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Amerasia Admission Consultant Reviews
Reviews
from company website
19 positive reviews
You can't really argue with
results. I went into the process with a dream school
and that's the school I'm attending.
April
06, 2013
I also decided to use an admissions
consultant. I spent over a month research different
firms. Ultimately, I used Paul Lanzillotti at
Amerasia. I did a couple of pre-emails and
pre-calls, specifically with Dan Bauer at MBA
Exchange and Aimee Pearlman at MBA Mission. My
pre-call with Paul was great - I was looking for a
more boutique experience where I felt that I would
be more of a focus for the consultant that I might
be a larger firm. In a lot of ways I felt that I was
a borderline candidate that could really benefit
from the help and direction of a boutique admissions
consulting firm. My bought the four school program
with Paul. My results:
Tuck: Admit
Columbia: Admit
Yale: Waitlist
MIT: Ding
You can't really argue with results. I went into
the process with a dream school and that's the
school I'm attending. Paul was very realistic with
me during the process. Going in, he thought there
were schools I should get into (I did) and a reach
school that was my number one that he wasn't so sure
about (and I got it). If anything, I would use this
as a example of the fact that Paul won't blow smoke
up your ass. When you're shopping around for a
consultant and he tells you sure, with his help, you
can get into HBS and Wharton, sounds good. Paul
didn't. He took a realistic approach to my strengths
and weakness and helped me frame a story that put me
in the best light. Paul is excellent at figuring out
what your best story is and how to tell it to
admissions committees.
On a side note, one
of the most valuable parts of my package with Paul
was the interview prep. I interviewed at three
schools and with each his prep was instrumental. We
did two - three mock interviews before each
interview. I went into each interview with a great
sense of the story I wanted to tell the schools. Not
only that, but for each school he helped me tailor
it to that individual school based on his knowledge
of what that school looks for.
I applied to 4 schools
and have been invited to interview at all and so
far, accepted at Tuck.
April 06, 2013
Let's face it - US business schools, especially
the elite ones that you and I aspire to be a part
of, have some extremely stringent acceptance
criteria with an almost blackbox-like process to
boot.
Before admissions consultants became
mainstream (mainly thanks to the penetration of the
Internet), applying to business schools was a
lonely, nerve-wracking activity - especially if you
were from an over-represented demographic like India
or China. Nerve-wracking because you had no idea of
what constituted a good or bad response to an essay
question, or how to go about structuring it; Lonely
because at the most, you had a couple of friends who
had even heard about the schools you were applying
to, and even then, they wouldn't have enough
in-depth knowledge to help you write compelling
essays.
I began researching MBA programs in
2005. At the time, the only ‘consultants’ I had were
Montauk (‘How To Get Into The Top MBA Programs’) and
Strunk Jr and White (‘The Element Of Style'). By
2011, when I began the application process, I
decided that in addition to my due diligence
(attending events, chatting with alumni, professors,
etc) I could use the expertise and perspective of a
non-Indian who was on the pulse of the admissions
process – someone who could look at my essays from
the perspective of the admissions committee and help
me paint a clear picture of myself. And thus began
my hunt for the ‘Best’ admissions consultant.
After two months of initial consults with 10
different admissions consulting firms – Clear Admit,
The MBA Exchange, Accepted.com,Stacy Blackman
Consulting, Forster-Thomas, MBA Crystal Ball,
MBAApply, VeritasPrep, MBAMission, and Amerasia – I
finally decided to work with Paul Lanzillotti at
Amerasia. Don’t get me wrong – I didn’t pick Paul
because he painted the rosiest picture during the
initial consults; he didn’t. I picked him because we
connected, and we connected well. My reasoning was
simple – I need to not only be comfortable sharing
details of my personal and professional life with my
consultant, I needed someone who would push me,
probe further for details, and not pull any punches
when critiquing my essays. I saw all this in Paul,
and over the course of our engagement, my gut
instinct was proven right.
This is not to say
that Paul and I didn’t disagree on anything – in
fact, we frequently disagreed. But therein lay the
beauty; every disagreement would result in us coming
up with something far better than what we started
with. We had different perspectives, and kept
hammering at each sentence in each essay till we
were both satisfied with it. Sometimes, simply
flipping the order of sentences in a paragraph would
work miracles. Sometimes, we’d scratch everything
and head back to the drawing board. Some essays were
born ready (took a couple of edits to finish)
whereas others had to be sculpted and refined
multiple times (more than 8 edits).
Paul’s
knowledge of various schools is extensive; more
importantly, he has a skill for converting life
experiences into strong essays – and this is where I
knew I was getting my money’s worth. There were
experiences that I did not think much about, but
were potential essay responses in his perspective –
today, some of those have actually made their way
into my essays for multiple schools.
Additionally, Paul was always available on call or
mail, and would respond within a few hours at the
most. He was upfront about delays (if any), and made
sure that I had his undivided attention when on a
call.
Ultimately, we worked together for 4
schools, and I was waitlisted at 2 of them. Since
two of the schools were R3, Paul honoured his R3
guarantee and helped me craft 2 R1 apps this year.
Additionally, I retook the GMAT and took extra
courses to boost my GPA. The result? I applied to 4
schools and have been invited to interview at all,
and so far, accepted at Tuck (and looking forward to
the rest).
So is Paul/Amerasia the best
consultant/company?
