Faisal

I have always wanted to apply to a top European business school and improve my international exposure given that my experience in both studying and working was purely local. When I decided to apply to London Business School’s EMBA program, I knew that I was at a handicap compared to other applicants as I lacked their international experience. This has made me search for a consultant that can help me position myself in the best way possible and highlight my key strengths, and Faisal didn’t disappoint in doing so. Throughout the process, he has made me look at things differently and focus on the aspects that would strengthen my application and make it personal instead of just filling it with words and accomplishments.

During the process, I decided to apply for an earlier intake which gave us an extremely tight time frame to finalize the application. Faisal was more than supportive of my decision to do so and was always available day and night to help me.

I would highly recommend Faisal to any person applying to a top business school given his insight (which makes the whole application process much easier), commitment, personality, and honesty.

I came into the MBA admissions process as a novice – nobody in my family had applied to business school and neither had any of my close friends – and the one thing I did know was that I would need help!

After being recommended to reach out to MBA Prep School by a friend of a friend who had worked with them and been accepted to a highly ranked school, I was still a bit skeptical. Would working with a consultant really be something that would be valuable? What sort of help was I getting? How were they going to help me?

After our first initial call, Faisal helped me to allay my doubts – not only would MBA Prep School help develop my essays but their approach was a rigorous bottoms-up analysis which focused first on career coaching not merely essay editing. We spent our first few sessions talking about my goals and career aspirations using exercises to help me to discover the strengths and experiences that would help me stand out from my peers as well as shore up potential weaknesses.

I think this career coaching was actually the most valuable part of the whole application process and even if I hadn’t applied to business school I think this would have been very worthwhile.

After condensing an amorphous cloud of thoughts, perceptions, and dreams into a coherent narrative, Faisal and I set to work on developing my essays. Faisal is an excellent editor, allowing my voice to come through while giving helpful hints on how best to craft a story. Faisal gives room to disagree and while he is not afraid to give tough criticism I never felt that he didn’t have my best interests at heart. I applied to 5 schools and each essay received as many revisions as they needed.

By the time I submitted my applications I felt not only did I have excellent essays but also a much stronger conception of my own career trajectory and a clear road map for achieving my dreams.

Out of the five schools I applied to, I was accepted to two and waitlisted at another and will be attending Kellogg this fall. I was completely satisfied with the help I received from Faisal and the MBA Prep School and strongly recommend reaching out to them if you have doubts about applying to business schools and wish to take your MBA application to the next level!

Accepted to Duke with $75K in scholarships!

My career experience upon embarking on this MBA application journey was exclusively healthcare consulting so I understood that I had to be creative in defining my reasons and goals for pursuing an MBA. To add, I was very concerned about an MBA program feeling confident about my ability to handle the academic rigor of its program due to my average GPA and GMAT scores, so I knew I needed to strengthen my application in other ways.
I heard of MBA Prepschool through a friend and was introduced to Faisal as he had experience in management consulting and knew the healthcare provider space well. After connecting with him, I immediately felt very comfortable working with him and felt that he understood my goals and how to get there.

I began working with Faisal fairly late in the process (roughly 10 weeks from Round 2) which I knew was a tight timeline, but Faisal supported me, and we laid out the milestones. After additional conversations, however, Faisal helped me make the decision of applying the following year and I couldn’t be more grateful that he did. This allowed us more time for him to better understand me personally and help craft a better story.
Throughout the process, Faisal forced me to be introspective which led me to develop a unique voice and an application that spoke to my strengths of leadership and emotional intelligence. Additionally, Faisal consistently kept me positive and motivated while I was studying for the GMAT and like many, struggling through the busy work/travel life of a consultant.

Ultimately, I was accepted at all my schools thanks to Faisal’s guidance on my essays, resume, and interviews. Faisal was professional, timely, but most importantly, caring. As you’ll see in so many testimonials, Faisal truly becomes a mentor, advisor, and friend helping you stay on track and encouraged all the way. If you’re looking for someone who takes the time to truly understand you on a personal level and cares about your success, look no further!

