(client also received full scholarship from private organization, which we worked on together as well)
I cannot be more thankful to Bryan for helping me get accepted into HBS, which has long been my top choice school. I was a reapplicant to HBS, and Bryan worked with me for two consecutive years. When it came time to reapply, I did not think twice about reaching out to Bryan to support me again.
In retrospect, having only been two years out of university, I may have been too inexperienced when I first applied to HBS. We worked together to refine my application, in particular how I had grown professionally since the last time I applied. Bryan has been a great counselor and a deeply thoughtful and empathetic partner in helping me articulate my career choices and ambitions to admissions by asking me questions in our counseling sessions to draw out a truly genuine and authentic story about who I am and what I want to do.
Towards applying to HBS, I chose to work with Bryan for three reasons. First, Bryan knows his stuff. He has a long track record of helping his students get into the most competitive programs, and knows what admissions looks for. Another reason I enjoyed working with Bryan was his truly amiable and thoughtful personality. Bryan provides feedback very well, which I felt was not only quite accurate but also delivered in a manner that helped me see how much I could improve. Finally, Bryan is very stable and flexible. During application season, as deadlines loomed near, Bryan remained the steady voice that guided me towards an acceptance letter from HBS.
I cannot thank Bryan enough for working patiently with me these two years, for helping me get into my dream school, and for being a truly caring mentor, counselor, and friend. I would recommend Bryan to anyone wholeheartedly without reservation. Thank you, Bryan, for all of your counseling sessions, professional editing, and for being a great friend for me in times of need.
Bryan made my essay writing process a truly enjoyable and meaningful journey of self-discovery, and not mere MBA prep. Bryan never told me what I should write. After giving me directional guidance, he would let me write my essays in the way that I wanted.
At the same time, I never felt I was unsupported. Bryan read every detail of my essays and asked thoughtful questions to push my thinking. He crafted questions very carefully, and patiently waited until I articulated the answers in my own words. It was hard, but very satisfying. His approach made this process not just enjoyable, but also efficient. Because I liked our approach, I was always thinking about the questions we discussed, which naturally brought me more ideas.
I started the application prep quite late (3 months before the deadline), but never felt I was stuck, and finished writing all essays well before the due date. Weekly discussions with Bryan prepared me well for the interview as well.
I learned from Bryan that essays/interviews are not places to repeat what I already know, but a place to discover something new about myself. I came to like receiving questions that I did not know the answer. I approached the actual interview in a similar way (most of the questions were something that I did not prepare beforehand), and ended up having a good discussion, not a mere Q&A session.
Thank you again, Bryan, for making this process such a fulfilling experience.
I met Bryan right after I started my MBA application process. In February, when I told my senior about my decision to apply, she warned me that if I did not contact Bryan soon, his spaces would fill up. In fact, two other senior colleagues I worked with on projects said they chose to work with Bryan as well. I looked up to them as business people, and their acceptances to very top schools left but no doubt about Bryan’s abilities. Therefore, I had faith in him and decided to ask him to work with me.
As reputed, Bryan was deeply experienced, kind, and provided great support throughout the process. Thanks to these qualities, I was able to get results I was very satisfied with.
Bryan is most distinguished in his ability to sincerely spot an individual’s strengths and virtues through the application materials. Applicants, in general, tend to focus on dressing up their career histories and performances, however, Bryan goes far beyond and much deeper, meaning he is more insightful about applicants’ personal characteristics and values. By helping me pull those out, Bryan made it possible for me to build great essays. He made me aware of my own unique qualities which I had not thought of as particularly special, and those became incredibly important elements to express who I was in my essays and interviews. Eventually, the whole process for me was not just about applying to MBA programs, but it became a fruitful period to understand myself more deeply.
I am grateful to Bryan for the encouragement he provided throughout our weekly Skype sessions and for helping me get through this long, hard process. Without his support, I feel certain that I would not have been accepted by several of my dream schools.
It is often said that the process of applying for an MBA is a journey to find your true self. According to my experience, I could not agree more, but I could not have completed this journey without Bryan, who guided me through this rugged, rigorous, yet enlightening process. Obviously, his thorough knowledge and understanding of the Japanese economy and various industries, his extensive background in journalism and miraculous editing techniques, as well as his track records and experience helping past applicants get accepted to top MBA programs are all huge assets. But it is his willingness to sit down, look you straight in the eye and try to understand what kind of person you really are that helps you break the barrier from an ordinary MBA applicant to a distinguished individual.
