Forum Home > GMAT > Quantitative > Problem Solving (PS)
All Reviews > Avanti Prep Reviews |
REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]
Product Avanti Prep Hourly Services
Consultant Beau Gresham
Background -
-- White male
-- 5 years works experience in tech and manufacturing sales
-- GPA - 3.7 in social sciences from well-ranked NE liberal arts college
-- GRE - 320
I decided to pursue my MBA in May, and prioritized applying R1 to my chosen school. At the suggestion of a friend, I reached out to a consultant he had worked with, and was unhappy with my initial screening. Unlike most applicants, I was geographically driven, and was only interested in one T25 school in a particular city. This consultant discouraged my approach - she (rightfully) reminded me how risky this strategy was, and spent our initial meet-and-greet trying to talk me into a more balanced strategy. While I appreciated her apprehension, I don’t think she understood my larger ‘life plan’, and how crucial geography was in bringing this plan to fruition.
The next consultant I met with was Greg. While he expressed the same concerns over a singular focus, he immediately grasped the bigger picture of what I was trying to accomplish. He was fair and honest, warning me of the hazards, but ensuring me he would do all he could to help me achieve my goal. I appreciated his frankness regarding my risk, and his willingness to support me on my journey, rather than trying to change my mind. Shortly after, he introduced me to my consultant, Beau, whose background mirrored the path I was pursuing.
Both Greg and Beau provided me with months of guidance as I underwent the process of uprooting my current career path. They challenged me to map out, not just a story for admissions, but my authentic career targets and explain why an MBA was critical to achieve them. Before working with Greg and Beau, I knew I wanted to pursue my MBA. After working with them, I knew why I wanted to pursue my MBA. Greg and Beau’s attention extended beyond consultancy, well into the territory of mentorship. I cannot recommend Greg’s Avanti Prep enough, and if you’re lucky enough to have Beau involved, you’ll be all the better for it. Thanks to both of them for helping me not just get to my next step, but to use my MBA as a springboard into the next phase of my career and life.
REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]
Product Avanti Prep Package
Consultant Greg Guglielmo
1. BACKGROUND
I was first introduced to Greg by a Ross student who had previously worked with him. He was endorsed by another T5 admit and a Darden student, but even with such strong and personal recommendations, I was sceptical about admissions consultants because of my prior experiences working with them.
This was my third time applying to b-schools. I had applied with no luck in two previous rounds, during which I worked with a total of 04 admission consultants based out of India. More often than not I felt that even the Indian consultants with big names adopted a generalist approach with very little or no efforts to get to know stories that could form a base for a strong personalized application. Reviews were superficial and at times it took over a week to get a response over a draft.
2. FREE CONSULTATION
My reservations were all alleviated as I scheduled a 30 minutes complimentary call with Greg. Honest, curious, well-seasoned, genuinely concerned were some of Greg’s traits that I could observe during our call, which went for 60 minutes and he seemed completely fine about it. He made genuine efforts to get to know me and my prior application experience and was sympathetic about it.
Whereas other consultants boasted about their past successes and dictated which schools I should be applying and what their strict timeline of working shall be, Greg took a far different route. He listened, provided insight as to where I might have gone wrong, and held an open discussion about schools. We even explored themes for my Goals Essay, providing a glimpse of the experience should I choose to move forward. It was a detailed two-way discussion and I was sold!!
3. SERVICES AND RESULTS
Working with India-based consultants in 2017 Round 2, I applied to Kelley (rejected without interview), Ivey (rejected without interview), Arizona State (dinged post interview), Rice (dinged post interview), and ISB (dinged post interview). Working with other Indian consultants in 2018 Round 1, I was dinged without interview at three T15 US schools and invited to interview again at ISB.
The very first thing I did with Avanti Prep was interview preparation for ISB, and this time I was accepted. I also signed up for a Tier 2 Package for two schools plus Hourly Services for one additional school, all for 2018 Round 2. I specifically worked with Greg on three T20 programs, received interview invites to all three, and was accepted to two, including one with a scholarship over $90K.
Seeing this success and wanting another chance at the T15 programs (this time working with Greg), I secured a deferral from one of the T20 programs and reapplied to three T15 schools and one new M7 school with Greg the following year, in 2019 Round 1. This time the story was very different, as I got admits from all three T15 schools, including two with scholarships ($50K and $40K).
