Greg Guglielmo

1. BACKGROUND

I was first introduced to Greg by a Ross student who had previously worked with him. He was endorsed by another T5 admit and a Darden student, but even with such strong and personal recommendations, I was skeptical about admissions consultants because of my prior experiences working with them.

This was my third time applying to b-schools. I had applied with no luck in two previous rounds, during which I worked with a total of 04 admission consultants based out of India. More often than not I felt that even the Indian consultants with big names adopted a generalist approach with very little or no effort to get to know stories that could form a base for a strong personalized application. Reviews were superficial and at times it took over a week to get a response over a draft.

2. FREE CONSULTATION

My reservations were all alleviated as I scheduled a 30 minutes complimentary call with Greg. Honest, curious, well-seasoned, genuinely concerned were some of Greg’s traits that I could observe during our call, which went for 60 minutes and he seemed completely fine about it. He made genuine efforts to get to know me and my prior application experience and was sympathetic about it.

Whereas other consultants boasted about their past successes and dictated which schools I should be applying to and what their strict timeline of working shall be, Greg took a far different route. He listened, provided insight as to where I might have gone wrong, and held an open discussion about schools. We even explored themes for my Goals Essay, providing a glimpse of the experience should I choose to move forward. It was a detailed two-way discussion and I was sold!!

3. SERVICES AND RESULTS

Working with India-based consultants in 2017 Round 2, I applied to Kelley (rejected without interview), Ivey (rejected without interview), Arizona State (dinged post interview), Rice (dinged post interview), and ISB (dinged post interview). Working with other Indian consultants in 2018 Round 1, I was dinged without an interview at three T15 US schools and invited to interview again at ISB.

The very first thing I did with Avanti Prep was interview preparation for ISB, and this time I was accepted. I also signed up for a Tier 2 Package for two schools plus Hourly Services for one additional school, all for 2018 Round 2. I specifically worked with Greg on three T20 programs, received interview invites to all three, and was accepted to two, including one with a scholarship over $90K.

Seeing this success and wanting another chance at the T15 programs (this time working with Greg), I secured a deferral from one of the T20 programs and reapplied to three T15 schools and one new M7 school with Greg the following year, in 2019 Round 1. This time the story was very different, as I got admits from all three T15 schools, including two with scholarships ($50K and $40K).

So with the very same job and GMAT score, I went from being unable to crack the T30 working with local consultants to receiving multiple T15 offers and two T15 scholarships working with Avanti Prep. The only new ingredient in my recipe to success was Greg, who helped me portray and communicate my experiences in a coherent and powerful way.

4. SCHOOL RESEARCH

Greg’s insight into schools is unparalleled and his drive to make one learn about the schools is something I had not experienced before, yet I would consider it essential in one’s applications. While discussing the essay questions and brainstorming on how to position my responses, Greg always pushed me to make sure that my responses resonated well with the core values of the school and answered the exact essay question being asked.

From the outset, Greg shared his insight on schools and highlighted how to go about researching schools, how to communicate with adcoms and students, how to keep track of interactions I had, and even connected me with students from certain schools I was applying to. Even after my admit euphoria settled down, Greg encouraged me to talk to more students and alums so that I could choose between the programs where I was accepted.

5. STORY AND ESSAY DEVELOPMENT

The Package started with filling out a detailed Brainstorming Document. It was structured in a way to make me think and put all my experiences and stories on paper, which formed a base for my applications. Post that we hopped on to a series of calls focused on discussing my story, school selection, and forming a strategy on how to tackle my essays for the first school I was applying to.

Post these sessions I dove into drafting essays. With tons of information about the school which I acquired through research, coffee chats, and interactions with school, I felt much more confident in my first drafts. Still, the comments I received from Greg showed how much further I needed to go and how much effort he puts into pushing the applicant. His comments were detailed, nuanced, and well-organized, not just pointing out the flaws but also suggesting possible corrective actions I could take.

