thank you

I thought you should know that your advice throughout my b-school process has been unparalleled. There's a reason I was nearly begging to work with you for my round two apps -- and that reason is all the more clear now that they're done. 

It's your ability to point out weaknesses, unclear arguments, ineffective selling points, annoying/cutsey writing that tries to stick out of the norm but comes off as unprofessional, and of course the qualities each particular school is looking for that might be lacking in an essay. It also might your more conservative, modest approach (probably a personality thing we share). Other consultants, especially the last couple I worked with, tend to tint my writing with a slight arrogance and philosophical meandering I'm not sure is effective in these essays. 

So anyway, keep up the good work! It must be satisfying to do what you do so well and see candidate after candidate realize their dream of getting into a top school. And you get the results of your work only three months later!

Great to have an insightful guide along the way

I decided to go with EssaySnark after reading their blog for half a year before application. In retrospect, it was a smart decision, especially when you decide to DIY your application. EssaySnark is not like normal consultants, if you tend to trust yourself and would like to do all the heavy workload, EssaySnark is the perfect guide.
The comprehensive profile review is the perfect starting point of my application. I have an general idea of my position, strength & weakness. Moreover, EssaySnark helped me to make a critical decision: Don't redo my GMAT but do the TOEFL test. I was going to apply with my IELTS but in retrospect, I think TOEFL is the right choice. My IELTS result was good but not strong enough, the TOEFL result gave me a secure position in language proficiency. Without the profile review, I would never have known to do this.
The app accelerators help to build solid foundations to my app. It is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, even if you don't go with the package. It takes time and effort to think through career goals, achievements and EssaySnark pointed me at the right direction along the way.
Essay writing and review was the most painful but without it, my essays would certainly look different...
If you are not sure whether to start with the package, just go with the profile review first. It's worthwhile.

Painful, but beneficial

I purchased the Essay Decimator after the comprehensive profile review. I was very impressed with that deliverable and thought that working with this consultant would help me get my essays where they needed to be, quickly. I was right on the essay improvement piece, but wrong on the timeline.

In the profile review, the consultant gives you their personal opinions and advice. In the review cycles for the essay decimator, the concrete suggestions are replaced with questions and poking a lot of holes but not filling them in with anything else. This is in the interest of ethics, but for someone like me who has a tendency to over analyze things, the consultant's questions would throw me for a loop and make me completely re-think everything about the very core of my existence. I am exaggerating, but my overthinking meant that each step of the process took a long time for me to complete. Then, when I got to the essay stage, very little of the prior accelerator deliverables were directly usable in the essays. I had to change directions on one of my essays multiple times, due to hearing that the topic was off, but due to the nature of the service I couldn't call to bounce ideas off of anyone and was left to my own devices to try and see what else would work. The final draft I submitted to the school for one essay wasn't even reviewed at all because I had run out of review cycles and didn't want to spend any more money on this service.

Overall, my essays did come out better than they would have without the service, but it caused me a lot of heartache along the way. I went in with my eyes open, and thought I knew what to expect, but still was surprised with how frustrating and painful the process really was. It's not that the consultant is mean, on the contrary they are very respectful. I wanted honesty, but didn't realize that honesty would translate into a lot of work and come with very few concrete suggestions or new ideas. I think the structure of the service just wasn't a good fit for my personality. I found myself craving more personal interaction, and looking back would have done better with a different type of service.

Sorry for the long review but I had only read glowing reviews on the site before I purchased and perhaps this will help someone with a personality like mine think twice. There are many consultants to choose from, you may want to take the time to discover whose style is the best fit for your personality.

On a final positive note, it does seem that the consultant really knows their stuff. You will likely not find the process fun, but you will get better essays -- the whole point of the service! So from that perspective, I definitely got the bang for my buck as the consultant's feedback resulted in me drastically improving my drafts. Many of their suggestions, such as working on a particular school first, helped me complete future applications much faster and easier. The first one, however, was a doozy!