I can’t say; that’s like
asking whether HBS or Stanford is the best business
school – its really down to personal choice. Yes, he
was the best consultant for me. Ultimately, its your
application, and your hard-earned money that will be
spent on a consultant, and you need to take a
well-thought out decision based on the initial
consults. I did my research and chose Paul, and did
not once regret it.
My experience with Paul
was extremely good, and I would gladly recommend
that you consider his services when scouting for an
admissions consultant.
You may now return to
your scheduled programming :)
Positive review about Adam
and Drew from Amerasia
April 06, 2013
I have read gmatclub for a long time, but I have
never registered to be an official member. I would
like to thank gmatclub having providing me great
tips and information about MBA process.
It
is my first post, a positive review about Adam and
Drew from Amerasia. Mod and Admin please contact me
for a verification.
A bit about my profile. 2
years ago, when I started my dream of a top MBA, I
would never believe that I could secure a position
in top MBA. The reason was simple: I have a below
average GPA (3.2) and GMAT (<700). My work
experience is in IT and I wanted to have an MBA to
switch my career to consulting. In other words, I am
in one of the most competitive applicant pool. I
have never seen anyone in my pool has such low
profile and manages to secure a seat in top schools.
Last year, after a long time to strive for
my GMAT, I realized that without a help from a good
consultant, my dream would never come true. I looked
for the most reliable consultant by reading all
posts and feedback in this forum. In fact, I like
the way Paul and Adam answered questions. I
contacted Amerasia and other companies for a
consultation for a round 3 service.
Surprisingly, one consultant from other company
refused to work with me and told me that I had no
hope unless I could secure a 700 GMAT. However, Drew
Hoff from Amerasia approached me and convinced me
that I had a hope if I could prepare the application
properly. Honestly, I did not believe that I just
thought Drew just tried to sell his service. I only
applied one school that suited best to my dream.
Drew helped me to create one of the best essays
ever. I got an invitation for interview, however I
failed. I got a feedback from the school that my
goal was too difficult to achieve given my
background and profile. Honestly, I was really
disappointed, but I have never blamed this failure
to Drew, I know it is my choice and Drew did the
best to give me feedback on school selection, essay
and interview.
I tried my luck again this
year, and decided to work with Amerasia again. I
worked with Adam this time for the same school
(Amerasia will give you a free service if you fail
in round 3). And I was dinged again.
Honestly, I
felt no hope and really frustrated about myself
rather than the service. I kept on suspecting my
ability...I even thought of giving up my dream and
started looking for other options.
However, I
talked to myself not to give up and at least tried
one more school (I do not believe in applying
multiple school at a time). I contacted Adam to
apply for another school. He gave me some advice in
selecting a safe bet, and Ross is our choice, I
think Adam suggested me Ross because he saw my
passion in community work, and it matches with Ross.
In fact Ross is even harder and tougher than the
previous school. Unfortunately, I was super busy
because of Extra Activities when I applied to Ross,
I could not put 100% focus on my essays, I did some
mistakes but Adam was really helpful, he always gave
honest and genuine feedback. He really understood my
hidden dreams, he even suggested me to rewrite my
essay totally if he felt it did not match the
standard. It was painful, but it was really worth. I
took them back and reflected myself to rewrite
essays. Adam's approach is simple, start everything
from your passion, have a plan, connect your MBA,
short term and long term goal. Passion is really a
key here.
I got an interview with Ross and
informed Adam. His colleague helped me a mock
interview. It was helpful, but I suggest that you
should conduct at least 5 mock interviews before
your actual one. I did it with my friends
I
almost broke into tear when I got a call from
admission on 14th March. I informed Adam
immediately. I would like to thank him for his
ethical work and feedback. Without his help, I do
not believe my dream can come true.
In
brief, I would like to summarize my feedback as
follows:
1. Understand client: 5/5
Yes,
both Adam and Drew really understand their client
profile
2. Understand school: 5/5
Adam really
understand unique characteristics of each school (we
called it DNA of school)
3. Create client
profile: 4/5
I rate 4 because I think this part
belongs to the applicant. A consultant can give us
best advice and feedback, but he can not help us to
create a fake profile
4. Edit essays: 5/5
You
will have the toughest reviewer. Adam or Drew are
both very detail oriented. They are both great at
spotting non-sense sentences. You can expect that
you have to rewrite your essays at least 5 times.
Comments or feedback are very straight
5.
Response time: 5/5
Almost always as promised: 1-2
days with a very details feedback
I really
understand that it is always tough in selecting a
good consultant. I hope my review can help others to
have a better idea about what Amerasia is doing.
Finally, my review is also my thank to Adam and
Drew for their great help.
All the best and
good luck.
Review for Adam of Amerasia
October 26, 2012
This is a review for
Adam from Amerasia. I consulted with Adam for a
complete package for one school, and then worked
with him ad-hoc on some essays for other schools.
From the beginning Adam was very
knowledgeable about the culture of each school.
During the consultation, he gave me tips and insight
into schools that I had not known or considered. I
also consulted with 5 or so other admissions
consulting companies but Amerasia was the most
personal experience. Other companies made me feel
badly about my qualifications, while Adam addressed
my candidacy with more finesse and kindness. He had
a more diplomatic and positive attitude.
Adam was incredibly useful in helping me put
together my essays and resume for the one school. He
not only edited the essays but helped with the
content, idea creation, and helped me when I was
stuck with the basic problem of what my long-term
goals should be. When helping me craft my essays,
when I was stuck on a particular question, Adam
provided examples that he drafted from scratch that
helped me to address the questions. This showed me
how much effort and time he was putting in towards
helping me achieve the very best essays.