In my prior experiences with other consultants, I almost always received high-level comments such as, “this doesn’t seem proper, you might want to change this” and whatnot. But with Greg it was different. He made efforts in making me understand where I went wrong, why the message was not being conveyed properly, and advised on what specific changes I could consider making.

6. RESUME AND APPLICATIONS

Greg followed a similar approach for my resume. He commented extensively on my resume on a macro and micro level, making me understand why the bullet point was not effective, what did it lack, what should I do to make it more effective, and how to engage his “SCARL” approach. For the bullets he felt lacked clarity, he sought more information.

When it came to resume format, Greg did not follow a cookie-cutter approach with fitting information in a pre-designed resume format. Instead, we worked to adopt a format that best depicted my experiences in a neat, well-organized, easy to follow, structured way. Again, his diligence and conviction to achieve perfection helped me craft a strong resume.

He also reviewed my responses to the various application sections and ensured that information across different components was in sync, balanced each other, and painted a diverse picture of my professional and personal life.

7. INTERVIEW PREP

Over the two years, I worked with Greg for my interview preparation for eight schools and was accepted to six of them, including three with scholarships. The experiences were a stark contrast to my previous experiences where the mock interviews were organized hastily, were neither structured nor school-specific, and feedbacks provided were brief and high level.

When I scheduled my first interview preparation, I was wondering what would we be discussing for 2.5 hours, but when we finally got over with that, the time clocked 3 hrs 15 mins. Greg has meticulously structured the flow of each school’s interview to mimic the program’s actual interview experience. The questions were well-segmented, close to what I experienced in my actual interviews, and the flow was adaptive to my response.

Post the 60-minute mock we hopped onto the feedback and analysis part, where at first, I received high-level feedback of the overall mock, and then we went into a deep analysis of my responses. Greg helped identify not only what went wrong but also how could I improve my answers to each specific question. He also explained the rationale behind each question, and we prepared strategies for each question or question type.

8. SCHOLARSHIP AND DEFERRAL NEGOTIATIONS

My involvement with Greg eventually went beyond just securing admits. These steps were not on my priority list while considering working with Avanti Prep, but they became a very important part of my applicant journey. When things became uncertain with COVID, Greg helped me decide if it would be right to defer my admission and helped me in securing it.

We also worked on negotiating scholarships with schools. With Greg’s guidance and experience, I was able to secure more than a $90K scholarship to a T20 program and a $50K scholarship to a T15 program, after neither of them had offered me any scholarships alongside my original acceptance.

Obtaining a top global MBA is a costly and challenging affair. If you need a coach and friend to navigate you through this grueling process, Greg is THE GUY. As my experience shows, the investment made to work with Avanti Prep in putting up strong applications was far outweighed by the rewards in terms of admits and scholarships!!

Profile:

Work Experience: 6 years
Demography: WORST (Indian, IT, Male)
GMAT: 730 (V41, Q49)
Graduation: Computer Science Engineering (7.48/10)
Post-Graduation: MBA (from an above-average B-School in India) (9.23/10)
Job Profile: IT Consultant in the insurance domain
Highlights: Started handling a team of 8 distributed over 3 geographies – UK, Israel, South Africa

Background:

I had appeared for my GMAT in 2018 and scored a 730 (V41, Q49). At that time, I thought that a 96 percentile should set me up pretty well for the top schools around the globe. However, I couldn’t convert any of the 8 schools I applied to even though I received interview calls from 6. I knew that I was not good at writing essays which is essentially the most important part of the application. Therefore, I tried reaching out to my friends on and off the GMATClub forum. Everyone tried their best to help me out but the essays ended up below average.

I realized that no matter how much anyone wants to help you out, essay writing is something that requires dedication and knowledge of how the adcoms would evaluate you.

I then decided to give myself a year to work on my profile and decided to reapply in 2020. However, this time I was sure that I would hire a consultant to help me with my essays. I reached out to @stonecold and a few others and the straightforward response was – Don’t even think about anyone else than Greg.

