EssaySnark

This is a little effed up.

by EssaySnark 15 Comments

Here’s a story.

About a year and a half ago, in June 2012, EssaySnark was contacted by a certain Brave Supplicant. He said he was applying to bschool, and that a friend of his who we’d helped the prior year had recommended us. We’re always eager to help buddies of our previous success stories and we engaged in a dialog with this BSer person. Originally he claimed that he wanted to pay for some services, but that never materialized. No problem, we’re fine with helping the DIYer, it’s part of our mission. We went back and forth via email a few times and then he submitted some essays for a freebie review. We read those and offered some comments on them via Twitter:

Yeah, those were pretty sweet remarks, weren’t they? We figured he was going to be in good shape – despite the fact that he was quite a bit older than average at the top schools. We also tweeted this about this guy:


But he was (and still is, we’d imagine 😀 ) an underrepresented minority, with decent stats in terms of GPA and GMAT. The schools tend to fight over those underrepresented types; as unfair as it may be, when you’re coming from certain demographics, you don’t have to be a superstar candidate to break in. He had a bschool-ready background, with some entrepreneurial experience. And he did a good job on his goals essay. This is the kind of profile that a school like Booth or MIT should snap up.

Or Wharton.

Yup, Wharton is where he ended up. Kudos to him! Admitted to several schools, and he accepted the Wharton offer. A fine accomplishment for anyone. We even gave him a free subscription to the blahg as a congrats; we toss those out from time to time to friendly BSers who wander around these parts. And he was nice enough to be sending some other BSers our direction; a couple people contacted us in early 2013 saying that he’d been talking us up. And he had put a link to our little blahg on his blog. ‘Cuz it seems that all BSers have an I’m-applying-to-business-school blog these days. We appreciated that he did that, the link thing; a small gesture. Cool, and congrats.

Then a few months ago, this past August, we discovered that this former BSer had started offering MBA consulting services.

Let’s say that again:

A former BSer, now matriculating at Wharton, who just a year prior had been seeking our help, had converted his I’m-applying-to-bschool blog to an admissions consulting service.

In fact, he’d copied our pricing, and some of our language, and positioning, and all that jazz. Whatever.

Now, we have no problem with competition. Sure, we were a little miffed by the blatant and unimaginative copying, but so be it. That’s life in the big city.

It’s incredibly easy for someone to hang up a shingle and call themselves an expert in this business. Given the lack of transparency – how do you know if what they’re saying is legit? – an applicant just has to take their word for it. That they know what they’re doing and all that.

But we’ve issued some warnings to all of you BSers out there before, about what to look for in an admissions consultant – mostly, that you need someone who has had several YEARS of experience in this biz if you’re going to have half a chance of having some luck with them, that it takes time to build up the expertise to coach someone – that just getting into a good school does not make someone an expert in advising others on how to get in…. yada yada yada.

At this point you may be wondering, “Where are you going with this, EssaySnark?”

The reason for today’s rant is this: A month or so ago we had a BSer with a very strong profile come to us saying that they had enlisted the services of this other “consultant” for their Round 1 strategy… and, uh, well. We went through the end product (two separate apps) that this BSer developed using the “strategy” apparently advised to them by this consultant… and can we just say that we were not impressed.

This BSer has a lot of potential – and a lot of risk. But everyone has risk. Their profile is of one who should find it relatively EASY to get into bschool. Yet this person clearly did not execute well. Not even a single interview invites in Rd 1. All of the mistakes we saw were completely avoidable. It was all about miffed-up strategy on the essays. Thankfully this BSer started early enough that they could redirect course for Rd 2.

To be fair, we honestly do not know how much input this other “consultant” had in the BSer’s apps. We have seen plenty of people who engage the bare-minimum of our services and then go on to shoot themselves in the foot with the actual execution (we also know of lots others who get one Profile Review from us and then go on to great success all on their own – or maybe with a strategy guide or two for help). We didn’t grill this BSer to find out what part of this failed strategy was his own idea and what was adopted from the “consultant”.