For reference, my professional accomplishments were nowhere near comparable to those who started up a new company and sold it to Google for 30 million USD, saved the lives of many children through charity and volunteer work, or a top gun pilot who fought valiantly for his country, etc. etc. My extra-curricular activities were moderate at best, and the only professional certifications I had were basic computer and accounting skills.
Still, I was accepted to my top-choice MBA programs, and I owe this in large part to the essay counseling service I received from Bryan. Through his counseling, he made me realize that everyone, including myself, is unique. He brought out my best aspects through asking questions like, “Why was this particular event meaningful to you?” “What words did you exactly say to your boss during the conflict and why?” and “Don’t just TELL me what you did. You have to SHOW me.” As I dug deeper and deeper to find the answers to these questions, I found out many things about myself that I previously did not know. I always thought I was more comfortable doing individual work, but realized I produced the best results when in an intensive team-focus situation. I used to think I was the vocal type, but found out people naturally followed me most when I was leading by example. I never had the chance to visit campus and meet members of the admissions committee, but the fact that I was invited to interview from every single school I applied to proves that I was able to portray exactly what kind of person I am just through my essays.
If your goal is getting into the MBA program of your dreams, you probably should go talk to the dozen or so counselors out there and compare them until you find the “best match” to see who has the highest possibility of helping you get there. However, if you want to know who you really are, what your strengths and weaknesses are, what your subconscious goals and passions in life are look no further and I can assure you Bryan will help you achieve your goals. You will quickly realize that getting into an MBA program is merely a stop along the way in the long, enduring journey to seek your true identity, and be amazed at how much you can discover about yourself.
(accepted to Stanford GSB on full scholarship & Harvard Kennedy School of Govt.)
Bryan greatly shifted my odds of success in my business school applications. In my case, although my vision was clear (at least for me), it was non-traditional and difficult to let others understand. I needed someone who could understand my unique vision and shape my ideas to fit business school application. The challenge was to balance both my uniqueness and fit.
Bryan was the one. His open-minded attitude gave me confidence to tell him my ideas and develop them more deeply. He is a great listener, listening to details carefully, with much respect, and most importantly, out of his real curiosity. One time when I asked him, “Why are you doing essay counseling?” he told me because he just loves to hear stories and know people deeply. His genuine curiosity definitely distinguishes his counseling from others. By this way, I was able to look into my heart and strengthen my uniqueness.
Bryan is not only a great listener, he also gives well-reasoned critiques. While I wanted to embrace my ideas, I was not sure if they were acceptable in a business school application. Bryan’s more than 10 years counseling experience and clear feedback got rid of my anxiety. When I was still struggling to change minor things to make my essay “perfect,” he advised me, “The time you spend re-writing things that are already strong is time taken away from more important things.” This advice rescued me from never-ending editing.
As a result, I was able to gain the toughest scholarship and business school admission. Thank you, Bryan!
(also accepted to Stanford GSB and Columbia)
I had heard of Bryan from a past year’s candidate. The person was not a client of Bryan but apparently had heard good things about him. So I found Bryan on the internet and scheduled the free Skype consultation. The 30 minute conversation left a positive impression and I decided to go with Bryan. As such, I never tried out anybody else and I have no way of comparing Bryan with others, but all I can say is that the decision was the right one for me. Here are some reasons why.
1. Experience
Bryan is experienced in this rather complex engagement known as the MBA admissions process. I had no clue. I did not know the rules of the game. There seemed to be numerous landmines in the process and I was not about to start wandering around without clear guidance. Bryan helped me weave through the landmines I needed to avoid in essays and interviews with his vast amount of experience and resources.
2. Background
Bryan has a unique background in being a successful journalist, and I think that is one of his major strengths. In the essays, I believe the ideas, the experiences, and the style, all of it has to come from you, the candidate. There is no other source but you, and I think that is the only way you can genuinely construct a compelling argument to the readers in the admissions office. Whenever I talked to Bryan over Skype, he always asked the right questions that made me think and go deeper. He did not shove his opinion in my face but rather tried to pull everything out of me so that I could write from the best experiences I had in me to answer the question. I think these traits are derived from his background as an accomplished journalist.