I was like, okay, let me try a free session with Greg and see how things work out. I dropped an email to Greg and quickly set up a session. I had shared my resume with Greg beforehand and made a list of a few points to discuss in that call. I liked the way Greg approaches the application process – he is very clear about how the adcoms look at your profile, what might be your best ‘go to’ story to showcase yourself. The most important quality of Greg is that he listens to you and tries to alter plans according to what you want! Why am I saying this? I am stating this because I had come across reviews of a few other consultants who didn’t take the candidates thoughts, story etc into account and tried to dictate their terms. With such inflexible approach one cannot expect good results.

Towards the end of my first session with Greg, I asked him whether my target schools look good because I had made my intentions clear that I would either attend a world top 50 program or not attend at all. My profile was also pretty unique – second MBA, non IIT Indian IT male. I mean everything was bad in my profile except for the GMAT score which too seemed pretty below average for a top 10 or 15 program. He said there was a silver lining in the interview calls from last time so that with hard work and improvements I can put up a very competitive fight. There are a lot of different packages that are available. I went for the hourly services because I was very clear as to how I wanted Greg’s help.

NOTE: I would advise you to be very well prepared in terms of your expectations before reaching out to consultants because that would save you both time and money.

Process:

I decided to apply for my target schools in R1 and started working with Greg in the month of June. An early start meant that I had ample time to work on my story. Greg has a structured way for you to first pen down your thoughts and experiences, which you then discuss together in a more open brainstorming fashion in order to choose what you should utilize for each topic and your own essay writing process.

Greg is so accommodating that I am not exaggerating. It is always better to get your essays done early, but if your deadlines come near he supports you with urgency and quick turnarounds. Looking back, officially I signed for 15 hours of service (not including the interview prep services which I added later on) but in reality, Greg gave more than 19 hours of service for those 15, with the extra time provided for free in an effort to give me the best guidance and chances.

I decided to utilize the first 3.5 hours for story-building and essay brainstorming calls, before allocating the remaining time (other than interview prep) to essay feedback and reviews for many of the specific essays of my target schools. I gave Greg the nickname Gr’wow’eg because as I incorporated his guidance and feedback into my essays I could see the difference in the quality building with each of my attempts. The quality, character, knowledge, competence he brings is absolutely top-notch.

Further, even though I just focused mainly on the essay part of my application Greg used to constantly give me various tips that might help me in other areas such as resume building or from whom to receive a recommendation or how to discuss various points with your recommenders in the hopes they could highlight them for you without any duplicity in the overall profile. All these small things made a huge impact.

Once I submitted my 6 applications in R1, I received 5 interview invites. Since Greg was so good and helpful, I decided to go with the interview prep services as well. He is flexible and impactful in this segment as well. He created a set of questions from amongst 3 schools specific to my requirements and it did wonders. Whatever we prepared in those interview preps, most of the things were asked in the interviews.

As clear enough evidence of the improved strength of my essays, applications, and interview skills this time, I went from getting rejected everywhere last time I applied to 3 acceptances in 2020, of which one was a 50% scholarship and another a 100% scholarship. Greg is so dedicated to his work that you will not be a bit disappointed. I wholeheartedly thank him for supporting me throughout the process. If you would ask me personally which consultant should you go for – I would say “don’t think beyond Greg”.

Accepted to M7: International Female with 700 GMAT

Profile and Background

I am a female with 3 years of WE upon matriculation. I studied Liberal Arts in Undergrad (Top 15 US universities) and grew up in Southeast Asia. I worked at a top US bank in investment banking with no direct management experience (however with some indirect management through training analysts).

• Age: 25
• Demographics: Female with underrepresented demographic background
• Senior Analyst at top US bank (well-known household name)
• GMAT: 700 (sub-60th percentile Quant and IR scores)
• Undergrad GPA: 3.6 (top 15 US school and social science major with business minor)
• Work Experience: 3 years upon matriculation
• Applied to 1 M7 (accepted)

Overall, I felt I had good work experience and college extracurriculars but an average GPA, below average GMAT score, and the “minimum” amount of work experience (which limited my post-college leadership experience) for M7 schools. Nevertheless, I wanted to give my dream school a shot.