Adam had such a pleasant disposition. He completely
motivated me and helped me to get into the zone to
attack the applications & essays. He was great to
talk to...he simply just had style. I was admitted
into one of my top two choices.
I
whole-heartedly endorse Adam from Amerasia as the
best MBA admissions consultant around.
I got into Sloan.
October 26, 2012
I first got in touch with
Amerasia at the beginning of the summer when I had
decided on a preliminary list of business schools to
apply to. Before calling Amerasia I spoke to a
consultant at Stacy Blackman. However, the
consultant I spoke to on the phone was not
necessarily the consultant I would be working with
during my application process. Working abroad, I was
wary of going through the application process alone.
At the same time, I knew I would need someone who
could really understand my story and help me
articulate it such that business schools would be
able to understand the breadth of my experience. The
hurdles I knew I would face were an average GPA and
barely two years of work experience upon
matriculation. The quality of my work experience of
helping start up a company abroad would need to be
the focus of my application. After talking with Paul
at Amerasia Consulting for an hour during the free
consultation I knew this was someone who I would be
comfortable working with and someone who had
experience with similar stories as mine. With
several years experience in the admissions process,
Paul was very clear with the entire application
process during our initial phone call. I decided to
enroll for the Full Engagement services just days
after our phone call. Based on my profile, we
decided on 7 schools that we could work towards, and
because we got an early start we were able to focus
on each application individually and carefully
approach each essay. Where I would have used the
same essay for each school, Paul helped me
understand what particular schools looked for in the
“short/long term goals” essay for example. This way
I found Paul’s guidance tremendously helpful as I
navigated the business school application process.
Initially we would talk on a weekly basis, and I
never felt as though our conversations had a set
time limit or that I was a burden. As deadlines
approached, we would even meet twice a week
depending on what was left to do. After being
offered an interview at one of my top choices, MIT
Sloan, Paul was able to provide me with a lot of
insight into how Sloan conducts interviews. With
their ‘behavior interview’ approach, I was
unfamiliar with how I would need to prepare. After a
few mock interviews and reviewing my application
with Paul I felt much more comfortable going into my
interview. I highly recommend Amerasia Consulting to
help you through the MBA admissions process. I
haven’t thought twice about the money spent, it was
well worth it after being admitted to a top 10 MBA
program.
Amerasia / Adam Hoff
October 26, 2012
If you’re reading
this then you probably already know how daunting the
business school application process can be: there’s
just so much information and so many things to
consider, all compounded by the fact that the
decisions you make will unequivocally affect not
just your career but the rest of your life! You get
one shot at business school- no one has two MBAs.
Even though I had already honed-in on the schools I
was going to target, the weight of the decisions to
be made coupled with the opportunity cost (for
starters, one less year of post-MBA salary) of not
having a seat in a class this fall compelled me to
fork out the cash and hire an admissions consultant,
Adam Hoff, through Amerasia.
I can easily
say, without doubt, that hiring Adam to guide me
through the application process was a great
decision. I had canvassed the admissions
consultants’ forums on GMATclub and was basically
told by many that I wasn’t exactly a shoe-in at any
of the schools I was applying to. You know the “yeah
it’s possible, but you’re really going to have to
put your best foot forward and hope for a little
luck” response. Well, maybe I had a little luck, but
by hiring Adam I was definitely able to put my best
foot forward, and my results speak for themselves: I
got into every school I applied to.
What
gives Amerasia its edge, in my humble opinion, is
their structured approach to essay writing and the
way they are able to tease your story out, which is
one thing that Adam was very good at. Chances are
that, even if you don’t feel like it, you have a
great story to tell; you have rich work and life
experiences that you may not have even discovered
through your own pre-MBA introspective process. This
is where Adam comes in. He helps you discover the
great in a seemingly-normal experience or story.
Adam acted almost like an introspective coach, one
that helps you discover the hidden value in your
story and present it in a compelling manner.
Aside from the things I mention above, Adam was also
more than willing to answer the bazillion questions
I threw at him during the long course of the
process. I always felt like I was an important and
valued client, and even if I did annoy him by
inundating him anxiety-induced questions, he never
showed it!
I’m giving Adam 5/5 stars because
he exceeded my expectations and played an absolutely
integral role in getting me into the schools of my
dreams.
Would work with Drew again!
October 26, 2012
I was initially
looking for Paul or Adam since I heard good things
about them. Since they were both booked up, Adam
referred me to his brother Drew. Even before I
committed to the 3 school package, Drew set up a
initial talk to go over what was included in the
full package. His in-depth knowledge of the schools
I wanted to apply to sold me on asking for his
assistance to help me with my applications.
I
selected the 3 school package and selected two top
10 private schools and 1 Consortium school. Drew not
only helped me with essays, but also how to approach
recommenders, my resume, interviews, and general
application strategy. I think a lot of people
believe consultants just write your essays for you,
but that is totally not the case. Drew only helped
me focus down on what i really wanted to do and
encouraged me to write about my passions while
cleaning up my grammar and overall essay strategy.
We worked mainly over email and we sent revisions
back and forth for my 3 schools. He definitely
helped me a lot during the essay writing process and
i don't think i would have been as concise and clear
without his assistance.
When i started to get
interviews, Drew helped me prepare over the phone
and calmed me down when i was getting jittery. I
ended up applying to 5 schools total, 3 of which
Drew helped with. I got admits to 2 and I would
definitely recommend him to others if they are
looking into Amerasia.
