Admissions Gateway | MBA Admissions Consultants

I was in working in CPG and had applied once before with a top US consultant. I applied to 7 schools that year with their help and was dinged by all. I could not understand where I went wrong and the consultant’s team were not helpful in giving specific feedback. It was then that a friend, who had had a similar experience, referred me to Chimni. In our first meeting Chimni explained to me step by step how my application needed to be improved.

What really separates Chimni is his systematic and well thought out customized approach for each of his students. He has a deep understanding of what each of the top schools is looking for in a candidate and helps you to build your application highlighting strengths that a particular school is looking for.

He goes out of his way and puts in a lot of effort to perfect each aspect of your essay and is readily accessible. In fact at times he kept pushing me and following up whenever he found me slacking off with my application. These were some things that were really lacking with my earlier consultant and ultimately made a big difference towards the end.

In 2017 I got Admission into NYU Stern and wish I would have found Chimni and Admissions Gateway earlier.

I have a CPG background and was referred by a friend at Unilever. I joined Chimni because of his stellar track record. The best part of working with Chimni was the detailed planning for each component of the application process. He always pushed me to reflect and expand my view point of the content that I had put up in each of my application materials and write in the most impactful manner.

Chimni has deep expertise in the admissions process which reduces the time required to research schools. Further, I could easily tap into the AG alumni network to get school specific information to build content for each of my essays. Chimni helped me to position my application in the most differentiated manner and enabled me to beat the odds of admission, coming from an over-represented pool. It took me some extra time to develop a good first version of essays in R1 and Chimni helped me with ~13-14 revisions.

I remember getting on calls with Chimni every two hours on the last day of submission for Kellogg. We worked hard to come up with a version of essays that we were happy with at 1 AM in the morning to submit my application by 2:30 AM. Surprisingly, today, I am happily headed to Kellogg and still remember that last day when I was considering delaying my application to R2 and he came to my rescue! I would definitely recommend Chimni to all the future aspirants to gain admission to their dream school.

I was an early stage candidate (2+ years of work experience in the technology industry) and decided to take a crack at b-school. Initially I started with a US consultant but was not sure what value I was getting.

A student at Kellogg recommended reaching out to Chimni. When I spoke with him, his approach and expectations were what I were looking for. He suggested using the tips and working with my US consultant and also how to get more out of the engagement. However after the call I then did a lot of research and after talking to many students I gave up my $3500 deposit with the US firm and joined Chimni.

I applied to a mix of top-10 and top-5 schools. The resume building process was key as I learnt to look at things from a manager’s perspective and articulate the big picture. For the behavioral essays Chimni helped me identify and outline the examples, situations, challenges and courses of actions I wanted to depict. I also leveraged Admissions Gateway network and really dug deep into what I want from the school and what I can contribute.

I got admission to Darden – $65,920, Ross – $20,000, Cornell – $20,000 in R1. I then interviewed at Stanford and MIT and finally got into Booth with a $40,000 scholarship!

I find Chimni to be one of the very few counselors who are good at channeling their energies into doing their job well rather than trying to impress students with fancy branding and promises. He had an approach to everything including waitlists and negotiating scholarships! His commitment whether it was 1 a.m. or Sunday as if he were applying themselves.

I was looking for a consultant who could help me secure an admit to a top-5 US B-School and Rajdeep came highly recommended by friends who had made it to top US schools.

His approach is very structured and professional. We began with the resume and his way of looking at it from a strategic lens made my resume really strong. I had an operations background so I was earlier struggling with presenting the bigger picture. We finalized our schools, picking Wharton, Kellogg, Darden and Ross in Round 1.

Rajdeep’s approach of deep research on schools made my essays very relevant and specific to the schools. He was extremely patient despite multiple iterations, helping perfect the essays. The engagement went beyond what I had expected or imagined. He even helped me address the smaller details such as the short answers in the application.

I got 3 interview calls and zero rejects. He also helped in interview prep as I had a lot to improve in that area and all this led to my admission at Wharton.

I had a 710 GMAT, ok grades, from an ok university, and as such, didn’t really believe I had a shot at these schools. I got into every one of them. What David helped me realise was the uniqueness of my story post graduation, and although he will not wright anything for you, he will make you think deeply and push you to present yourself in the most authentic and positive light. I can’t describe the value he added to my application through his feedback and coaching. David knows his stuff, listen to him, and I have no doubt you will succeed. Thank you so much for your help David.

I worked closely with David and the consulting team in every step of the application process: deciding which business schools to apply, building application strategy for each school, writing CV and essays and editing and fine-tuning the application to make sure it was the best fit for each top-tier school and preparing for the interviews. Ivy team was there at every hour available for any consultation, question or hesitation that came along the long way, and the process (and results) would not have been the same without them. After receiving the amazing news from Harvard, Stanford and MIT David & the Ivy team were almost as excited as I was, as they were true partners for this long and challenging process.

I applied to Stanford, Wharton, Sloan, Kellogg with another leading consultant last year. This year I worked with Chimni as a senior manager in my previous company recommended him.

Right from resume consultation to helping with the interviews, I found Chimni’s suggestions helpful. Overall, his comprehensive understanding of the application process and of schools’ characteristics helped me best structure my life story and highlight the relevant areas of my experience and personality in my applications.

In my case what also stood out was Chimni’s extensive knowledge about the world of startups, given his numerous experiences with folks from similar background – which not only made it really easy to discuss the big picture with him but also made his guidance very crisp and to the point instead of a vague, directional input.

