Nothing but good vibes and kudos for Chris Aitken. I applied to 4 schools, was accepted into 2, and ultimately selected MIT Sloan because of the school’s strength in tech and entrepreneurship. A year ago, the mere thought of getting accepted into a “Top 5” was a pipe dream and yet here I am. Chris was absolutely instrumental in my application process – no doubt I wouldn’t have had such success without his coaching.

I was referred to Chris through my work colleague who had been worked with him and was accepted into a couple of top business schools the previous year. Before enlisting with Team Chris, I held a few introductory calls with other b-school consultants. From my initial calls, it was evident that Chris had just the right amount of realism and idealism. I felt that this approach really fit me. I never liked hearing that I could “do anything” but also didn’t appreciate people who saw me as anything less.

I started working with Chris in August 2014 and since I intended on applying Round 1, I was already fairly late to the process. For folks with busy work schedules, hiring Chris is a must. The cost of a great consultant / coach such as Chris more than outweighs the amount of time saved trying to figure everything out on your own. Although I was late to the process, Chris created a work plan for me and led me through the vast online resources at MBA Prep. We did a ton of brainstorming and planning upfront, which paid off big time down the road. Chris challenged me to think critically about my story and helped me put my best foot forward for each application. Although I have a fairly traditional background (banking/PE), he helped me discover many “hidden gems” that I didn’t even know existed. Throughout the entire process, Chris was very engaged, hands-on, and detail-oriented. Chris genuinely cared to see through my success.

The application process is brutal and time-consuming but with the right coaching and advice, it can be strangely insightful. In many ways, the process acts as a professional “life check.” Looking back, I would say the numerous hours of conversations I’ve had with Chris helped me truly understand what I wanted to do with my career. I consider Chris to be a good friend and life coach. I’ve been fortunate to work with him and would absolutely recommend his coaching.

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Where do I even begin? Let's start here: I'm going to HBS in the fall and Tyler Cormney played an integral role in making that dream happen. He is professional, personable and, as they might say in Boston, wicked smaht. It's possible my experiences with Boston thus far have been limited to my HBS interview and watching Good Will Hunting, but I digress.

Tyler is uniquely qualified within the admissions consulting world because he has both a Harvard MBA and a Master's in Professional Writing from USC. This means he has the business acumen to understand your experience and recognize which parts of your background are truly differentiating factors, and the writing chops to craft your story and make your essays really sing.

I was initially torn on whether or not to even hire an admissions consultant for my application process. The service seemed to be overpriced, and many of the consultants I screened before Tyler did nothing to convince me otherwise. Once I got on the phone with Tyler, my opinion changed completely. Based only on a small handful of biographical questions, Tyler was able to connect several seemingly disparate parts of my background and tie them all together into a coherent and powerful story. This type of brilliance became commonplace over the six months Tyler and I worked together.

Tyler is also remarkably patient and calm - two qualities that come in especially handy when dealing with nervous business school applicants. After submitting the applications for my top two schools, I was completely buried at work and had to put the rest of my applications on hold. I eventually found myself in the unenviable position of needing to put together an entire application, from scratch, in less than two weeks. When I got back in touch with Tyler, he told me not to worry and sent me a few ideas he had been working on while I had been away. I spent the next several days trying to execute on the themes we had discussed, but just couldn't get the application materials where we wanted them. At this point, we had less than a week before the deadline. It would have been so, so easy for Tyler to either a) throw up his hands and say the materials were good enough, or b) push that application back to round 2. Instead, he buckled down with me, shortened his turnaround times for new drafts, and helped me polish the materials all the way up until the application deadline. I was accepted to this top 5 program as well.

I honestly can't recommend Tyler Cormney enough. He is the best investment I have ever made, and I consider him a good friend.

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I was referred to Tyler Cormney from a friend, and am grateful for his recommendation. I could not have selected a better admissions consultant on my own. Tyler combines a structured framework and invaluable insights throughout the entire process. Most importantly, Tyler helped me to build a personal brand, one that I could articulate both on paper and in my interviews.