Total dedication - Highly
recommended
October 26, 2012
I
signed up with Amerasia just before r2 deadlines. I
initially signed up for one school but added another
two as I was so impressed with the service on the
first one. I couldn't find much information on
Jeremy beforehand but he seemed to have the right
background to help me.
What I liked about the
process is that right from the start Jeremy put in
the effort to get to know me so that I could
emphasize my salient strengths to the adcom. I liked
how we worked together to brainstorm answers to all
the questions together so that I provided a strong
coherant application (and not just strong answers to
individual questions).
I found writing essays
extremely uncomfortable and I did my best to pull
myself out of my comfort zone and reveal as much as
I could about myself in a way I thought would
impress adcoms. Jeremy had no hesitation correcting
me when I sounded naive, immature etc and was
generally sensitive to nuances that would not show
me in the best light. Jeremy was extremely prompt
with all edits, I believe all edits were same day or
next day. He even chased me up when I was slow to
reply so that I would be in no danger of missing
deadlines. Even through the birth of his baby he
helped suggested edits from the hospital - now that
is total committment.
I was interviewed at
all the schools he helped me with and admitted to
two. Overall I highly recommend Jeremy.
Amerasia admissions
consulting review Fall 2012
October 26,
2012
First off a bit about me. I am from
India and work in the Semiconductor High Technology
area in the Silicon Valley. I am 34 years old.
I took the GMAT twice in 2011 scoring 610 and
640 respectively. The second exam was in late
September. Since the application deadlines were
right around the corner, I was torn between retaking
the exam to improve my score and continuing with the
application. After about two weeks of deliberation,
I decided to continue with the application.
Given my lower score and interest in California
schools, I decided to go with an admission
consultant. After speaking to a couple of
consultants, including a local consultant, I was not
really convinced much.
Then, I read a lot
about Amerasia consulting on the GMATclub threads. I
was impressed with Paul Lanzillotti's depth and
experience and the ease and geniality with which he
addressed people's questions. Also, it appeared that
Paul didn't look down upon low GMAT scores. I got in
touch with Amerasia about their two school package.
Adam got in touch with me and provided some initial
guidance on what to expect. He was very clear
upfront that given my lower GMAT score and interest
in some top schools, my chances were at best 50-50!
I was then put in touch with Drew. Drew was
professional from the word "go"! He setup a
30-minute call to understand what were my
expectations and what to expect out of working with
him. He followed this up with a very good
questionnaire to get a better sense of my
background, personality, and what were the best
aspects about myself to showcase.
We decided
that I'll use my two school package for UC Berkeley
Haas and UCLA Anderson.
Then Drew wrote up a
really unique strategy memo that outlined what was
unique about each school and how to take a crack at
their essays. For the first memo, he clearly
outlined the protocols for us working together,
including response times and document exchange
plans. I think this was very good since it setup a
solid foundation for our working relationship and
kept things professional. My schedule was another
challenge since I had a two week vacation planned in
December.
Then we got into the guts of
writing essays. I came up with an initial set of
essays and Drew went to work magically transforming
the way the words were presented without making any
change in the meaning I wanted to convey. In a sense
he made my essays richer. Within 3-4 revisions, I
could see how it was totally amazing compared to
where we started.
Then came a small challenge
of meeting the word count/page size limits. Again
Drew snipped words intelligently without any
noticeable impact on the quality of the essays. One
of the big areas of focus for Drew was to turn the
attention from everyone else in my essays to me.
This was especially present in essays about my
family.
Most important to notice in this
effort was how we was appreciative of every essay
version while being constructive in his suggestions
for corrections. He always got back with his
feedback on time.
Completing work on one
school made things easier for the second school.
However, Drew didn't take his feet off the gas pedal
even once. He stuck to doing the same quality of
work and sticking to the same schedule. Eventhough
he was working with other applicants, he always made
me feel that I was his only applicant!!
We
got done with the essays about two weeks before the
deadlines. Then Drew helped complete the
applications by doing final reviews of what I wrote
as answers to supplemental questions.
Within
a few days of submitting my application, I got
invited to interviews at both schools. Drew was
immediately available to provide guidance on how to
prepare for excelling on the interviews. He did a 30
minute mock interview in which he asked pretty much
the standard set of questions of any MBA interview.
For a couple of questions that I got stuck on giving
really long answers, he helped trim the answers to
be simpler without loss to the essence of the
answers. For questions such as "have you applied to
any other schools?", Drew suggested that I provide
honest answers and the interviewer can be trusted to
use this information responsibly.
Needless to
say, come March, I was admitted to all the schools I
had applied to. While I was very surprised at the
result given my GMAT score, Drew had a HUGE role to
play in my success. I can't thank him enough.
In closing, I'd very strongly recommend Drew and
Amerasia consulting for an excellent job done in
admission consulting. Their professionalism,
integrity, genial nature, and very well developed
communication infrastructure is unparalleled.
Paul Lanzillotti
is...Awesome!!!
October 26, 2012
Hi
All,
Here is a snippet of how I ended up
working for Paul and boy..I am glad that I chose
amerasia!!
Little bit of BG info. I am 30
yr/F/ Undergrad decent university from India,
(EE)Masters - decent university US (3.2 GPA,EE).
1350 GRE
My desire to do a MBA started back
in 2006 when I accidentally found myself browsing
through pages of HBS!! But back then my personal
situation did not allow me to pursue my goal. Fast
forward 5 years ; after working for a top
semiconductor company and a heavy manufacturing
industry I decided that now might be time - It's now
or never.