Further, whenever I found myself stuck in the application journey – he really contributed by helping me ask myself the right questions to better articulate my vision, given his in-depth understanding of the degree of clarity expected in the essays. Lastly but very importantly, I personally found it quite challenging to give applications time along with work-life, and Chimni’s numerous reminders and nudges definitely helped me stay on track for completion!

Two colleagues at HBS and college seniors recommended me to Rajdeep. Talking to Rajdeep felt like talking to a friendly, super-approachable advisor rather than talking to a strict professional consultant.

It started with the resume building process. Aware that there was a time-crunch, Rajdeep set up multiple appointments in short intervals to help me progress through this stage. At the end of 10 days, I felt proud that “I” was the person being described in the resume. It was a complete overhaul. Comparing the “Before Rajdeep” and “After Rajdeep” CVs made me realize how beautifully one’s credentials can be narrated in a concise yet impactful manner without exaggerating whatsoever.

In Round 1, I was applying to 3 schools (HBS, Darden and Kellogg). The toughest challenge was putting together my story in a compelling way. I knew that I had quite a few achievements and high hopes for the future; but was my story unique? I thought all my credentials looked good on a resume but could these (boring) stories be transformed into a good-read? While the guidance received on LORs and application forms was highly beneficial, the essay-writing episode is when I benefited the most from my interactions with Rajdeep.

During the essay stage, Rajdeep will give you recommendations to structure (and re-structure!) your essay, help you navigate through 10-15 iterations of (initially) drastic and (then) continuous improvements, assist you in prioritizing points and deep-diving within yourself to bringing out some crucial life-elements and values. At the end of it, the essay is still all about a 100%-authentic-YOU, but you’ll realize that it is far more enriching and informative for the person reading it, and Rajdeep’s experience will suitably align it to the requirements of the respective B-school.

When I got interview calls from all three schools, I knew that they did find my story unique and the admissions teams were indeed willing to learn more about me- and that’s when AG’s resources were useful once again. Apart from detailed tips and advice on what to do and what not to do in different types of interviews, Rajdeep helped set up mock interviews with alumni and students and this process helped improve my confidence significantly.

Finally, the results speak for themselves. HBS – Accepted with $108K scholarship. Overall, a great learning experience as well.

I joined Chimni because of his proven track record and as he showed confidence in my profile in the first couple of interactions. While working with Chimni 3 things really stood out for me:

Quality – His commitment to quality is brilliant. When an nth draft for Wharton essays seemed like a neat final draft to me, Rajdeep made me consistently improve it. As a result I ended up submitting, say an (n+5)th or (n+6)th draft. Same holds true for his attention to detail. For my Harvard essay, he kept working with me to iterate on versions of one sentence to figure out which one captured the sentiment in the most optimum fashion.

Structured approach – Being in the industry long and having had a great track record, Chimni has a very structured approach for all steps in the application lifecycle – right from resume to until interviews. For me, it reflected clearly right at the start, when the final draft of resume was out. Chimni made me think through each and every accomplishment in detail and put it across in the most articulate fashion. For interviews and TBDs as well, his structured approach came in handy – helped me work smarter rather than harder.

Research – One thing that I was told about Chimni by my friends was that he ensures that you work much harder on your applications than you’d have otherwise thought. To me, it reflected on the extensive research he makes you do for each and every point that you’d want to put in your essays. Until I was thorough with my research on every sentence in my essay, I found it hard for the same to make the cut to the final draft. At some times it did seem like extra work, it clearly wasn’t. One, it ensures that you make a perfectly well-informed statement, two, it saves you a lot of effort during the interview (and also the post-selection) process.

These points, along with Chimni’s approachability and straightforward feedback, make me recommend Chimni highly.

Working in Japan and Thailand, I decided to pursue my MBA to move from R&D to consulting. After talking to several consultants, I decided to go with Admissions Gateway as many of my friends gave great reviews of Chimni.

When I started with Chimni, I thought my resume was very good but then found out that there is a structured and different way of presenting things, beginning with the basic STAR format. I was forced to think a lot more deeply about why I was doing the work I was doing and what impact my work had on the organisation. The resume makeover was tiring but amazing.

After short listing schools, I devoted time networking with college students/alums. Chimni helped get in touch with 4-5 students from each college so that I could build in the key takeaways from our conversations into my essays. I got admitted to a good school with $40K but I was on cloud nine when I got the Kellogg admit call on Dec 14, on the way to a birthday party. So excited to be part of such a brilliantly talented and diverse community in Evanston. Almost 20 of my classmates worked with Chimni as well so I definitely recommend him!

I had applied in R1 on my own without success. I then reached out to Chimni for a ding analysis and to see how he could help me, as he had a track record of helping people from my college. He provided great insight on my resume and application and I decided to work with him for R2.

Chimni helped me revamp my resume to bring out the depth of my experience and the strategic importance of the work I did. This helped shape my stories for behavioral essays as well. Chimni also helped me connect with people at my target schools, and my research on schools and ability to articulate why I wanted to attend a school or what I could contribute improved. The interview prep was also great in terms of communication frameworks and specifics to be prepared. It was great working with Chimni and I gained admission to Booth.

I started my MBA application process with Rajdeep in June. To begin with, we worked on my resume. While working on the resume he would ask me questions which prompted me to think about my work in a strategic way. It helped my resume standout among a pool of competitive IT/tech applicants. My resume went through a complete transformation after we iterated it a few times.