I worked with Faisal in the hopes of joining a full-time program in the fall of 2020. I chose to work with a consultant because when I had applied by myself the previous year, I had been denied from all six full-time MBA programs that I had applied to without any interview invites even though I felt I had competitive experiences and a GMAT score above the averages for all the programs.

I chose MBAPrepSchool for one main reason – they didn’t treat me as just another customer to put into a preset program, but rather an individual with specific needs. I talked to several different companies before making my decision, but only MBAPrepSchool (and specifically Mariah) asked me to send essays from my previous application and used it to prep for my intro meeting with them. That hour-long meeting was followed up with a personalized list of specific consultants and why they thought they would be a great fit for me. One of the people who was suggested was Faisal. As an engineer that was struggling with how to relate my technical expertise into business terms, it was pretty clear he would be perfect for me with his background in engineering along with experience in admissions at an M7 program.

I began working directly with Faisal about seven months before application deadlines. For the first couple of months, we worked on understanding my life story and how that fit into my career goals. After that, we started narrowing down which programs would make sense for me to apply to and I eventually chose Stanford, Kellogg, Sloan & Darden. Though I gave myself seven months to work on my applications, Faisal still helped me focus on what all needed to get done and I ended up spending time on most weeknights on my application and it definitely made a big difference in the end.

One area where Faisal made the biggest difference was in my essays. I went through at least 3 revisions of each essay for each of the schools with some of the longer ones having 6-8 versions. Faisal’s ability to let my voice shine through my applications while helping me sculpt my message was invaluable. He also set specific requirements for himself (feedback within 72 hours on anything I submitted to him for review) and stuck to it. One thing I especially appreciate in hindsight is that Faisal never tried to make a decision for me (which schools to apply to, which life stories to use in my essays, etc), but rather helped by providing guidance on how to think through the problems and as a result become more intentional in my choices.

When I sent out my applications, I knew everything in my application – the essays, recommendations, education, and work information, etc. – was leagues beyond what I had submitted the previous year. While I had personal advancements that played a factor in this, the largest change was working with Faisal.

I ended up interviewing at Stanford, Kellogg, and Darden. I was then accepted into Kellogg and Darden with scholarships at each while being waitlisted at Stanford. I simply could not have imagined this being a possibility after I had been rejected from six programs just a year earlier.

By the end of the MBA application cycle, Faisal became more than just a consultant. In fact, when I got the good news for my acceptances, he was the first person I contacted after my family to tell the good news.

When I started the application process early summer of last year, I was looking for someone with a critical eye, a good grasp of what schools wanted, ability to help me create a good narrative and highlight what was needed out of my experience and extracurriculars to emphasize my story, and ability to push myself out of my comfort zone. I came from an engineering background (with a few lower grades on my transcript that I felt could keep me out of the top schools) with extremely technical work experience and no formal leadership.

Working with Faisal, I was able to fully reflect and create a cohesive story that made sense for my background and for my future goals. Faisal helped me understand what to highlight and what to de-emphasize, especially coming from a technical background, in my resume and essays. He helped craft an optional essay that helped explain my academic background and lower GPA. Faisal was critical and discerning in his edits, making sure that I was saying what I needed to and not being too vague or “on” with my language. He was also great to work with on my interview prep – making sure that I was working through highlighting my strengths and exactly answering the intended questions. I felt like my essays were strong, polished, and represented me well. Faisal also pushed me to research the schools in-depth, which helped with essay creation and the interviews, since I truly felt like I knew each school in and out by the time I submitted my application.

With Faisal’s help, I was admitted to four M7 schools, waitlisted at another, and received partial scholarships at almost every school. This is an outcome I would have never thought possible looking solely at my stats coming into the application process – with Faisal’s help, I was able to showcase my best qualities and gain admissions to some great schools.

Faisal is very easy to talk to and work with, is timely with his feedback, and delivers great results. I highly recommend working with him!

As a new mother, along working with tons of stuff I am passionate about, good time management for the MBA application is my top one need. I didn’t apply many schools and I did not compare different services on the market. I trust the recommendation from my network, and my objective is lased focused.

