HBS Admit with 2 Weeks Prep! I didn’t believe it either :)

Let me start this review by saying that I am a real person. I’m not paid by ApplicantLab to praise them in public spaces. I am an over-30 woman who has MANY weaknesses when it comes to MBA applications:

• On the older side of candidates
• Few promotions, never had a subordinate
• Engineering background – too common!
• Not really sure about my post-MBA goals
• GRE score is LESS than the average of HBS
• Financially constrained, could not afford personalized services

Given this, I initially did not plan to apply to HBS at all. One of my school selections has a small size of class and I was afraid that my GRE score would not be competitive, so I e-mailed Maria asking for advice. I didn’t send her my essay or anything, just a general question with a little bit of my background. To my surprise, she replied the e-mail (super detailed reply + morale boost). She pointed at the brand traits in the Lab's "Mapping" section that I could elaborate, then encouraged me to aim higher… to go for HBS instead! She also made me aware that there is a Need-based Application Fee Waiver, so even though it was 2 weeks before the R2 deadline, I could shoot my shot without losing money.

I’m glad I took that shot. Having used ApplicantLab for 3 months at that point, I could easily tailor my story for HBS even in a short period of time. Here are some modules in ApplicantLab that worked best for me:

• Career Vision
Every business school is going to ask you for a career vision. No matter how much they put emphasis on “we care more about your past performances”, it will look bad if you don’t know why you go for an MBA at all. ApplicantLab listed all possible scenarios that I could think of! This module also pushed me to think more than just “Consulting”, “Entrepreneurship”, but gave probing questions to reflect on the specifics according to my background. The “My Strengths & Weaknesses” module also addressed all the concerns I had on being too old, having few promotions, etc.

• Brainstorming, Branding & Mapping
When anyone asked, how could I put together an HBS essay a.k.a. the ultimate MBA essay in 2 weeks? This is the answer. These 3 modules made me brainstorm like crazy. I was probed to think deeper into my own experience of, for example, being innovative/persuasive, and they provided detailed guidelines on how to tell that story. In the Mapping section, I was asked to allocate the “evidences” that I had collected in Brainstorming and Branding sections wisely – different schools have different focus, and you need to tailor your story based on what THE SCHOOLS want, not what you think they want… which brings me to the next section…

• Essay Advice
ApplicantLab provides an EXTREMELY DETAILED essay advice for EVERY SCHOOL. I put this in capitalized words because if you have been window-shopping on admissions consultants, you will know that they charge for 1-school up to 5-schools packages. What if you wanted to apply to HBS 2 weeks before the deadline like I did? You cannot do that with a traditional admissions consultant. With ApplicantLab, I could easily hover over the “HBS” tab and access the plethora of information available there (the videos are plenty and 1 video can go up to 45 mins). I did it at 4 AM. No fuss.

• Recommendations
My HBS interviewer specifically mentioned that my Recommendation Letter provided a good look into my character, as my recommender(s) elaborated that: 1) I am the breadwinner of the family; 2) I bounced back after a painful layoff from my dream company. I have to give that credit to ApplicantLab’s Recommendation module. It provided a step-by-step instruction to make sure that my Recs complement what I try to convey in my essay, by cheering on my strengths and mitigate my weakness from an outsider’s point of view. You have to try the module and see it by yourself because it’s so hard for me to explain how it works here, but it works!

• Interview
Finally, the Interview module. This module contains great advice to tackle the oh-so-usual questions like “Tell me about yourself”, “Why MBA”, “Why this school”, but also the more advanced questions like “How do you deal with difficult people?”. There is also a module for school-specific interviews, like HBS Post-Interview Reflection, Wharton’s Team Based Discussion, MIT’s 2 additional essays, etc. As with the other modules, Maria provided an extremely detailed explanation for everything. I used this module to get a full scholarship too! (not from HBS – from a specific scholarship applicable to the citizen of my country, which has 12% acceptance rate, if that matters).

Having said that, I do want to be objective by providing some caveats for the MBA hopefuls here: ApplicantLab is not for everyone. I think it’s best to be used by:

• A self-motivated person
If you can pace yourself to finish all the modules and pay attention to the details provided, you will reap the most benefit from ApplicantLab. I watched Maria’s videos in between airport travels, made notes/reflect at 4-6 AM before work, then expanded the brand traits to become actual essays at 9-10 PM. I did it everyday for ~3 months. You need to be discipline.

• Someone who can self-reflect
I said it before and I’ll say it again: ApplicantLab is not a personalized service. It is created by an admissions expert who replicates herself through the videos. It gives you pointers and probing questions, but you are required to reflect upon your own experiences and put it into the “Mapping” section to craft your story. I do think you need to have enough self-reflection prior to an MBA, regardless of which consultants you choose, because the components of MBA applications require you to do just that.

• A financially constrained person
If my mum and dad make $$$ per year, of course I’d love to have a 5-school package from a traditional admissions consultant. I want my essays to be reviewed. I want to rehearse for mock interviews. ApplicantLab provides those services for small extra fees too, which some of the reviewers here have used and loved, but I could not even afford it. For me, this video-based learning is as best as I could get with my limited fund. No other $340 is as worth it as ApplicantLab, really!! If you have extra money though, you can definitely make ApplicantLab more personalized by using the extra services, as they are much cheaper than other providers.

• Someone who can get an outside help for essay reviews/mock interview.
I am fortunate enough to have a mentor who reviewed my essays, 2 HBS alumni/student who were willing to help me with free mock interviews, and many good friends who applied to graduate school before. With the foundation that was set by ApplicantLab, I could come to them prepared, and have them sharpened the points that I might have missed. If you are not as fortunate as me, you can consider using the extra services provided by ApplicantLab.

So that's it... thank you for reading my reviews thus far! Try the free version first to see if you're a match for ApplicantLab. I hope I have provided an objective review to help you choose the best admissions consultant for you. ApplicantLab was certainly the best for me, and I could not thank Maria and her team enough for enabling me to secure a spot at this prestigious institution with minimum spending. Plus point: she has great sense of humor too :) it did help during the stressful weeks leading up to the deadline!

All the best for the MBA hopefuls out there in navigating your application journey!