT Classic score:
730 Q50 V39

Highly recommend admissionado

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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.

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May 10, 2018
2020Fuquan

Joined: May 10, 2018

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Verified GMAT Classic score:
700 Q48 V37

FANTASTIC experience! And the best deal on the market!

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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!

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May 08, 2018
jacampbell8

Joined: Apr 02, 2017

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Admissionado Review!

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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.

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April 13, 2018
abhimahna

Joined: Jul 18, 2015

Posts: 3579

Kudos: 5558

Verified GMAT Classic score:
710 Q50 V35

Wasted My Hard Earned Money! :(

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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! :(

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April 30, 2018
Admissionado

First things first: congrats on your success, sir (with scholarship money to boot!). From our perspective, this is ultimately the only thing that matters. Well done, we wish you the absolute best of luck.

We make our best effort with every single client; and usually, it connects. In the instances where it does not, however (for whatever reason), we take it very seriously. Our goal isn't to be the best admissions consultants MOST of the time... we want for every single client to feel the same pride about our work together as we do. We have gotten stronger at adapting to thousands of different clients with thousands of different needs, profiles, aspirations, working styles, etc. And while we get better and better every year, we are by no means perfect.

But it's what we aspire to. And we we don't ever intend to retire from that effort.

Let's chat about it more, email/call us, and we'll do some productive digging together. The opportunity to improve is something that drives us, always.

April 06, 2018
lala2018

Joined: Apr 06, 2018

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Admissionado - Julie Bowman

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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.

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March 29, 2018
nplatt7

Joined: Aug 14, 2017

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Verified GMAT Classic score:
760 Q48 V47

Great Service, Great Value

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

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!

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March 28, 2018
jjp200

Joined: Mar 28, 2018

Posts: 0

Kudos: 0

Awesome Experience with Admissionado - WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by school email address [?]

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!

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March 23, 2018
Frozenfire42

Joined: May 03, 2017

Posts: 5

Kudos: 1

Verified GMAT Classic score:
720 Q49 V39

Once a Skeptic, Now a Convert

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]

Bottom Line Up Front: I'm a vet and Admissionado was vital to me gaining acceptances to HBS and UVA Darden. It was also key in gaining interviews with Penn and MIT (which I didn't convert to offers but got valuable interviewing experience).

I started my MBA admissions journey about a year ago. As an active duty Army junior officer, I was looking to transition out of the military and realized that an MBA was the best exit strategy to maintain the lifestyle and level of growth that I had achieved up to this point. Soon after I made the decision to get an MBA, I decided to shoot for the moon.

I had a GPA and extracurricular stats in line with HBS norms, less work experience than typical military applicants with some unique jobs, and had a GMAT below average at first which I then was encouraged to improve by Julie (which was a great suggestion) to a level still below but closer to average. All this lead us to believe it could be done.

Julie was excellent from Day 1 and was there to answer literally every question about the process that I could think of (and there were many). She really helped me craft my story that got across who I truly was and what I brought to the table. I was definitely put off by the sticker price, but man I would spend it again in a heartbeat. I had zero experience in selling myself because of my military career and REALLY needed help presenting my unique perspective.

They didn't ghost write anything, and I know that if I had asked they would not have entertained that thought. I really appreciated the integrity they brought to the process. I did the work, they just helped me explain myself clearly, concisely, and eloquently.

I didn't realize how badly I needed Admissionado until I had my free call with Julie, but once she explained what they were all about and gave me some very valuable (and free) advice I was all about it and don't regret my decision in the slightest.

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