Faisal is one of your most trustworthy MBA application partners. Because of Faisal’s first-hand knowledge and credited service, I do not need to investigate many self-made MBA application tutorials online and tell if they are true or not. Simplicity saves your time and my time is more precious than money. Also, Faisal is a great communicator with high expectations. I edited my resumes/essay many times and through the collaboration, I see a reflection of myself and my gap with other leaders. The feedback from him is candid, fair, and encouraging. I saw this journey for personal growth and enrichment. Through the lens of a previous admission committee, I am more confident in what each MBA school is looking for, which school fits me most, and what a successful business leader looks like. Also, Faisal provides some tips on MBA interviews and such a breeze! I felt I am almost ready for a job interview 🙂 I got my offer from a top MBA school, and I really appreciate the partnership with Faisal, through which I am inspired by the professionalism of a prestigious consultant and much looking forwards to my next journey.

My experience working with Faisal was absolutely fantastic and I could not have asked for a more supportive, responsive, experienced and professional mentor. I currently work in private equity (previously worked in investment banking), with the objective of applying to several top US MBA programs (R1 and R2) for the Class of 2020. I had high aspirations but came from an overrepresented background. Additionally, I lacked direction as to my rationale to pursue an MBA (e.g. “why me? “why now?” “what will an MBA do for my career?”)

After working closely with Faisal for 9 months, I’m proud to say that I received admission to my first choice (top 5 US ranking) and second choice!

Faisal’s close mentorship and logical approach to drawing from all aspects of my life (professional and personal) to help form a clear and persuasive story was beyond anything I could have imagined. His focus on precision and tailoring my message to each school kept me focused and built my self-confidence every step of the way. Lastly, Faisal’s organization, responsiveness, and commitment to school deadlines were exactly what I was looking for in a mentor and consultant.

This process was truly life-changing not only from the perspective of receiving admission to a school that I could have only dreamed of but helping me understand myself better and mapping a professional pathway that will allow me to achieve my short and long-term goals.

I can confidently recommend Faisal and wish future candidates the best of luck in their application endeavors.

Coming from a technical engineering role in an industry that doesn’t value an MBA like other industries, I didn’t know many people who had pursued a full-time MBA. In addition, I didn’t have the best GMAT score (below the average but within the 80%) for an “over-represented minority” applicant. For these two reasons, I looked for an admission consultant to ensure I put the best application forward.

While doing my due diligence, I happened to connect with a mutual friend who had used MBA Prep School and is now at Wharton. With this lead, I connected with Tyler Cormney who took the time to understand my profile and needs. He recommended Faisal whose strengths as admission consultant aligned strongly with my needs.

I knew I would not need someone to push me to write my applications. Rather, I needed someone to ensure I was telling the best version of my story. I also knew I would struggle with telling my work experience in layman terms, so I needed a consultant who has helped other engineers with a technical line of work apply to MBA programs.

I am happy to say that Faisal met and exceeded all my expectations. Faisal took the time to learn about me in order to help me craft my story in a truthful and compelling manner. I would often leave comments regarding any part of my application (essays, resumes, short answers, etc.) to gather additional feedback from Faisal. No matter how much I wrote, he always read every comment. In addition, Faisal was excellent at helping me showcase leadership examples while removing nonessential technical knowledge to tell a clear and concise story.

The school packages were comprehensive. Every part of my application was reviewed until it was ready (no edit counts) and feedback was provided within 2-3 days. This included supplemental essays after the application was submitted and even wait list help (if needed).

Luckily for me, I was accepted to my top choice school, MIT Sloan with $80k of scholarship. I cannot thank Faisal enough! I would recommend him anyone who feels they need a razor-sharp application to get accepted into their dream school.

By the time I was done with the GMAT and started with the applications, there were only two months left until the R1 deadlines. I talked to many consultants and went ahead with Faisal considering the fact that he had lots of experience working with international students. I believed he would understand my story and will help me put it into perspective. Working with him gave me a lot of clarity about what I want through an MBA and taught me how to tell my story in an effective and powerful way. He helped me realize my dream of getting into a top MBA program with full scholarship. I highly recommend Faisal to whoever wants help with telling their story.