When it came to my applications we worked on a couple of stories and polished it to near perfection. Again, here Chimni helped me in thinking through the scenario, asking “the hows” and “the whys” which made my stories unique. His process ensures that one shows impact in their application, which is really important. In the end I got invites from almost all schools I applied to, and received acceptances from Darden with full scholarship, Cornell and NYU Stern.

I was referred to Rajdeep by two of my friends at top B-schools. He had an immaculate track record and a reputation for working hard. I hit it off with him during the initial evaluation, so I decided to join him.

Besides my experience of 3 years in the corporate world, I had taken a shot at entrepreneurship. However, due to my experience in a non-traditional entrepreneurial venture, I was unclear on how to make my case. Rajdeep helped me focus my efforts on those aspects of my profile that truly mattered. He helped flesh out the strongest aspects from my profile and package them in the best possible form.

Rajdeep possesses superior knowledge of business schools as well as of the business world at large – that enables him to place a student’s profile in the context of the business world, thus making the application more focused. He also helps to fine-tune the candidate’s communication and interviewing skills. Working with Rajdeep not only helped me prepare a great application for an MBA, but it also helped me adopt crisp communication skills.

A friend at Harvard referred me to Chimni. After talking to Chimni, I felt he had a definite, logical perspective to each part of the application. I liked that and joined AG.

For every school’s application Chimni’s hard hitting, objective analysis of my ideas encouraged me to go deeper into introspection and clearly formulate robust fundamentals of my story. I think he instinctively brings this strong and relevant ability to the table which really stood out for me.

He was always connected with me throughout the process and was very involved in all the steps of my application. I greatly admire Chimni’s perseverance as he patiently guided me on my thoughts and approach which changed with every revision of my essays. I knew I can call him any time of the day/night to discuss my doubts and ideas. He was also kind enough to offer quality support for more than we had signed up for which I don’t think would have been possible while working with other consultants.

I had a GMAT score of 650 and was an early stage candidate. Rajdeep was frank about my chances of getting into an MBA program. He gave me realistic options after considering my profile. This pragmatic approach to the applications was the reason why I decided to work with him.

Rajdeep encouraged me to give the GMAT again and I improved to 690. He helped me portray work experience that showed substantial contributions and achievements, which I was able to use to draft up the essays. The inputs received while drafting the essays were invaluable and made each essay more insightful.

The help provided during the interview was also another point that stood out for me. Rajdeep helped me portray my best self to the interviewer by conducting mock interviews and identifying areas of improvement. I gained admission to Ross and a lot of credit goes to Rajdeep.

I had a “non-traditional” background with distance education undergrad and a masters in rural management.
I worked on long distance trains when I was 17 years old. I then entered the corporate sector about 6 years before applying for business schools. Add to this my sub-3.0 GPA, which made my chances of admission dicey.

Very few consultants truly believed that I could make it to a top-5 school, so I decided to work with Rajdeep as he thought I had a shot. Rajdeep helped me look at the larger picture, and introspect on the reasoning behind my decisions and also helped me paint a vivid picture of the hardships faced in a government work context as that truly brought out some differentiated characteristics.

He made me reach out to students at schools to understand the culture and career opportunities there and this helped me customize my applications to those schools and also made me comfortable in interview situations and talking about why I wanted to attend, my cultural fit, and the uniqueness and contributions I bring to class.

Given my 15-hour 6-day weeks, another very important aspect was managing my time and not rushing the applications as it takes multiple drafts. Rajdeep was always easily reachable and calm no matter the time left to the deadline. In the end I got into Wharton which was a great validation of the fact that people with non traditional backgrounds can also make it to the top b-schools.

I connected with Rajdeep after hearing rave reviews from a bunch of trusted friends and seniors from my undergrad. All of them had managed to get through top-15 B-schools around the globe, and more often than not, with hefty scholarships. Another thing that helped cement my decision to work with Rajdeep was his free 30-min Profile Evaluation. Having worked with a ton of people from my background, he was honest in giving me feedback about my strengths and weaknesses, and how I could best leverage my experience to write a compelling narrative.

Once we started working together, I was blown away by his structured approach to the application process, and as we progressively worked from the resume all the way to application essays, Rajdeep helped me tie my strongest personal and professional experiences in order to bring out my truest personality on paper. Despite his vast experience, Rajdeep was also always open to feedback. He also understood my disposition to procrastinate and constantly followed up with me on deliverables so that we adhered to mutually set deadlines.

To sum it up, working with Rajdeep made me understand myself better, boosted my confidence, and helped me tackle the MBA application process in the most efficient manner.

I gained admission to Chicago Booth with $$ scholarship. Initially, I was not planning on working with a consultant but I was strongly encouraged to do so by several students. I chose Chimni from Admissions Gateway as he had great experience of helping students to the top-10 b-schools.

Two things that really stood out in working with him
-Honest and blunt feedback on all work: This helped me get to a polished application much sooner – be it during resume reviews, goal setting, essay reviews
-Return time: When I had my deadlines closer, the time that he took to return my work, and spend time during the call was really good.

Chimni challenged my thought process – all resume bullets, or essay points were challenged. Each point was included only after a discussion that is driven by reason and logic. He always made me feel that I could do better, research more, write better, and respond to interview questions better. After the process, there was a satisfaction of putting my best foot forward. Looking back, it was a lot of preparation but was totally worth it. I had multiple admits and am attending Booth.

I heard excellent feedback from friends at Harvard and Wharton who had worked with Chimni.

I signed on with him after having spoken to several other international consultants. Though Rajdeep was not as reassuring about my chances (we were talking only the top-3 schools) as I would have liked in the initial call, I appreciated his candor and willingness to provide straight, honest feedback.

