Accepted to M7: International Female with 700 GMAT

Profile and Background

I am a female with 3 years WE upon matriculation. I studied Liberal Arts in Undergrad (Top 15 US university), and grew up in Southeast Asia. I worked at a top US bank in investment banking with no direct management experience (however with some indirect management through training analysts).

• Age: 25
• Demographics: Female with underrepresented demographic background
• Senior Analyst at top US bank (well-known household name)
• GMAT: 700 (sub-60th percentile Quant and IR scores)
• Undergrad GPA: 3.6 (top 15 US school and social science major with business minor)
• Work Experience: 3 years upon matriculation
• Applied to 1 M7 (accepted)

Overall, I felt I had good work experience and college extracurriculars but an average GPA, below average GMAT score, and the “minimum” amount of work experience (which limited my post-college leadership experience) for M7 schools. Nevertheless, I wanted to give my dream school a shot.

Choosing a Consultant and Package Selection

I knew I had below average scores and WE and knew I wanted to hire a consultant early on. I relied solely on reviews from GMAT Club and read the website thoroughly for any leads for my consultant. Business school has always been a dream of mine, and I knew that my consultant would be a big investment that would continue to pay off throughout my life.

I pretty much decided to work with Greg based on the thoroughness of his reviews. Each review commented on the attention to detail, custom care, and compassion Greg shows for his clients. Greg was my first choice early on and I quickly scheduled a free assessment call the spring before my applications were due. I learned that what everyone said was true through talking on the phone with him for just 15 minutes.

I decided to hire Greg on the spot and didn’t bother talking to other consultants. I 100% stand with my decision as Greg helped me in so many ways. I decided to enroll in the Tier 3 package which included school selection, essay reviews, interview prep, story selection, scholarship negotiations, and more.

School Selection

I had my heart set on one particular M7 so I communicated with Greg that I was very interested in this school early on/that it was my first choice. I decided to focus on this school and planned to later hire Greg for additional schools if things did not work out with this one. Greg was honest, yet optimistic about my chances. He did not sugarcoat anything but instead reassured me that together, we would produce the best package possible.

Resume Review

Greg really helped me create a business school type resume. Having been in the workforce for a few years, I was used to resumes that focused more on professional experiences. One thing that sets business school resumes apart is that business school style resumes should ideally also focus on leadership and involvement, which Greg really helped me position and hone.

Greg helped me create actionable, concise bullets for each line on my resume and helped consolidate my leadership, professional, and personal interests in one page. Greg conducted over 5+ iterations before we found it to be in a good place to submit to schools. Once we were done I felt confident that the 1 page document represented my experiences perfectly.

Essays

Greg truly went above and beyond with the essay prep and reviews. We had brainstorming calls for all of the essays my school required, with him scheduling even more calls if the topics didn’t “click”. I definitely feel like Greg helped me hone and tune my story to help me clearly articulate my goals and unique personal narrative.

Each of my essays had at least 5 iterations of reviews and each of Greg’s comments for the essays allowed me to further assess topics and enhance/refine my delivery. Greg often worked after-hours to provide me with feedback and most iterations were given back in about 2 business days, which allowed me to move fast and really focus on each essay.

I truly believe that Greg has a natural gift for telling stories. Each call helped me come up with a “skeleton” of each essay which I expounded upon. Greg’s guidance truly polished my essays and made me feel like I was submitting the best possible work. The fact that he scheduled multiple brainstorming sessions showed his dedication to coming up with the best product.

Interview Prep

Greg was one of the first people I notified when I was chosen to interview at my dream school. I was ecstatic that my hard work over the past few months was culminating with an interview invite. I wanted to schedule the interview ASAP since this was my dream school; however, Greg stressed the importance of adequate preparation.

We scheduled 2 preparation sessions of about 1-2 hours each and we conducted 2 mock interviews of about 2 hours each (all together ~8 hours even though the official interview prep service is technically supposed to be around 3 hours). I truly felt that Greg wanted me to do the best I possibly could and put in the extra work and effort to really help me articulate clearly how I could be a good fit for the school.

Greg’s preparation for the interview was so complete that I did not feel surprised on interview day. His interview prep was identical and I felt prepared for each question. Greg even gave me some tips to talk about my contributions to the school, which I think impressed the interviewer.