3. Personality
I enjoyed working with Bryan. We met over Skype mostly after my working hours. Yes, essays and interview preparations are serious business, but this is a one-to-one interaction and I am a laid-back kind of person. After a long day of work, I was not about to spend close to an hour of my day with a person I did not get along with. Bryan is a nice guy and I liked his dry sense of humor.
Thank you, Bryan, for all of your support! It was a pleasure working with you and I wish the best of luck!
“Congratulations on being admitted to the Tepper School of Business, and we are also delighted to inform you that you have been selected as a recipient of an MBA Merit Scholarship” After seeing this message in my Gmail inbox, I literally jumped out of my chair, and danced like a football player who just scored a touchdown. Finally I got it!
I am a re-applicant, and trust me, it is painful to go through the whole admissions process the second time. Double the work, double the pressure, and double the doubt. Earlier this year, I thought I had put together 3 fairly solid applications, but was waitlisted by two top programs, one in California and one in France. Being on the waitlist felt like losing at the Super Bowl. I was dejected and disappointed, and didn’t know how to channel the frustration. On top of that, I received the news in February, which in my city means weeks of cloudy weather and rain!
Enter Bryan for the rescue. In the corporate world, there are Turnaround CEOs; in the MBA admissions consulting world, there are Turnaround Consultants, like Bryan.
I found Bryan through his website, which I had used previously for formulating my essays. When I spoke with Bryan, I immediately jived with him – unpretentious, funny, and yet incredibly insightful. He recognized the critical gaps in my applications, and made actionable suggestions on what I can do while being waitlisted.
After only one meeting, I knew I wanted to work with Bryan, and went for the full service package. I told myself: “This time, I am going all in like the Allies landing on Normandy, and Bryan is who I want to have on board with me.” Looking back, this was one of the best decisions I made in the past year.
When he said being flexible, Bryan really meant it. We took a two pronged approach by working on my waitlist letters, as well as new applications for this Fall. He even hosted me to a nice brunch when I went down to California to visit one of the waitlisted schools. Ultimately, it didn’t work out with those two schools, and Bryan then consoled me “No worries. Let’s focus on the next steps.”
Like how Ira Glass (One of the most renowned US public radio personalities) would interview someone for an episode of “This American Life”, Bryan patiently drew out the unique points in my profile that I had never realized through our weekly meetings. Then, he guided me through his time tested application preparation approach, which is to clearly articulate the career goal first, then find the schools that fit my goal, rather than the other way around. In addition, his personal style just made the process so much more enjoyable, that in the end I actually truly loved writing my essays. Finally, we submitted 5 apps in record time, thanks to his razor sharp editing skills. So far I am 1 for 1, with scholarship too. (Note: my client has now been invited for two more interviews.)
Looking back, the key differentiator this time is that Bryan helped me to find, refine, and focus on the things that truly mattered in this application process: my personal qualities, well thought out career goal, and fit with the schools, rather than on the superficial and blinding attributes such as rankings or statistics.
If you are applying or thinking of applying to business schools, do yourself a favour and work with Bryan. You will not only get the results you want, but I can guarantee that you will also develop as a person too.
With only a 640 on my GMAT, only Bryan could have led me to top schools like Wharton. The essence of Bryan’s counseling service is maximizing a client’s personality through a customized approach. Especially in developing essays and interview preparation, I can guarantee that you will find Bryan’s advantages.
Beyond Comparison
Most importantly in essays, telling your own story is mandatory to differentiate yourself and capture interests of Admissions Office. Bryan is professional in stretching client’s potential through his casual interviewing technique, and helping him/her express themselves attractively in writing. Whenever an essay seems flat he asks good questions that sharpens vague content to become vivid. From breaking down content to expanding the realm of your story, essays become very persuasive. His courteous counseling approach identifies story’s background information. He encourages easy-to-understand yet beautiful phrases based on his journalism experience, which adds depth and enthusiasm that leads to powerful essays.