So with the very same job and GMAT score, I went from being unable to crack the T30 working with local consultants to receiving multiple T15 offers and two T15 scholarships working with Avanti Prep. The only new ingredient in my recipe to success was Greg, who helped me portray and communicate my experiences in a coherent and powerful way.
4. SCHOOL RESEARCH
Greg’s insight into schools is unparalleled and his drive to make one learn about the schools is something I had not experienced before, yet I would consider it essential in one’s applications. While discussing the essay questions and brainstorming on how to position my responses, Greg always pushed me to make sure that my responses resonated well with the core values of the school and answered the exact essay question being asked.
From the outset Greg shared his insight on schools and highlighted how to go about researching schools, how to communicate with adcoms and students, how to keep track of interactions I had, and even connected me with students from certain schools I was applying. Even after my admit euphoria settled down, Greg encouraged me to talk to more students and alums so that I could choose between the programs where I was accepted.
5. STORY AND ESSAY DEVELOPMENT
The Package started with filling out a detailed Brainstorming Document. It was structured in a way to make me think and put all my experiences and stories on paper, which formed a base for my applications. Post that we hopped on to a series of calls focused on discussing my story, school selection, and forming a strategy on how to tackle my essays for the first school I was applying.
Post these sessions I dove into drafting essays. With tons of information about the school which I acquired through research, coffee chats, and interactions with school, I felt much more confident in my first drafts. Still the comments I received from Greg showed how much further I needed to go and how much effort he puts in to pushing the applicant. His comments were detailed, nuanced, and well-organized, not just pointing out the flaws but also suggesting possible corrective actions I could take.
In my prior experiences with other consultants, I almost always received high-level comments such as, “this doesn’t seem proper, you might want to change this” and whatnot. But with Greg it was different. He made efforts in making me understand where I went wrong, why the message was not being conveyed properly, and advised on what specific changes I could consider making.
6. RESUME AND APPLICATIONS
Greg followed a similar approach for my resume. He commented extensively on my resume on a macro and micro level, making me understand why the bullet point was not effective, what did it lack, what should I do to make it more effective, and how to engage his “SCARL” approach. For the bullets he felt lacked clarity, he sought more information.
When it came to resume format, Greg did not follow a cookie-cutter approach with fitting information in a pre-designed resume format. Instead we worked to adopt a format that best depicted my experiences in a neat, well-organized, easy to follow, structured way. Again, his diligence and conviction to achieve perfection helped me craft a strong resume.
He also reviewed my responses to the various application sections and ensured that information across different components was in sync, balanced each other, and painted a diverse picture of my professional and personal life.
7. INTERVIEW PREP
Over the two years I worked with Greg for my interview preparation for eight schools and was accepted to six of them, including three with scholarships. The experiences were a stark contrast to my previous experiences where the mock interviews were organized hastily, were neither structured nor school-specific, and feedbacks provided were brief and high level.
When I scheduled my first interview preparation, I was wondering what would we be discussing for 2.5 hours, but when we finally got over with that, the time clocked 3 hrs 15 mins. Greg has meticulously structured the flow of each school’s interview to mimic the program’s actual interview experience. The questions were well-segmented, close to what I experienced in my actual interviews, and the flow was adaptive to my response.
Post the 60-minute mock we hopped onto the feedback and analysis part, where at first, I received high-level feedback of the overall mock, and then we went into a deep analysis of my responses. Greg helped identify not only what went wrong but also how could I improve my answers to each specific question. He also explained the rationale behind each question, and we prepared strategies for each question or question type.
8. SCHOLARSHIP AND DEFERRAL NEGOTIATIONS
My involvement with Greg eventually went beyond just securing admits. These steps were not on my priority list while considering working with Avanti Prep, but they became a very important part of my applicant journey. When things became uncertain with COVID, Greg helped me decide if it would be right to defer my admission and helped me in securing it.
We also worked on negotiating scholarships with schools. With Greg’s guidance and experience, I was able to secure more than a $90K scholarship to a T20 program and a $50K scholarship to a T15 program, after neither of them had offered me any scholarships alongside my original acceptance.
Obtaining a top global MBA is a costly and challenging affair. If you need a coach and friend to navigate you through this gruelling process, Greg is THE GUY. As my experience shows, the investment made to work with Avanti Prep in putting up strong applications was far outweighed by the rewards in terms of admits and scholarships!!
REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]
Product Avanti Prep Hourly Services
Consultant Greg Guglielmo
[b][u]Profile:[/u][/b]
[u]Work Experience:[/u] 6 years
[u]Demography:[/u] WORST (Indian, IT, Male)
[u]GMAT:[/u] 730 (V41, Q49)
[u]Graduation:[/u] Computer Science Engineering (7.48/10)
[u]Post-Graduation:[/u] MBA (from an above average B-School in India) (9.23/10)
[u]Job Profile:[/u] IT Consultant in insurance domain
[u]Highlights:[/u] Started handling a team of 8 distributed over 3 geographies – UK, Israel, South Africa
[b][u]Background:[/u][/b]
I had appeared for my GMAT in 2018 and scored a 730 (V41, Q49). At that time, I thought that a 96 percentile should set me up pretty good for the top schools around the globe. However, I couldn’t convert any of the 8 schools I applied to even though I received interview calls from 6. I knew that I was not good at writing essays which is essentially the most important part of the application. Therefore, I tried reaching out to my friends on and off the GMATClub forum. Everyone tried their best to help me out but the essays ended up below average.
I realized that no matter how much anyone wants to help you out, essay writing is something that requires dedication and knowledge of how the adcoms would evaluate you.
I then decided to give myself a year to work on my profile and decided to reapply in 2020. However, this time I was sure that I would hire a consultant to help me with my essays. I reached out to @stonecold and a few others and the straightforward response was – Don’t even think about anyone else than Greg.
I was like, okay, let me try a free session with Greg and see how things work out. I dropped an email to Greg and quickly set up a session. I had shared my resume with Greg beforehand and made a list of a few points to discuss in that call. I liked the way Greg approaches the application process – he is very clear about how the adcoms look at your profile, what might be your best ‘go to' story to showcase yourself. The most important quality of Greg is that he listens to you and tries to alter plans according to what you want! Why am I saying this? I am stating this because I had come across reviews of a few other consultants who didn’t take the candidates thoughts, story etc into account and tried to dictate their terms. With such inflexible approach one cannot expect good results.
Towards the end of my first session with Greg, I asked him whether my target schools look good because I had made my intentions clear that I would either attend a world top 50 program or not attend at all. My profile was also pretty unique – second MBA, non IIT Indian IT male. I mean everything was bad in my profile except for the GMAT score which too seemed pretty below average for a top 10 or 15 program. He said there was a silver lining in the interview calls from last time, so that with hard work and improvements I can put up a very competitive fight. There are a lot of different packages that are available. I went for the hourly services because I was very clear as to how I wanted Greg's help.
[u]NOTE:[/u] I would advise you to be very well prepared in terms of your expectations before reaching out to consultants because that would save you both time and money.
[b][u]Process:[/u][/b]
I decided to apply for my target schools in R1 and started working with Greg from the month of June. Early start meant that I had ample time to work on my story. Greg has a structured way for you to first pen down your thoughts and experiences, which you then discuss together in a more open brainstorming fashion in order to choose what you should utilize for each topic and your own essay writing process.
Greg is so accommodating that I am not exaggerating. It is always better to get your essays done early, but if your deadlines come near he supports you with urgency and quick turnarounds. Looking back, officially I signed for 15 hours of service (not including the interview prep services which I added later on) but in reality, Greg gave more than 19 hours of service for those 15, with the extra time provided for free in an effort to give me the best guidance and chances.
I decided to utilize the first 3.5 hours for story building and essay brainstorming calls, before allocating the remaining time (other than interview prep) to essay feedback and reviews for many of the specific essays of my target schools. I gave Greg the nickname Gr'wow'eg because as I incorporated his guidance and feedback into my essays I could see the difference in the quality building with each of my attempts. The quality, character, knowledge, competence he brings is absolutely top notch.
Further, even though I just focused mainly on the essay part of my application Greg used to constantly give me various tips that might help me in other areas such as resume building or from whom to receive a recommendation or how to discuss various points with your recommenders in the hopes they could highlight them for you without any duplicacy in the overall profile. All these small things made a huge impact.
Once I submitted my 6 applications in R1, I received 5 interview invites. Since Greg was so good and helpful, I decided to go with the interview prep services as well. He is flexible and impactful in this segment as well. He created a set of questions from amongst 3 schools specific to my requirements and it did wonders. Whatever we prepared in those interview preps, most of the things were asked in the interviews.