Conclusion

I got admitted to my first choice M7 with an average GPA, below average GMAT, and 3 years of WE upon matriculation. I genuinely believe what made me stand out in applying to an M7 was my essays and application, which Greg truly helped me with.

I have read many negative things about consultants but please do trust me when I say that Greg is worth every penny. His feedback on each deliverable went above and beyond and really helped me take my application to the next level.

I only have positive things to say about my experience and I believe that Greg exceeded every expectation I had of hiring a consultant. I always felt like my opinions, questions, and beliefs were valued. With Greg’s help and support I will be attending my dream school of 5+ years.

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Let me just start off by saying that if you are reading this, do not make the mistake and go with anyone other than Greg. He is the real deal.

I actually initially went with someone else for the sole reason that they had more reviews at a more established company, and it was the biggest (financially speaking), mistake of my life. After working with this individual for a few sessions and getting final drafts back that were littered with grammar errors and advice that felt templated, I knew I had to make a change. I thought back to my initial phone screeners and remembered feeling pleasantly surprised at how in depth our conversation got and how it didn't feel like I was just a meeting on his calendar between other candidates. I took that feeling and got to working with Greg.

As for me, I applied to 2 M7's and 2 top 10's and 2 top 15's as a 29YO white male with a low 700's GMAT. I ended up getting into 4/6 schools, including an M7. The M7 we both agreed was a reach school, so the fact that I got in is a testament to our work together. I think I could have gotten into all 6 had it not been for applying late in CBS's rolling admins, and making a blunder on another application.

Ok, enough about me... A couple of points as to why you should work with Greg.

A: His Writing/Editing
For me, the essays were quite daunting. Trying to take major life experiences and boil them down to 500 words to try to impress some people you've never met is still to me a crazy task. It's a game we all have to play, so I get it...

To make things easier when it came to writing time, we spent a while on topic exploration. I appreciated how he brutally told me to drop some essay topics, while finding the 'angle' to play up in others.

When it came to his revisions/notes, his comments were long. Like an entire essay worth of notes long. If you want someone to give you a free pass on your mediocre essay, he's not your guy. Every sentence was poured over, and every word counted to him.

I appreciated how he kept wanting me to go deeper with topics. For example, I might have said I want to take X class. Greg's response was 'Why do you want to take the class' 'what projects in the class will make you get to your goal' 'how does this class tie to your overall story of why X school'. I knew he was putting time into my essay comments, so it pushed me to work harder on making them good. I felt like there was a bit of camaraderie that we wouldn't let each other down.

Greg is also a fantastic writer. He will re-write some sentences to streamline them or hit home an important point. He won't write the essay for you, but he's not going to let you submit anything that isn't up to his standard either.

B: Speed
Now I know he's getting more popular, so I can't guarantee the same experience, but Greg's responses edits were fast. For most of the schools, I worked with Greg right up to the deadline. If I made an update on a set of essays, I could expect an edit back that same night or next day at the latest. With speed did not come any drop in quality.

C: Trust
This one is hard to measure, but I feel like Greg cares about you and your success. I felt like I had someone going to battle with me. If you are reading this review, think about if the person is treating you like a number, or a person. I think that difference will make the consultant who cares stay up late to help you when the other is asleep.

Well that's all I can think of right now. Last thought... just go with him, trust me. I know this is just some anonymous message board, but I was in your shoes. Don't make my $10k mistake.

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Background: White American male with IB/PE experience in the U.S. Accepted to Wharton in Round 1. GMAT was slightly above average for Wharton. Undergraduate GPA was a couple of ticks above Wharton’s average in a quantitative field from a well-ranked non-Ivy.

After speaking with several acquaintances and current students that I cold messaged through LinkedIn, I realized Wharton was my dream school. I finalized my resume and worked through the first draft of my essays but recognized I could benefit from a consultant. A friend recommended Greg to me and I’m forever grateful for that recommendation.

I felt pretty good about my overall story, so in my case the main messages in my essays did not need to be totally overhauled. But Greg coached me in making my essays more punctual and powerful, and the delivery and authenticity became stronger. With his guidance, I was able to bring out my personality, aspirations, and contributions better than my original drafts.

