I spoke with several friends who went through the admissions process a year prior and all of them emphasized the importance of a strong admissions consultant. After speaking with several, I chose Alex Leventhal based on his creative approach to my story and ability to tie what were seemingly disparate thoughts and events in my life together in a cohesive manner. Coming from a rather traditional background (banking, private equity), presenting myself as a unique candidate was of utmost importance and through Alex’s brainstorming exercises and willingness to work with me 1x1 on idea generation and thinking outside of the box, I was able to not only identify a strong essay MBA purpose, but also become excited about a potential career path post business school.

Alex was extremely helpful throughout the admissions process in its entirety (application strategy, idea generation, timeline setting, essay writing and mock interviews). I did a 6 school package (although only applied to three – start early, lol) and was admitted to two out of three schools and will ultimately be attending my top choice, HBS, in the fall. I very much appreciate Alex’s working cadence and challenging approach. He is not a consultant that will simply tell you what you want to hear. He will respectfully challenge your perspectives and writing style, but in the end the process will yield a very complete application. Alex is very well educated and experienced in his field; he understands how to navigate the MBA admissions process and did a great job in helping me identify and then share less travelled ideas / application stories.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Alex and would recommend him strongly to anyone interested in the MBA application process

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After being admitted to Stanford Business School with Alex Leventhal's help, my friend urged me to work with Alex as well, and I'm so happy I did. I'm not one to buy into added services to help a process that is expected to be completed alone, but I can say without a doubt that Alex was an essential resource in earning my admission to INSEAD-my top school of choice.

I never once felt like the clock was ticking with Alex - he continuously made himself available for my questions (some of them silly ones) and to talk me through my experiences to help me craft essays that would stand out but would also be completely true to who I am. My favorite part about working with him is that he really kept me honest - he didn't encourage me to add things that I didn't truly believe. And if there were things I didn't want to highlight in my essays, he helped me either see the value in discussing them or helped me understand why wasn't necessary to include them. Things about that I would have never guessed would be interesting to a school turned out to be things he encouraged me to write about that really added color to my essays and helped my personality shine through. He taught me how to tie together my experiences and skills through stories to present my best possible self to the admissions committee.

Alex Leventhal (Prep MBA) was great - he's practical, clear, honest and obviously an expert in his field, which helped move the process along quickly and thoroughly. He's also friendly and approachable, and I always looked forward to talking to him. I had applied to business school years before with no luck, and after working with him and learning his techniques - techniques I would have never come up with myself - I can see that I really couldn't have done it without his help!

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Prep MBA was recommended to me by a colleague who had worked exclusively with Alex Leventhal the previous year. My colleague, who was accepted to both GSB and HBS, had described how Alex familiarizes himself with his clients so he can effectively guide each through the business school application process. What my colleague did not mention was the countless hours Alex spends with each applicant, the creativity with which he approaches every essay and the structure and knowledge he brings with his experience.

Alex exceeded my (very high) expectations on all fronts. He is hard working and really brings a personal approach to helping you. Unlike some other consultants, Alex does not pass off his clients to junior staffers. He is direct with his feedback and very responsive, making the process less painful and more efficient.

I really think that Alex is unique and his dedication uncommon. I give Alex a lot of credit for helping me get into my top choice and highly recommend using him.

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If you only read the first line of this review: Alex is exception and I am confident that there is no way I would have been accepted into the Ivy League program I was, if not for him (sorry for the vague reference to Ivy League but I'm going for a degree of anonymity).

I'm an international student (from Australia) and the conversion of our grades to a 4.0 system is seriously rubbish - whilst Adcoms know this, I still had something like a 2.0 undergrad GPA when converted. When I found this out I freaked. I had a GMAT of 690, which is also below the average for anywhere good.

I approached Alex (and a bunch of other consultants) to get a gauge of my chances at being accepted anywhere respectable. Alex was the only one that didn't bullshit me, which is the simple reason for going with him at the time (I wasn't referred to anyone).

The biggest thing that Alex did was help me craft a narrative of my life, from what I've done, to where I want to go. It sounds simple but I can't stress the importance of this enough. It's very hard to draw out the stories that make you special by yourself. I found that it's because you are living your life and the things that might be gold to admissions are everyday to you. Alex identified what stories I should be telling (that I hadn't even considered as important) and helped craft a whole narrative of my life through the essays and resume, so admissions got the best possible understanding of who I am and why they should accept me. It was astounding how poor my first attempt at the essays was compared to the end product.

After getting interviews at every place I applied (again only Ivy League schools), Alex helped me conveying the right stories from my life in an interview. Breaking down stories into key components that needed to be hit and practicing with me how to deliver them, and to which questions they should answer.

I would consider myself a 'high needs' client for him, and he gave me all the time I needed, without ever making me feel like I was taking up too much time, in order to produce a polished product to deliver admissions.

The experience is very personal and probing into your background and what you really want in the future. You really can't put forward a lie, or admissions will see through it. You work with him and him only, not getting palmed off to a junior consultant or anyone. You get to understand that he genuinely wants you to succeed, in what is the really onerous task of getting into a business school.

I honestly can't recommend Alex enough for anyone, whether you're worried about not getting in (like me) or just wanting to nail getting into the best school possible.

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After a disaster of applying b-schools myself in 2011, I decided to work with a consultant in 2012. Someone who had a very successful application season recommended Alex on the Chinese site forum.chasedream.com. So I contacted Alex and he responded right away and scheduled a free 30-min consultation. His straightforwardness, genuineness and easy-to-approach manner made me choose him. During the initial consultation, Alex took the time to get to know me and made sure he had answered all my questions, and our conversation went beyond the scheduled 30-min length.