But with this level of #essayfail, to hear that the person started out talking with ANY consultant, and ended up with that? Well. That’s just an out-and-out shame, it is. Even if this “consultant” didn’t literally say “Talk about X in this essay, and use Y for that other thing” then no matter what, the BSer was not apprised of the risks and pitfalls that are so obviously evident in the profile. Those just simply weren’t accounted for at all. In fact, how the essays were written totally exacerbated the weaknesses, instead of working to overcome them.

We’re not scared of competition. Heck, we didn’t even say anything when this consultant-dude copied our pricing and website language stuff. We didn’t say anything when he took down the link he usedta have going from his blog to this here snark site – even though we’d given him free access to the blahg for a bunch o’ months, before we knew of his plans. No worries. We get it. We can deal.

But this made us p!ssed.

There are a LOT of lousy admissions consultants out there. Brave Supplicants come to us ALL THE TIME with evidence of said lousyness – horrible essays, a whole season’s worth of rejections, oodles of bad advice. Maybe we shouldn’t be singling this one “consultant” out like this. There’s plenty of crap available out there in the wild west.

But please.

Everyone.

Give it some thought.

Before you enlist the services of a “professional” – and before you decide you’re qualified to provide such services. In any capacity. Think things through.

Are you going to let your buddy rebuild the engine on your custom ’66 Stingray 427, just because he figured out how to jumpstart his mom’s Corolla?

And to the “consultant” (who claims to not be one) if you’re still around: This is not exactly the career path that you had mapped out for yourself in that career goals essay we read last year; now THAT looked impressive. No offense to other admissions consultants out there (ourselves included!), but you’re going to Wharton for this?

 
 
 
2015 Update: We’ve now had MULTIPLE candidates coming to us who’ve been REJECTED based on the advice of this person, and many claiming that he does not return emails quickly either when they’re in the throes of essays and deadlines. Be careful out there, pardner.

Here's what others have said about this:

  1. I am guessing this (redacted). I have known his blog for past year, and I wondered about exact same things as you said about his blog transformation.

    Wasn’t he the same guy who told some other guy to mooch from you some free services by asking (so-called) “nicely”?

    Reply

  2. Ugh, what gross behavior on that guy’s part. You’re a lot more restrained than I am, ES; I would have happily sent an arch email to Wharton with some comparison screenshots.

    Reply

    • @dudeascending, while we appreciate your indignation on our behalf 😀 we’re not quite sure what it would accomplish to contact Wharton. It’s not like he’s breaking any laws, and they’ve gotta be aware of what he’s doing anyway. We just feel bad for the guy who didn’t make it in to his favorite schools based on bunk advice.

      Reply

      • Ah, I was responding more to the idea of him copying your pricing and some of your positioning and language. I’m sure it’s not enough to constitute plagiarism (if he was smart enough to get into Wharton, he’s smart enough to “borrow creatively”), but it’s still gross to me!

        Reply

  3. I know who you are talking about. Even i was shocked to see him selling his services. He writes well, but advising on B-School admissions is different game altogether. They should probably change MBA admissions to script writing contest and the best one wins. Surely enough few people who do things as they write in essays (goals) but majority don’t.

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  4. I asked him a question about this post on his site in comments. Each time he didn’t allow it to be posted. I guess he didn’t like to be called out.

    Reply

    • If he wanted to comment over here, we’d be more than welcoming. We never delete (non-spam) comments (though it’s surely tempting to at times! 😉 ).

      Reply

      • Sure, no problem. You’re right that I “talked you up” to several “brave supplicants” because I had both heard and seen good things on your blog and I knew that your offering was legit. I also submitted an essay for a free promotion you ran to smoke test my goals essay a couple of months prior to submitting my apps and appreciated (and tweeted) your positive response. I never knew enough about your pricing to copy it because I never considered buying a package from you–not because I didn’t think it wouldn’t be worth it, but I felt like I had enough help. I had about 5 different friends–mostly from undergrad who had gotten into top 5 schools and they graciously beat up my essays until I got the hang of the formula enough to write subsequent essays with little to no help.