Through Tyler, I developed skills that not only allowed me to get in to a top-10 business school, but abilities that I can rely on when interviewing for the competitive internships and full-time positions that I will seek as a part of my program.

Tyler Cormney is well worth your investment, one that will likely pay off immediately. I received multiple merit scholarships, and gained admission to my first choice school.

Don't wait to hire Tyler, I was one of his last clients to sign up and would certainly have regretted missing the opportunity to work with him. I plan to personally refer him to any applicants I know in the future.

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Over the past year, Tyler has been more than just a MBA consultant. He has been a friend, mentor, and life coach and I absolutely could not have navigated the daunting application process without his help. Tyler has a unique approach that pushes applicants to discover their strengths and areas of improvement and he was absolutely instrumental every step of the way. From building my brand, to developing my career goals, to ultimately crafting my application story, Tyler never stopped pushing me to reach beyond my limits.

For busy professionals, hiring Tyler is a no-brainer. I could always count on him to turn around drafts quickly and thoroughly and he was extremely accommodating around my crazy work schedule.

I highly recommend Tyler. He is the reason I was accepted into Harvard Business School and awarded a full merit scholarship at Chicago Booth and I can honestly say I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for his help and guidance. Do yourself a favor and make the investment today.

- HBS Class of 2017

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Business school was the best decision I made in my life, and I know I could not have gone through the application process without Faisal Khan and Esther Choy. Not only did they teach me about the schools I was applying to, but they taught be a great deal about myself and how to portray myself in the best light. I learned how to tell the right stories in the right way, and this "story-telling" was integral to not only the admissions process, but also to the rest of my life." After school, I will be working as a management consultant, and I know I will use the skills I learned from Esther and Faisal, as well as the MBA degree that they helped me achieve. I highly recommend working with them. Oh, and they're awesome people too!

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Summary: Hire MBA Prep School and Tyler Cormney for personalized professional execution and a significant ROI.

Detail: I came across MBA Prep School and Tyler Cormney after reading Tyler's (and MBA Prep School co-founder Chris Aitken's) book "How to Apply for an MBA." In the least, I recommend buying the book and following the process. However, I also strongly suggest purchasing the services of MBA Prep School. Once you read the book, you will have a strong process/framework in mind, but by purchasing the services, you are able to focus purely on execution. Also, having Tyler's / MBA Prep School's personalized feedback on your hard work is crucial in taking your application to the next level.

On an individual level, Tyler is an extremely great coach. He puts in a ton of hours in order to stay on the customized schedules of his clients and to help them achieve perfect execution. His approach is direct and honest. He will help you sit down, self-reflect, and peel back the onion on your life and career experiences, and then help you highlight the most pertinent ones. That's the key to a good application. Most importantly, everything is always genuinely you; he just helps you make your application top-tier.

I strongly recommend MBA Prep School and I strongly recommend working with Tyler Cormney.

Results: I got into three of the four schools to which I applied. Two of those are ranked in the top 12. I received invitations to interview at all four. In addition to that, I earned significant scholarships (including one full-ride) at my schools. Paying a few thousand dollars to get over 15x back in scholarship is what Tyler and MBA Prep School can help you achieve, not just getting admitted.

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After working with Lorraine at MBA Prep on my Harvard and Stanford applications this past fall, I was admitted to both schools round one, and I truly believe that success stemmed from my work with Lorraine. I have to admit, I was very skeptical about the concept of a consultant at the beginning of the business school process, but looking back, working with Lorraine was incredibly helpful and absolutely worth the time and investment. I come from a traditional background (consulting/finance), but received mixed messages from my introductory calls with a few different consulting firms about my chances to get into one of my top two schools. I ended up choosing Lorraine because from the very beginning, she was intelligent about the application process and the various business schools, she always asked the right questions, she was honest about the good and the bad, and she was invested not only in my application process but also in me as person.