If you're looking for someone who can "teach you how to fish" and you want to learn "how to write business school essays" - this is the service for you! But you need to be prepared to get upset and put in a LOT of work. Good luck!

Framework for success

When I first started my Bschool application journey, I spoke to a lot of admissions consultants and was terribly disappointed by the contradicting messages I was getting. Some were eager to talk up my strengths and sugarcoat my profile evaluation in order to get my business, while others said I should only apply to schools in the 25-50 ranking range. Some said I was too old (I'm 28) and my goals were too off, while others said it was the right time and my goals made perfect sense. So I decided not to go with any of them, and instead do everything on my own. By the time I stumbled into Snarkville, I had already chosen my schools, done the research, decided on my goals and selected my stories. I was well on my way to writing essays. Or so I thought - until I started reading the blahg and unearthing valuable information that revealed how off-target I was with my strategy. I realized that maybe I could use some help. Best self-doubting moment ever!

The complete essay package methodically takes you through a series of exercises before getting you to the task of essay-writing. And before you know it, you will have generated all the content you'll ever need (and more) for all your essays! The best part is that you get guidance from the 'Snark throughout, pushing you to think clearly about what you are trying to convey, calling out weak stories, unachievable goals and unsound logic. ES is not your hand-holding sugarcoating type, but a straight-talking, reality-inducing, tough love-giver, who is truly invested in your success.

So, each time you read your feedback from EssaySnark, punch the air and shout out "Yes! I am one step closer to putting together an amazing application!". It will help you reframe your emotional reaction to the feedback and quickly move past to implementing the changes. ES will go above and beyond to help if you pay attention to the feedback, do your homework and remember to be nice. Especially if you remember that last part, you will have won yourself an ally who will cheer for you all along your bschool journey. To me, that has been an incredible source of encouragement and has taken away a lot of the stress and anxiety from my application process.

P.S: I used the complete essay package for only my first school. I was able to easily use the same frameworks I had learned through the package to build my other applications.

The best and most worthwhile investment

I will forever be recommending essaysnark to anyone who is serious about applying to business school and in need of some guidance. Their essay-editing, insight into the admissions process and genuine advice will absolutely improve a person’s application if they are willing to put in the effort. All of the services that I’ve purchased through this site have been worthwhile investments and are incredibly reasonably priced considering the depth of feedback that you are given. I’ve purchased the comprehensive profile review, complete essay package and several other services, all of which have improved my candidacy in some measurable respect. Essaysnark has really tried to understand my goals and background, and has helped me to build an application that I know is the best presentation of myself. They don’t sugar coat anything and push you to be a better writer and a better ‘thinker’ throughout the essay writing process. At times, it’s frustrating because they don’t just supply you with answers but that’s the reason that their services are superior to any other consultants. They challenge you to come up with your own answers and as a result, your essays are more thought provoking, clear and genuine. I am confident that the essays I have in hand now are far better than I would have written on my own and are an honest and interesting reflection on why I want to go to business school and why I am prepared to do so. I am excited to submit my applications and will owe a huge chunk of any acceptances I may receive to the advice essaysnark has given me.

Thank you!!

Real, honest feedback.

I bought the Complete Essay Package after getting a comprehensive profile review, and it was the best thing I have done so far to prepare for B-School. This is not for the faint of heart; they give incredibly candid feedback throughout the process. At the end, I had all the guidance I needed to put together a set of essays for my target school that I am truly proud of.

EssaySnark's system of building up from the basics of career goals and accomplishments gives you a great place to start from, and throughout the process they gave me feedback on things that were lacking that I never would have noticed.

I very strongly recommend this product to anyone who is truly serious about applying to a top school, especially if you are like me and know very few people who have gone through the process.

Highly Efficient, Great Value

EssaySnark’s Complete Essay Package provides a very efficient structure for building the foundation of your overall application. The included App Accelerators progressively guide you along the process of self-discovery that’s critical for any effective application, and the work you put in cumulates into a strong pitch to the admissions committee.