It's easier said than done as I
had no clue as to how and where to start the whole
process. I know where I stood among an extremely
competing crowd and hence decided to use some
professional help. All I wanted was to apply to two
schools Ross and Kellogg's PTMBA .
Needless
to say there are tons of professional consultants
and fortunately I found this forum to be extremely
helpful. I selected about 6 or 7 of them and talked
to all of them.
About half of them (whom by the
way are very prominent consultants) rejected my case
since they thought that I did not stand a chance.
The last call I made was to amerasia. I spoke to
adam and he mentioned that for my case Paul would be
a better person to talk to. So ended up sending my
case to Paul.
This was during sep 2011 which
is a busy time for the applicants and the
consultants. But Paul got back to me the very next
day by email and scheduled with me for an hour of
free consultation.
Needless to say all I had was
my old resume since I had no clue as to how to
modify the resume or do a rough draft of the essays.
He was up to the mark from the start , gave
me a clear strategy how we are going to put our case
to the school (I did have some unique background and
exp), how to make my resume more appealing ;
basically how we are going to end up getting
admitted to!!!
He is someone who is blunt
(not rude!) when it comes to the business. I
completely trusted him in my case. We ended up doing
5 or 6 edits for each essay until we both were
convinced that the essays exactly conveyed what I
wanted to tell the adcom. He is some one who could
extrapolate your thoughts to words and he is good at
it!!!
He is very flexible in his schedule
and if I needed him he made time in his schedule to
talk to me - on the same day!!Also he is very
experienced in working with international candidates
- This helped me a lot during the process.
Did I mention that my 2 school package cost me about
50% less than what other consultants quoted me.
Finally I ended up getting into both the schools
(One of them even offered me a scholarship!!). I owe
a big thanks to Paul and amerasia. If anyone needs
more information please feel free to PM me and I
will be glad to share my thoughts with you.
Great Experience
October 26, 2012
I think an admissions
consultant is invaluable in the MBA application
process. First, my background. I'm 31, with 8 years
of experience in finance, female, 3.7 GPA from a
public university, and 720 GMAT. I'm looking to
transition out of finance and into entrepreneurship.
In round 1, I applied to Harvard, Stanford, and
Chicago without a consultant. I got dinged from H/S
and interviewed at Chicago.
For the interview
prep, I contacted Stacy Blackman Consulting, Sandy,
and Amerasia. Sandy was booked up; I spoke to a
woman at Stacy Blackman and Adam at Amerasia. The
woman at Stacy Blackman was nice but I didn't feel
we connected. When I spoke to Adam, he gave me
pointers on Booth and didn't pressure me to sign up
for his services. This was really nice, 'cause I had
a million things going on and couldn't make a
decision anyway.
Adam's pointers on Booth
were spot on. Unfortunately, due to my crazy work
schedule, I didn't adequately prepare for my
interview (I worked until 3 AM the night before my
interview). I didn't have time to get excited about
the school and went into my interview with a
lackluster attitude. Needless to say, I wasn't
admitted.
In round 2, I hired Adam for his
essay and interview services. I applied to Wharton
and Kellogg, schools that he noted were friendlier
to older applicants. Here's how the essay writing
process went: I turned in a first draft for Wharton,
he (very nicely and bluntly) told me it had to be
completely re-worked. My essays painted me as
unfocused, and my reasons for transitioning from
finance to entrepreneurship weren't well-supported.
It took about 3-4 drafts before I got it right. My
essays pre-Adam and post-Adam were dramatically
different; my friends commented that my post-Adam
essays drastically improved. Here's what I consider
to be Adam's biggest strengths in essay prep:
- He's very good at helping you organize your
story and painting you in the best light. He knows
immediately when something sounds wishy-washy and
will help you re-work it. He understands the
strongest aspect of your application and will help
you highlight this. - He's good with essay
structures and will help you break down your story
into a concise, easy-to-follow narrative. - He
provides solid advice on how to attack each essay,
what to avoid, what to focus on, etc. - Lastly, Adam
is great to work with. His upbeat attitude and
follow-up emails helped me stay on track during the
grueling process.
On Monday, I found out I
was admitted to Kellogg. I also received an
interview invite from Wharton, with decision still
pending. My only regret during this process is not
hiring Adam earlier in round 1. I am so grateful to
Adam, not only for his help in essay-writing and
interview prep, but also for being a cheerleader, a
great motivator, and for keeping me focused when I
was being pulled in so many different directions.
For anyone considering a consultant, I strongly
recommend Adam.
Amerasia Consulting Review -
Extremely Helpful
October 24, 2012
Although I had initially intended to stay out of the
conversation, I thought it might be helpful if I
shared my experience working with Paul from
Amerasia.
After taking a Manhattan GMAT
course I had initially planned on signing up with
MBAmission (given that they partner with MGMAT).
However, after reading earlier posts on this thread
I thought I might want to reach out to other
consultants as well, one of which was Paul at
Amerasia.
Of all my initial consultations I
scheduled Paul’s last. As soon as we got on the
phone Paul got down to business. What I really liked
about Paul was that he dug deeper than the other
consultants had. For example, my GMAT is over 750
and my GPA is in the mid 3 range with a double major
at a top University. While other consultants thought
this was a huge plus, I liked that Paul was honest
and said that because one of my major GPA’s was a
low 3 and the other was a high 3, it wasn’t going to
hurt but it also wasn’t going to be a huge help.