During our time together, Lorraine was incredibly helpful throughout the planning/brainstorming, writing, and interview prep phases of the application process. Lorraine was very hands on and very engaged from her consultant seat, and that stems from the fact that she was genuinely interested in helping me position myself in the best way possible for success. I found Lorraine to be incredibly flexible and forgiving of unpredictable work schedules, and she was willing to work with shorter deadlines if it would help my application. Lorraine was also very patient—she was a great listener and always willing to put my needs first throughout this time consuming process, and I found this to help alleviate stress. Lorraine was also very knowledgeable on a wide range of topics thanks to her diverse career experience. This was one of the more helpful aspects of working with Lorraine—she helped tease out and think through exactly what I wanted to pursue career wise in life and more importantly, why. Lorraine was also willing to go above and beyond traditional consultant services—I would constantly get emails from Lorraine with articles on leaders in my career field of interest, industry studies that were relevant to my career goals, or blog posts about the schools I was applying to.

I felt like I had a fair critic, friend, and mentor with me along the way for every step of the application process, and I could not recommend Lorraine any more highly.

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At 32 years old with a family and after a difficult 2013 MBA application season, I realized that it was now or never for getting into business school. In 2013 I applied to three northeast schools—Wharton (FT), Columbia (FT), and Stern (FT)—and was ultimately dinged from all three after interviewing at two and being wait-listed at one. I needed an edge to make sure that my next application season was successful and my last. While I spoke with several MBA admission consulting companies, after reaching out to Tyler Cormney of MBA Prep School and having my introductory interview with Esther Choy I knew I had found that edge with MBA Prep School.

After my initial conversation with Esther there were four reasons I selected MBA Prep School and especially Esther Choy and Faisal Khan to coach me for my 2014 application season:
• Their high historical success rate,
• Their school selection strategy aligned with my goals (i.e., diversify among top schools vs. go downstream with schools)
• They had the most collaborative and warm culture among the firms I interviewed (e.g., kicking off the essay writing process Esther said, “now the fun begins”—and she meant it!), and
• As a collaborative team, Esther and Faisal could provide a more rounded perspective regarding my application—Esther described it as getting both the “cup half full” and the “cup half empty” perspective.

While the application process was still a lot of work, it was a lot more fun than my previous go around and I felt more confident having a team supporting me in the process. I even looked forward to our update calls as the brainstorming process was so enjoyable. Some of the areas that Esther and Faisal helped the most were in the following:
• Capturing a compelling MBA vision,
• Brainstorming the most powerful story ideas to differentiate my vision and leadership strengths—with a team based model, this meant I got an extra “outside opinion” early in the process of writing an essay,
• Teaching me that stories can be used in many contexts beyond the most obvious ones and how to structure those stories for the most powerful effect,
• Providing editing recommendations, i.e., pointing out areas warranting elaboration, but especially for suggesting areas to remove content and details to make room for the most powerful story elements, and
• Providing guidance about selecting the most powerful recommenders among my pool of options.

However, beyond the more immediate goal of getting accepted to business school, I feel like working with Esther and Faisal has given me tools that will make me more successful in business. The experience has made me not only both a better writer, but also more able to communicate a compelling vision in broader contexts. Currently working in consulting, I foresee this having immediate benefits with:
• Communicating my personal vision and strengths to colleagues and clients,
• Pitching our company’s vision to clients to win projects,
• Developing compelling client recommendations that clients actually want to read, and
• Creating a more compelling individual performance narrative that allows me to earn a higher performance rating and achieve a more rapid promotion timeline.

Ultimately, I was accepted to all four schools I applied to—Wharton (EMBA), Columbia (EMBA), Kellogg (1Y FT), and Tuck (FT)—and even earned a sizeable scholarship from Kellogg. While I was expecting good things to come out of this application season, after my previous year’s application season performance, I was not expecting this level of success. That’s another of the many reasons I’m so thankful for Esther and Faisal’s help, guidance, and ability to make the process more fun that made this experience so successful and rewarding. If you’re looking to learn the tools that will make you more successful in the b-school application process and in business in general, look no further than Esther Choy and Faisal Khan at MBA Prep School.