As clear enough evidence of the improved strength of my essays, applications and interview skills this time, I went from getting rejected everywhere last time I applied to 3 acceptances in 2020, of which one was a 50% scholarship and another a 100% scholarship. Greg is so dedicated to his work that you will not be a bit disappointed. I wholeheartedly thank him for supporting me throughout the process. If you would ask me personally which consultant should you go for – I would say “don’t think beyond Greg".
REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]
Product Avanti Prep Package
Consultant Greg Guglielmo
Accepted to M7: International Female with 700 GMAT
Profile and Background
I am a female with 3 years WE upon matriculation. I studied Liberal Arts in Undergrad (Top 15 US university), and grew up in Southeast Asia. I worked at a top US bank in investment banking with no direct management experience (however with some indirect management through training analysts).
• Age: 25
• Demographics: Female with underrepresented demographic background
• Senior Analyst at top US bank (well-known household name)
• GMAT: 700 (sub-60th percentile Quant and IR scores)
• Undergrad GPA: 3.6 (top 15 US school and social science major with business minor)
• Work Experience: 3 years upon matriculation
• Applied to 1 M7 (accepted)
Overall, I felt I had good work experience and college extracurriculars but an average GPA, below average GMAT score, and the “minimum” amount of work experience (which limited my post-college leadership experience) for M7 schools. Nevertheless, I wanted to give my dream school a shot.
Choosing a Consultant and Package Selection
I knew I had below average scores and WE and knew I wanted to hire a consultant early on. I relied solely on reviews from GMAT Club and read the website thoroughly for any leads for my consultant. Business school has always been a dream of mine, and I knew that my consultant would be a big investment that would continue to pay off throughout my life.
I pretty much decided to work with Greg based on the thoroughness of his reviews. Each review commented on the attention to detail, custom care, and compassion Greg shows for his clients. Greg was my first choice early on and I quickly scheduled a free assessment call the spring before my applications were due. I learned that what everyone said was true through talking on the phone with him for just 15 minutes.
I decided to hire Greg on the spot and didn’t bother talking to other consultants. I 100% stand with my decision as Greg helped me in so many ways. I decided to enroll in the Tier 3 package which included school selection, essay reviews, interview prep, story selection, scholarship negotiations, and more.
School Selection
I had my heart set on one particular M7 so I communicated with Greg that I was very interested in this school early on/that it was my first choice. I decided to focus on this school and planned to later hire Greg for additional schools if things did not work out with this one. Greg was honest, yet optimistic about my chances. He did not sugarcoat anything but instead reassured me that together, we would produce the best package possible.
Resume Review
Greg really helped me create a business school type resume. Having been in the workforce for a few years, I was used to resumes that focused more on professional experiences. One thing that sets business school resumes apart is that business school style resumes should ideally also focus on leadership and involvement, which Greg really helped me position and hone.
Greg helped me create actionable, concise bullets for each line on my resume and helped consolidate my leadership, professional, and personal interests in one page. Greg conducted over 5+ iterations before we found it to be in a good place to submit to schools. Once we were done I felt confident that the 1 page document represented my experiences perfectly.
Essays
Greg truly went above and beyond with the essay prep and reviews. We had brainstorming calls for all of the essays my school required, with him scheduling even more calls if the topics didn’t “click”. I definitely feel like Greg helped me hone and tune my story to help me clearly articulate my goals and unique personal narrative.
Each of my essays had at least 5 iterations of reviews and each of Greg’s comments for the essays allowed me to further assess topics and enhance/refine my delivery. Greg often worked after-hours to provide me with feedback and most iterations were given back in about 2 business days, which allowed me to move fast and really focus on each essay.
I truly believe that Greg has a natural gift for telling stories. Each call helped me come up with a “skeleton” of each essay which I expounded upon. Greg’s guidance truly polished my essays and made me feel like I was submitting the best possible work. The fact that he scheduled multiple brainstorming sessions showed his dedication to coming up with the best product.
Interview Prep
Greg was one of the first people I notified when I was chosen to interview at my dream school. I was ecstatic that my hard work over the past few months was culminating with an interview invite. I wanted to schedule the interview ASAP since this was my dream school; however, Greg stressed the importance of adequate preparation.