Working with Alex has been a great experience. He responded all my questions within hours, and the turn-around time for each essay was 24-48 hours. When he was super busy with other schools’ deadlines approaching, he will notify you that he would take a bit longer to get back to you, which is quite understandable. He will not forget you! Since I come from a scientific background and I had no idea how to explain my work, Alex supplied me essays from other scientists whom he had worked with. This was very helpful. When I still couldn’t write my story clearly, Alex would talk to me over the phone and walked through my thoughts and turned it into a plain language. He took great effort in understanding my story.

I strongly recommend using Alex, and use his multiple school-packages to get started, so you don’t need to worry about going over your budget. Alex will not satisfy with mediocre essays and he will make you change essays as many times as necessary. And during the whole process, there were ups and downs. But every time after I talked to Alex, I felt motivated and ready to work on my essays again.

Alex also helped me craft out a clear career path (short/long-term goals), which is very critical in the application, and made my stories readable . I got into Darden and with a scholarship that I have never imagined!


Darden '2015

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As a candidate with an extremely low undergrad GPA (below 2.3; yes, that’s not a typo) trying to get into a top 20 MBA program, I knew I had my work cut out for me and needed the appropriate guidance. I performed a search for an admissions consulting firm and went through almost 10 intro calls with different consultants. My intro call with Alex Leventhal (www.prepmba.com) really stood out to me because I could instantly tell that he was not looking to make another quick sale of his services and was very honest and upfront with me about my chances at my target schools and what I would need to do to maximize those chances. He made no promises but vowed to help me give it my best shot. I also appreciated the fact that I was able to speak directly to the person that was going to help me through the process – someone with a Harvard MBA and over 9 years of experience in admissions consulting that was running his own successful admissions consulting firm.

My experience working with Alex was great. He was very flexible with his schedule and was willing and able to accommodate my timeline for submitting applications. He was very responsive and always provided a time frame for when I could expect to hear back from him regarding the many questions I had or essays I submitted to him for review. He was also able to provide amazing feedback to me regarding my “story” in my applications and how I could best position myself to business schools. Through his guidance, I was able to create a much more cohesive story that really fit my background and my passions.

I would highly recommend Alex to those thinking about and looking at admissions consulting services, and plan on doing so to my friends applying this next admissions cycle. His support and guidance through the admissions process was exactly what I was looking for. I did a two school package with Alex and am extremely happy to say that out of those two top 20 business schools that I applied to, I was accepted with merit scholarship to one and waitlisted to the other with the potential of getting accepted at a later date. I was successfully able to overcome an enormous weakness in my application and Alex was a key reason for that!

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I was initially referred to Alex Leventhal of prepmba.com by a college classmate. Even though she had been accepted at her top choice, HBS, I was skeptical of admissions consultants in general. After an introductory discussion with Alex and receiving the detailed biosheet that Alex uses as a foundation for getting to know clients, I quickly warmed to the idea of working with Alex on my applications. As time progressed it became more and more clear that this decision was the right one.

Working with Alex on everything from selecting references and writing essays to prepping for interviews really gave my application a cohesive feel. Crafting a unique story for yourself is definitely a key advantage in the admissions process and Alex really helps draw that out by getting to know you beyond just the bullet points on your resume. The admissions process for top MBA schools is so competitive that attention to small details in your application can ultimately be the deciding factor in landing at your top choice. Alex ensures that each final application product is perfectly polished to guarantee the maximum chance of success.

Even though prepmba.com is a one-man-shop, I always felt that Alex was easily accessible and was very thoughtful and helpful in answering my questions and providing feedback. Even when I thought essays were “good enough”, Alex pushed me that extra step to make sure that my essays were the best they possibly could be. There was never any limit on the amount of time that Alex would spend in helping me get to that next level.

Since working with Alex, I’ve recommended three friends to him and each of them got into their top choice schools (Stanford GSB, Stanford GSB, and Yale SOM) and had similar glowing things to say about his service. I’ve heard very few, if any, similarly positive experiences from friends who have worked with other admissions consultants. I’d suggest Alex to anyone who is truly serious about the MBA admissions process.

- Wharton 2014

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Alex Leventhal at prepmba.com came highly recommended by several of my college classmates. They felt Alex had “significant value-add” and noted that they would “fully recommend him without any hesitation.” Now I feel the same. With Alex’s help I was admitted to my top choice school – Wharton!

After first reaching out to Alex, I received an immediate response. He set up an introductory phone call to get to know more about me – my background, my interests, and my aspirations. He had me complete a several page biography, filled with numerous, detailed questions. Unlike other services I considered using, Alex sincerely wanted to get to know and establish a meaningful relationship with me.

Once I made the decision to move forward with Alex, we selected my target schools. He was extremely knowledgeable about the requirements of the various programs, and his advice during my selection process was very realistic.

After talking through my interests and narrowing down my target schools, we proceeded to develop my narrative. Alex made an effort to learn about and understand my past experience in order to help me create a cohesive narrative. He had significant value-add in essay brainstorming and even had numerous sample essays to share with me for reference points during the brainstorming process. Alex has been in the advising business for a while, so he had a sense of what would work and conversely, what mistakes to avoid. His expertise made it easy to trust him. Alex was critical and provided honest and constructive feedback.

When I reached the interview stage of the application process, Alex supported me with extremely helpful and accommodating mock sessions. Specifically for Wharton, the ability to practice the unique group interview was very important and he organized mock group sessions. The ability to experience the interview setting in advance of the real event gave me much greater comfort and confidence than I would have had otherwise.

Alex’s deep knowledge about the programs and the application process as well as his structured work plan made him a wonderful and hugely successful MBA consultant. Alex proved to be an effective and reliable resource throughout the application process. I had great success using his services and would recommend Alex to anyone that is beginning the application process!

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