Choosing a Consultant and Package Selection

I knew I had below-average scores and WE and knew I wanted to hire a consultant early on. I relied solely on reviews from GMAT Club and read the website thoroughly for any leads for my consultant. Going to business school has always been a dream of mine, and I knew that my consultant would be a big investment that would continue to pay off throughout my life.

I pretty much decided to work with Greg based on the thoroughness of his reviews. Each review commented on the attention to detail, custom care, and compassion Greg shows for his clients. Greg was my first choice early on and I quickly scheduled a free assessment call the spring before my applications were due. I learned that what everyone said was true through talking on the phone with him for just 15 minutes.

I decided to hire Greg on the spot and didn’t bother talking to other consultants. I 100% stand with my decision as Greg helped me in so many ways. I decided to enroll in the Tier 3 package which included school selection, essay reviews, interview prep, story selection, scholarship negotiations, and more.

School Selection

I had my heart set on one particular M7 so I communicated with Greg that I was very interested in this school early on/that it was my first choice. I decided to focus on this school and planned to later hire Greg for additional schools if things did not work out with this one. Greg was honest, yet optimistic about my chances. He did not sugarcoat anything but instead reassured me that together, we would produce the best package possible.

Resume Review

Greg really helped me create a business school-type resume. Having been in the workforce for a few years, I was used to resumes that focused more on professional experiences. One thing that sets business school resumes apart is that business school style resumes should ideally also focus on leadership and involvement, which Greg really helped me position and hone.

Greg helped me create actionable, concise bullets for each line on my resume and helped consolidate my leadership, professional, and personal interests in one page. Greg conducted over 5+ iterations before we found it to be in a good place to submit to schools. Once we were done I felt confident that the 1-page document represented my experiences perfectly.

Essays

Greg truly went above and beyond with the essay prep and reviews. We had brainstorming calls for all of the essays my school required, with him scheduling, even more, calls if the topics didn’t “click”. I definitely feel like Greg helped me hone and tune my story to help me clearly articulate my goals and unique personal narrative.

Each of my essays had at least 5 iterations of reviews and each of Greg’s comments for the essays allowed me to further assess topics and enhance/refine my delivery. Greg often worked after-hours to provide me with feedback and most iterations were given back in about 2 business days, which allowed me to move fast and really focus on each essay.

I truly believe that Greg has a natural gift for telling stories. Each call helped me come up with a “skeleton” of each essay which I expounded upon. Greg’s guidance truly polished my essays and made me feel like I was submitting the best possible work. The fact that he scheduled multiple brainstorming sessions showed his dedication to coming up with the best product.

Interview Prep

Greg was one of the first people I notified when I was chosen to interview at my dream school. I was ecstatic that my hard work over the past few months was culminating with an interview invite. I wanted to schedule the interview ASAP since this was my dream school; however, Greg stressed the importance of adequate preparation.

We scheduled 2 preparation sessions of about 1-2 hours each and we conducted 2 mock interviews of about 2 hours each (all together ~8 hours even though the official interview prep service is technically supposed to be around 3 hours). I truly felt that Greg wanted me to do the best I possibly could and put in the extra work and effort to really help me articulate clearly how I could be a good fit for the school.

Greg’s preparation for the interview was so complete that I did not feel surprised on interview day. His interview prep was identical and I felt prepared for each question. Greg even gave me some tips to talk about my contributions to the school, which I think impressed the interviewer.

Conclusion

I got admitted to my first choice M7 with an average GPA, below-average GMAT, and 3 years of WE upon matriculation. I genuinely believe what made me stand out in applying to an M7 was my essays and application, which Greg truly helped me with.

I have read many negative things about consultants but please do trust me when I say that Greg is worth every penny. His feedback on each deliverable went above and beyond and really helped me take my application to the next level.