We scheduled 2 preparation sessions of about 1-2 hours each and we conducted 2 mock interviews of about 2 hours each (all together ~8 hours even though the official interview prep service is technically supposed to be around 3 hours). I truly felt that Greg wanted me to do the best I possibly could and put in the extra work and effort to really help me articulate clearly how I could be a good fit for the school.
Greg’s preparation for the interview was so complete that I did not feel surprised on interview day. His interview prep was identical and I felt prepared for each question. Greg even gave me some tips to talk about my contributions to the school, which I think impressed the interviewer.
Conclusion
I got admitted to my first choice M7 with an average GPA, below average GMAT, and 3 years of WE upon matriculation. I genuinely believe what made me stand out in applying to an M7 was my essays and application, which Greg truly helped me with.
I have read many negative things about consultants but please do trust me when I say that Greg is worth every penny. His feedback on each deliverable went above and beyond and really helped me take my application to the next level.
I only have positive things to say about my experience and I believe that Greg exceeded every expectation I had of hiring a consultant. I always felt like my opinions, questions, and beliefs were valued. With Greg’s help and support I will be attending my dream school of 5+ years.
Product Avanti Prep Package
Consultant Greg Guglielmo
Let me just start off by saying that if you are reading this, do not make the mistake and go with anyone other than Greg. He is the real deal.
I actually initially went with someone else for the sole reason that they had more reviews at a more established company, and it was the biggest (financially speaking), mistake of my life. After working with this individual for a few sessions and getting final drafts back that were littered with grammar errors and advice that felt templated, I knew I had to make a change. I thought back to my initial phone screeners and remembered feeling pleasantly surprised at how in depth our conversation got and how it didn't feel like I was just a meeting on his calendar between other candidates. I took that feeling and got to working with Greg.
As for me, I applied to 2 M7's and 2 top 10's and 2 top 15's as a 29YO white male with a low 700's GMAT. I ended up getting into 4/6 schools, including an M7. The M7 we both agreed was a reach school, so the fact that I got in is a testament to our work together. I think I could have gotten into all 6 had it not been for applying late in CBS's rolling admins, and making a blunder on another application.
Ok, enough about me... A couple of points as to why you should work with Greg.
A: His Writing/Editing
For me, the essays were quite daunting. Trying to take major life experiences and boil them down to 500 words to try to impress some people you've never met is still to me a crazy task. It's a game we all have to play, so I get it...
To make things easier when it came to writing time, we spent a while on topic exploration. I appreciated how he brutally told me to drop some essay topics, while finding the 'angle' to play up in others.
When it came to his revisions/notes, his comments were long. Like an entire essay worth of notes long. If you want someone to give you a free pass on your mediocre essay, he's not your guy. Every sentence was poured over, and every word counted to him.
I appreciated how he kept wanting me to go deeper with topics. For example, I might have said I want to take X class. Greg's response was 'Why do you want to take the class' 'what projects in the class will make you get to your goal' 'how does this class tie to your overall story of why X school'. I knew he was putting time into my essay comments, so it pushed me to work harder on making them good. I felt like there was a bit of camaraderie that we wouldn't let each other down.
Greg is also a fantastic writer. He will re-write some sentences to streamline them or hit home an important point. He won't write the essay for you, but he's not going to let you submit anything that isn't up to his standard either.
B: Speed
Now I know he's getting more popular, so I can't guarantee the same experience, but Greg's responses edits were fast. For most of the schools, I worked with Greg right up to the deadline. If I made an update on a set of essays, I could expect an edit back that same night or next day at the latest. With speed did not come any drop in quality.
C: Trust
This one is hard to measure, but I feel like Greg cares about you and your success. I felt like I had someone going to battle with me. If you are reading this review, think about if the person is treating you like a number, or a person. I think that difference will make the consultant who cares stay up late to help you when the other is asleep.
Well that's all I can think of right now. Last thought... just go with him, trust me. I know this is just some anonymous message board, but I was in your shoes. Don't make my $10k mistake.
Product Avanti Prep Hourly Services
Consultant Greg Guglielmo
Background: White American male with IB/PE experience in the U.S. Accepted to Wharton in Round 1. GMAT was slightly above average for Wharton. Undergraduate GPA was a couple of ticks above Wharton’s average in a quantitative field from a well-ranked non-Ivy.
After speaking with several acquaintances and current students that I cold messaged through LinkedIn, I realized Wharton was my dream school. I finalized my resume and worked through the first draft of my essays but recognized I could benefit from a consultant. A friend recommended Greg to me and I’m forever grateful for that recommendation.