Integrity
The key to successful interviews is good preparation and practice. His clients are ready to begin after a continuous process of developing essays through face-to-face and Skype discussions. Along with this strong foundation, his interview training program focuses on polishing exact responses through his “one sentence story approach,” adaptable for both basic and applied questions. The correspondence between essays and interview responses makes clients very confident in the real interview. Just before interview season, he held web conferences with his past successful clients that helped many of us learn more about schools. Consequently, my interview results, including schools other than Wharton, were successful with no denials.
Satisfaction
Respect, joy, and friendship with Bryan through the counseling process made my application packages incredibly competitive. If it had not been for Bryan, I would not have been successful and enjoyed this tough MBA application process. I strongly hope that all perspective applicants find a great counselor like him!
(also accepted to Ross, Anderson, Fuqua & Darden, all w/ scholarships)
I wasn’t too sure about working with a consultant at all. Looking back on my experience working with Bryan, the top 3 reasons for which I would recommend him to anyone considering working with a consultant are:
1. Great knowledge about the schools and their distinct application process: Right from our first talk, Bryan had a clear plan as to how I could make my application and personal story shine the most to the eyes of each of my candidate schools. He is very well informed about the distinctness behind every top school program. I thought I was at a disadvantage because most MBA applicants from my country come from a finance or consulting background. Bryan pointed out that my background and accomplishments in a different field would actually distinguish me.
2. Great care to make the most out of my (very limited) $$$: Bryan’s proposal was to work with the 3-session “Lighthouse” service in a way that we would cover as much ground as possible. Even though we couldn’t go through each of my applications, Bryan focused his advice on how I could take the stories we worked on and adapt them for the other applications that were left. I really felt he did his best to give me the most value out of my limited budget; as a matter of fact, I even later called him to work on an extra interview prep session which marked a before and after in my interview performance. I totally trusted Bryan by that point.
3. Just a Great guy: I really appreciate the fact that Bryan is so responsible (ALWAYS on time) and a pleasure to work with, but what really led me to fully trust him was that he would always give it straight to me, 100% bullsh%t-free, when giving me his opinion about my essays and interview answers. At the end of the day, I can only compare his level of honesty and commitment to my success to the ones your true friends have with you. This is something money can’t buy.
My most sincere piece of advice to all you reading this is to consider working with Bryan as an investment, just like you know business school is. I had a different background, less-than-stellar GPA and very little optimism at all about my chances at my dream school but from the first day Bryan told me all the material needed was there. I guess he was right. I don’t mean to sound cheesy, but Bryan truly made me believe in myself. That is the best ROI I’ve ever gotten out of an investment.
Now, off to Kellogg!
(also accepted to Kellogg)
Two years ago, I worked with another counselor and was rejected from every school I applied to. It was a painful experience. This year, I worked with Bryan and was accepted from some of the world’s top schools. Getting support from Bryan was one of the greatest reasons why I had positive results this year. I believe he distinguished himself in the following two ways:
– Professionalism: He dedicated himself to my success. He was a faithful partner during the whole application process and never gave up developing the best stories with me. He always attempts to understand you and dig out the best stories you have. I saw him as a reliable partner because he usually responded to my emails no later than half a day or so and did editing quickly and beautifully.
– Personality: Bryan is humble and even-tempered. He always gave me helpful suggestions but let me decide whether to accept the suggestions. He respected my ideas and decisions, and tried to extract the best story from my experience. I also felt easy interacting with him because he was always settled and cheered me up, even when I was pressed or upset. My former counselor’s approach was different. He tried to convince me to accept his suggestions and to gaudily decorate my experience. He easily revealed his emotions when he was dissatisfied or frustrated. It’s up to you what type of counselor to work with, but I personally preferred working with Bryan.
Last year I felt that applying was a frustrating process, but this time I really enjoyed the MBA application process and had great results. It was simply fun to work with a trustful and smart partner – Bryan. If you want to get the best results in applying to graduate schools, I wholeheartedly recommend you work with him.