I only have positive things to say about my experience and I believe that Greg exceeded every expectation I had of hiring a consultant. I always felt like my opinions, questions, and beliefs were valued. With Greg’s help and support, I will be attending my dream school of 5+ years.

1/ Background/Profile

London-based male with ~4Y of professional experience in Finance (Asset Management, Investment Strategy, Portfolio Analytics) across Europe (London, Paris, Milan). BSc in Economics and 2 MSc (Finance and Quantitative Finance).

2/ Choosing a Consultant/Our Work Together

Having lost my job during the pandemic, I was looking for some help to refresh and upgrade my resume. A good friend of mine recommended Greg, and I will be forever grateful for this recommendation. After a preliminary talk on how to plan the work, I signed up for 6.0 hours of service. We decided to split the process in 3 steps: (i) resume (ii) cover letter (iii) presentation/messaging.

(i) We first reviewed each bullet point and every single word of my CV, and then improved the structure overall, balancing and refining blank space. At each round of review, Greg sent me the reviewed version with comments, questions, suggestions or possible options to improve a certain bullet. We managed to group similar info, cut or rephrase some points and develop some others. This part of the process took roughly 2/3 weeks. (ii) We also worked on the cover letter (2 reviews), enhancing storytelling, highlighting strengths, differentiators and key skills, to present my profile in a way that catches the attention of the reader. This also helped me to schematize my presentation during the interview. (iii) The last step was a call to discuss messaging, verbal presentation of the resume and time management during the interview, and potential outreach plans.

3/ Results

The result at the end of the process was impressive. Before working with Greg, I had never been interviewed by any Tier 1 IB, only had working experience with 2 large EU banks. Since I started applying with the reviewed resume and cover letter, I have been interviewed by the most prestigious financial firms (GS, MS, JPM, etc.), progressed to the final stage in 3 cases, and eventually received an offer from one of them.

4/ Recommendations

Greg was deeply committed and honest since the very first informal talk, with the only goal of helping me in achieving the best possible result. He always rounded down the time and, as a result, I am sure I received far more hours than what I signed for. Also, his professional experience in a prestigious financial firm and knowledge of the hiring process is a big plus and helpful to better understand the environment and the positions I was applying for.

The outcome exceeded my expectations by far, and after few applications, I soon realized how strong and effective was my resume after Greg’s edits. I am sure I would have never been able to secure my current job without his help. I highly recommend Avanti Prep!

Let me just start off by saying that if you are reading this, do not make the mistake and go with anyone other than Greg. He is the real deal.

I actually initially went with someone else for the sole reason that they had more reviews at a more established company, and it was the biggest (financially speaking), mistake of my life. After working with this individual for a few sessions and getting final drafts back that were littered with grammar errors and advice that felt templated, I knew I had to make a change. I thought back to my initial phone screeners and remembered feeling pleasantly surprised at how in depth our conversation got and how it didn’t feel like I was just a meeting on his calendar between other candidates. I took that feeling and got to working with Greg.

As for me, I applied to 2 M7’s and 2 top 10’s and 2 top 15’s as a 29YO white male with a low 700’s GMAT. I ended up getting into 4/6 schools, including an M7. The M7 we both agreed was a reach school, so the fact that I got in is a testament to our work together. I think I could have gotten into all 6 had it not been for applying late in CBS’s rolling admins, and making a blunder on another application.

Ok, enough about me… A couple of points as to why you should work with Greg.

A: His Writing/Editing
For me, the essays were quite daunting. Trying to take major life experiences and boil them down to 500 words to try to impress some people you’ve never met is still a crazy task to me. It’s a game we all have to play, so I get it…

To make things easier when it came to writing time, we spent a while on topic exploration. I appreciated how he brutally told me to drop some essay topics while finding the ‘angle’ to play up in others.

When it came to his revisions/notes, his comments were long. Like an entire essay worth of notes long. If you want someone to give you a free pass on your mediocre essay, he’s not your guy. Every sentence was poured over, and every word counted to him.