He stayed true to this trait throughout the application process – never diluting his opinion, never settling for anything less than a top-notch draft, and never giving up unless I did.

I remember when I really wanted to apply to this top-5 school in Round 1 but was severely behind on my essays, having had to take a few weeks off mid-process. Rajdeep agreed to resume work on my essays 2 days before the Round 1 deadline, that too in the busiest 3-day period packed with several schools’ deadlines. With a few hours to go, he gave me a blunt critique on my latest draft and suggested we defer to Round 2 so as not to compromise on quality. When I told him that I wanted to continue working on revisions up until the deadline, and only then decide on deferring, he not only agreed but also got on calls with me every couple of hours, until well past midnight, giving his go-ahead for submission only once he was satisfied with my drafts. I ended up winning a full-tuition scholarship from that school!

A friend who recommended him told me, “he will put his heart and soul into your application”. I can vouch for this– at all times, I felt that he put my applications at the centre of his priorities.

I always dreamt of joining Stanford. No other school mattered. I knew it was my objective years before I submitted. I contacted David, who already got few of my friends to top schools in the past. Since it was still early, David consulted me on my career moves and timeline. The advice was priceless. I followed his advice and we were in touch all along. David kept reinforcing my confidence and helping me when I had questions. When we started the application process, David knew already how he wanted things to look like. He was confident the whole way. When the amazing news arrived, David was happy as if he got to Stanford himself, but I also sensed he was not that surprised. It really felt he had a very clear plan and knew exactly how it would end up.

I must say that my experience is not unique. Few of my friends here also used Ivy and share the same experience. I truly recommend David and Ivy MBA Consulting for anyone who is aiming high!!

I was looking for a consultant who could help me secure an admit to a top-5 US B-School and Rajdeep came highly recommended by friends who had made it to top US schools.

His approach is very structured and professional. We began with the resume and his way of looking at it from a strategic lens made my resume really strong. I had an operations background so I was earlier struggling with presenting the bigger picture. We finalized our schools, picking Wharton, Kellogg, Darden and Ross in Round 1.

Rajdeep’s approach of deep research on schools made my essays very relevant and specific to the schools. He was extremely patient despite multiple iterations, helping perfect the essays. The engagement went beyond what I had expected or imagined. He even helped me address the smaller details such as the short answers in the application.

I got 3 interview calls and zero rejects. He also helped in interview prep as I had a lot to improve in that area and all this led to my admission at Wharton.

Hi, I am attending Booth and will be working in consulting full time. I was in the technology sector and had less than average work experience. With the goal of targeting the top-5 b-schools, I evaluated numerous consultants but the reason I chose to work with Rajdeep Chimni was that I felt he understood my background, my achievements and the challenges of being an international applicant. He was also recommended by a friend who got into Booth.

Chimni had a scientific approach to the entire process. He helped me hedge my risks by making me apply to 2 reach schools, 1 safe school, and 2 dream schools. This gave me both a safety net in the top-10 while trying for the top-5.

My first challenge was the resume as it was extremely technical and Rajdeep taught me how to present my accomplishments in the larger scheme of things and in a more strategic manner. The numerous iterations that we went through also helped me figure out the highlights of my story.

Apart from this Chimni helped me balance my work and applications even if it meant working late into the night or mostly over the weekends. He never compromised on quality. He stayed up until 1 am before a deadline and kept iterating drafts until the essays were good to submit.

Thanks to Chimni I got interview calls from 6 of the 7 schools with admits from 4 schools including MIT Sloan and Chicago Booth with $60,000 scholarship.

I decided to work with Rajdeep after very strong recommendations from college seniors and friends.

For me the challenge was presenting a coherent story due to multiple job switches and Rajdeep helped me tremendously with this. He understands the process really well. There was this time when I was really nervous about an interview and he was very patient during the mocks, helping me build my confidence. He was just there, available all of the time to address the smallest of my doubts even at 3 a.m. in the morning.

Rajdeep will not let anyone send in anything mediocre. I remember there was this essay that I wasn’t positioning well and he kept iterating and telling me how to take a different approach specific to that school.

He has been a great mentor throughout and it is because of him that I attended school of my choice-Tuck.

I worked with Rajdeep on my Masters in Management Application to London Business School. Despite applying very late in the process (4th Round) and tight deadlines, Rajdeep was phenomenal in helping me put together my essays and story. Rajdeep works harder than you and brings a lot of experience and understanding of different schools. During the process his work on my CV was phenomenal and I ended up using the same CV for my strategy consulting applications, successfully. I would strongly recommend him as a thought partner as you start your MBA / MiM journey.

A friend at Kellogg referred me to Rajdeep. He provided in-depth guidance on getting the personal story in the right shape for the various essays (Cornell and Booth). On many occasions, Rajdeep helped me identify what needed to be shown in the essays and what didn’t. He also helped me trim my responses to the interview questions and made them more crisp and direct.

As the essays required a lot of secondary research and guidance from alumni and current students, Rajdeep also helped me tap his vast network at the top schools to network and gain first hand insight on courses, clubs, experiential programs and culture.

Rajdeep is an excellent consultant and really works deeply with a client to get the best from them. He understands the market so well and gives such tailored advice. My resume looked completely different with his intervention. I highly recommend him to everyone

Rajdeep’s advice was extremely helpful for my MBA application. His input on my resume and school selection strategy helped me navigate the admissions process successfully. The fact that he is an MBA from a top US school helped polish my thinking towards the essays and recommendations and in creating a sell-able story. When my wife was applying to b-school two years later we took advice from Rajdeep again. His work rate and time spent fine tuning small details is phenomenal and it showed as both of us ended up at M7 schools!

