It was end of January and I had just taken my GMAT and not even looked at any of the essay prompts for the applications. I had a of couple things to address in my application: Low GPA, Below 700 GMAT, and a career path that did not really seem to add up (Undergrad Major Health Science, Post-College WE: US Navy, and Post-MBA Career Path: short term – Consulting Long term – Sports Industry). On top of all of that, did I forget to mention, my first application was due in ONLY 5 weeks!! I did not even know where to start or how to tell my story.
I didn’t use Applicant Lab in a linear manner (you can use it in whichever sequence/parts you prefer, that’s the beauty of it!). It was difficult for me to connect the dots for my career vision in the beginning, so I decided to skip that part and come back to it later. I drafted my resume and wrote the essays first. How Maria, breaks down each essay prompt for every single MBA program out there (I cannot THANK YOU enough for that!) into smaller questions that are easy to answer and create the structure and flow of some of the best essays I have ever typed. Talking about different past experiences in my essays really helped me self-reflect and connect the dots in my career vision/story.
Having ApplicantLab instead of a consultant, allowed me to reread and re-watch her advice over and over again something an actual consultant would have not allowed at random times of the night. Also, instead of having a consultant to call and rely on to answer my questions about a specific school and possibly edit my essays, it really forced me to connect to students at every single school I applied and get answers and tips from them (someone who had recently made the transition to where I wanted to be next year/in a couple of months). Few of them even went above and beyond my expectations and were generous enough to give me mock interviews. Trust me, I was nervous at first and did not know how to properly reach out to current students either. But, Maria does such a great job giving practical advice that is easy to implement and use to network with current students who end up becoming your allies and rooting for you in this admissions process.
The entire admissions process and ApplicantLab were a great learning experience to prepare me for business school. To be able to use the resources I have available, network with others, and deliver a final product that meets the needs of both parties (the business school and myself). I would have not been able to get that same learning experience and growth if I would have used an admissions consultant, instead of ApplicantLab. I literally talk about this product to every current or prospective MBA student I meet and highly recommend it to anyone reading this right now. My results: I ended up getting accepted to NotreDame, Emory, Tepper, and Cornell all with scholarships and in the FINAL round of the application cycle. Thank You Maria for creating just a great product and helping me make my dreams a reality!