Greg was tenacious with his feedback but not in a way that put words in my mouth. Through our reviews and Greg’s constant push for me to “go deeper” and “dial up the specificity,” the essays became more insightful and genuinely reflective of me. I found it to be the ideal balance of super-specific feedback that enabled me to enhance my voice, rather than changing it.

I felt like I was working with a really talented friend that cared for my future and wanted me to get in as much as I did (as opposed to some friends' stories about consultants that felt like they were on the clock, not in their corner). I ended up getting accepted to Wharton and I know Greg was a huge contributor to that outcome. I give Greg my highest recommendation.

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My background:

Indian male, 30 years old, first-time applicant
Undergrad: IIT
Postgrad in Marketing from a Top 5 communications school in Asia
5.5 years of work experience in advertising, branding, and product marketing roles
GMAT: 750

When I decided to apply to business schools, my profile had a few obstacles that usually end up crushing most applicants’ dreams - a highly competitive demographic pool, age, no blue-chip employers on the resume, several job switches, and what some schools would consider a second MBA situation as well. I applied to an M7, two T10, and two T15 programs.

Things I worked on with Greg:

I had the opportunity to work with Greg for the interview prep through the GMATClub moderator scholarship.

Greg offered to set up a free 30-minute consultation call to understand my profile and goals better. Even though this is somewhat standard practice with admissions consultants, what really stood out for me was that Greg offered the same level of support to a ‘non-paying’ (scholarship) client like me as he would have to a paying client. For me, this spoke highly about the level of support I could expect from him in the future. By the end of the call, I felt that he had a great understanding of where I was in the application process and accordingly suggested the service that would benefit me the most.

Greg and I decided to work on interview prep for two schools where I had been invited to interview - one a T10 and one a T15 (I had already finished interviewing for the M7 school). We did two full-length Interview prep sessions, each of which included a 1-hour school-specific mock interview session followed by a 1.5-hour question-by-question analysis and feedback session, which in reality lasted longer than that (at no extra cost).
Besides this, Greg also went above and beyond and offered free advice and tips for my other interview at a T15 school.

Based on my positive experience working with Greg and the results (see below), I also took an hour of Greg’s service for scholarship negotiations and was not disappointed there as well!

My results:

I got into the two T15 schools, one offered me a $40k scholarship and the other offered a 50k scholarship!

(Even though I did not get into the other T10 school that we did the interview prep for, it’s worth mentioning that that school is one of the most selective ones and was a stretch school to begin with. I definitely felt much more confident going into the interview with Greg’s insightful help and preparation than I would have otherwise.)

Further, I used Greg’s help to negotiate scholarships at both the schools where I was admitted. For this, I took one hour of service with him, which involved one strategy discussion call and one review of negotiation emails for each school. It was heartwarming to see that Greg didn’t just stop at helping me secure admits but wanted me to get the best possible outcome in terms of scholarship as well, and he ended up spending more than 1.5 hours providing thoughtful feedback and edits.

One of the T15 schools came back and offered 10k more!! That is a 40x ROI, and even that doesn’t speak enough of Greg’s expertise!

What made working with Greg awesome:

Right from our first interaction, I felt that Greg was really invested in my success, even though we hadn’t worked on my applications from the start, and I was essentially availing his Interview Prep services for free. Having heard stories of how controlling and money-minded some admissions consultants can be, it was refreshing to see Greg’s commitment to ensure that I achieved the best possible outcome.

His Interview Prep sessions were extensive and tailored to the specific school in question. For both the Prep sessions, not only did Greg conduct a one-hour mock interview, but he also followed it up with well-researched and comprehensive guides of questions for each school. Beyond that, his experience and knowledge of what specific schools and AdComs are looking for immensely helped my response preparation.

During the feedback sessions, Greg’s attention to detail really stood out. He was able to provide laser-sharp feedback, which helped me work on specific areas in my responses. Again, during all this, I felt there were many times when Greg went above and beyond our official engagement - whether it was spending 3 hours instead of the originally committed 2.5 or accommodating Interview Prep in his schedule on short notices as soon as I received the interview invites, or even taking the time to provide detailed responses to my questions over email as soon as he could.

Similarly, I credit his communication expertise and meticulous feedback on my negotiation emails with the 10k bump that I received from the T15 school.

Overall, I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Greg and achieve two great admits with scholarships! I would wholeheartedly recommend Greg for his thorough professionalism, personalized coaching, attention to detail, and unmatched dedication and commitment to the applicant’s success.

