Sherry Holland is the best!

I initially engaged Sherry to assist me with applying in Fall 2020 for admission in Fall 2021 in December 2019. I was referred to Sherry by a friend who had used her previously to guide his MBA admissions. But, in late March, with the onset of COVID and the downturn in the energy industry, I found myself shifting into overdrive to file in the last rounds at 5 schools. As an operations geologist, it became apparent that my Company would lay down its rigs by the end of the second quarter and I would be laid off. Although my primary job was to steer wellbores, I had developed an interest and a body of work using analytics to streamline workflows, save money, and enhance company operations driving my desire to change industries. Given that my MBA goal was to shift to Data Analytics in the Technology industry, I felt strongly that it was imperative that I make the last round deadlines to avoid having the reduction in force confuse what I was trying to achieve-shifting from the energy to the tech industry. Sherry spent time on the phone with me reviewing my questions about accelerating my applications and then didn’t blink when we moved from a reasonably paced approach to my graduate school apps to overdrive. Sherry gave me a frank assessment of my profile including input that I needed to really hit it out of the park on my GRE and take MBA Math to make up for a lower than preferable GPA from my undergraduate studies (I have a graduate degree with a better gpa but still needed to overcome the undergraduate gpa). She helped me refine my list, gave me strong input and rapid turnaround on my essays, worked with me on how to position my story and was patient through multiple essay iterations as I found my voice. The flight test confirmed that I was in a good position as long as my GRE score came in at the level that I was achieving in practice. Although I had technical problems with the first at home GRE, Sherry provided positive feedback about what I was going to be able to achieve if my second at home GRE was at the level we knew I could achieve. And she was as pumped as I was when I hit the GRE goal I had set. I was invited to interview at all of the schools I applied to-in fact, one school reached out to schedule an interview with me on the evening of the day I filed my application-that says a lot about how the application was received. In the end, Sherry’s interview prep was very useful and she even proposed brushing up one more time before my final interview given the three week lapse in time since I had prepared with her for the first one. Although I am waiting on a final decision from one school, I have been accepted at 3 of the 5 schools I applied to. Of the 3 at which I have been accepted, I received a full-tuition and living stipend package at one and substantial scholarships at 2 of the others-and that is when most of the Adcoms were indicating on their webinars that there was no money left to award. I am looking forward to starting The University of Texas at Austin MBA program this fall. Hook ’em!