I appreciated how he kept wanting me to go deeper with topics. For example, I might have said I want to take X class. Greg’s response was ‘Why do you want to take the class’ ‘what projects in the class will make you get to your goal’ ‘how does this class tie to your overall story of why X school’. I knew he was putting time into my essay comments, so it pushed me to work harder on making them good. I felt like there was a bit of comradery that we wouldn’t let each other down.

Greg is also a fantastic writer. He will re-write some sentences to streamline them or hit home an important point. He won’t write the essay for you, but he’s not going to let you submit anything that isn’t up to his standard either.

B: Speed
Now I know he’s getting more popular, so I can’t guarantee the same experience, but Greg’s responses edits were fast. For most of the schools, I worked with Greg right up to the deadline. If I made an update on a set of essays, I could expect an edit back that same night or the next day at the latest. With speed did not come any drop in quality.

C: Trust
This one is hard to measure, but I feel like Greg cares about you and your success. I felt like I had someone going to battle with me. If you are reading this review, think about if the person is treating you like a number, or a person. I think that difference will make the consultant who cares stay up late to help you when the other is asleep.

Well, that’s it for now. Just go with Greg, you won’t regret it…

Background: White American male with IB/PE experience in the U.S. Accepted to Wharton in Round 1. GMAT was slightly above average for Wharton. Undergraduate GPA was a couple of ticks above Wharton’s average in a quantitative field from a well-ranked non-Ivy.

After speaking with several acquaintances and current students that I cold messaged through LinkedIn, I realized Wharton was my dream school. I finalized my resume and worked through the first draft of my essays but recognized I could benefit from a consultant. A friend recommended Greg to me and I’m forever grateful for that recommendation.

I felt pretty good about my overall story, so in my case the main messages in my essays did not need to be totally overhauled. But Greg coached me in making my essays more punctual and powerful, and the delivery and authenticity became stronger. With his guidance, I was able to bring out my personality, aspirations, and contributions better than my original drafts.

Greg was tenacious with his feedback but not in a way that put words in my mouth. Through our reviews and Greg’s constant push for me to “go deeper” and “dial up the specificity,” the essays became more insightful and genuinely reflective of me. I found it to be the ideal balance of super-specific feedback that enabled me to enhance my voice, rather than changing it.

I felt like I was working with a really talented friend that cared for my future and wanted me to get in as much as I did (as opposed to some friends’ stories about consultants that felt like they were on the clock, not in their corner). I ended up getting accepted to Wharton and I know Greg was a huge contributor to that outcome. I give Greg my highest recommendation.

I started looking for MBA admission consultants after I took my GMAT. Not only was my score below the average of the schools I was aiming for, but also I did not have a clear personal branding strategy to make my application competitive. Greg helped me tremendously throughout the process. He was very responsive and efficient and was always able to give me very helpful and insightful feedback for each draft of my essay and resume. Greg helped me craft my story, and ensure that I was conveying the most impactful examples throughout my essays and resume. I would highly recommend Greg.

*Please note that I worked with Greg Guglielmo in 2016 while he was a consultant with Critical Square*

I cannot recommend Greg Guglielmo enough.

I had known I wanted to pursue my MBA since the day I graduated college, but after taking the GMAT I was uncertain how I would put my best foot forward. I reached out to three consultancies with the hope that I might gain guidance on how to craft an application strategy and help me sort out my thoughts as I wrote my essays. After the free 30 minute consultation with Greg and Critical Square, I knew I wasn’t going to be sold a one-size-fits-all template.

I chose Greg and Critical Square’s comprehensive package for all of my schools and believe the investment to be worth every penny. When I was provided with the initial questionnaire, I started to appreciate how thoroughly they wanted to understand who I was, what my goals are, and what makes me tick. From that, Greg, Bhavik (the two consultants assigned to me) and I constructed a strong narrative that tied my previous experiences from my youth, undergraduate career, and early professional career with my desired post-MBA industry, goals, and how an MBA was the missing link. The part of my applications I was most nervous about was essays. I am neither a skilled nor expressive writer and so I knew articulating the thoughts in my head onto paper would be challenging. Between all six of my applications, I think we worked through close to 50 drafts. They were not afraid to rip into my essays, and that’s exactly what I needed. Although they were tough, Greg and Bhavik were always professional and enthusiastic about bringing to life the best possible essay I could write. They were able to help me elicit thoughts and insights and help me structure them in a way that managed to not only answer the prompt well but also make a compelling case for my candidacy all within the word limit (it’s a lot to do!).

