Highest possible recommendation for Paul

I could not recommend Paul more highly.

I consulted with Paul as part of my round 2 application process for GSB, which is the only school I applied to (and which I was admitted to!).

I reached out to SBC because I had heard exceptional things about their service through friends. After doing an initial call with Esther, I did a little diligence, learned of their shockingly high GSB admit rate, and agreed to connect with Paul, a GSB alum who worked with the admissions committee as a student, who is still part of their alumni interview network, and who has advised many students successfully with their GSB applications.

My situation was also unique in that I had done a fair amount of work on my application (written essay drafts, found recommenders, etc.) beforehand over the course of one week of long nights, but was unsatisfied with the results I was seeing. Paul immediately turned it all around for me. He single-handedly pushed me to develop the necessary self-awareness to write compelling GSB essays, helped hone my stories and anecdotes, explained in detail the way that applications are read and reviewed (and what they are looking for), and shared best practices around style, content, and tone that would simply be unknowable except by consulting with someone as knowledgeable as Paul.

Paul was readily accessible for follow-up calls, reads, moments of frustration, and I was always 100% confident that he would make it a priority to get back to me quickly, and with succinct, clear and practical advice that I could act on immediately.

Stylistically, I felt Paul was pretty unique. My brother also used an admission's consultant (10 years ago) before attending HBS, but his consultant was extraordinarily micro-managerial and my brother ended up writing something like 15-20 drafts of each essay over the course of 4 months as a result -- it worked but it was painful. In contrast, Paul's style is very much above the board. He tells you when you're going off track (in a nice way), he helps you hone your strategy and encourages you to make sure your strategy is compelling before putting pen to paper, and he ensures that what your application walks the right balance between representing yourself most effectively and being humble and authentic (not an easy task). He is not focused on editing your vocabulary or grammatical choices, or at least he wasn't with me. I ended up putting together an application that I felt very excited about in just a few weeks and with only a few hours of Paul's help (and many long nights of working on my own, but with clear vision of what I was doing thanks to Paul).

Paul also helped me prepare for my interview on late notice. We did a preliminary 30 minute call, he gave me some high-level guidance and told me to prepare -- I did -- and then two days later we did a 1-hour mock interview. The mock interview went well (thanks to Paul's preliminary tips on how to prepare), my real interview went well (and shared a lot with the mock interview Paul conducted), and it all worked out in the end!

Great guy, great service, very happy with the result, obviously... highly recommend!