I am so happy I had Bryan help me throughout the business school application process. The entire process was a great opportunity for self-reflection. I learned so much about myself I never realized before, and I would not have been able to do this without Bryan. He guided me every step of the way in thinking about my values, my experiences, and how I had grown over the course of my life and where I want to go. There were difficult periods when I felt worn out or started losing motivation, but Bryan always kept me on track. I also appreciated his honesty. When a draft was horrible, he told me so outright. But in a way, it showed that he believed I could do better. He had a way of allowing me to let out my thoughts through our conversations, and I would eventually write down the contents of our conversation onto paper. When my thoughts were scattered, he always knew how to reorganize my ideas so it flowed right and brought out the right message. Bryan also helped me pace myself. I had a tendency to get nervous about deadlines, but Bryan always suggested realistic schedules and helped me relax. His tips during the interview preparations were very specific and helpful, and it was fun having these mock interviews.
I looked forward to our regular Skype meetings. We were focused, but we would always be laughing over something, giving each other updates on our personal lives, or exchanging some running tips. By the end, I felt Bryan had become a good friend. I hope to keep in touch with him, and I cannot express in words how thankful I am for helping me get into business school, the next step in achieving my dreams and passions.
It was a pleasure working with Bryan. As a reapplicant, I wanted to ensure that this year I get into a b school of my choice. Being an Indian applicant, I was at a significant disadvantage in terms of cost due to currency conversion, but Bryan offered a flexible hourly working model which suited me extremely well. His critiques were very helpful and overall ensured that my writing was more effective. I could see a marked change in the quality of my essays, and hence also why I didn’t make it last year. His style of engagement was closer to that of being my friend than a paid consultant. He was extremely accessible and reverted at short notice. I am extremely thankful for Bryan’s inputs which have resulted in an admit at Tuck.
Free Consultation Call – The call was the best I have ever had with any admissions consultant, and I have spoken to more than I can imagine. Why do I say so? The key differentiation was Bryan’s caring and warm attitude which set a comfort zone between us right from the word go. Bryan has a different approach to the free consultation – he reads through your resume, and also your essays if you have them ready, and gives you overall feedback on a) your candidature in general, b) your essay themes, and c) asks you questions to determine what aspects you could improve upon. As I well know, free consultation calls seldom go beyond the usual resume screening, GMAT score, and a sales pitch on services and fees.
Detailed Review –
1. His edits were excellent – he ensured all word limits were met while not compromising any premises or themes
2. He is very ETHICAL – if he felt I was not writing or giving him the material that I should, he made it clear that he was not going to write it and that I need to do so. (before I lose my credibility, that happened only once and was more of a communication gap from my side than anything else. Anyone expecting to work with a consultant who will write for you, should probably take a reality check on their ethical standards. Shockingly, many Indian consultants do this for you – PLEASE do not fall for that trap!)
3. Fast turnarounds – very responsive in communication and always exceeded, if not met, proposed timelines
4. The best thing I liked about our engagement was his professional, yet personal touch. Very humourous person, writes to you as if you are a friend and not a client, and gives you a sense that he is truly aligned to your long term success than the short term one of just churning our good essays
5. Improvement: Honestly, nothing really. My engagement with him was very fulfilling. There was a small lapse one time, where the same sentence got repeated twice in the edit he sent back to me, but I wouldn’t hold it against him at all – that was the closest he came to decreasing my satisfaction level, if at all
Overall – HIGHLY RECOMMENDED – I am sure he will provide excellent value if you engage him full-fledged as a consultant and not just for editing.
I chose Bryan as my partner for this journey because of his reputed editing ability, past successful record, and recommendations from my senior colleagues. Throughout this process, I found three strengths beyond just his editing ability.
First of all, he has exceptional ability to ask good questions to dig out my stories. After several question and answer emails about my essay, my first draft was totally revolutionized. It became compelling and easy to understand with artful emphasis on my soft skills. It was like magic.
In addition, Bryan is a good coach. The tough pressure made me reveal my weaknesses. When I became too nervous and was depressed, he gave me warm words and encouragement. When I made an immature decision, he admonished me for my mistake. I was able to grow through this process.
Finally, I can rely on his professional judgement since Bryan knows the optimal point that balances quality and effort. At first, I felt that writing essays is an endless process. However, I learned it is better for me to move to other essay topics once an essay reached a certain level of quality. Changing topics inspired me to see other aspects of the former essays. In addition, by taking time, I was able to assimilate my stories and understand the meaning of them more deeply. You can tell whether your essay reached to such a quality if you simply ask him.
Without Bryan’s support, I would never have gotten through the long, tough path to where I am.
