We don’t do free pre-sales consultations.
We’re not interested in blowing smoke up your patootey about how awesome you are and yes you’re going to make it into Harvard just fine, don’t worry about that GMAT score.*
Heck, even after signing up for our MBA admissions consulting services, we don’t even get on the phone with you to “talk through” your ideas.
Instead, we give you a structured process where you get to learn stuff,
It’s the “teach you to fish” model, which is designed for those who are smart, and want to be independent, and not chained at the hip to a consultant for every decision they make through their app process. It also lets us keep our prices low, where everyone can sign up for just the level of support that they need, which can empower more people to try for their bschool dreams even if they don’t come from affluence and luxury.
But there’s another reason we have structured our consulting services this way.
It’s because every time you reach out with a question, you’re forced to think through what you’re literally asking.
You get to practice putting your thoughts down into words. You get to work on making your point concisely, and being specific about where you’re unclear.
It lets you practice these skills that you’re going to be using in your MBA apps.
Every time you pose a question to us, you have to put it in writing. You have to make sure you’re making sense, that you know what you’re saying. That process alone sometimes helps the answer to materialize in your brain — without ever submitting the question. It engages you in a new level of understanding of the material you’re working with, and the techniques that you’re learning.
Because writing a good MBA essay is at least as much about learning new techniques as it is in figuring out what story will be a good match for the prompt.
The keyword there of course is writing. By engaging in an all-written relationship here, it helps you to clarify your own thinking, and sharpen your abilities as a clear writer.
There’s one more ulterior motive behind this philosophy of consulting we’ve designed, and it is this:
Leadership is about making decisions in the face of confusion. It’s about navigating uncertainty, dealing with pressure, taking in all the available inputs and forming your own strategy. It is most definitely about becoming better equipped at dealing with ambiguity.
If you’re aiming for a top school like Harvard, where the case method is integral to all that they do, well, you’re not going to be able to call a friend. You’re not going to be able to go to someone else on the side for the answers. You’re going to have to learn to deal with the stress of being put on the spot, and perform even in the face of all of your doubts. All your imposter syndrome. All your difficult emotions that tell you you don’t know what you’re doing.
You’ll have to put in the time and effort figuring stuff out on your own, and in your study groups too where you’ll have peers to commiserate with, and support you (which we offer too with our collaboration partner
One reason that we stick to this online-only support format is because so much of your application success will be achieved through clear writing. This gets you the practice of getting your thinking down solid, so that you can easily articulate the ideas in your apps — there’s a method to all of the madness in the form of the constraints that we present to clients in this process!)
We want our clients to feel empowered, and our experience shows that learning to do it yourself is so gratifying. Sometimes when things feel overwhelming and confusing, all we need to do is to help you step back, with the gentle reminder: Trust yourself.
You’ve got what it takes to do this, Grasshopper.
Yes it’s work. Yes it’s hard. But you can do it.
We absolutely are here to support you. Got questions on feedback? Need help unpacking what we laid out in an essay review? We’ve got your back. You can submit questions in response to feedback privately in your SnarkCenter portal. We know how tough this can be, and are here as cheerleader and coach, and guide. We’ll tell you where things look good, and where they’re off, or not optimized, and point out that this is “telling” when you need to be “showing,” and referring you back to the tutorials and resources that walk through these skills.
Tackle that learning curve with us on your first app, and you’ll be in very good shape to tackle others on your own. Or enlist our help on four schools straight out of the gate, and we’ll be there by your side as you write write write, learn, reflect, start over, and write some more.
Questions are always welcome at any stage of our work together.
We’ve designed it so that even the process of asking questions will benefit your end product in the long run.
You may also be interested in:
- The hardest part of learning to write good essays (really recommend everyone tackling this project read that!)
- Essays are not a writing test. They’re a thinking test.
*If you want to REALLY know if you’ve got a shot at the schools you are aiming for: Our Comprehensive Profile Review will dig into the details and help you understand how you’re positioned in this process!!
Tell us what you think.