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Profile: Asian, Male, GRE (327), 3.38 GPA. I applied to 3 schools and was rejected without interview from a T10, accepted into a T20, and waitlisted from my first choice (T15).

After hearing about my waitlist, I was eager to find an affordable and well-regarded consultant who would provide guidance in developing and executing a waitlist strategy. I originally applied in round 2 under the guidance of a large, well-reputed consulting firm (5-Stars on GMATClub); however, I did not return because I wasn’t impressed by the quality of the reviews and also received conflicting feedback from two of the consultants. The first consultant was passive and let some of my gaps and soft spots slide. The second consultant gave me a more thorough review of my essays and highlighted any potential question marks that slid by the first review; however, she did not offer much guidance in developing a story to address those question marks.

After researching the rates and reviews of all the consultants that offered waitlist services, I ended up signing up with Greg from Avanti Prep for 4 hours, which we devoted entirely to waitlist strategy and execution.

We spent the first 40-50 minutes on a video conference, where we reflected on my application/interview and identified what gaps or soft spots existed. Greg was extremely detailed and critical in his review of my application and helped me readdress things that he felt were either not specific enough or were under-communicated in my original submission (ex: Why this school?). He gave me advice on how to convey that the school remained my top choice and my commitment to attend. I am certain that the tactics we deployed in conveying these finer details helped get me accepted.

Greg went through many detailed reviews and consistently pushed me to greater introspection behind my passions and story. Even when I felt like I addressed everything, Greg constantly pushed me for further specificity. As tedious as this was, it was extremely important because doing so helped me create a unique and tailored story, something I felt like the previous consultants did not dig deep enough into. It was clear from the beginning that Greg was deeply invested and always put 100% effort in his work. We originally signed up for 4 hours, but Greg gave me 1.5 hours of extra time for additional review in order to ensure I had the best submission possible. In fact, if you read all the other reviews of Greg then you will see a history of Greg going well beyond his hours to help other applicants as well. In the end, I got accepted by my dream school and there was a stark difference between my original submission and what was submitted with Greg’s help.

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I started looking for MBA admission consultants after I took my GMAT. Not only was my score below the average of the schools I was aiming for, but also I did not have a clear personal branding strategy to make my application competitive. Greg helped me tremendously throughout the process. He was very responsive and efficient and was always able to give me very helpful and insightful feedback for each draft of my essay and resume. Greg helped me craft my story, and ensure that I was conveying the most impactful examples throughout my essays and resume. I would highly recommend Greg.

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GMAT 710, GPA 3-64, East European male, Analyst at Big-3 management consultancy.
I enrolled in one full Interview Prep session, which included a mock interview in the style of Booth, followed by a comprehensive feedback session. The session was scheduled for 2 hours and 30 minutes; we ended up going for 3 hours and 45 minutes.

This experience greatly deepened my insights about interview process and helped me structure my mind and my story. I was able to communicate key ideas in top-down way and Greg helped me shape my ideas in an easy to digest way.

I signed up for this session because of an expected beyond average level of care. My hopes were fully fulfilled: I received unparalleled help in terms of amount of structured frameworks and of tailored support – Greg a great length to support me – well beyond expected hours and to much greater personalization.
It included extra time, emails before and after, examples, results of research, specificity and attention to detail during interview prep, similarity of the style to the real Booth interview.
I felt much better prepared than to any previous interview.
Result was a very personal and friendly engaging interview with a top manager of an India oil and gas corporation. My interview was very happy to see “Booth” mindset and other aspects of “fit”. I am waiting for the final words from the AdCom.

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The result of my effort was a waitlist. And I am very passionate about support Greg provided to me. I worked on Booth waitlist updates in 2 stages - video update and written update.

Video update - a core requirement of Booth. I worked with him in a couple of steps - 1)Brainstorm 2) First draft 3)Second draft. During the brainstorm, Greg helped me pick those themes and topics, which matter for the school the most, focused me on how to create a story and develop content. It was extremely important, because a video is only 60 seconds, so I needed to make every work count. During the review of my first draft, Greg pressed me to dig deeper and deeper in terms of specificity and authenticity and uniqueness: how my values map to those of school, how to add details about examples and learning, what special value I see in Booth and how my knowledge and background would uniquely contribute to Booth. During the last step, Greg helped me decrease a whole video essay with 500 words to a 60-second video script, add flavor and style to words, and helped the language flow easily and words sound simple.