I felt pretty good about my overall story, so in my case the main messages in my essays did not need to be totally overhauled. But Greg coached me in making my essays more punctual and powerful, and the delivery and authenticity became stronger. With his guidance, I was able to bring out my personality, aspirations, and contributions better than my original drafts.
Greg was tenacious with his feedback but not in a way that put words in my mouth. Through our reviews and Greg’s constant push for me to “go deeper” and “dial up the specificity,” the essays became more insightful and genuinely reflective of me. I found it to be the ideal balance of super-specific feedback that enabled me to enhance my voice, rather than changing it.
I felt like I was working with a really talented friend that cared for my future and wanted me to get in as much as I did (as opposed to some friends' stories about consultants that felt like they were on the clock, not in their corner). I ended up getting accepted to Wharton and I know Greg was a huge contributor to that outcome. I give Greg my highest recommendation.
Product Avanti Prep Hourly Services
Consultant Grace Conway
I worked with Grace Conway on resume revision and essay edits. I felt I had a good start on both after doing the Forte MBALaunch program in 2019, and I was right - except I was much closer to the beginning than I thought.
With the resume revisions, I started with a lot of detail on what I DID versus what I ACHIEVED. Not knowing how to make the switch, Grace - with oversight from Greg - asked me the right questions to get more useful and clarifying information than what I'd originally provided.
We also worked on two essays - nominally for LBS and Haas, though I didn't end up getting into either - that could be applied to multiple schools. The most important was the goals essay. I learned to worry about content first, word count later. Comments kept coming back - always "why?" or "please clarify" on everything from my goals, what I planned to do in those roles, and why I was interested in specific opportunities at these programs. I thought I had done extensive school research before starting these essays, and I had - I knew about most of the things they were asking me about - but I wasn't able to articulate it in a way that shouted "pick me" to adcom. But we got there, and my final stats are:
11 applications
9 interviews
7 acceptances
5 scholarships, including two full tuition offers
REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]
Product Avanti Prep Hourly Services
Consultant Greg Guglielmo
My background:
Indian male, 30 years old, first-time applicant
Undergrad: IIT
Postgrad in Marketing from a Top 5 communications school in Asia
5.5 years of work experience in advertising, branding, and product marketing roles
GMAT: 750
When I decided to apply to business schools, my profile had a few obstacles that usually end up crushing most applicants’ dreams - a highly competitive demographic pool, age, no blue-chip employers on the resume, several job switches, and what some schools would consider a second MBA situation as well. I applied to an M7, two T10, and two T15 programs.
Things I worked on with Greg:
I had the opportunity to work with Greg for the interview prep through the GMATClub moderator scholarship.
Greg offered to set up a free 30-minute consultation call to understand my profile and goals better. Even though this is somewhat standard practice with admissions consultants, what really stood out for me was that Greg offered the same level of support to a ‘non-paying’ (scholarship) client like me as he would have to a paying client. For me, this spoke highly about the level of support I could expect from him in the future. By the end of the call, I felt that he had a great understanding of where I was in the application process and accordingly suggested the service that would benefit me the most.
Greg and I decided to work on interview prep for two schools where I had been invited to interview - one a T10 and one a T15 (I had already finished interviewing for the M7 school). We did two full-length Interview prep sessions, each of which included a 1-hour school-specific mock interview session followed by a 1.5-hour question-by-question analysis and feedback session, which in reality lasted longer than that (at no extra cost).
Besides this, Greg also went above and beyond and offered free advice and tips for my other interview at a T15 school.
Based on my positive experience working with Greg and the results (see below), I also took an hour of Greg’s service for scholarship negotiations and was not disappointed there as well!
My results:
I got into the two T15 schools, one offered me a $40k scholarship and the other offered a 50k scholarship!
(Even though I did not get into the other T10 school that we did the interview prep for, it’s worth mentioning that that school is one of the most selective ones and was a stretch school to begin with. I definitely felt much more confident going into the interview with Greg’s insightful help and preparation than I would have otherwise.)
Further, I used Greg’s help to negotiate scholarships at both the schools where I was admitted. For this, I took one hour of service with him, which involved one strategy discussion call and one review of negotiation emails for each school. It was heartwarming to see that Greg didn’t just stop at helping me secure admits but wanted me to get the best possible outcome in terms of scholarship as well, and he ended up spending more than 1.5 hours providing thoughtful feedback and edits.