Another great part of my experience was the level of correspondence I had with my consultants. Essay edits/comments were always sent back within 24 hours and I was not afraid to send a text or have a quick call with Greg to bounce around ideas. Lastly, as part of the comprehensive package, I was offered an interview prep for my schools and cannot speak highly enough of my experience there. Working with someone who has both interviewed for a program himself as well as interviewed prospective students gave me a great foundation for how best to answer certain types of questions as well as additional practice to ease my nerves.

At the end of the day, I was lucky enough to be admitted to three schools and am excited to be headed Tuck this fall with a substantial scholarship! I can honestly say that I would not have been nearly as successful as I was without Critical Square’s help along the way.

Profile: Asian, Male, GRE (327), 3.38 GPA. I applied to 3 schools and was rejected without an interview from a T10, accepted into a T20, and waitlisted from my first choice (T15).

After hearing about my waitlist, I was eager to find an affordable and well-regarded consultant who would provide guidance in developing and executing a waitlist strategy. I originally applied in round 2 under the guidance of a large, well-reputed consulting firm (5-Stars on GMATClub); however, I did not return because I wasn’t impressed by the quality of the reviews and also received conflicting feedback from two of the consultants. The first consultant was passive and let some of my gaps and soft spots slide. The second consultant gave me a more thorough review of my essays and highlighted any potential question marks that slid by the first review; however, she did not offer much guidance in developing a story to address those question marks.

After researching the rates and reviews of all the consultants that offered waitlist services, I ended up signing up with Greg from Avanti Prep for 4 hours, which we devoted entirely to waitlist strategy and execution.

We spent the first 40-50 minutes on a video conference, where we reflected on my application/interview and identified what gaps or soft spots existed. Greg was extremely detailed and critical in his review of my application and helped me readdress things that he felt were either not specific enough or were under-communicated in my original submission (ex: Why this school?). He gave me advice on how to convey that the school remained my top choice and my commitment to attend. I am certain that the tactics we deployed in conveying these finer details helped get me accepted.

Greg went through many detailed reviews and consistently pushed me to greater introspection behind my passions and story. Even when I felt like I addressed everything, Greg constantly pushed me for further specificity. As tedious as this was, it was extremely important because doing so helped me create a unique and tailored story, something I felt like the previous consultants did not dig deep enough into. It was clear from the beginning that Greg was deeply invested and always put 100% effort into his work. We originally signed up for 4 hours, but Greg gave me 1.5 hours of extra time for additional review in order to ensure I had the best submission possible. In fact, if you read all the other reviews of Greg then you will see a history of Greg going well beyond his hours to help other applicants as well. In the end, I got accepted by my dream school and there was a stark difference between my original submission and what was submitted with Greg’s help.

Previously, Greg helped me with an interview prep to Booth. His efforts resulted in a waitlist. And I am very passionate about support Greg provided to me with it. We worked on Booth waitlist updates in 2 stages – a video update and a written update.

Video update – a core requirement of Booth. I worked with him in a couple of steps – 1)Brainstorm 2) First draft 3) Second draft. During the brainstorm, Greg helped me pick those themes and topics, which matter for the school the most, focused me on how to create a story and develop content. It was extremely important because a video is only 60 seconds, so I needed to make every word count. During the review of my first draft, Greg pressed me to dig deeper and deeper in terms of specificity and authenticity and uniqueness: how my values map to those of school, how to add details about examples and learning, what special value I see in Booth and how my knowledge and background would uniquely contribute to Booth. During the last step, Greg helped me decrease a whole video essay with 500 words to a 60-second video script, add flavor and style to words, and helped the language flow easily and words sound simple.