After a month, we worked on the next update - Written Letter. I connected with many students to discuss how I can contribute to clubs and what will be most impactful. Additionally, I gathered a couple of anecdotes about the experience of Booth MBA. Greg helped me turn this information into 1000 words essay, teaming with extremely specific content about how my long-term goals and Booth academics uniquely match each other and how my passions are connected to Booth community. Greg helped me find and polish examples, develop details, change wording, clean structure and make my story more coherent with vales of Booth.

Greg spent countless hours over the requested amount of services because of his passion to help. He honestly wanted me to enter Booth, thus he continues to review my texts, polish and clean them without additional payment. His effort to go an extra mile turn my written update into something special.

And I fully recommend him as great partner in waitlist process because of his passion and knowledge of business schools.

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I first heard about Avanti Prep from a coworker that had worked with Greg. At the time, I was considering applying to an MBA program and reached out to Greg for a free consultation. I was blown away by his thoughtfulness and thoroughness during the initial call, which lasted nearly an hour longer than scheduled. Though I hadn’t decided to apply, I knew I would work with Greg if I did. A few months later, I had pinpointed the perfect JD/MBA program at an M7 school. To his credit, Greg was upfront with me that as a “cookie-cutter” candidate (white male, solid GMAT, financial services background), my likelihood of being admitted was not exceedingly high. Nevertheless, I decided to go for it.

After I presented a few potential essay topics, Greg asked the poignant questions that allowed me to delve levels deeper into my experiences and extract meaningful takeaways. While writing, I peppered Greg with questions and appreciated his quick and detailed responses. He never showed any frustration as I second guessed decisions and changed course. Greg was especially helpful in strategizing my approach to recommendations and preparing for my interview. Having started the application a month before the deadline, I worked non-stop with Greg, who willingly accelerated his typical consulting process to ensure that a submitted a high-quality application. When I was notified of my acceptance, Greg was one of the first people I told. I would highly recommend Avanti Prep to anyone applying. I can’t imagine a more effective, pleasant, and thorough consultant.

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Profile and Background

I am a 30-year-old engineer, am from an over-represented group, have two degrees in electrical engineering, and have pretty average stats. I have worked in the energy industry for almost 7 years at a pretty niche company with some promotions but no direct management experience.

• Age: 30
• Demographics: White American male
• Electrical engineer in energy industry
• GMAT: 710 (Q49, V39, IR6, AWA6)
• Undergrad GPA: 3.3, Graduate GPA: 3.9
• Small, non-target school barely scraping the T-100 (bachelor’s and master’s)
• Work Experience: ~7 years w/ no direct management experience
• Applied in Round 2 to only one school (will explain this later)

I have a pretty basic profile, and had been preparing 2+ years for the GMAT. Summer 2019 came along, and I still had not hit my target GMAT score and had little idea of where to even start with applications or how to transform my goals and passion into a cohesive story for my application. My goal is to transition from an engineering/market analyst role to a renewable energy-specific project finance/development role.

Choosing a Consultant

A good friend referred me to Avanti Prep at a time when I was both lost on where to start and skeptical of admissions consultants. I spoke with about 5 different consultants but found that Greg, during our Free Consultation, was the most forthcoming and honest as well as the most personable. He managed expectations but also had the energy and tenacity to make me feel confident that, despite any obstacle, I could put my best foot forward and deliver the best, most optimal and representative application I could. He made no promises except to be the best possible partner along the way and to give my application the time it needed.

Summary Recommendation

I enrolled in Avanti Prep’s Tier 3 Package, which covers everything, and my experience with Greg was fantastic. MBA applications can be incredibly daunting and, paired with GMAT/GRE prep, very stressful. Greg helped transform the application into a very detailed step-by-step process that made it much easier for me to balance writing the application, preparing for my GMAT, and working on some of the auxiliary parts of my application (outreach, etc.).

Greg’s reviews were very meticulous, methodical, and detailed. He answered my questions quickly via email (we had 3+ email threads going at any given time with a LOT of back-and-forth) and empowered me to put my best foot forward in each component. He put a lot of effort into understanding my background, story, and goals. He emphasizes working through the application as partners, and he does not fall short. He was invested in each component of my application as much as I was – and it shined through in each task, call, and review along the way.