Additionally Paul and I went over my career goals
“story.” He pointed out that if it was my dream to
work in field X but I only had experience in filed Y
it would make more sense for my story to be focused
on field Y.
After signing up with Paul he set
up a recurring 1 hour weekly meeting. Over the last
several months Paul has helped me work through all
of last year’s essay’s in preparation for this
year’s applications. One thing that has really
impressed me in working with Paul is his ability to
pick which stories are most relevant at each school.
To me, this has been extremely helpful.
Some
additional thoughts on Amerasia:
1) Paul
works hard – each week, in advance of our meeting,
Paul will send over updated drafts of all my essays
with thorough comments and ideas about
restructuring. After each meeting Paul sends over
the notes from our call as well as a few homework
assignments.
2) Turnaround is quick – I have
all of Paul’s contact information. On the one
occasion I needed a 6 hour turn around I just sent
him my document, texted him, and had it back three
hours later.
3) Big picture – when Amerasia
looks at my application they look at the entire
package. All of my essays for any individual school
are worked on in tandem. What I mean by that is that
Paul and I have a clear picture of the story we are
trying to get across in my application. We view the
essays, the letters of rec, and the resume as
individual pieces of a puzzle. Paul makes sure
everything fits together and is consistent.
Lastly – to those of you working or considering
working with a consultant: Even though I have full
confidence in Paul and his services I still read
articles and books on admittance strategies. It’s
your application so take ownership of it. If you
don’t hear back from your consultant, call them on
their cell. If they don’t change their ways, fire
them. It’s your future - don’t let someone else mess
it up. A consultant can help improve your
application but do your own homework.
I know
gmatclub is now asking for a numerical score out of
5. Obviously I haven't completed my applications but
have worked with Paul for about 2 months. I've
emailed back and forth with him nearly daily and had
phone calls at least once a week if not more often.
Thus far I have nothing to complain about: 5/5.
I got into Booth with
scholarship.
October 24, 2012
I
worked with Amerasia for Booth and Kellogg this year
and I honestly feel I would've been lost without
using some kind of consultant (I also used Precision
Essay for Duke in R1). It's not that I couldn't have
done it on my own, it's that I'm a natural worrier
and perfectionist, and without someone there to give
me structure and monitor my progress, I was spinning
my wheels for weeks without getting anywhere. I was
so hung up about my GMAT not being good enough (58%
in Quant!) that I felt helpless when it came to
promoting my strengths. I spent weeks working on
first drafts of essays and would scrap everything
and still had nothing decent to show for it. I was
running out of time and needed a kick in the butt to
stop analyzing and start putting things together.
I was so impressed from the initial 1 hour call
and felt he had enough school-specific knowledge to
know what they were looking for. He addressed my
concern over the GMAT score, and told me the only
school on my list that was really strict about the
quant percent being above 80 was Haas (only official
ding so far, so looks like he was right) and eased
my worries by saying the breakdown really doesn't
matter all that much. Regarding GMAT, all they care
about is whether you can handle the academics (and
your high GPA proves this) and that your total score
doesn't bring down their averages too much (and your
GMAT is lower than their avg, but your GPA is higher
so you're pretty much a wash). This made so much
sense and made me feel confident about applying, it
really made the difference for me.
Duke
w/precsion essay was a mad dash, my fault for not
leaving enough time. I had plenty of time for R2 and
chose to go with Amerasia for Booth. He spent about
a week reviewing my profile, resume, notes from our
call etc and put together a document outlying my
strengths and weaknesses in each area as it relates
to Booth's core values. He read my essay drafts in
detail and pointed out things that left a bit of
confusion about my story and gave suggestions on
what I could say to really make it powerful. With
the powerpoint essay, he reviewed a few different
intial ideas and gave his opinion on which was the
best. Knowing he works with lots of clients and
hearing him say something like "that's a really
unique approach, I've never seen anyone do that
before" gave me confidence to run with it, because I
knew it would not be like so many others (like my
second idea was)
I chose to go with a smaller
essay only package with Amerasia for Kellogg as well
after I was impressed by their work on Booth. I did
feel this one was a bit more rushed, but I didn't
make the decision to add this one until the very
end. Overall very impressed and glad I went with
them, I got into Booth with scholarship (something I
thought impossible with a 58% Q from a quant heavy
school) and used some of the same ideas in other
school essays (got into Ross with the same concepts)
I highly recommend Amerasia
for MBA admissions
October 24, 2012
I used Amerasia consulting for my applications
to two top ten schools because while I am reasonably
confident in my application, I work in a
quantitative industry and wasn't too sure I was
going to express myself clearly on paper. Also, I
lacked a staple of a perfect application: a decently
high percentile GPA from my undergraduate
institution. Finally, as we all know, business
school is a life-changing decision, so I wanted to
make sure my applications were top-notch, well
thought out, and fully represented my strengths.
I spoke to a few consulting firms, and quickly
found Amerasia to be by far the most helpful right
off the bat. During other free consultations, I was
told the usual: I have a decent profile, they can
set me up with a consultant, I just need to sign and
pay. Amerasia was completely different; I took 5
pages of notes during my 1 hour free consultation
(with the actual consultant I would be working
with), and could quickly discern that I was getting
valuable, useable advice. Also, I found the fee to
be reasonable, and I also liked the fact that they
do not charge you for interview counseling unless
you actually get the interview.