This was my third year of applications. Over two years, all I could manage was few interviews. After talking to many consultants, I was confident that I had a good profile – 760 GMAT, Undergraduate degree from IIT and some of the best start-ups on my resume. However, I had struggled to connect the dots and present my candidacy in the best way.

After painful rejections, an MBA consultant pointed me toward Rajdeep Chimni. Chimni pointed out a few very important mistakes and tangible ways to improve the profile. He seemed logical and I could see a much better approach to tackle the process.

The process began by revamping the interview, and I could see a big difference. I believe that while my resume earlier was quite good, as confirmed by peers and other consultants, Rajdeep helped take it to another level. Most importantly, I saw a huge difference in the essays and how I projected my story by merging career goals and past background into one seamless and easy-to-understand narrative. Besides considerably improving my profile, Rajdeep helped my understand nuances of structured business writing and that has helped me in my career as well.

The result was that out of 10 schools I applied to, I got 7 interview calls – Kellogg, Booth, Tuck, MIT, UCLA, Ross, LBS, ISB – and got admits to 4 – MIT, LBS, Ross and UCLA. I will now be attending MIT Sloan – my dream school – and cannot thank Rajdeep and Admissions Gateway enough. Their true value is not in handholding applicants, but in shaping a mindset and developing a structured thought process that will help applicants throughout their careers.

I worked with Chimni when I was applying to 3 top schools in the US. He spent time to understand my background and experiences, helped me craft the most effective narrative that brought out my unique qualities, and further polish them so that my application really stood out in front of the admission committees. He also helped to very effectively navigate a profile weakness that I had. Would strongly recommend working with him.

Rajdeep has helped many people from Bain to the top schools so a friend referred me. I started in round 2 so I was late and had 1.5 months to apply to all my schools. Rajdeep took a lot of the stress I had regarding Bschool apps away from my shoulders, and I appreciated his involvement and dedication. He knew his stuff, that is, what schools are looking for and his advice was valuable. I felt relaxed and I could think and focus knowing that I had the right help. I gained admission to Wharton, Tuck and Ross.

Unlike other consultants who discouraged applying to most of the top b-schools, Chimni evaluated my dream school options and encouraged me to apply to a perfect mix of top and safe schools.

Chimni applied a very well-structured logic-based approach at each stage of the application process. Firstly he understood my goals and choice of schools at a personal level. He encouraged me to apply to schools that seemed fit to my kind of profile.

Secondly, his step by step approach to target one element of the application at a time helped me optimize my time, serving as an integral part of the strenuous application process. His inputs were very to-the-point, solution driven, and backed by strong logic, speaking highly of his experience in working with candidates from my industry.

Lastly, Rajdeep was always there whenever I needed his input, from a trivial questions on resume-formatting to preparing for interviews for Yale and Kellogg, including several rounds of mock-interviews! I made it to one of my top choices – Kellogg as well as an admit from Yale.

My husband, a Kellogg alum, recommended Rajdeep. I had an initial conversation with Rajdeep and he gave me great feedback regarding my candidacy. Also, I was impressed by his strategy to present my professional and personal experiences for a strong application.

I was a re-applicant and was faced with the challenge of changing my positioning in just 6 months. I think what Rajdeep does best is that he gives a structure – a clear time schedule to accomplish each part of the application so you only have to think about one school/deliverable at a time plus a format to think about each prompt. He pushes you to get as detailed as possible and his clarity of thought is brilliant which reflected in all my work by the end.
He challenged me to think and write in-depth stories and stay clear of the mistakes I had made in my previous applications. His guidance not only helped me produce applications of such high quality but I feel in the process I have evolved as a more self-assured and confident incoming business school candidate becoming much more aware of what I really want to do going ahead.

A few highlights of working with him have been – quick essay edits/revisions, weekend or holidays were never an interruption, taking time to help me strengthen the basis of my application – resume and goals. With these two things set early on in the process really made the process more manageable and reachable.

Rajdeep is truly invested in his candidates, has a great work ethic and will push until you achieve your full potential and I could not have asked for better support.

I applied to Harvard, Booth, Columbia, INSEAD and Stanford last year but did not make it. Upon speaking to friends, it was clear that everyone in my circle who was attending the top 10 schools worked with Rajdeep Chimni. As a re-applicant, I was unsure of applying again. I was recommended to speak to Chimni and assess my chances. Rajdeep was perceptive and quick in giving objective feedback on my resume and alignment of goals and skills, and was confident about my application.

I applied to 4 schools in R1- Booth, Tuck, Ross and Yale. The thought process of school evaluation in alignment with goals was critical. One of the challenging parts was to re-think my career in terms of skills and translating that into a resume. A key difference I saw was the focus on impact to be able to project the big picture.

Merely stating ‘I led a team to change the education system in state vs. saying ‘I lead a team of 5 to develop an affordable quality education program to reach 100,000 students across state – is what differentiates Chimni’s way of working. He will ensure that you introspect and think about the work you to as a genuine contribution instead of underselling yourself. My resume had 8-10 iterations until it was in the best shape.

I enjoyed working with Chimni on my goals. He would ensure I am thinking through what I want to get out of the MBA in terms of academic, experiential and part-experiential choices. His breadth of experience in working on applications puts his at a unique position to critically evaluate my story. I think this experience consolidated what I want to achieve from my MBA and what I want to do for a living.

