BACKGROUND / PROFILE CONTEXT
• Age: 29
• Demographics: White male (American)
• WE: AVP at Investment Bank (Middle market bank)
• GMAT: 760 (49Q / 44V / 4IR / 5AWA)
• Undergrad GPA: 3.38 (Top-25 public school / major in finance)
• Work Experience: 7 years upon matriculation
• ECs: Founding board member of successful/growing young professional’s network
• Summary Results: Applied and Accepted to Booth and Kellogg

After an almost 2-year journey, I secured my target GMAT score in late October, providing just over two months to complete applications in time for the January 2021 Round 2 submission deadline. Because I had been hyper-focused on the GMAT, I had not thoroughly researched the other elements of the application process (essays, resume, letters of rec). As a result, and given my busy work schedule, it quickly became apparent that I would need expert guidance if I wanted to submit successful Round 2 applications and realize my dream of attending a top business school.

REVIEW
As I was searching for an admissions consultant, I first became aware of Greg through several of his videos posted on the GMAT Club YouTube channel. I was immediately impressed by his depth of knowledge and clear communication style and signed up for a free 30-minute consultation shortly after watching his videos. What was intended to be an initial 30-minute phone call turned into a 90-minute session of Greg graciously answering every question I had and allaying my concerns about the process. At the end of our extended phone call, I felt certain that I was in good hands with Greg and signed up for the hourly services package (purchased 15 hours total over the course of two months). I’m from the Midwest and wanted to live in Chicago after school, so our focus for the applications centered on Booth and Kellogg.

The process kicked off in earnest with a brainstorming session a few days following our initial phone conversation. During this first session, we reviewed various facets of my background and personal interests in order to develop the themes and frameworks that would serve as the foundation for the essays.

Formulating the early drafts of the essays proved more difficult than I had originally anticipated, and Greg was instrumental in stimulating ideas during this initial stage and helping me to crystalize my thoughts in a compelling and authentic way. Throughout the essay process, I appreciated Greg’s candidness, professionalism and level of engagement/availability. His direct and detailed feedback helped challenge me to achieve a degree of specificity and authenticity in my essays that I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish alone. As we approached the submission deadline, he even made himself available on short notice to review my essays over the weekend. I truly believe Greg takes a vested interest in his clients and their success.

Greg’s expertise and extensive school specific knowledge were on full display when we worked on my resume and during interview prep. When I was crafting my resume, Greg provided valuable insight into items such as the number/variety of transactions I should include, how to tailor the resume language to resonate with admissions and even advised on distilling down the content to achieve an optimal amount of white space. The interview prep also proved very beneficial during which Greg role played as an interviewer at my target school – the realistic mock interview and Greg’s post-interview feedback helped to ensure I was confident and prepared going into the official interview.

Greg is genuine, very talented and challenges his clients in a way that produces the type of results that are necessary to gain admittance to top schools. I can’t recommend Greg and Avanti Prep enough and I attribute much of my application success at Booth and Kellogg to working with him.

Read More

I had done a lot of research about the admissions process on my own and through places like GMAT club, but I ultimately felt like I needed to get the perspective of someone with admissions experience to guide me through the nuances in the application journey.

As a first gen undergraduate student (and now first gen masters student!) I felt a bit overwhelmed by the process and had doubts about fitting in to the MBA world. I really appreciated that Greg understood those feelings, offering a much needed 'sanity check' and making me feel like I really belonged in the MBA community.

From our first engagement and introduction call, it was obvious that Avanti goes above and beyond to assist their clients. They were incredibly helpful in supporting my journey from start to finish. Grace was so supportive, provided thoughtful insight, and was always willing to hop on a call to talk through ideas. She was immensely helpful from the brainstorming phase to making herself available to support me in some last minute edits before a deadline.

In an extremely tough cycle I was able to receive an admit to my top choice program and I received over $150,000 of tuition reductions, named scholarships and fellowships in the programs for which I was admitted. I appreciated that they understood my goals and how important program fit was for me - and not just encouraging me to matriculate at the program that was the highest ranked.

Highly recommend the team at Avanti!

Read More

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.

Read More

[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".

Read More

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.

Read More

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

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

GMAT 710, GPA 3-64, East European male, Analyst at Big-3 management consultancy.
I enrolled in one full Interview Prep session, which included a mock interview in the style of Booth, followed by a comprehensive feedback session. The session was scheduled for 2 hours and 30 minutes; we ended up going for 3 hours and 45 minutes.

This experience greatly deepened my insights about interview process and helped me structure my mind and my story. I was able to communicate key ideas in top-down way and Greg helped me shape my ideas in an easy to digest way.

I signed up for this session because of an expected beyond average level of care. My hopes were fully fulfilled: I received unparalleled help in terms of amount of structured frameworks and of tailored support – Greg a great length to support me – well beyond expected hours and to much greater personalization.
It included extra time, emails before and after, examples, results of research, specificity and attention to detail during interview prep, similarity of the style to the real Booth interview.
I felt much better prepared than to any previous interview.
Result was a very personal and friendly engaging interview with a top manager of an India oil and gas corporation. My interview was very happy to see “Booth” mindset and other aspects of “fit”. I am waiting for the final words from the AdCom.

**********************************************
The result of my effort was a waitlist. And I am very passionate about support Greg provided to me. I worked on Booth waitlist updates in 2 stages - video update and written update.

Video update - a core requirement of Booth. I worked with him in a couple of steps - 1)Brainstorm 2) First draft 3)Second draft. During the brainstorm, Greg helped me pick those themes and topics, which matter for the school the most, focused me on how to create a story and develop content. It was extremely important, because a video is only 60 seconds, so I needed to make every work count. During the review of my first draft, Greg pressed me to dig deeper and deeper in terms of specificity and authenticity and uniqueness: how my values map to those of school, how to add details about examples and learning, what special value I see in Booth and how my knowledge and background would uniquely contribute to Booth. During the last step, Greg helped me decrease a whole video essay with 500 words to a 60-second video script, add flavor and style to words, and helped the language flow easily and words sound simple.

After a month, we worked on the next update - Written Letter. I connected with many students to discuss how I can contribute to clubs and what will be most impactful. Additionally, I gathered a couple of anecdotes about the experience of Booth MBA. Greg helped me turn this information into 1000 words essay, teaming with extremely specific content about how my long-term goals and Booth academics uniquely match each other and how my passions are connected to Booth community. Greg helped me find and polish examples, develop details, change wording, clean structure and make my story more coherent with vales of Booth.

Greg spent countless hours over the requested amount of services because of his passion to help. He honestly wanted me to enter Booth, thus he continues to review my texts, polish and clean them without additional payment. His effort to go an extra mile turn my written update into something special.

And I fully recommend him as great partner in waitlist process because of his passion and knowledge of business schools.

Read More