During the
application process itself, my consultant was
incredibly helpful. He listened to my life story,
helped me pick out my biggest strengths, and really
saw to it that these characteristics were well
represented in my essays. He was not afraid to tell
me bluntly that sometimes my first drafts wouldn't
work and that I would have to write another. I also
procrastinated greatly during my month of
application writing, and my consultant kept me on
track by shooting me quick emails, reminding me to
stay on track and get certain drafts/revisions done.
I've heard that other consultants seemingly get
swamped during busy times, but mine was thoroughly
consistant and timely in terms of returning comments
on essay drafts, emailing me answers to my
questions, and just generally keeping me on track.
When I was invited to an interview with my top
choice school, my consultant yet again saved me.
Having a mock interview beforehand was more helpful
than I could've imagined, and his knowledge of
admissions practices/commonly asked
questions/school-specific questions was instrumental
in my preparation. When I had a strange and unique
post-interview situation and had no idea what to do,
the first thing I did was email my consultant, who
immediately responded with helpful and correct
advice.
To make a long story short, I highly
recommend Amerasia Consulting for MBA admissions.
The money was well worth it to be admitted to a top
10 MBA program of my dreams. If you have any
questions about any of this, feel free to PM me.
Review for Amerasia and
Consultant Drew Hoff
October 24, 2012
I had an amazing experience with Amerasia
Consulting. I applied to 6 schools in the fall of
2011. When I began working on the applications, I
was terrified about the prospect of addressing the
essays prompts and worried whether any of my
experiences would suffice for the top bschools. More
specifically, I was concerned about bringing these
stories to life.
Drew really helped me
achieve what I was worried about doing. I would
never have been able to write with such clarity and
concision without his help. We went back and forth a
number of times regarding points, length, language
and tone, but he was always patient and helpful. I
think I have two full threads on gmail with our
conversations.
Amerasia also set me up with
mock interviews and reviewed the entire application
to make sure there were no issues. Overall, I am
glad to recommend their services to anyone who is
pursuing the top programs.
Kudos to Amerasia - Thanks
to Paul
October 24, 2012
I would
like to extend my sincere thanks to Paul from
amerasia for his consulting services. I would highly
encourage the other applicants to consider them for
their competitive price packages and through
knowledge on schools. I talked to several
consultancies like MBAmission, mbaprep , mbapply
before deciding to go with Paul. I was very
impressed with the way he explained the process to
me as I was very new to this whole MBA admissions.
Also he is very considerate person to work with -
The reason I am saying this is from my personal
experience ; I had couple of consultants reject my
case because they did not think that I was
competitive enough. But because of Paul's guidance I
was able to get into PTMBA at Ross . If you need
more information ping me. Good luck to you all!
A Review for Amerasia
Consulting
October 22, 2012
I'm
writing this review to provide some insight (based
on my opinion and experiences) about services
provided by Amerasia Consulting. Last year, at about
this time, I got in touch with Amerasia Consulting
after seeking the opinion of fellow GMATClubbers who
had written reviews about various Consulting
companies. Besides, I spoke to a few other
consultants also but I thought most of them were
really pricey, and Amerasia offered me nothing less
than what they did in their packages.
Simultaneously, I read the various posts from Paul
Lanzilotti and found them to be really astute.
So then, I mailed them my profile and soon Adam
set up a preliminary call with me to assess the
situation and to provide his suggestions. In the
very first call itself, I was prepared to take
extensive notes and I did so. Adam was very clear in
his suggestions and he made me think in a positive
manner because he pointed out the strengths +
weaknesses in my profile and told me the absolute
must things that I need to do to get through in the
US B-Schools. Earlier, I had spoken to another
consultant and I had received the advice that at my
age (34) US B-Schools wouldn't probably be a good
option because they prefer younger people and thus,
I would be better off trying the European B-Schools.
(Please read my review till end to know why I’ve
mentioned this).
However, Adam dismissed
that notion and said that every B-School seeks
people who are from different background, and older
applicants do bring a lot of professional insight
that is essential to the proper grooming of students
in the class. Simultaneously, he recommended me
B-Schools that would be within reach based on my
personal + professional profile; of course, I
debated with him the choices and he suggested me
broadly what each B-School would mean from various
perspectives (besides rankings). The point is that
all of this discussion definitely gave me a lot of
data points and food for thoughts to plan out my MBA
pursuit.
Soon thereafter, our stint began
and he asked me to fill a questionnaire and that
helped me in solidifying my essays and in
articulating my career goals. During the phase of
essay writing, he helped me in refining them further
and the most impressive factor is that there was no
upper limit on the number of reviews he would have
done (this can become really valuable if you really
want to polish and strengthen your application). The
pdf documents he used to provide with essay breakups
were very helpful in getting me started on my own,
and by writing my essays, and by acting on his
review feedbacks, I definitely was able to prepare
for my interviews by default :).
I must say
that though I couldn’t get through in two R1
B-Schools we had worked together, I wouldn’t
attribute it solely to Adam for suggesting those
names. For one thing, I’ve heard that R1 was very
uneven this year and secondly, I’m WL at one place
and got offer for another MBA Program in the second
B-School. Needless to say, the essays I had written
in the R1 were very helpful in the R2, and the way
Adam had pointed out weaknesses in my essays helped
me in cracking essays for the other B-Schools as
well. Finally, when I started getting interview
calls in my R2 packages, Adam arranged a mock
interview for me with another consultant in his
company (along with his own set of dos and don’ts
for the interview) and that proved to be quite
useful as well.