The network of resources available through Admissions Gateway is useful. The concept of pay it forward applies here. Chimni connects you with current students with similar backgrounds and goals to understand what a school has to offer and if the choice of school will suit your aspirations.

As a re-applicant, I can certainly say that having Chimni guiding the process was very helpful. The process of applying was not just about securing an admit to a school of choice but also brings a lot of clarity to professional and personal goals. I strongly recommend working with Chimni for the sheer breadth of experience he has and his focus on quality.

I have 3+ years of experience in Healthcare and was targeting the top b-schools. After talking to friends from college who were admitted to the top-5 and hearing positive reviews I decided to work with 2 top counselors Sandy for HBS and Chimni for the other schools.

The toughest challenge was identifying the focal points of my personal and professional story. This is where I thought I got more directed inputs from Chimni. While Sandy focused on what’s wrong Chimni focused on what to do about it. It was a great help also that all inputs were illustrative and i knew exactly what to do next. This is were the apporach of talking to chimni was much better for me than getting some comments on email from Sandy and I switched over to working completely with Chimni.

Even for my resume I was thinking of my work more in terms of tasks and responsibilities and Chimni really helped me think at a more strategic level. I had varied functional experience so it was great that Chimni understood my company and my work. Over multiple discussions on the story (and seemingly endless iterations), I could put together a comprehensive application that brought out the strengths in my profile, specifically catered for each school. While going through the early drafts of some of my essays, I realized the evolution in ideas, the clarity of thought and the nuances in language as they evolved. I learnt from each application and strengthened the next one.

I received admits from Harvard with $100K aid and Kellogg with $100K scholarship. Results apart, the whole experience was great with Chimni and its important to feel comfortable while going through the process.

Working with Chimni was a game-changer for my applications. He really helped me discover my strengths and streamline my stories to align with my post-mba goals. The best part was the extent he went to in order to bring out the best application, without counting the number of consultations or iterations. I got admits from 2 schools & 1 wait-list) and I am at my dream school, Kellogg. Once admitted I was surprised to see how many of Chimni’s client’s were admitted to Kellogg!

Post my 30-minute free consultation I knew I had found the right admissions counselor.

I worked on improving my GMAT score and achieved a 40 point increase. We targeted schools across Round 1 and 2 and applied to a range in the top-15. We worked on presenting the collaborative aspects and strategic impact of my work and then found a way to align these with my goals. Chimni found ways to convey my story in a concise and impactful manner in the interview by guiding me through several mock interviews. He was very flexible in accommodating sudden changes in admissions strategy or work schedules.

I received admissions from Yale, Tuck, Fuqua and Kellogg with $100K scholarship. In hindsight, I see 3 major reasons for my success. One was starting preparations for the admissions process early on, then a structured approach to essays and interviews and finally depth of research on business schools and career goals.

The personal attention that I got was the best part of my experience with Chimni. Through the entire stressful application process, I felt like I had someone along with me in the journey, cheering me on. Whether it was sending me reminders when I was procrastinating on my essays or editing them on deadline days, I knew that there was someone as invested as I was in making sure the application that got submitted was of the best possible quality.

Coming from a non-traditional background (retail) with a fashion major in undergrad, I was concerned about how I could tell my story concisely and with enough context through my applications. Chimni helped me with every step, starting with resume building right through to mock interviews.

When working on my resume with Chimni, his insistence on thinking about the strategic impact of each point on it helped me look at my own achievements in a new light. Writing the essays was a challenge in terms of bringing out impact without going overboard on details. Chimni was very patient in working through multiple drafts, giving me examples on how I should be thinking and writing until we got it right.

With an uncanny sense of when I needed a little extra push, he was constantly supportive and highly responsive. On sensing my nervousness about an interview even after a mock, I was connected to a couple of other successful applicants to talk to who helped alleviate my concerns. Chimni helped turn my dream of attending a top B-school into reality and I highly recommend them to all prospective applicants looking for a personalized experience.

While scouting for admissions consultants, it was refreshing to come across someone like Rajdeep, who gave very honest feedback about target schools, required GMAT scores and weaknesses in my profile. What convinced me to work with him were the excellent reviews from his clients, who are now in top business schools. In retrospect, it was the best decision I made as I got into two top schools (ranked 3rd and 4th). I greatly enjoyed working with Rajdeep and the real testimony to our working relationship is that now I consider him a friend and a mentor.

Some of the key things about Rajdeep’s working style, which I really liked, were:

1) He is really calm. There is never an emergency even if the deadline is only two hours from now. He keeps his cool and that allows you to stay calm and focused.

2) For different school essays, that we worked on, his style and approach, in terms of giving directions to my essays was tailored to what the school was looking for. For instance, while working on the Stanford essays, he asked me to read a book, which helped me understand the writing style that my essay could take and then let me take the lead in terms of content. This allowed me to come up with a good essay that was original and reflective of my personality and I got an interview call.

3) I feel I greatly enjoyed the process of working on my essays and revamping my CV because Rajdeep helped me look at my work through an entirely different perspective and forced me to look at things I had done through a wider lens as opposed to seeing it functionally.

4) He is aware of how much work an essay requires to make it click for a particular school. So, it won’t be the case that you spend the same amount of time fine-tuning your essays for different schools.

My overall experience was fantastic. My general advice to anyone who is looking for help with their applications is this- Look no more, Rajdeep is the right person!

I applied last year but felt later that I had a lot of shortcomings in my profile, had changed jobs many times and didn’t have a clear picture about how to go about my applications.

