The Complete Essay Package
Identifying your best material to present in your MBA application is daunting.
Wrestling it into an effective form in your essays is even more overwhelming.
Isn’t it time you got some help?

EssaySnark’s suite of essay development tools helps you build your strategy
Leverage EssaySnark’s essay development tutorials and tools for a step-by-step tour through the process of developing great essays!
The Complete Essay Package is perfect for your first application – or for the most competitive school that you’re applying to. You’ll gain essay-writing skills that you can then apply to other applications that you build on your own.
The biggest advantage to The Complete Essay Package? You will know at every step of the way how good your material is.
This is the best way to gain the clearest view of your candidacy and a direct appreciation for your chances of admissions success.
What do you get?
The Complete Essay Package includes:
- One Comprehensive Profile Review (unless you've had one already)
- Three App Accelerators: Accomplishments & Achievements, Career Goals, and Essay Ideas & Outlines
- One SnarkStrategies essay guide
- One Essay Decimator two-stage essay critique -- up to four essays for one school -- each less than 10% overlimit
- 60-day subscription to included App Accelerators
- 60-day subscription to included Essay Decimator
- 60-day membership to the EssaySnark blahg
- Preferential review cycles*
- Access to My SnarkCenter private client portal where you can ask questions about strategy
Active Complete Essay Package subscribers also qualify for the deepest discounts on additional Essay Decimators for other schools. Check the Discounts page off the SnarkCenter menu to see what's available.
Perhaps the most valuable feature of all:
You’ll get priority turnaround on your submissions in the Complete Essay Package.
This lets you jump the queue and get your feedback sooner than other BSers in Snarkville!
How does it work?
Digging through your raw material to identify candidate examples, and learning how to present them in the most impactful and compelling way.
You’ll read some stuff; think about what you’ve read; do a gazillion brainstorming exercises; think some more; write notes; scribble them out; and finally, come up with some answers to specific questions that are posed for you.
Then, you’ll submit your content for review, wait for our feedback, take a deep breath when you see it, and start all over again. 🙂 Simple.
TERMS: Complete Essay Package
All components of the Complete Essay Package must be completed before the subscription goes inactive. The App Accelerators are "horizontal" - the material you develop can be used to build the foundation for any/all your applications, even those that you don't get input from EssaySnark on. The Essay Ideas and Essay Decimator must be used on the same school. You commit to the school you're using your Complete Essay Package on when you submit your Essay Ideas for review. The Complete Essay Package is non-transferable. No substitutions are allowed. If you already had a Comprehensive Profile Review then that service is deemed complete for the purposes of this package and no refunds, discounts, substitutions or other adjustments are available. If the Complete Essay Package is purchased as an upgrade, the subscription expiration is adjusted to be calculated from the purchase date of the initial qualifying service.Refunds
- Refunds are available for full-price purchases and upgrades only. We cannot provide refunds on a Complete Essay Package purchased through the service-based discount offer.
- You qualify for a partial refund in the timeframes noted below, provided that no outlines (Essay Ideas) or drafts (Essay Decimators) have been submitted for review. - If requested on or before 7 days of purchase, a refund of your purchase price less $650 is available.
- No refund is available after the subscription expires.
- If requested after 7 days of purchase but before the original subscription expiration (including any adjustment to account for upgrade term, per above), a refund of your purchase price less $800 is available.
TERMS: Essay Decimators
This service covers essays for one graduate program. Essays must be submitted within the subscription term which for different purchases is: The Standard Essay Decimator (standalone), the Harvard Essay Decimator, and the Essay Decimator included in the Complete Essay Package are a 60-day subscription. All Essay Decimators in the 4-School Set are 120 days from initial purchase; for upgrades, this is calculated from the date of original qualifying purchase. The Essay Decimator included in the Reapplicant Success Pack is 30 days. Single Shot Express term is 3 days.Feedback will be provided within 3 business days. If this Essay Decimator is part of the Complete Essay Package or 4-School Set, you will enjoy preferential turnaround. Speedy Review expedited turnaround may be available for an additional fee (typically $100).
Harvard Essay Decimator: Two rounds of review on one essay up to 1,000 words. If either submission exceeds 1,000 words, you must either cut it down before submitting, or you may purchase an extended review for $100 per every extra 250 words.
Standard Essay Decimator: Two rounds of review on up to four essays or short-answer responses for a single graduate program, within the length limits set by the school. Certain very limited exceptions where more than 4 answers will be reviewed are provided here. Extra essays for your program can be added on if needed. If a joint-degree application has one essay for both degrees, it is covered under one Essay Decimator; if a joint-degree application has different essays for each degree, then multiple Essay Decimators must be purchased. All essays must be submitted at once, one essay per file. We will not review multiple versions or different possible answers for the same question. Your application strategy must be your own. If the school has a "choose one of these questions" option, then that is one essay; we will not review alternate drafts for each topic, though you can switch to a different topic when you submit your revised drafts in the second round of review. Extra essays or answers submitted will not be reviewed. Each essay must be within 10% of the school's stated wordcount or for unlimited-length essay questions, up to 1,500 words combined across all files submitted. Any overlimit essay will not be reviewed without payment additional fee; those fees will be doubled if the length is misrepresented upon submission.
