Maria has created something truly phenomenal. I enjoyed every aspect of Applicantlab. It helped me land not only all the dream schools but also a decent scholarship in them. I strongly advise all the applicants (especially Asian students) to switch to Applicantlab instead of spending thousands of dollars on other admission consultants, who honestly don't do justice for the prices they charge. Applicantlab was very useful for gathering my thoughts, achieving clarity, and showing me where I need to improve further.

Moreover, Maria is very responsive and does the job with the utmost passion. I had a great time using this tool, and I cannot recommend her services enough! Thank you, Maria, for designing such a fantastic admissions tool!

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Services Used:
Applicant Lab, Sanity Check, Strategy Essay Reviews, One-on-One Interview Practices (in short, everything Maria offers :) )

Details:
Coming from the most over-represented applicant pool, INDIAN-MALE-ENGINEER, I realized the need for professional consulting. Then I came across ApplicantLab by Maria, and after reading its great reviews, I took the trial. It immediately made me feel confident that I also can MAKE TO MY DREAM SCHOOL. Step-by-step, I then subscribed to all the services that Maria offers.
The ApplicantLab is definitely the best one-stop portal for anything you need regarding any top business school. Maria has done a fantastic job of organizing her knowledge and experience on an online platform that you can use at your own pace. I particularly liked the “WHY MBA & CAREER VISION” section, as it helped me lay a strong foundation essential for a winning application. Also, a unique virtual experience (including tons of excellent videos!!) of brainstorming core stories allowed me to prioritize each story according to different leadership qualities. I never ever imagined that a website could offer you this much!!!
Before moving forward to drafting essays, I thought it would be good to try out Maria’s “Sanity Check” service in which she reviews the crux of your application. And it was really really helpful. Maria made several corrections to my strategy and suggested several ideas on how to connect the dots while avoiding pitfalls common to my background. It boosted my confidence that I’m going in the right direction.
After completing all the modules in ApplicantLab, I started drafting essays. But I had a huge writer-block; neither had I written anything for a long time nor was I good at writing (you might judge it from this review :)). But by that time, I had full confidence in “my core story” and “Maria.” So, I decided to buy “Maria’s Strategic Essay Review,” and it was the best decision. Maria’s suggestions on how to make the essays logical, and how to be genuine, concise, and truthful, really helped me tighten-up my essays. All of these essay reviews helped me overcome my fear of writing as well. In short, her deep experience (having worked in the industry for several years) allowed me to stand out from the rest of the applicant pool, and I got interviews from all the schools.
After talking to several alumni, I was sure about was that if I prepare well for HBS, I can do well for other schools also. So first, I spent an ample amount of time completing ApplicantLab’s Interview Prep module. Maria has made great videos offering concrete advice on all commonly asked questions. But HBS’s interview is very different from others, so I scheduled three One-on-one mock interviews with Maria, and each one was worth it. Being an HBS alum, she knows the different line-of-questions that could be asked, and we practiced everything in those three sessions. Also, having multiple sessions allowed me to practice some questions multiple times. By the end of the third session, I was confident that I was ready for the D-day.
Now, after getting into all the top-3 business schools, I would say Maria was the key to my successful results. And the reason it worked for me was that I had full confidence and trust in Maria, right from the beginning. So, overall I will always recommend ApplicantLab and Maria’s other services!!!

Good luck!!!!

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TL;DR: Some of the best money I have ever spent. If you are looking for a one-stop-shop where all info for each school is aggregated, and where you can craft a winning school-specific essay for every application, look no further. Don't let skepticism hold you back!

If you are reading this it's probably because you are skeptical – as I was when I was in your shoes – of how a product could somehow deliver the same results as a traditional admissions consultant. I honestly could not afford a full package from any of the consulting agencies, so I decided to give it a shot. After all, it costed about the same as one hour of most consulting services. Boy, did I make the right choice!
The very first thing I wanted was a place where I could find all the information of every school I was thinking of applying to. Reading through hundreds of websites and blog posts and putting it all together in a few docs here and there was eating away at my time. ApplicantLab aggregates all the information of a very wide variety of schools in one place. That alone was worth the price tag.
Then I needed to understand where my strengths and weaknesses were, and how to exploit this info to craft a great application. The ApplicantLab product is beautifully thought out to help you figure this out in a very simple, fast process. It helps you create the building blocks that will make up a great resume and essays.
The final touch comes in preparing the resume and essays. Even assuming I could have found the building blocks by myself (which I doubt), you need to put them together in different ways for each school, to connect with the different admissions committees. I would have never figured this out by myself, let alone before the school deadline. The Lab does it for you though, with an awesome breakdown (in video and written form) of every essay question for every school, complete with great examples. This helped me really understand my target school, and put together the building blocks in the right way!
In full disclosure, I did cheat a little bit in this last part of the process. I ordered a "reality check" with Maria with my rough drafts and resume, just to ensure that my starting point before polishing was good. This service, which returns a ~20-30 minute video with Marías thoughts, was also worth its weight in gold. I did have to make a couple of changes to my thought process and essay topics, but it really helped me fully understand the whole process and use the product even better.
In the end, I only applied to Berkeley Haas, which I felt was the best fit for me (by the way, the Product also helps you figure that out too), and I got in with a significant scholarship! Hands down, the best value for money ever!

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ApplicantLab was absolutely crucial in helping to navigate the MBA admissions process. Also, unlike other admissions consulting services the value received for the cost paid is extraordinary. For a few hundred dollars (fraction of the thousands that other consulting services charge) you get a tool that provides you with ALL the information you need with incredibly deep insight into what the schools are looking for, and how to best position yourself to impress them.

