Great Experience with Chris Aitken and the MBAPrepSchool Platform

I interviewed several consultants and would recommend any MBA applicant to do the same. Ultimately the rapport and personal fit between you and the consultant is most important as you will spend a lot of time working together and will need to be comfortable opening up about your strengths and weaknesses.

I immediately appreciated Chris’ fair, honest feedback. He was comfortable being critical and asked a lot from me, but was always diplomatic when bearing bad news. For example, he convinced me to write the GMAT a second time, and rewrite essays numerous times.

I found the introspection necessary for strong essays difficult, but Chris asked the right questions to find great stories, recognize new value in my experiences, while rightly convincing me to disregard others. His advice was substantive, constructive, personalized, and actionable from day one.

It was also very important to me that Chris was always available to help, whether calling me from the airport after I sent him a stressed out email or pulling late nights as I put final pieces together last minute.

In addition to Chris’ consulting, the structure that MBA Prep School’s online platform provides was key to my success. They have effectively compartmentalized self-reflection, and turned the application into a step-by-step process that is much more approachable then staring at a blank word-doc.

Also, Chris was able to leverage the expertise of the rest of his team for their school specific experience, and varied creative writing styles to help me get into my dream school. Additionally, Chris opened his own personal network to help answer career focused questions I had.

Chris truly went above and beyond what I expected from a consultant, acting as a friend and mentor who was truly invested in my success. The value Chris provided far outweighed the cost. Because of Chris’ help I will be attending Columbia Business School, but more than that, conversations with Chris helped me identify and solidify my long-term goals such that I am confident that I will get the most out of my MBA experience.