        I don’t really need to copy any one’s pricing because I’ve been pricing things on the internet for forever as I’ve had and/or worked for several internet businesses over about an 11 year span and I know what I am doing from lead generation to positioning and so forth. Everyone who knows online customer acquisition offers a “free bite” first. I also did not and do not need to copy any verbiage. I’ve been writing web copy and sales letters, again, for about 11 years. Everyone who knows online customer acquisition uses similar structures and tone to add pathos to their copy—reference anything Dan Kennedy or Cory Rudl ever wrote for themselves or while consulting Fortune 500 companies when they were first going online in the 90s. Neither of us invented it and I certainly was not introduced to it through your site.
        The truth of the matter is that MBA admissions is not nearly as cryptic as most consultants build it up to be. Schools are fairly straightforward about what they want to see. Some candidates are on the bubble with some good stuff but still either marginal or unusual profiles like I had–it is those candidates who consulting helps the most. Many others would have been accepted either way as long as they didn’t mess something up in a big way and even more will get dinged almost no matter what they say in their essays or apps.

        Regarding my Wharton acceptance, I actually had lunch with the person who gave me the thumbs up literally 6 weeks ago. I point blank asked “what made you select me?” The response I got was this: “Oh please, after we witnessed and discussed how you handled yourself in the group interview, it was pretty much a no brainer as long as we didn’t find some big problem with your profile.” So you see, my admission had little to do with your prediction as it was based largely on something that you never had the chance to observe–how well I interview and present in person. This is also why I’ve said both in my blog and to my clients that consultants can’t really tell you what is going to happen; they can only guess. They can tell you what your strengths and weaknesses are and help you put together a nice app but ultimately the people who really make the decision may ding you OR accept you depending on their own personal peeves and biases.

        I actually have several friends who are full time admissions consultants who I have actually met either by phone or in person. If you view my blog right now, you’ll actually see links/advertisements for two of them still live. I’ve also forwarded multiple people their way to spend money just as I have forwarded multiple people your way to spend money. One might think that would at least be worth a direct message asking “hey man, what gives?” before this blog blast, to talk about “effed up”.

        At any rate, I kept their links up and not yours because I simply do not know you; though that took nothing away from my respect for your work. In fact, whether you know it or not, I have sent multiple people your way while I was charging for my own services because those particular applicants had problems that I thought you might be the best person to help them fix. Whether they followed through in doing business with you is something that I will never know; it is also beside my point, but it is useful to know that I now have one less referral funnel to manage or worry about whether I am fairly spreading/distributing leads between the 2-3 consultants whose work I trust by sending people that I either don’t have time to help or think would be a better fit elsewhere.

        I began to offer admissions services not because I had been planning to do so or lurking around in an attempt to compete with full time consultants, but because after my acceptance at Wharton, MIT and Booth I literally became bombarded with requests from readers of my blog who had been inspired by my story and posts and asked me to review their essays. I reviewed a few essays for free and then stopped because I was a bit overwhelmed with how time consuming it was. I spend a great deal of time working on my clients’ essays and have consistently been complimented on how many of their essays have come together and/or transformed after my involvement. I have been writing for years and years and know how to help someone convey their ideas effectively. I also spend quite a bit of time in corporate sales and know how to help someone craft a message that sells them in the most positive light. The fact that a blog that I never really intended to be much more than my anonymous ramblings about applying to b-school has become so well read did not become so because I don’t know how to tell someone that what they are writing is not clear, not specific enough, doesn’t get the point across or what have you.

        Several months after that initial flood the requests were still rolling in despite my telling people that I wasn’t reviewing essays over and over. In fact, I had several people OFFERING to pay if I would just review their essays for them. Then I thought, “Hmmm; they have a point. There is obviously demand here; why not set up shop and work with people who are already a part of my following? I know as least as much as the people who grilled me to death on my essays (because unlike organic chemistry or cardiology, there are not 10,000 things that you need to know to help someone write effective admissions essays, hence they were able to help me after having gone through the rigorous process of writing and feedback themselves) and I saw a huge transformation in what I submitted to all schools that I applied to. Even if I had not gotten in, I would have known that it had more to do with schools not buying my profile; not because of bad essays.”