Honestly, no amount of Reddit posts, ClearAdmit/GMATClub/P&Q blog posts, or Admissions "Application Tips" posts would have prepared me to deliver the level of application that Greg helped me deliver. I'm incredibly proud of it. Two years ago I had all but given up on the idea of getting in to a Top-20 program but now, with Greg’s help, I'm headed to my dream school with a scholarship award (that the school doubled from their original offer)!

Step-by-Step Process and Detailed Recommendation

The Tier 3 Package covers everything, including: 1) school selection and story development, 2) essay brainstorming and review, 3) resume review, 4) recommender selection, strategy, and review, 5) interview prep, and 6) scholarship negotiations (plus other auxiliary elements, as noted, like Q&A and guidance regarding how to reach out to and connect with schools). For those interested in the details, I’ll try to touch on each step below.

School Selection & Story Development: I had narrowed my list of schools down to about 5 before meeting Greg, but decided to shoot my shot on just one that I thought could deliver me the MBA program I felt I needed. Greg listened to my goals, suggested other potential school fits, but ultimately respected my decision to apply to just 1 school – something other consultants advised against. Story development was incredibly thorough; Greg left no stone unturned and actively searched for different breadcrumbs that could bring my essays and application to life.

Essay Brainstorming and Review: After our initial brainstorming call, we settled on a few themes to focus on for my first essay. The initial draft felt like an unsurmountable challenge, but once I submitted it to Greg, we engaged in a very fluid and dynamic development and iteration process. In the early going, we were circling around the right themes and delivery, but we weren’t all the way there. To Greg’s credit, he never let us settle for something that wasn’t fully clicking or telling my story, even if it took more time or back-and-forth. It took 5 reviews, but Greg helped me deliver a really good, authentic, and representative essay.

The second essay required a lot of school research and outreach (something Greg strongly recommends his clients to do) and creativity. Greg gave me the freedom to inject my personality into the essay and helped me deliver, what I think is, a pretty creative essay that I was immensely proud of. Greg also helped with my Optional Essay that buttressed any soft spots in my application.

Resume Review: This was one of the first things Greg and I tackled, since it seemed to be the easiest way for me to get the ball rolling. Greg was able to help me extract information from my professional and personal experiences and inject it into bullet points that worked together to maximize different parts of my experience and also echo my post-MBA goals. He also helped me translate things from technical engineering parlance to clear bullets with business relevance. Honestly – the resume looks very sharp and I’m going to be scared to change it!

Recommender Prep: I already had a decent idea of who I was going to ask write my recommendation, but Greg worked to vet my thought process regarding my choice. He reaffirmed my decision to go with a recommender that wouldn't deliver a flowery review, but instead one that would deliver an honest review that highlighted new topics, echoed the strengths of my application, and even reinforced certain areas of potential concern.

Interview Prep: After receiving an invitation to interview, we started off with a call where Greg walked me through the overall interview experience, steps to prepare for a wide-assortment of different interview questions as well as ones that were typically asked by my target school. After my own prep, we had a mock-interview that road-tested each of my answers. He provided clear and methodical feedback and gave me a roadmap to address any shortcomings in my initial answers. After that, we had a follow-up call to practice a couple of questions one last time and to tie up loose ends.

Scholarship Negotiation: As Greg pointed out, Goal 1 was to get in, then Goal 2 was to hope for or attempt to get scholarship money. On an Admissions Officer’s recommendation, I had mentioned in my Optional Essay that I only applied to their school. Greg and I had weighed the pros and cons of saying this – the pro being that it would help show commitment and interest (Goal 1), and the con being that it left me with very little leverage in any type of negotiations (Goal 2).

However, after being admitted and awarded a small chunk of scholarship money, Greg advised me on how to craft an email to Admissions that addressed my decision to apply to only one school, highlighted all of the efforts I had made outside of the physical application to connect and engage with the school, and basically attempted to transform my deep commitment to the program into scholarship leverage. They ended up doubling my scholarship award!

