GMAT Club
February 20, 2021
ZZhang

Joined: Jul 17, 2020

Posts: 5

Kudos: 4

Self-reported Score:

Expensive Essay-Editing Service

REVIEWER IDENTITY VERIFIED by school email address [?]

Revisiting this review because apparently I'm not the only one that feels this way. Be very skeptical when you see all the 5 start marketing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MBA/comments/1eumo7u/debbie_choy_from_mbamission_for_hsw/

I hate writing reviews but this felt like such a scam that I feel like I have to help future MBA applicants feel informed by what they are signing up for. I want to be fair by giving the good and the bad, but ultimately you're going to be paying $5,000 not for "consulting" or "expertise" but for some broad-brush edits that would be indistinguishable from (or inferior to) the help you would get from a colleague or friend.

I worked with Debbie Choy on the introduction and brainstorming session. Style-wise, it felt like I was on the clock all the time and she is quite good at ending discussions. The content of the brainstorming session was perplexing as we focused a lot on high school things that weren't really relevant to the MBA application or the essays. Lastly, I was hoping to get a lot of candid feedback from an admissions perspective but it felt like pulling teeth to get answers to basic questions like what schools would be competitive. On the plus side, some of the materials she shared were relevant and helpful.

I ended up working with John Sisk for the essay portion. The positives were that the revisions were very timely and the first round of feedback was fantastic to get in the right direction. After that, however, each subsequent revision felt pretty low-effort, with unanswered questions, grammar mistakes, and generic template-like feedback. At the end the essay had all the soul written out of it and felt more like a "list" than any individual behind the story. Schools stress the important of being authentic but the result read more like a husk of a product.

At the end I'm not really sure what I paid for. My guess is that these guys are too busy or too successful and don't really put the time into your individual application. The timeliness and initial direction were nice (maybe consider their hourly) but I wouldn't recommend against anything beyond that.

Best of luck in your applications!

September 04, 2024
jeffn

This review has been updated on August 17th, 2024

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