(accepted to Wharton w/ Full Scholarship + Fulbright Fellowship)
I decided to work with Bryan because it was clear at our first meeting he doesn’t just look at your profile and put your story in a template. He tries to see your values and empathizes with you, which, for me, was a crucial factor in deciding whom to work with as I would be disclosing a great deal about myself and my life.
As it turned out, Bryan wasn’t just open minded and understanding about my story. He gave it a structure and color through both his superb editing and inquisitive meetings. His deep insight into Fulbright program, which I believe comes from the fact that he himself was once a scholar, also helped me shape my ideas around the program’s expectation.
The MBA application process has very interesting dynamics. Despite many (rightly) focusing on test scores and career profiles, it is far from being just executional and administrative. It is about you understanding yourself and knowing how to present it to different audiences. I am very glad I could work with Bryan, whom I respect and trust, through the challenging process. I highly recommend anyone with their own stories and dreams to work with this great guy.
During my application process, I was not confident with my background at first, since I had not studied aboard, I majored in literature in university, and I worked at a restaurant right out of college and stayed there for several years before moving recently to the sales and promotion department of my company.
Bryan helped me, however, to understand how my achievements, which I had dedicated myself to but which I thought were small, would actually be deeply impressive to admission committees. Thanks to Bryan, I came to believe that I had the potential to succeed in the application process. As a result, I got admitted by my dream school, UCLA. It was all due to Bryan and his ability to dig below the surface and understand what truly matters to admission committees. Thank you so much!
I believe Bryan’s strengths lie on the (1) Never compromise his quality to every deliverable. (2) Strong commitment to the result
I tried MBA application twice, first time in 2013 and the second time in 2016, and asked for help from Bryan for both times. As I had personal issues in 2013 and did not get into ideal school at the 1st trial, I thought Bryan will not accept me as his client for the second time. Therefore, I looked for another counselors who are highly recommended on the internet in the second time.
However, I couldn’t find any counselor whom I can trust and count on because I simply cannot feel other counselors have strong commitment to their clients like Bryan does.
Bryan has almost 100% acceptance rate to the INSEAD and here is my personal opinion on why people should choose him.
(1) He never compromises his quality to every deliverable
People say Bryan could always amend essay within word limit beautifully. This is true but that is only one of his basic skills.
I think he is excel at his comprehension ability and at reorganizing skills, pushing the essay to the higher level.
He can always understand what clients want to tell him based on his long term counseling experiences even clients speaks poor English or speaking illogically. After he gets the elements to write, he starts editing and reorganize all the stories and send it to client for review. Everytime I see his edited version of essay, I was amazed. The story is vivid, concise, and easy to understand even for the Admission committee who do not understand my line of business.
In addition, his consulting/interviewing skills could make the normal essay to the personalized one. For example, when I was working on failure/achievement essay, my first draft was like a robot. Nothing interesting and appealing but I already worked on it for 2 weeks and it was the best that I could do. After reading the draft, Bryan asked me couple of questions about the contents and unexpectedly asked me “why did you join this project?” “how did you feel about this task?” These are the questions I never thought about before. The questions sounds so abrupt to me (so abrupt as “what did you have for breakfast”) but when I answered Bryan, he seemed very satisfied. By the time, I understood that he was amending the logical gap of my essay and making it more personalized in the end. He could lead the essay to the next level by his excellent interview skills to put the core idea of “Who you are” “Why you did this?” and “What is important to you“ into the essay. Therefore, every client is very satisfied with Bryan’s editing skills and even call it as a magic.
(2) He has strong commitment to the result.
I experienced many incidents while applying to INSEAD. Whatever happens, Bryan never turn his back on his clients.
First incident was that I could not get the minimum TOEFL score, 105. After I finally got the score, there were already Round 3 for January starting class. So I decided to apply September starting class and requested to extend the counseling period for few more months. Bryan agreed with it and promised me he would help me till my application ends.
Second incident was that I was stuck in one essay and could not come out with a good example to demonstrate “who I am.” Bryan worked with me and edited the essay till the version 16. I never thought Bryan could give me kinds of inputs and brush my essay for so many times to deliver the best out of his clients.