Thank you so much Faisal!

Do you feel that you have all the right ingredients for a strong MBA application but you are struggling to put it together in a recipe which will result in the dish of a lifetime? Well, that was me when I started down the MBA application path. I knew my career goals and I knew I was at the right point in my career where an MBA could help me boost the next phase of my career. I had taken GMAT and had a good score and I had my recommenders lined up. But I was struggling to communicate my story crisply and effectively. A very close friend of mine had gone down this route a few years back and I talked to him for advice and he said he faced pretty much the same challenge and recommended seeking help from a professional. I investigated few MBA consultants and I got in touch with Faisal via MBA PrepSchool. I was quite impressed with all the glorious recommendations that Faisal had online but what sealed the deal for me was the introductory call that I had with him. In that half an hour call, Faisal asked insightful questions and I knew I had found the person who can help me pen my story. Faisal can be very critical with his feedback when required and can also be very encouraging when required. While Faisal did have a defined framework that he worked in, he adapted that to make it work with my timeline. The experience Faisal has in this field also proved very useful to me and helped me approach the whole process more confidently. I strongly recommend Faisal for MBA application counseling.

Deciding to work with Faisal Khan and the MBA Prep School team was the best decision I could have made regarding the application process. I come from a non-business background and do not have many in my close network that is knowledgeable about MBA programs or even the graduate school application process in general. I was truly flying blind.

Faisal took me under his wing and provided me with brainstorming materials and constructive feedback that forced me to be incredibly introspective. Brainstorming with Faisal was almost cathartic. Because he was so interested in learning about me, Faisal was able to point out strengths and unique qualities that I didn’t recognize in myself. The MBA Prep School brainstorming sessions and resources allowed me to brand myself as a top MBA candidate.

I also never waited longer than a few days to get feedback and edits from Faisal on my essays, resume, interview prep questions, etc. He was prompt, professional, and clearly cared about my success. My investment in MBA Prep School resulted in an acceptance at Booth, Kellogg, Tepper, Goizueta, and Foster all with either partial or full scholarship awards! 😊

I started working with Faisal a couple of months before my first application was due. I knew my time with him would be extremely helpful once we finished our first session. In that meeting, I learned three things. First, that Faisal really cares. It’s quite clear from the first few moments that he’s really passionate about his clients getting into their dream schools. Second, he’s extremely smart and knowledgeable about the process. He’s able to give guidance on what the admission’s office looks for in every aspect of your application. And third, he’s effective. In every session we had together, he made sure we had an agenda of what needed to get done. He knew that not only his time was valuable, but my time also.

Like many other applicants, the main weakness I had with my application was my exam scores and Faisal immediately knew how to handle the situation. We were able to confront the weakness throughout my application by following his recommendations. And because of him, I was accepted to all the programs I applied to, including a top ten program. Without a doubt, I’ll be referring all my friends and co-workers to Faisal.

When I was first considering an MBA, I decided to see what MBA admissions consultants had to offer and I set up a host of free introductory calls with various consultants. During our first call itself, Faisal’s approach struck me as one that was unique and personalized, and three factors really stood out to me. Firstly, Faisal is a great listener and he actually listened to what I had to say. I felt like most other consultants were trying to interrogate me during the first call and perhaps trying to assess me based on some existing structure or metric or questionnaire. I would rather have a personalized yet flowing and informative conversation since I firmly believe each individual is unique and has their own story to tell. Secondly, Faisal did not once mention that I need to retake the GMAT (I took it once and scored a 740) based on the demographic that I hail from. This was music to my ears as I don’t believe in wasting time and effort giving an exam more than once mainly because that time could be well spent bolstering other parts of your profile or just living and enjoying life. Last but not the least, he actually suggested that I wait a year to apply for a number of reasons. While this also aligned with my own thought process, I had setup all those calls to essentially gain a second opinion and some consultants that I spoke to really wanted me to start the process asap; to me they just came across as really pushy salespeople.