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Profile:

- Indian Male with Engineering background
- GMAT – 660 (Q50, V29); GRE – 315 (Q166, V149); GPA – 9/10
- 7 years work experience in Data Science and Advanced Analytics with exposure to several impactful projects; Fortune 25 firm
- Domain knowledge in Retail and Healthcare
- Acquired knowledge in Finance through reading books and attending conferences


A step backward on my own:

I had my scores by the end of June and started out to apply for various business schools in Asia, US and Europe to meet the Round 1 deadlines. As I navigated through the application process by drafting my own essays and resume, I received reviews from my friends that the essays lacked punch and subsequently realized that I had wasted more than a month of precious time to create a below par application. It was at this instance that my friends directed me to seek the help of Avanti Prep and I decided to opt Greg as my admission consultant by initially leveraging GMAT Club’s moderator benefits, and then signing up for additional services beyond that.


Nature of our work together:

We began working together in November and Greg scheduled a free call to understand my interests and also explained me about how we would work during the course of my application. I decided to opt for his Hourly Services and we worked together for 17 hours encompassing a range of topics including School Selection (1 hour), Story Development (1 hour), Resume Reviews (4 hours), Essay Brainstorming (1 hour), Essay Reviews (5 hours), Recommender Strategy (1 hour) and Interview Prep (2.5 hours). Additionally, I also opted for Greg’s Scholarship Strategy (1.5 hours) to increase my scholarship amount in schools that I did not secure a full scholarship.

Although the official duration of service was 17 hours, the actual value derived from Greg’s reviews and my interaction with him was way more than the mentioned numeral, both in terms of benefit and even in terms of the actual time provided. Given the 17 hours invested, we utilized Questrom as the main focus of the Essay Reviews and Interview Prep, as it became my top choice and gave me the best chance to apply our work together to the other schools that I was applying. Through the process, Greg helped me to show my strengths, communicate detailed career goals and school interest and overcome my low verbal score through my essays and interviews.


Results:

I applied to 9 schools overall and received interview invites from 7 of them. I received admit offers from Questrom (full scholarship for MBA + MSDT), Katz (large scholarship), Cox (large scholarship) and Mason (large scholarship + GA). I was also waitlisted after interview at Simon, Maryland Smith and Krannert. Given my scores, our School Selection process was very meticulous. Using Greg’s direction to research various schools, I started to love Questrom, and we based our future work keeping Questrom in focus. Since I had already secured an admit from the school that I wanted to graduate with full ride, I did not make an effort to convert any of my waitlists.


Experience working with Greg:

The first thing that comes into my mind when I think about Greg is ‘Above and Beyond’. He did not let my scores be a deterrent for applying to Top 50 U.S. business schools. When he evaluated my profile, he conveyed to me that I have chances of securing an admit to the respective schools that I had shortlisted and began focusing on my strengths. He pushed me hard to bring about the experience that I had gained by working on several different projects and helped me leverage those insights to craft a brilliant resume and an impactful essay. Several weeks of deliberation over my essay with Story Development, Essay Brainstorming, Essay Reviews and tremendous attention to detail transformed my essay from a naive one to a sophisticated one. Looking at my final Questrom essay, I believed I had a chance.

I parallelly used Greg’s offered insights and advice to draft essays for other shortlisted schools and I was able to answer a variety of questions by referring to the time we had spent on Story Development, Essay Brainstorming and Essay Reviews. I am immensely happy to say that I received interview invites from almost every school that I had applied. I was even surprised to receive an interview invite from Cox within 90 minutes of submitting my application.

During the Interview Prep, we did a realistic Questrom mock interview and then a methodical feedback conversation covering every question, ranging from the main questions to the easier questions to the tougher questions. Greg gave me a chance to answer all the questions in a real interview format and then explained me how my answers could be improved. The Story Development and Essay Brainstorming played a crucial role yet again to connect my experience and strengths to answer the diverse questions that could be targeted at me during the interviews. Greg even pointed me to use the skills that I had gained outside of work to improve and diversify my interview responses. This helped me to get accustomed to the variety of questions that could be asked and I felt very confident during my interviews.

Finally, for an Indian applicant, the Hourly Services may seem expensive but Greg’s services are one of the most affordable you can obtain from an International Admission Consultant. The value you derive from Greg’s expertise is unmatched and you will start appreciating your results even before you reach the finish line. When I did reach the finish line, the return on my investment was already worth several multiples as I received a full scholarship to the school I loved the most despite my scores being only around average for that school.

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