When I approached Chimni I was facing several challenges. I didn’t know how to use my time in the months leading up to the admissions season. I was not sure whether I should retake the GMAT or research the programs and Chimni was incredibly helpful in helping me plan.

Chimni helped me build clarity on how to portray my story and my various experiences: how to select and curate the relevant ones which would portray my traits. I spent ample time brainstorming key experiences with him and then selecting stories and bringing out strengths. Chimni also helped me network and suggested approaches and insights on structuring conversations that helped me craft a unique answer to why I was interested in coming to that school.

I think just the critical review of my essays and resume and my overall story helped me come across more confidently during interviews and video essays. I had a lot of questions and Chimni was always available and helped me gain admission to Wharton and Yale.

I had an ambitious target of making it to a top-5 business school. I was looking for guidance from someone who had experience counseling students who attended these schools and would help me think through how to best represent myself while ensuring authenticity and making sure MY story would shine.

A friend at Wharton informed me that Rajdeep was hands-on and had a clear understanding of the admissions process. I faced two challenges:

1. Lack of time: I began thinking about applying in July-Aug. Despite the crunched timelines and having to work on applications while balancing a demanding work schedule, Rajdeep helped me structure the workload and meet R1 deadlines.
2. Lesser work experience: When I applied I had under 2.5 years of experience. Through the resume building process, Rajdeep helped me highlight leadership experiences throughout my work experience which I was able to build on in my essays.

The best part of working with Rajdeep was the personal attention. At no point did I feel that I was being given generic advice or counseling- every bit of guidance was specific to my school selection and background.

Going in with an ambitious target of making it to a top-5 business school with 2.5 years of work-ex, I could not have asked for more. Rajdeep pushed me to keep improving my essays till the last moment and ensured that I did not compromise on my application. He personally engaged on every aspect. For most of my Round 1 applications, Rajdeep was up late, helping me review essays. I was invited to interview at HBS and Stanford. I was admitted to Kellogg with a $100,000 and also made it to my dream school-HBS with $100,000 scholarship!

I was a re-applicant targeting the top 10-12 b-schools. Rajdeep helped me do the following things differently this time.

Resume: My earlier resume solely focused on consulting projects while applying for class of 2017. It looked more like a resume for a job than for a business school application. The feedback I got from Admissions Gateway counselors was to include more firm specific and practice specific stories instead of project level bullets. I incorporated this feedback by including themes on practice/ business and firm development and leadership roles in a STAR format. Most business school use VMock as a tool to evaluate resumes. It gives a score which considers things like formatting, strength of bullets, word usage, etc. I used my bschool application resume as a first pass once I started school and got a 9/10, which illustrates that this is the right way to craft a resume.

Essays: Rajdeep helped focus my essay themes on macro topics such as firm and practice development instead of project level stories. He really distilled out the broader stories from my professional background.

Interview: I fundamentally changed the way I prepared for the interview. With the Admissions Gateway question set, I listed down about 25-30 basic questions which I could expect in any interview. I then wrote answers to all these questions in STAR format and practiced a couple of times with Rajdeep. This enabled me to include all relevant points within 2 minutes and ensured I did not ramble long winded sentences, but answer in a clear concise manner. We followed the philosophy that once you know what you want to say then you can focus on who you are.

The process was a great learning experience and I used my resume and interview approach to recruit sucessfully for consulting as well.

When I started with MBA apps there was a huge amount of confusion in my mind with the number of choices/ decisions/ information so I decided to work with a top notch MBA consulting firm which had proven results. I saw a lot of consultants charge exorbitantly with variable results. My friends at Harvard and Wharton recommended Chimni so after an initial chat I signed on.

I applied to Wharton, Kellogg and Tuck. A lot of time went into understanding my work at a more strategic level and then we framed the resume. This process helped me understand the criticality of what I was doing and the impact it was leading too. This helped in my essays as I was able to tell Macro stories with more width and delve deeper into aspects that showcased both my achievements and my approach to my work. It was a research based process with a lot of reading, talking to students and delving deeper into each aspect until I could ‘own’ that aspect. For e.g. what I wanted from a particular class or what I would do on a global experiential program. Interview preparation was structured and one advice I found useful was to first learn everything then detox and become more conversational, being fully confident that I knew everything vs. not being prepared because that would be too structured.

In round 1 I was WL at Kellogg and gained admission to Tuck. In Round 2 I gained admission to Booth but Kellogg was my first choice so Rajdeep helped me navigate the waitlist with respect to being top of mind, sharing my success with ad comm and sending in updates. I finally got admitted to Kellogg, Booth, Tuck & INSEAD.

I am based in Europe and was looking for someone to help me structure my thoughts as I prepared to re-enter student life. In Rajdeep, I found a counselor who helped me do exactly that.

Rajdeep helped me remove complexity from the way I expressed myself in my essays and CV, helping me deliver the emotion I wanted to express in its purest form. He made me think about the what and the why.

You will soon realize that applying for an MBA is an extremely time consuming process. Having Rajdeep support me during this period was crucial to staying on track and meeting deadlines!

Thanks for the hard questions and keeping me on track Rajdeep.

When I got my GMAT, I was happy with my score and I thought that I could get admission into the top 15 but I wasn’t sure how to approach the application process. I met Rajdeep and showed him my resume which I thought was very good but he rated it 2.5 out of 10 which came as a surprise as I had put in a lot of effort on developing it.

Rajdeep changed how I should portray my strengths and helped build and bring out my story. Now when I look back, I understand the 2.5 rating! He also ensures that the school is the right fit for you and that you are a right fit for the schools. So in choosing the right school and preparing your application targeted at that school, he was tremendously helpful throughout that process.

