Liza Weale - Thank You!

The decision to work with an MBA Consultant is undeniably a tough one – is the significant sum of money worth the benefits? Are these so called benefits quantifiable? Is there any guarantee of success? The answers to most of these questions probably fall into the grey “maybe” area for most of us. Therefore, those of us that do decide to work with MBA consultants hope that we have picked the right consulting firm to skew the probability of success in our favor (because – hell, I don’t care if it increases my probability of getting admitted into my dream school by only 5%.. that 5% could mean the difference between getting in and getting rejected!) After having gone through the process over the last year, I can (with some degree of confidence) state that choosing an MBA consultant is so much more than that – it really matters who the consultant you’re working with is, and not which consulting firm they are affiliated to. The right consultant can take that uncertain “maybe” and turn it into a definitive ROI. And that’s where Liza Weale comes in.

In my mind, there are 5 qualities that make a good MBA consultant:
1) Knows the school
2) Provides a different perspective/angle
3) Can market you as an asset
4) Is an excellent wordsmith
5) Actually cares about you/goes out of their way to ensure your success

1) Knows the school: Right off the bat I knew that I wanted to work with Liza for my MIT Sloan app because of her extensive experience with the school. Liza really knows how the Sloan adcom thinks and was able to craft my essays to match their expectations. This was a significant benefit, as the Sloan adcom is very different from other schools and students often make the mistake of using generic essays that focus on all the wrong things from Sloan’s perspective. If MIT Sloan is your first choice – do everything you can to work with Liza!

2) Provides a different perspective/angle: I feel that this is very important in bringing out the versatile facets of your application and personality. I would much rather work with someone who has the ability to provide a different angle to my story than someone who thinks/behaves like me. During my initial 30-minute free call with Liza (when I was still uncertain on who I wanted to work with), I was immediately struck by Liza’s ability to provide not one but many different perspectives on my accomplishments and milestones. In those 30 minutes Liza almost completely changed the way my Resume looked – for the better! I knew then that Liza was the person I wanted to work with for this journey.

3) Can market you as an asset: This is a vital skill for any MBA consultant. They are literally helping you sell yourself to MBA schools. A marketer at heart and by profession, Liza is really able to help you put the best “you” forward in your essays.

4) Is an excellent wordsmith: 10-15 iterations per essay. That is literally the number of iterations Liza had me go through before we concluded that the essays were perfect. During those iterations my essays were transformed from incoherent (and lengthy) ramblings into succinct pieces of art (lol I don’t really think they are pieces of art but you get the point). Liza has a knack of removing that one badly-worded phrase in your essay that you’re stuck on and replacing it with something awesome.

5) Actually cares about you/goes out of their way to ensure your success: This. I had contacted Liza really late in the game for R1 application submission and she was already overloaded with clients by then. However, Liza always kept me on schedule, was always available for a quick counseling session, and was very responsive with her emails. All in all I never felt that she was neglecting me or was only in it for the money – she actually cares about your application and is as apprehensive as you are when the decision time is due!

I recommend Liza Weale unreservedly as the MBA consultant to work with – because she gets results and helped me get admitted into my first choice school – MIT Sloan!