My results speak for themselves. As an over-represented minority with meh work background, decent GMAT, and below-average GPA - I got interviews for all of the M7's and T10 schools I applied to. Ultimately I was admitted to my top choice M7 and with a merit scholarship.

Save your time, save your money, save your admissions journey, get ApplicantLab.

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If you're still wondering if you should work with ApplicantLab and Maria- I beg you to please give it a try. It will save you ~10K USD for the best-in-class admission help! In my application journey, I started with an hourly package with another consultant (not fo H/W) and I wasn't really happy with the limited tips I got from these expensive $350 per hour consultation and slow turnaround time. Then my friend referred me to the ApplicantLab and it was a game-changer for me! I wish I could have met ApplicantLab much earlier so I wouldn't even need to pay for those expensive hourly rates! The strategy section on the Lab was so intuitive that it allowed me to build a strong set of career goals and personal branding. The school-specific tips for essay writing are very detailed and inspiring! These tips are much more insightful than the ones I got from my hourly consultant despite the big agency name. (duh...they've got more money for marketing). The best thing is that you can read the tips inside and watch (tons of) videos as many times as you want for a one-time payment!

I also highly recommend the strategic essay review and interview prep with Maria. During these sessions, Maria offered very constructive feedback and she actually remembered my stories! For essay review after working through the steps on the ApplicantLab, I exclusively worked with ApplicantLab for my HBS and Wharton and loved the comments from Maria!

For HBS, I did a mock interview with Maria and also with another famous guy who specializes in HBS. Maria's mock session totally won! It's a lot more affordable and insightful than what was offered by the famous specialist. Maria read my entire application for HBS mock and she literally predicted 70% of my real interview questions!

Thank you Maria for creating the ApplicantLab!

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I can't speak highly enough of ApplicantLab and Carin whose incredibly targeted feedback helped get me into my top MBA program, Tuck. Carin strikes a perfect balance between her friendly, approachable nature and ability to give direct feedback as to when things are and are not working. In multiple occasions, her comments made me completely change the direction of my essays, overturning assumptions that I previously had about what Admissions Committees were looking for. She helped reconnect me with a narrative that spoke more to me as a person, and I can't thank her enough for her help. The value of her service goes well beyond the price of ApplicantLab.

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ApplicantLab is a very interesting take on MBA admissions consulting.
Pros:
1. It is a very well structured and well thought out service.
2. It saves a lot of time for candidates as it does the basic school research for you, you need not waste your time going through obscure school details for your essays
3. Maria is super helpful if you think the website cannot help you
4. You have readymade comparisons of gmat scores, gpa and Acceptance rates.
5. CHEAP - at $269 (Cheaper with a gmatclub code) it is definitely a bargain.

CONS:
1. You have to be incredibly self-motivated to turn up everyday to update the application

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I heard about ApplicantLab from friends as an alternative to the typical expensive MBA admissions consulting services. The low price point and solid results based on reviews piqued my interest. I ultimately used ApplicantLab for several MBA applications and obtained favorable results for three top 10 schools!

Thank you to Maria and Carin for giving my essays the extra polish. I know it wouldn't have been possible without the help of ApplicantLab's step-by-step instructions on how to structure my application. It's super easy to understand, and the additional services such as resume and essay reviews were invaluable. Thank you again for helping me reach my MBA dreams amid many headwinds.

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I learned about ApplicantLab from a friend who got into Wharton with the help of Maria. I started the application process very late: finished the GRE test at the end of October, and did not start researching and preparing for the essays until mid-November. Additionally, I decided to apply for 10 business schools which means there were over 20 essays to write. At first, I was a little skeptical about how much a website could help with my application, so I did not pay for the premium version. Two days later, I realized researching for each school's programs, clubs, defining value was extremely time consuming and there was no way I would finish all of them before the deadline. I contacted my friend for advice and he explained to me how ApplicantLab has all of those for each school summarized on a single page. I signed up, and it was life-changing. With a combination of videos and text, I learned about each school in 1-2 hours and felt have a very good grasp of how I would fit into each school as well as if their offering would fit me. What impressed me the most is how much Maria knows about each school's character and culture. For example, besides schools like Haas that make their defining value explicit, Maria also discusses the implicit culture that exist in each school and what kind of candidate they prefer. This is extremely helpful because I made sure to select my stories based on each school's values. I also used Maria's personal feedback services on my first draft and my resume. Her feedback were very constructive and eye-opening. She pointed out my resume that I used for recruiting is completely different from one that should be used for MBA applications, which later proved to be very true. I did not use an MBA consulting service besides ApplicantLab, and the couple hundred spent is one of the best investment I've made. Compared to the MBA consulting services that would cost thousands of dollars, ApplicantLab is just as effective. As someone who only has three years of experience, I got into Wharton, Yale SOM, and CMU Tepper with ApplicantLab's help.

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Though I was initial sceptical, but the UI put me in a comfortable place as soon as I started. The fact that you can work on your career hook and add relevant examples helps you to enrich your essays .The reviews and guidance by Maria and Carin are spot on and extremely beneficial. They put a lot of heart in ensuring the experience is enjoyable and beneficial to the candidates.Though their reviews may sometimes be a bit harsh, but it all helps to ensure the final product is top notch.
I would recommend their guidance to all candidates and request them to give Applicant Lab a shot

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