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A good consultant is highly adept at helping with editing essays. A great one is so much more – he is a mentor, a coach, and a friend.

I can say, without reservation, that Chris is a fantastic admissions consultant. I would recommend him without reservation. With his help, I was overjoyed to get admitted to a top 5 school. But even if my application process had been unsuccessful, I would still recommend him.

Firstly – Chris genuinely interested in *you*. I interviewed 7 other admissions consultants before selecting Chris. Unlike others that simply delivered a ‘templatized’ pitch, Chris had done his homework into my background, and seemed genuinely interested in learning more about who I was on our call. This is critical because the more interested a consultant is in digging deep into your specific story, the better his ability and desire help you craft a unique message.

Secondly – Chris is approachable and balanced. Through the process, Chris helped draw out not only my strengths, but also my weaknesses. Because he’s just such a “good guy” it’s really easy to open up to him. This is absolutely crucial in developing an authentic, self-aware application.

Thirdly – Chris pushes you – hard. Applying to business school can be a physically exhausting and emotionally draining process. While Chris sympathizes with this, he doesn’t let you off easy. He pushes you to go through every aspect the MBAPrepSchool process (which in itself is great, by the way) and constantly drives you to conduct deeper research to better understand yourself and develop more specific messages.

Fourthly – Chris is aware and nuanced in his approach. A small but telling example – every time Chris came across a blog / article that he thought could help me – he’d email me its link. Another example - some admissions consultants conveniently told me that all of the schools were “pretty much the same”. Chris believed the exact opposite and drove me to understand the unique flavor of each school. Additionally, I’m an Indian applicant – and Chris, well, isn’t Indian. But his general awareness and ability to learn quickly was so high that this didn’t matter – indeed he served as an excellent bridge between my Indian mind-set and the culture of each of my US target schools. In an environment where you’re constantly trying to differentiate yourself from peers with similar backgrounds, while simultaneously trying to demonstrate fit with your target schools, these little things go a long way.

Finally, and most importantly – Chris is highly committed and always exceeds expectations. Despite my hectic international travel schedule, Chris always figured out a convenient time for us to speak. Most importantly, I never felt like I could not reach out to him because I was using ‘too much’ of his time. Quite the opposite – he pushed me to engage with him constantly and we spoke as often as I felt necessary. His turnaround time for feedback was consistently quick – responding to multiple essays within 12 hours. As admissions deadlines approached, I expected his availability to reduce drastically given the pressures of juggling with several clients simultaneously. This did not happen. I don’t know how he managed to do so, but he always made time for me. Chris never compromises in helping me put my best foot forward, even if it meant going beyond what was ‘contracted’. When things unexpectedly get tough, you want somebody that you can rely on in your corner no matter what. Chris is that person.

The obvious outcome of my interaction with Chris was that I was able to get into a ‘dream business school’. But on reflection, I realize this engagement has had a more lasting impact – through it I learned a lot about myself. This will not only help me through business school, but life as a whole!

Thank you Chris!

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You think you can do it without a consultant. You think, ah that's expensive, I'll just do it myself. Well... bad idea.

The extra money you spend on Tyler's help, which will ultimately help you get into your dream school, is a drop in the bucket considering all the costs associated with b-school.

Tyler is a mix between an editing guru and a psychologist. He helps you narrow down what you want to do in life and mold all of your experiences into a compelling story. His customized schedule is perfect for someone, like me, who is working full time and trying to get all different aspects of the application not just done on time, but executed professionally.

I cannot recommend Tyler enough and hope everyone will use his expertise to show their best self to the admissions committee.

BTW - I got into my top two schools CBS & Sloan.

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