Therefore, I can easily
suggest that you can always go for Amerasia
Consulting as your top choice because:
1)
Adam is a brilliant and sincere guy, if he selects
you as a client, he’ll definitely make sure that he
does everything for you to bolster your package and
to bring out the best aspects of your application.
2) His Knowledge of the Admission Process
and B-Schools is extraordinary. I was talking to my
college seniors also who had gotten through in
B-Schools previously and they said pretty much the
same things about the B-Schools as Adam did, so I
Would tend to think that the advice coming from Adam
was of very high quality.
3) While working
with him, you’ll get personal attention which is
very important to keep the morale high and maintain
the tempo and accuracy during the application phase.
Sometimes the whole process can be really nerve
wrecking and you definitely need a person who can
egg you on.
Disclaimer - Because of some
personal/professional reasons, I am unable to reveal
the names of the B-Schools I’m in, however, I
*might* disclose them in the coming days, so please
do not think that my review is a “hollow” one :). I
have multiple offers now and one B-School I can name
where I’m in is Kelley School of Business (with
Scholarship).
Last but not the least, I got
dinged at European B-Schools and got through in
Canada and US B-Schools (I had applied on my own to
the Canada B-Schools).
I was admitted to Kellogg.
October 22, 2012
I think an admissions
consultant is invaluable in the MBA application
process. First, my background. I'm 31, with 8 years
of experience in finance, female, 3.7 GPA from a
public university, and 720 GMAT. I'm looking to
transition out of finance and into entrepreneurship.
In round 1, I applied to Harvard, Stanford,
and Chicago without a consultant. I got dinged from
H/S and interviewed at Chicago.
For the
interview prep, I contacted Stacy Blackman
Consulting, Sandy, and Amerasia. Sandy was booked
up; I spoke to a woman at Stacy Blackman and Adam at
Amerasia. The woman at Stacy Blackman was nice but I
didn't feel we connected. When I spoke to Adam, he
gave me pointers on Booth and didn't pressure me to
sign up for his services. This was really nice,
'cause I had a million things going on and couldn't
make a decision anyway.
Adam's pointers on
Booth were spot on. Unfortunately, due to my crazy
work schedule, I didn't adequately prepare for my
interview (I worked until 3 AM the night before my
interview). I didn't have time to get excited about
the school and went into my interview with a
lackluster attitude. Needless to say, I wasn't
admitted.
In round 2, I hired Adam for his
essay and interview services. I applied to Wharton
and Kellogg, schools that he noted were friendlier
to older applicants. Here's how the essay writing
process went: I turned in a first draft for Wharton,
he (very nicely and bluntly) told me it had to be
completely re-worked. My essays painted me as
unfocused, and my reasons for transitioning from
finance to entrepreneurship weren't well-supported.
It took about 3-4 drafts before I got it right. My
essays pre-Adam and post-Adam were dramatically
different; my friends commented that my post-Adam
essays drastically improved. Here's what I consider
to be Adam's biggest strengths in essay prep:
- He's very good at helping you organize your
story and painting you in the best light. He knows
immediately when something sounds wishy-washy and
will help you re-work it. He understands the
strongest aspect of your application and will help
you highlight this.
- He's good with essay
structures and will help you break down your story
into a concise, easy-to-follow narrative.
- He
provides solid advice on how to attack each essay,
what to avoid, what to focus on, etc.
- Lastly,
Adam is great to work with. His upbeat attitude and
follow-up emails helped me stay on track during the
grueling process.
On Monday, I found out I
was admitted to Kellogg. I also received an
interview invite from Wharton, with decision still
pending. My only regret during this process is not
hiring Adam earlier in round 1. I am so grateful to
Adam, not only for his help in essay-writing and
interview prep, but also for being a cheerleader, a
great motivator, and for keeping me focused when I
was being pulled in so many different directions.
For anyone considering a consultant, I strongly
recommend Adam.
Excellent service helped to
get into school of my dreams
April 25,
2012
I signed up for a free 30-minute
consultation with a few of the top Admissions
Consulting companies around. The sessions were
largely the same: You give them a summary of your
profile (GMAT, GPA, Experience, Extrac.), your
target schools, and then they tell you the strengths
and weaknesses of your application. The first two
consultancies I got in touch with (which shall
remain unnamed) left me thinking I could never get
into a top 10, let alone a top 20 bschool, which was
very discouraging and, to be honest, I didn’t
understand how they wanted to attract any business
that way.
Amerasia was different. In my free
consultation, Michelle immediately pointed out all
the strengths in my profile for my dream school,
INSEAD. She also identified the weak areas, but was
reassuring in that she felt I would have enough
stories from my experience to counterbalance that. I
asked Michelle if she had had any experience in
coaching applicants for INSEAD, but unfortunately
she didn’t. I took about a week to think about it,
but I was reassured by Adam, the manager, that
Michelle was the right coach. Based on my first call
with Michelle, I decided to sign up with her.
Michelle was a great coach from the start. She
was great at explaining how to present each
different story (strengths, weaknesses,
achievements, failures, the reason for an MBA, etc)
and pushed me hard to make sure that every story I
used helped to weave my application into a very
strong package. With Michelle in the East Coast and
me in Asia, it was at time difficult to schedule
time to discuss on the phone. But even then, I had
sufficient time to discuss the direction of my
essays with Michelle on the phone. She was also very
diligent in turnaround time on emails and documents,
usually even beating her own deadlines.
I
knew I had all the stories and the perfect profile
for INSEAD. But I thank Michelle for helping me in
weaving all of my stories together so I could
present a strong profile for my application.