Featured MBA Testimonial
I truly appreciate all my clients' testimonials, but this one was especially meaningful to both me and the client so I wanted to feature it here. The client was accepted at Wharton with a partial scholarship, Kellogg and Fuqua. The client was invited to interview at other programs but withdrew from them. It was translated from Japanese. You can read the Japanese version here. *********************
23:06 PM, Friday, December 18, 2009
I will never forget that moment – a big barrier in my path finally opened up and I could see a brilliant future. The woman who had interviewed me said clearly over the phone, “Before you go to bed, I really wanted to let you know that you were accepted. We were very impressed by your wonderful application. You received a scholarship, too. You are very much welcome at Wharton. ”
As soon as I hung up the phone, my family, who had taken care of me closely, said, “Wow, Bryan is such a great counselor! You were lucky to find him.” Those were the first words that came from them. Only through Bryan’s support was I able to get through this hard, solitary MBA process while having fun and without losing myself. Without having met Bryan, I am sure I would not have been able to apply to all my top choice schools in the first round and been accepted by multiple schools since my test scores were marginal at best.
It would be endless if I explained every tiny detail about Bryan’s wonderful service. However, I will try to introduce some outstanding points because I can compare Bryan with other MBA counselors since I have a lot of friends applying for their MBA who work/had worked with other counselors. (30 of them were accepted last year, and more than 50 of them are applicants this year.) I am also on multiple MBA mailing lists to exchange information and I heard opinions directly from those applicants as well, so I will use them here as a reference.
The real meaning of “FLAT RATE”, “All INCLUSIVE SYSTEM”
There are so many counselors out there who advocate “flat rate” services, but I can draw a clear line between Bryan and them, and say that his flat rate is real and great. I had continuous, basic consulting twice a week. However, if Bryan thought he needed to give me more time, before deadlines and interviews, he consulted me three – four times a week. Bryan supported me with e-mail as well, so including that, I had contact with Bryan almost every day since April, when I asked him for help for the first time. I did not need to worry about the budget since I had no idea how long and how much it was going to take. There are so many cases in which MBA counselors who advocate a “flat rate” set a limit on the number of consultations and interviews. So, Bryan’s flat rate is authentic and outstanding.
FAIR TO ALL HIS CLIENTS
My GMAT and TOEFL scores were on the edge, however, I never lost confidence in being supported to write quality essays. I sometimes heard some of my friends working with other MBA counselors complain, “They treat clients who have high scores differently.” I saw that their priority was those clients who have more possibilities to get accepted, while Bryan never does that to his clients. My scores were not high, so I was thinking to wait for the second round. Bryan said, “It will be fine. Your great essays will make up for the scores.” It was Bryan who even encouraged me to finish completing essays for the first round. I felt this showed his confidence and outstanding ability in what he did, and also his performance came from his strong feelings of caring and helping me compensate for my weak scores as much as he could. I relied on Bryan and felt I would be fine if I followed his advice, and I was able to raise my test scores to the necessary level while I wrote essays.
OUTSTANDING EDITING ABILITY
One of Bryan’s great abilities is to condense original, rough essays written by clients after a bunch of brainstorming into something authentic without losing the essence. I often heard some of my friends working with other MBA counselors say, “My essays became something which did not reflect myself at all”, “There are some phrases that are not in my vocabulary, so I am worried when I am invited to interview.” The worst thing someone said was, “My counselor wants to write whatever he wants, even the content. I am not happy about my essays because I cannot write what I want to express.” Bryan never does that. I expressed my background and personality honestly in my essays. As a result, I am very happy that I was accepted. If I got accepted without expressing myself, I would not have been happy. An MBA application is not just for getting a diploma. It is an important process to look back at yourself, tell your life stories and develop yourself. I am very proud to have told adcoms who I really am with Bryan’s wonderful editing ability.
I am concerned that most MBA counselors in Japan try to overpower their clients. With Bryan, there was no such thing. I was always straight with him about what I wanted to express. I demanded so much, but he was also clear about what he could not do, so I was not concerned about anything at all. I really appreciate that Bryan understands Japanese people, and is always the one who I can comfortably tell anything.
I was also shocked to know some of my friends were told by their MBA counselors, “You cannot apply to XXX school with such low scores,” “You cannot apply to multiple schools in a month,” and “You should wait until the second round because your scores are not high enough yet.” I can’t help wishing there were more counselors like Bryan in the MBA counseling industry who are always on the side of clients.
I decided to work with Bryan because some of my respected senior friends recommended him, and I also recognized his great personality and professionalism. It’s their advice as well, but you have to secure your seat because Bryan is very popular. Some of my friends who met Bryan but chose someone else to work with were not happy with those services. Then they decided to ask Bryan to help, however, it was too late and Bryan had already filled up his spaces. Bryan is not fake friendly, which we Japanese expect of American people unconsciously. I do respect the high quality of his humanity, services, swift work, moral standard and passion to sacrifice himself for his clients. Bryan did not take even a day off whether it was Christmas or New Years, so I feel Bryan’s wife took care of us as well. While Bryan was in Japan for face to face counseling, he gave us some group interview trainings. I met his other clients there for the first time, and we all seriously agreed that Bryan was such a great counselor.
In the end, I have been looking forward to writing this testimonial for so long. The long journey to an MBA acceptance finally ends when I finish writing this. Without Bryan, I could not have been accepted by Wharton with a scholarship in this competitive year. Throughout the MBA process, I appreciate that I rediscovered what was important to me. I will move towards the future I picture in my mind to exploit as much as I can this great chance that I won with Bryan.
Bryan, I am savoring the joy of “passing”, as well as sad to end our counseling time, which almost became my custom every day. I am thankful for the miracle of finding you for the MBA application process and I also hope we will keep in touch as a mentor and a student.
Thank you very much for leading me to an MBA acceptance.