EssaySnark offers a helpful service called the Sanity Check Pre-Submit Evaluation. Just as it sounds, this allows you to get an unbiased opinion on whether your MBA application is truly ready to go — we look at it from the perspective of the adcom and give you our opinion on your chances of getting an interview invite.
Here’s a happy email we received recently from who did exactly that:
Hi Essay Snark,
I used the Sanity Check service you offered, which I believe helped me pitch myself successfully to the adcom.
Wanted to let you know I got the call from [top school adcom]. I’m pretty happy, since [school] is absolutely my first choice. Now to keep the news contained for 8 more months…
Thank you for the free blog entries – those were practically my only guidance through the application process, and helped me a lot. Some of my friends are considering b-school, and I will definitely recommend them to at least subscribe to your blog.
Many thanks,
[Brave Supplicant]
So that’s a pretty major success story. We’re always thrilled to hear about motivated BSers who leverage the blahg in this way – congratulations, Soon-To-Be-Bschool-Student!!
Of course, we often have to tell BSers that their pitch won’t make it. Many Sanity Check reviews result in a Sorry Charlie not gonna fly reaction from us. However, wouldn’t you rather want to know that now, before you plunk down your $250 on the app fee and stress out for three months, only to get rejected for real? We have never been wrong when we’ve said that the BSer wasn’t going to make it in. We’ve also never been wrong when we’ve issued a glowing “yes” endorsement to a BSer, as we did for the one quoted above. There’s definitely a middle ground where we sometimes have to say “likely to get an interview invite” and then it doesn’t pan out for the candidate, but those are pretty rare. Usually we can be more definitive, and we’ve got a very good track record of accurate predictions.
If you go through the Sanity Check, you’re going to get a sense of where you stand. It’s as close to a guarantee as you can get before actually submitting and going through the entire process.
If you decide to do this, then you need to do it SOON. Yes, we offer these right up to the last minute of school deadlines, but we’re in Round 2 now — what if we come back with a Sorry Charlie answer for you? If you wait till two days before deadline then you won’t have time to regroup and rework your pitch.
The Sanity Check is now a substitute for the full Essay Decimator process but it is a very helpful (and less expensive) tool to let you know if you’re in a good position with what you’ve put together. You will get only a top-line take on each essay and if it’s in good shape or not, but the comments offered are unlikely to be enough to actually help you fix any issues that are identified. You should do the Sanity Check at least one week before deadline though obviously, earlier would be better.
And if you go for the Sanity Check, we hope you’ll come back later and report to us how it goes!
Fingers crossed for you, Brave Supplicant!
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