One of the T15 schools came back and offered 10k more!! That is a 40x ROI, and even that doesn’t speak enough of Greg’s expertise!
What made working with Greg awesome:
Right from our first interaction, I felt that Greg was really invested in my success, even though we hadn’t worked on my applications from the start, and I was essentially availing his Interview Prep services for free. Having heard stories of how controlling and money-minded some admissions consultants can be, it was refreshing to see Greg’s commitment to ensure that I achieved the best possible outcome.
His Interview Prep sessions were extensive and tailored to the specific school in question. For both the Prep sessions, not only did Greg conduct a one-hour mock interview, but he also followed it up with well-researched and comprehensive guides of questions for each school. Beyond that, his experience and knowledge of what specific schools and AdComs are looking for immensely helped my response preparation.
During the feedback sessions, Greg’s attention to detail really stood out. He was able to provide laser-sharp feedback, which helped me work on specific areas in my responses. Again, during all this, I felt there were many times when Greg went above and beyond our official engagement - whether it was spending 3 hours instead of the originally committed 2.5 or accommodating Interview Prep in his schedule on short notices as soon as I received the interview invites, or even taking the time to provide detailed responses to my questions over email as soon as he could.
Similarly, I credit his communication expertise and meticulous feedback on my negotiation emails with the 10k bump that I received from the T15 school.
Overall, I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Greg and achieve two great admits with scholarships! I would wholeheartedly recommend Greg for his thorough professionalism, personalized coaching, attention to detail, and unmatched dedication and commitment to the applicant’s success.
REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by score report [?]
Product Avanti Prep Hourly Services
Consultant Greg Guglielmo
Profile: Asian, Male, GRE (327), 3.38 GPA. I applied to 3 schools and was rejected without interview from a T10, accepted into a T20, and waitlisted from my first choice (T15).
After hearing about my waitlist, I was eager to find an affordable and well-regarded consultant who would provide guidance in developing and executing a waitlist strategy. I originally applied in round 2 under the guidance of a large, well-reputed consulting firm (5-Stars on GMATClub); however, I did not return because I wasn’t impressed by the quality of the reviews and also received conflicting feedback from two of the consultants. The first consultant was passive and let some of my gaps and soft spots slide. The second consultant gave me a more thorough review of my essays and highlighted any potential question marks that slid by the first review; however, she did not offer much guidance in developing a story to address those question marks.
After researching the rates and reviews of all the consultants that offered waitlist services, I ended up signing up with Greg from Avanti Prep for 4 hours, which we devoted entirely to waitlist strategy and execution.
We spent the first 40-50 minutes on a video conference, where we reflected on my application/interview and identified what gaps or soft spots existed. Greg was extremely detailed and critical in his review of my application and helped me readdress things that he felt were either not specific enough or were under-communicated in my original submission (ex: Why this school?). He gave me advice on how to convey that the school remained my top choice and my commitment to attend. I am certain that the tactics we deployed in conveying these finer details helped get me accepted.
Greg went through many detailed reviews and consistently pushed me to greater introspection behind my passions and story. Even when I felt like I addressed everything, Greg constantly pushed me for further specificity. As tedious as this was, it was extremely important because doing so helped me create a unique and tailored story, something I felt like the previous consultants did not dig deep enough into. It was clear from the beginning that Greg was deeply invested and always put 100% effort in his work. We originally signed up for 4 hours, but Greg gave me 1.5 hours of extra time for additional review in order to ensure I had the best submission possible. In fact, if you read all the other reviews of Greg then you will see a history of Greg going well beyond his hours to help other applicants as well. In the end, I got accepted by my dream school and there was a stark difference between my original submission and what was submitted with Greg’s help.
REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by school email address [?]
Product Avanti Prep Hourly Services
Consultant Greg Guglielmo
I started looking for MBA admission consultants after I took my GMAT. Not only was my score below the average of the schools I was aiming for, but also I did not have a clear personal branding strategy to make my application competitive. Greg helped me tremendously throughout the process. He was very responsive and efficient and was always able to give me very helpful and insightful feedback for each draft of my essay and resume. Greg helped me craft my story, and ensure that I was conveying the most impactful examples throughout my essays and resume. I would highly recommend Greg.