Third incident was that when INSEAD admission committee asked me about my sharp drop of GMAT score. I was a little panic receiving that email and do not know how to reply. Bryan, on the other hand, was surprisingly calm. He first analyzed the intention of the admission committee and instructed me what to do next. Even his hands are full and traveling at that moment, he prioritized my requests, including counseling and reviewing emails so that I could communicate with Admission Committee promptly.
The last incident was that he offered me a extra interview session because he knows I am not perfectly ready for the interview yet and he simply wanted me to get INSEAD. Unfortunately, I missed to take his offer and in the end and I was put into Waitlist. However, like always, he got my back to fight to the very last minutes. He immediately analyzed what went wrong and planned a strategy to tell me what to do.
In the end, he guided me to go through ups and downs to get into INSEAD.
I could not done without your help. Thank you Bryan!
(interview training client)
I truly do not believe that I could have succeeded in the interview process without Bryan. Before we ever met, he spent considerable time reviewing my application. He immediately developed a view on my candidacy’s strengths and weaknesses. Over several sessions, Bryan helped me with my message, my body language, and my intonation. These were tangibles that made an enormous difference on game day. And frankly, they were elements of my interview prep that others overlooked. Bryan’s personality was both constructive and reassuring. I am so grateful for his help. I only wish we had connected earlier in the process.
Hi Bryan,
Just wanted to give you quick update.
I got admitted from MIT Sloan!!
I almost wanted to open a bottle of champagne immediately, but managed to stop myself and am heading for my office to bring this good news.
I’m 100% sure that I could not have attained this result without your support.
You always made me feel confident in myself, while providing me with lots of advice.
Actually, confidence is the biggest ruit I have gained through the application process.
Looking back over my career, personal life, and thinking about my career goals, I found many things I can be proud of.
That is obviously thanks to your great, personal services.
Thanks again!
It was very exciting and intriguing work to write essays with Bryan! At first, I tried to write them by myself but found myself at a loss on how to reflect my key events of my life, describe them and crystalize them into sentences. But Bryan helped me and sometimes pushed me to deeply reflect on my career and explore the key values behind each key behavior and actions which I took. Through many iterations and discussions with him, I saw my essays dramatically become crystal clear to deliver “who I am and what I value”. I would love to work with him again!
Hi, Bryan.
Just received the results from HBS. Yes!!!
Therefore, my destination will be Boston!
Bryan, thank you for all your support in bringing out the best out of me.
I re-read my first essay which I sent to you in May last year (it was awful!!), and I cannot believe how much deeper and stronger you helped me make my stories.
Your professional advice in making me change my plans and apply to HBS in 2nd round was also something I truly value.
I hope that someday I have a chance to meet you in person and buy you a drink!
Thank you again, for all your kind support.
I’m really excited.
I have no idea how to express my gratitude except just saying – Thank you so much! The pain that you took to understand my story, and not just look at me at a ‘client’, but as a ‘student’ with a real personality helped me put my best at TUCK. I had my story, but you gave me the structured index to put it together in a compelling way. You did not let time and distance come between as you replied patiently to my queries as well took extra pains to understand my background to help me forge a winning application.You were not a typical consultant, detached from my story, but sounding board of my most intimate thoughts and ideas and stories. If it hadn’t been for the probing questions you kept asking me in the drafts that I sent, over and over again, I wonder what my essays would have looked liked!
I owe you a big part of my success!
Thank you Bryan! May your tribe of successful candidates increase manifold! 😀
Applying to any business school can be stressful given not only the application requirements themselves but also the daily job requirements that can leave you little time to work on the applications. Bryan proved instrumental in helping me balance my day to day job requirements with my application requirements. In many ways, to me, Bryan was part psychiatrist, part advisor, part partner in the development of my applications. He helped me both stay on top of deadlines and refine my thoughts as I developed my essays. Beyond the application itself, Bryan helped me prepare for my interviews and was not afraid to call me out when I sounded immature or arrogant. More than that, he actually built up my confidence to make me believe I was qualified to get into a good business school, which luckily for me, turned out to be HBS. Regardless of which business school you want to go to, Bryan will be honest at all times with you and help you aspire to achieving that goal. I highly recommend you use Bryan when preparing your application. I promise you will not be disappointed.