Fast forward one year and I decided to work with Faisal for my Full Time MBA applications. In all my interactions with him, he was approachable, punctual and prompt yet detailed in his email responses. When it came to the essays, he was instrumental in identifying high impact stories and then urging me to write more on those. That’s really important because many a times, it’s difficult to assess the impact of one’s own stories and an unbiased fresh viewpoint really helps you put things in perspective and piece your own story together. It’s worth mentioning that Faisal helps you in the creative process and helps you write your own story. There’s much more to it than just editing and proofreading; he wants to get to know you and not just assist you with the application. He was present, as a sounding board and advisor throughout the process: when I was offered an amazing growth opportunity and when I moved to a different city. In essence, you can’t go wrong with Faisal. I would say the terms “career coach” and “mentor” suit him to a tee (consultant just sounds very business oriented). My journey had quite a few twists and turns and I actually ended up with admits to the top two Part-Time programs in the US (I decided not to pursue Full Time for personal and professional reasons).

A friend who was accepted at HBS himself referred me to Faisal and I am so glad for that. At first I did wonder if a US based consultant would indeed be able to help with my very Asia focused application to international schools. By the end of my first 30 minute conversation with Faisal I was left in no doubt that I wanted to work with him. I felt Faisal already understood my drivers and concerns around the application process. I can safely say I wasn’t wrong. This is what I loved about working with Faisal: 1) The MBA consultation at no point felt like a business transaction. Faisal completely respected it as a personal journey helping me figure out what would work best for me and put together my application story. This worked great not just for essays and then interviews but also in me getting clarity on what I really wanted from the MBA myself. 2) I always got honest, firm yet polite feedback from Faisal – no mincing words. 3) Even during the busy application round deadlines time, I had seamless and meaningful communication with Faisal. My application always felt like priority. As I completed my MBA interviews I also got a call for a job interview for a position I had applied to months ago and I was then quite keen on. I realised that working with Faisal over these months on my apps had given me such clarity for answering personal story and competency questions and structuring those answers that I was completely comfortable even at the job interview (I cleared that interview, and will be going for MBA anyway) . It is a skill I shall carry well beyond the MBA application process. I would without a shadow of doubt recommend working with Faisal for MBA apps!

Having graduated from a state university and working at a tech startup in a more rural region of the Midwest, I only knew a handful of people who had pursued an MBA at a top program. In order to get into a top school, I knew I would greatly benefit from an admissions consultant who could position my unique background as an asset and not a liability. After speaking with various admissions consultants, I chose Faisal for his candor, past experience as a member of Booth’s admission committee, and impressive story-telling ability. I also appreciated that Faisal was NOT a full-time admissions consultant and consequently worked with only a handful of people (i.e. 4-5) at a given time. I knew that being 1 of 5 clients would result in me receiving more personalized attention than had I been just 1 of 20 clients to a career admissions consultant. Once we got to work, Faisal delivered. Rather than diving immediately into essay writing, he made sure that I was clear on my “brand” and what value I could add to a school. When work was busy and I got behind, Faisal would hold me accountable and gently push me to meet our deadlines. As a proof-reader, Faisal had a great way of improving my essay without changing my voice. And as a mock interviewer, Faisal gave me some great, easy-to-implement tips that helped me to confidently tackle my interviews. Long story short, I got into all three schools that I worked on with Faisal: Yale, Dartmouth, and Kellogg with a scholarship! There are significant time and money considerations when deciding to use an admissions consultant, but if you have the resources and the need to work with someone who has knows the process inside and out, I would highly encourage working with Faisal.