I’m glad I had faith in the process, as it can be frustrating when it feels like you’re burning up time when you’re not literally writing essays. However, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes percolating and distilling of ideas that really pays off when you actually start writing essays. It’s much more efficient to have crystallized your career goals and achievements beforehand, so you know what you’re going to say, and where to say it. This allows you to focus completely on how you’re going to say it, and minimizes rework. It’s also much smoother to transfer these core ideas from one school’s essays to the next after you’ve invested in building this framework.

I also found it incredibly valuable to have a professional and experienced third party perspective applied to my ideas and writing. When you’ve invested in your writing, it becomes hard to see how a member of the admissions committee might read into it, or if you’re saying something that’s confusing to someone who can’t read your mind. This can be somewhat mitigated by having someone you know review your drafts…but how good is your girlfriend at knowing what the admissions committee is looking for?

In terms of value, I was very satisfied. I saw it as paying an insurance premium to ensure that I optimized my application presentation, squeezing as much excellence out of my execution as possible. With respect to price, the Complete Essay Package is ~4x cheaper than the average for 1-school packages offered by other admissions consultants.

Super, Comprehensive help!

I have used the Snark's complete essay package, as well as multiple school guides - I would highly recommend both. This is the perfect place to get sharp, no-nonsense feedback on your essays and really take them to the next level.

a) The accelerators are a great way to get the basic thinking for the essay writing process down, and was helpful across all the schools I applied to. I believe crafting credible goals and choosing the correct stories to tell are a critical part of the process and the accelerators helped me tremendously in laying the framework.

b) On the essay decimators, their feedback was very specific and detailed, pointing out areas that I need to research more, simplify or explain better. It really helped take my essays from being generic and difficult to understand to specific and simple, well communicated

c) As part of the comprehensive package, they really were patient with the explanations about my background and where I wanted to go (which was a bit complex to explain). Very responsive to follow up queries. Its was an easy and fun process working with them.

Wish you guys the best. This is a great, innovative model for helping students in this (traumatic :P) process!

Invaluable!

As a re-applicant this year, I knew I wanted help with the process. I first reached out to EssaySnark two years ago for a Post-Mortem Analysis. Their feedback far exceeded my expectations, so I reached back out for essay help. I went through the Complete Essay Package, and I cannot recommend it highly enough!

The App Accelerators get you to focus on the most important parts of your essays – your goals and your accomplishments. Just being told to spend time focused solely on these two areas would have been valuable enough, but EssaySnark’s feedback brought both to a whole new level. I will mention that EssaySnark does not write anything for you. Rather, they point out the good, bad and ugly and provide enough information for you to work from. This may sound like a negative, but in fact it’s one of best aspects of working with EssaySnark. The time spent thinking introspectively brought out better ideas and ultimately made the essay writing process less stressful.

By the time it came to write my first draft, I knew what I needed to say and had the stories to back it up. EssaySnark provided detailed feedback all along the way, and was incredibly accommodating with any follow up questions I had. I can confidently say my first draft with EssaySnark blew away my final submission from two years ago. After two rounds of feedback and edits, my essays were better than I ever thought they could be and were ready for submission. I’ve also been able to leverage what I’ve learned through the Complete Essay Package in my other applications. I highly recommend both EssaySnark and this product, and will be working with EssaySnark more as I write the rest of my applications.

I haven't completely finished The Complete Essay Package yet but I'd like to recommend it to fellow BSers, because I already feel I have learned a tremendous amount and am much more comfortable writing these types of essays. In the beginning, I was very frustrated when I went through the first couple of app accelerators. I thought I had come up with good career goals and achievements, but EssaySnark was very blunt when giving me feedback. It wasn't what I wanted to hear but it was definitely what I NEEDED to hear. I've gotten a lot better since then. I just submitted the first essay draft and I'm looking forward to getting feedback from EssaySnark to further improve my stories.