        When I did set up shop, began by validating and actually TESTING several price structures to see how the market responded before I settled on actual prices. Then, I set my final prices not based on yours (because again, I don’t even know what your menu of prices and never checked really), but based on the fact that 1) I did not intend to do this full time and 2) I had not been doing it as long as most consultants who charge $2500+ for a single school; thus, I felt any applicant who I worked with should get to pay a little less. In fact, my original prices were even lower than they are now (about half as low) but I was advised that they were TOO low, so I raised them to what they are now based on what I thought the time and work going into the essays would be worth and also with people in mind like the applicant who I just finished working with who had already blown $9,000 on an essay package before we ever talked who wished he had found my blog earlier.

        Then out of respect for my friends who are in this business, I have done zero outbound marketing—ZERO; and I stay off their turf 100%—which means no chatting on GMATClub, BeattheGMAT, etc. where they engage with applicants and hopefuls to grow businesses which are their families’ livelihoods. I only work with people who are a part of my own blog following—MY following; and I don’t owe that to anyone that is an admissions consultant. Only Poets and Quants can take any credit for that–initially, at least. Now most people find me through referrals and other ways.
        My clients come to me and put their trust in me because I was just in their shoes. That is what some people are looking for; just like others are looking for someone with 20 years of experience—it’s all market segmentation—something that I knew well and had mastered long before Wharton; not to mention that after reading a great number of my personal blogs, many feel like they know me and I appreciate, respect and honor that with putting hard work into assisting them. Some in this market just like working with someone who they feel like they know. I also work with them 1-on-1 don’t hand them off to staff members (where many have had bad experiences with a lot of much more expensive consultants) and I limit the number of people who I work with so that I can have the fair number of hours to put into each person’s essay set. I have not approached my part time consulting business very aggressively at all—and never intended to.
        I also have helped anyone who has gotten interviews prep for those interviews without charge because by that time we have worked together so much that I just want to help push them over the top if I can. I ENJOY helping these folks because I VIVIDLY remember feeling their exact pain and for frustration when I was applying. And for you to somehow factor yourself into that equation is just misguided. Had you reached out to me prior to this tirade/open attack, I could have easily told you this and anything else you that you cared to ask respectfully. In a way though, I’m glad that you did this. It has shown me a lot.

        Reply

    • I am overseas for the winter break right now and didn’t even see your comments until today. I apologize if you felt they were ignored in the interim. Fact is, I rarely have time to check my actual blog anyway. I’ve been planning to post for about 8 weeks and have yet to find the tie. If I were not sick and staying in my hotel today + working on essays for last minute clients I probably would not have bothered to even log in and look at comments for approval for at least another week. That being said, your posts are actually what brought me here, as I don’t really keep up with other people’s websites and don’t have the time or interest to be on tap with every thing that is posted about admissions like I did while applying. I did not publish your comments when I finally did see them today because A) they both had links and I almost never (if ever) allow links in posts on my blog’s comments because they are 99% spam and B) I just don’t like any negativity to be on my blog. I don’t want it to be a rant and argue fest like P&Q; though I understand perfectly well why it serves that particular site to allow that kind of discourse and have nothing against it if that is a part of a given site’s appeal and culture. My blog just isn’t for that. It is for people who are looking for some commiseration on this process and perhaps a few helpful tips here and here. If people ask my opinion about admissions in comments, I answer them honestly. Most just leave comments or compliments on something they’ve read. If I see a link, however, I hit the “delete” button almost automatically. If you had not posted twice, I would not have even known about this web page because I deleted the first one so fast thinking it was a spam link (like about 50 others that I was reviewing in a batch) that I never saw the link; it just caught my eye that I got two identical messages from the same username, which caused me to pause.

      Reply

  5. ES,

    I know who you are referring too. I followed his journey to b-school on his blog last year. He was something of an inspiration to me because I am, like him, an older applicant. I was particularly stoked to hear of his success with the 3 top schools. I discovered you, ES, though his blog which makes these recent developments sad and even harder to fathom.

    Reply

    • Thanks for all the support people – but we don’t need this to be a gang-up-on-the-dude party. Our message is, as always, caveat emptor!

      @adi, it’s nice to know that you found us through him – so we owe the guy for that! We’re sure some others made their way here via that route, too. So we’re grateful. And karma has a way of working things out. 😉

      Reply

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