There is so much information related to MBA applications available online that it is sometimes difficult to pick what exactly goes into a successful application. If you are lucky, then you get to work with consultants like Faisal and Esther. I took the GMAT in the last week of June and this left with me with only about 2 months to prepare an application for HBS, my dream school. As is the norm, I started going through consultant profiles online and set up an introductory interview with Faisal from MBAPrep. It is difficult to differentiate between different consultants but after talking to Faisal, I felt that he would help me in moulding my application to be a successful one. To start with I filled the 360 questionnaire designed by Esther. While answering this 360, I felt I had to do a lot of introspection and this stood me in good stead when I started working on the essay and other parts of the application. As an engineer from an over represented nationality, I needed to come up with something special to differentiate myself from other applicants. After the first couple of efforts at the essay, Faisal told me that I had had an interesting life and I was not doing justice to it in my essays.With every iteration of the essays, Faisal made me think more and helped me highlight aspects of my life which I had initially thought to be less impactful. Faisal was always available when I needed a sounding board and he was extremely prompt in turning around whatever material I sent him. Even when he had a personal situation, Faisal still went the extra mile and found time to help me finish the application. Sometimes even the best of teams need that little bit extra to achieve what they set out to do. In our case, Esther was the one who provided inputs at crucial junctures and helped me come up with a compelling application. She conducted a mock interview with me after the interview call came. The questions she asked during the interview revealed how much effort she had put in to read my application and to prepare me for this interview. I am glad to say that all these efforts paid off and I was accepted at HBS (Class of 2018). At some point during the application,Faisal and Esther ceased to be consultants and became more like my mentors. I have already recommended their services to colleagues and in the future too. Thank you again for helping me achieve my dream of going to HBS 🙂

As most of people here, I realized I wanted something different in life but it’s after working for 10 years. In order to achieve my goal, I knew I had to get a good business education but I realized my ambition little late in the game i.e. at the age of 33. It was stressful. I never knew if it is possible to get into business school to achieve my dreams at this point in my life. My motto is always to try and Fail but not to quit even before trying. So I took GMAT and scored mediocre 700. I say mediocre because I see that many GMAT clubbers scoring 720+. Anyways, as I plan to not shift my job industry, I wanted to apply to good ONE-YEAR MBA schools. Based on my goals, I figured out Cornell and Emory will give me a good chance for my future. As this was my last chance to get into a good school, I didn’t want to take chances. So I wanted to pick the right Admission Consultant who can guide me throughout the process. So I started my research of good admission consultants. I spoke with a few admission consultants in India. I couldn’t establish any connection with them as I understood that most of them try to squeeze as many people as possible. So I decided to speak to admission consultants in US and I spoke to Faisal. I realized that, if at all I have a chance, it’s through Faisal because he was honest and didn’t promise me any guaranteed admission. All he promised me was that he will push me to work hard to get my admissions stuff right and that he helped someone in same boat as mine. So based on other reviews and my gut feeling, I decided to hire Faisal. What can I say? He was there at each step of the admission process. He really understood my story. He helped at each step of the application process and he was available whenever I needed him. On top of everything as he promised, he pushed me so hard to work to get everything right in this exhausting process. Not to mention, the number of times he edited my resume and essays. Everything is my story and I wrote everything. He was very patient to point out my lengthy sentences, and suggestions to how to present my content much better. I felt that he genuinely wanted to help me. Along the process, as I was working with him, I realized that the money I paid was extremely well spent even if I do not get an admission because I learnt valuable lessons on writing and presenting essays and facing interviews. I would have written this endorsement even if I didn’t get an admission. Finally, at the end of this daunting process, my story was presented in a much more powerful way than I ever imagined. I am really happy that I chose him. With Faisal’s guidance, my hard work, and a little luck, I got admit in Cornell and was waitlisted in Emory. Overall, I highly recommend him and if I have to describe his work ethic in 1 word, its “AWESOME”.

Working with Faisal on my application is the most correct decision I have ever made. It has been such a transformative experience since I started working with Faisal! Faisal has the best story-telling and English writing skills, and is patient, trustful and insightful. Faisal inspired me to summarize my past experience and tell powerful stories that I could ever imagine. Most importantly I think Faisal taught me about the way to approach thinking and writing – something not only has benefited my application but also will benefit my future life. Faisal has helped me reach out of my limit and realize my dream – being admitted to Booth weekend MBA. It has been such a wonderful time working with Faisal, and I would highly recommend Faisal to anyone who want to take on a life-changing journey.