I was lucky to get admitted to 4 schools with a full scholarship at one and the credit for this goes to Admissions Gateway and Rajdeep.

Ivy MBA Consulting led by Eli David is a highly seasoned and experienced MBA consultancy firm with contributors that know and understand the intricate MBA landscape in depth. Eli and his team were very accessible throughout the rigorous and stressful process of applying to the M7 schools and provided unparalleled knowledge, insights, and guidance that led me to see fantastic results. The team brings years of experience as well as strategic and tactical aptitude to the table and I highly recommend working with them if you want to see results. They helped me put the very best version of myself forward when applying and interviewing for my dream schools and I cannot praise them enough.

I considered a couple of International consultants when I first considered applying for b-schools. I read extensively online and held initial telephonic conversations with each before deciding to work with Chimni.

I was drawn to Admissions Gateway as Chimni personally works on each of the applications that ensures you can make the best of his experience. Throughout the process, Chimni was beyond candid, letting me know when something was great or making me start from scratch when it was not.

He was always reachable and patient, often responding within hours of my countless emails, day and night. Besides having a fantastic eye for helping to craft a narrative around your unique story, he was also very good at keeping me on track with timelines and helping me prioritize during an incredibly stressful process.

Chimni follows a thought through and extensive approach, taking the time to get to know you as a person – asking questions that go beyond what is typical – to make sure your whole life’s story is captured throughout the applications. There is no doubt in my mind that he was a huge factor in my gaining admission to Yale SOM.

Having worked with two consultants I saw the additional value Chimni brings for each part of the process.

Resume

The way Chimni made me think about how to draft the resume was different compared to my previous experience. The resume drafting process was thorough, with a lot of attention paid to which points to cover from my work experience and extracurriculars for maximum impact. Having the resume written out in this format also helped with interview preparation and knowing what points to highlight.

Essays

Chimni’s method of working on the essays was structured and helped me manage my time well. The process of having an initial kick off call to discuss the content to be covered in each essay, and then working on various drafts and edits worked well for me. Chimni focused a lot on the content of the essays, making me think about the value of each point that I was putting down and what aspect of my profile I was trying to bring out. One big difference I saw compared to my previous experience was how the content on why that school or what I hope to learn from that school was covered – it was very pointed and discussed specific courses, activities, clubs, and what exactly I was looking to get out of them. Unlike what some other consultants tend to do, Chimni ensured that all the writing in the essays was mine, and represented my style, but of course provided the necessary guidance on the editing and how to make the content sound more relevant and impactful.

Approachability/accessibility

Chimni is very approachable, and I never hesitated to reach out to him for any help or clarifications. He was available throughout the process of working on an application, and was always responsive to my emails and messages. We had calls scheduled regularly to check in on progress, which helped me manage my work within the required timelines. The work was well paced out so there was no last minute rush to get things completed, as compared to my previous experience. Chimni has a good mix of being strict on timelines, while being understanding about unanticipated delays due to commitments at work. I also appreciated the fact that Chimni always made it a point to let me know if he was running late on our scheduled appointments, which becomes very important for candidates trying to juggle work responsibilities and applications at the same time.

I joined Rajdeep as many people from my industry and company had worked with him and seen success at the top schools. My work experience was distinctive and Rajdeep helped me link it to business impact and showcase it in the best light. His resume making skills are extremely good and he unlocks your thought process and makes you see the bigger picture. He supported me on as many iterations on the essays as were needed and was readily available. For interview prep he walked me through both interview frameworks and mocks. Thanks to his help, I gained admission to Cornell.

Rajdeep was referred to me by a friend who had gained admission to Wharton last year working with him. I had strong work experience with a top-tier management consulting firm overseas; however my low GMAT score below 700 especially given the competitive Indian male category impacted my chances of gaining admission into a top 5 school severely. Rajdeep helped me choose the right schools given his in-depth understanding of both my profile as well as how I could fit into the schools.

He was able to weave a very compelling story drawing from different facets of my life I could not connect coherently. He was able to address the GMAT weakness in the optional essay and get me back in the competition. I think they miraculously turned a weakness around and made sure I was not dinged. A lot of creative ideas flowed between us and I really appreciate all his hard work to get me past this stage.

He was immensely helpful during the interview stage and gave me a good sense of how things work internally. I felt much more in my comfort zone after mocks and felt at ease during the interviews overcoming nerves. A big thank you for helping me secure admissions to my top schools Kellogg and LBS.

I had an outlier profile and was looking for a consultant who could still bring out the strength in my story considering all the challenges in my profile. After speaking to many renowned Indian & international consultants and also hearing Rajdeep’s name from some of the alums/students from top schools, I reached out to him and in one discussion, I was sure of working with him for my applications.

What helped me a lot in structuring my essays was Rajdeep’s detailed and thought-through structure of each essay. He understood my profile and brought about strength in every essay beyond what I could think of.

Some other things that stood out were his always-positive tone of speaking, his follow-ups as if this was his own application – I remember once I was really exhausted with writing essays and was pushing myself late at night and I got a mail from Rajdeep with subject line “Focus and Write” – such messages/mails kept me going.

Rajdeep could understand from the quality of my essay versions whether I had written it with thought or not and his feedback was spot on. He would keep making me iterate until he was sure that the quality of the essay was top notch. In the end, I was satisfied that I had submitted the best application I could have. I achieved a superb result and this certainly wouldn’t have been possible without the right guidance (both motivational and strategic application work) and Rajdeep’s positive energy.