(also accepted to Wharton Lauder)
There are three reasons I particularly liked working with Bryan: (1) He exactly knows what bars you need to meet to get admitted. He always gave me very honest but helpful advice, and never compromised. It was sometimes painful to receive his feedback and re-write my essays (good medicine tastes bitter…), but I was really satisfied with the quality of essays I developed with his help. (2) His edit of your essays is like magic. Even when you write your essays twice as long as the word limit, he will change it into the essay within the word limit, with much sharper sentences while keeping your voice and storyline. I am sure you will be impressed the first time you see his magic. (3) If you live in Asia and are looking for efficient ways to develop your essays, he is the person to go to. If you send your essays by the end of your day, you can get his feedback when you wake up (and he is always (always!) responsive). I started writing essays in November, and was very worried whether I could finish writing the essays for three schools. It was very efficient to work with Bryan and I managed to write all my essays with highly satisfactory quality. I don’t know how I could have made this happen without him.
On a final note – it is such a great experience to develop essays and have interview practice with him – I had many great moments of reflecting on myself and learned a lot during the process. I highly recommend him for your counselor.
Without Bryan, I would not have been admitted to the Stanford MSx Program, which was my dream school.
Several MBA holders recommended I apply for Bryan’s service when I looked for my counselor last April. Bryan and I talked via Skype to get to know each other in a trial consultation. I felt that his attitude was quite collaborative and he was not someone to force his opinion on his clients. Rather, his mind is to work together and share ideas to achieve the best outcome. Soon after that I decided to apply for his service.
My decision was correct. He replied to my mail very quickly even though he was busy and he edited my draft essays very quickly as well. When he could not do his tasks within one day, he always clarified the timeline by when he would do so. In addition, the quality of his edits was excellent, due to his background in journalism.
The Stanford MSx essays were especially tough, because their questions were quite simple and they did not put any word limitation on them. We discussed as many times as we could until we came up with suitable episodes for each. With each edit, the essays became stronger and stronger. Finally, 5 days before deadline, our essays for Stanford were made and I was satisfied with them. However, the next day, Bryan suggested that he try to edit once more and asked me to choose which one I preferred. I was surprised by the responsibility he took for his work and thought that he was truly professional.
Thanks to his work, I was invited to the interview of not only Stanford MSx but also to almost all the schools I applied to. Including interview training, I strongly recommend his service!! Thank you, Bryan! You made my dream come true!
With a career spanning over twenty years, I had many stories that I could have told in my essays. But I was not sure which episodes or achievements would be most appealing to school admissions. With his seasoned background as a business reporter at the Financial Times, Bryan was excellent in asking me acute questions to help me identify the best stories that made me different from other applicants.
His other extreme strength is his strong commitment to his clients. He was always really quick in responding to my requests. This was tremendously helpful when I wanted to make last minute changes before submitting applications.
Without his appropriate support and advice provided in a timely manner, I would not have completed such appealing essays for my applications, and probably could not have matriculated to the Chicago Booth Executive MBA program.
The best consultant brings out your best. And I’m sure Bryan will be your best consultant. As I worked with Bryan for 2 months, I realized I could not succeed without Bryan’s support.
He can guide you to choose the right school. Test score is not everything. He looks into your academic background, work experience, personality, family background and so on. I was trying to apply to 2 year full-time programs at the beginning. But after having a free consultation with Bryan, following his advice, I surveyed the Sloan programs and realized these programs were more of a fit for me. I was successfully admitted by both MIT Sloan and Stanford Sloan within 2 months. Without working with him, I would probably still be struggling with other schools’ applications and would not have been accepted by TOP schools.
He is also acquainted with each school’s preference, and deeply understands each essay question: the exact purpose and meaning of the question. With his advice, I could precisely answer each question and correctly express my strengths and weaknesses.
He is generous and he respects your opinion. He gives the right advice or awareness-raising questions to let you re-think or think deeper by yourself. Working with Bryan, I knew myself much deeper than before and become confident with myself. He is not just an MBA consultant any more. He guides you build thorough self-awareness, and this awareness leads you to reach your goal.
His service includes everything. Not only the essays, every online application and the interview training are also included. No matter how many times you re-write your essays, how many hours you had the training, how small the matters are, you can bother him anytime you need. You can work with him to your heart’s content. I even asked him to review my daily emails sent to schools.
Many many thanks to you, Bryan!!