This purchase is non-transferable and an expired subscription cannot be reinstated without payment of an additional fee.
Refunds
For Essay Decimators purchased standalone, refunds are available provided no drafts have been submitted for review and the subscription is still active.- If requested within 24 hours of purchase, a full refund of the purchase price is available.
- If requested after 24 hours of purchase but before the subscription expires, a refund less $100 processing fee is available.
Feedback
All essay reviews are delivered in writing within three business days of submission (standard Essay Decimators) or one business day or sooner (Express Essay Decimators including Single Shot and Interview Express). No telephone or email support is available. First-draft feedback consists of marked-up drafts in Microsoft Word plus a separate non-printable PDF report covering each essay reviewed. Rechecks, for products that include them, are marked-up drafts only.We are providing content review services. We do not promise to correct every spelling error or grammar problem, though we will point out at least the first occurrence of such errors. It's up to you to make your essays perfect.
Reasonable follow-up or clarification questions will be entertained. Please use the Comments section on the essay feedback page in My SnarkCenter to submit your questions.
Ethics
EssaySnark takes ethics seriously. Your work must be your own. This includes how you handle suggestions you may receive as part of the review process. If we discover that you have inserted our commentary directly into your drafts, we reserve the right to cancel the engagement immediately with no possibility of refund, as that would be plagiarism. When we make suggestions and give advice, it is meant to spur your own thought processes. Don't steal our words, or anyone else's, for that matter.To protect our intellectual property, the written report you receive will be a locked PDF; no copying or printing permitted. Duplication or redistribution of any EssaySnark content is strictly prohibited. We don't blab your personal information all over the place, and we hope you'll please respect our IP in a similar fashion.
Rebate Opportunity: The Fine Print
This opportunity is offered on your FIRST Essay Decimator service only (unless explicitly excluded by the terms of purchase of your service). One opportunity to earn the reward per Brave Supplicant. If EssaySnark's first-draft critique that is returned to you indicates your submitted drafts qualify, you must choose between the two reward options while your original Essay Decimator subscription is active. Subscription expiration is displayed in the right column of My SnarkCenter. If you choose Cash Back you will receive the funds to your original form of payment within 14 days. If you choose Discount Coupon you will receive the coupon by email from Team EssaySnark issued during standard business hours. The coupon is non-transferable and has no cash value. It can be used only for the stated future purchase and only during the subscription term for your original qualifying purchase; sorry, the discount cannot be applied retroactively to past purchases. More information can be found on the Best Practices for MBA Essays page in My SnarkCenter, which you’ll gain access to upon purchasing.BONUS! Clean First Drafts Rebate Opportunity! ! The Complete Essay Package includes a chance to earn a $25 cash-back rebate or a $50 discount off a subsequent Essay Decimator purchase! All you need to do is submit high-quality first drafts that meet the Best Practices laid out for you in My SnarkCenter after you sign up.
Go from raw material to polished pitch in the most effective manner possible with the Complete Essay Package.
Here’s a question we received on the Complete Essay Package:
I may need some help with generating ideas for the essays. Is the package more suitable for someone who already knows what to write and just needed feedback for minor improvements?
Ah, the innocence of a Brave Supplicant! Who thinks that everyone else has their act together with their essays and knows how to handle this massive project!
In other words: Nobody knows what to write. 🙂 That’s what the Complete Essay Package is for! To help you figure that out.
This is what we said to this earnest BSer:
The Complete Essay Package is a process for discovering your best material. There are tutorials for: 1) Career Goals, 2) Accomplishments & Achievements, 3) Essay Ideas. These tutorials include exercises to help you with brainstorming. Then you will submit your material for review and feedback privately from Essay Snark. You also get one Essay Guide included in the Complete Essay Package. The Essay Guide includes specific information on the essays for that school. The Complete Essay Package is designed for people who are starting out on their first application who have never done it before. It can also be used by anyone who wants to start over to develop a new strategy (reapplicant etc.).
The Complete Essay Package will help you go from literally nothing, to your first set of essays done! You are the one who will need to do the heavy lifting but you’ll get step by step guidance on how to go about it.
More questions? View the FAQ on App Accelerators and Essay Reviews
Hear what others say about The Complete Essay Package
This was posted in a comment on the blahg on 8/18/13:
I can attest to the value of the complete essay package in getting your story straight. Having reached the end of draft 1 with School #1 using the service, I have found that School #2 and #3 have been a little less stressful (one of which is HBS). I firmly believe that I have saved a significant amount of time by using Snark to critique my first attempts (I’m riding solo, with the Snark strategy guide, for the others).
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I'm extremely happy with everything you've done for me and only wish I'd switched consultants earlier!Â
I wanted to write this while my emotions are still raw, otherwise I would revert back to overthinking every word. So here goes.
You guys put me through the most stressful time in my life. I often found myself shouting at the top of my lungs at my computer screen. I have to say - sometimes, I resented Snarkville. And for all of that, I want to say THANK YOU. You helped me realize how misguided I was. You helped me find direction and purpose. I've grown tremendously from this process and I owe it all to you- seriously! Thanks again!!
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.Â
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.Â
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!
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.
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!
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.
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!!
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.
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.
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!