After a month, we worked on the next update – Written Letter. I connected with many students to discuss how I can contribute to clubs and what will be most impactful. Additionally, I gathered a couple of anecdotes about the experience at Booth MBA. Greg helped me turn this information into 1000 words essay, teaming with extremely specific content about how my long-term goals and Booth academics uniquely match each other and how my passions are connected to the Booth community. Greg helped me find and polish examples, develop details, change the wording, clean the structure, and make my story more coherent with the values of Booth.

Greg spent countless hours over the requested amount of services because of his passion to help. He honestly wanted me to enter Booth, thus he continues to review my texts, polish, and clean them without additional payment. His effort to go the extra mile turn my written update into something special.

And I fully recommend him as a great partner in the waitlist process because of his passion and knowledge of business schools.

I first heard about Avanti Prep from a coworker that had worked with Greg. At the time, I was considering applying to an MBA program and reached out to Greg for a free consultation. I was blown away by his thoughtfulness and thoroughness during the initial call, which lasted nearly an hour longer than scheduled. Though I hadn’t decided to apply, I knew I would work with Greg if I did. A few months later, I had pinpointed the perfect JD/MBA program at an M7 school. To his credit, Greg was upfront with me that as a “cookie-cutter” candidate (white male, solid GMAT, financial services background), my likelihood of being admitted was not exceedingly high. Nevertheless, I decided to go for it.

After I presented a few potential essay topics, Greg asked the poignant questions that allowed me to delve levels deeper into my experiences and extract meaningful takeaways. While writing, I peppered Greg with questions and appreciated his quick and detailed responses. He never showed any frustration as I second-guessed decisions and changed course. Greg was especially helpful in strategizing my approach to recommendations and preparing for my interview. Having started the application a month before the deadline, I worked non-stop with Greg, who willingly accelerated his typical consulting process to ensure that a submitted a high-quality application. When I was notified of my acceptance, Greg was one of the first people I told. I would highly recommend Avanti Prep to anyone applying. I can’t imagine a more effective, pleasant, and thorough consultant.

Profile and Background

I am a 30-year-old engineer, am from an over-represented group, have two degrees in electrical engineering, and have pretty average stats. I have worked in the energy industry for almost 7 years at a pretty niche company with some promotions but no direct management experience.

• Age: 30
• Demographics: White American male
• Electrical engineer in energy industry
• GMAT: 710 (Q49, V39, IR6, AWA6)
• Undergrad GPA: 3.3, Graduate GPA: 3.9
• Small, non-target school barely scraping the T-100 (bachelor’s and master’s)
• Work Experience: ~7 years w/ no direct management experience
• Applied in Round 2 to only one school (will explain this later)

I have a pretty basic profile and had been preparing 2+ years for the GMAT. Summer 2019 came along, and I still had not hit my target GMAT score and had little idea of where to even start with applications or how to transform my goals and passion into a cohesive story for my application. My goal is to transition from an engineering/market analyst role to a renewable energy-specific project finance/development role.

Choosing a Consultant

A good friend referred me to Avanti Prep at a time when I was both lost on where to start and skeptical of admissions consultants. I spoke with about 5 different consultants but found that Greg, during our Free Consultation, was the most forthcoming and honest as well as the most personable. He managed expectations but also had the energy and tenacity to make me feel confident that, despite any obstacle, I could put my best foot forward and deliver the best, most optimal, and representative application I could. He made no promises except to be the best possible partner along the way and to give my application the time it needed.

Summary Recommendation

I enrolled in Avanti Prep’s Tier 3 Package, which covers everything, and my experience with Greg was fantastic. MBA applications can be incredibly daunting and, paired with GMAT/GRE prep, very stressful. Greg helped transform the application into a very detailed step-by-step process that made it much easier for me to balance writing the application, preparing for my GMAT, and working on some of the auxiliary parts of my application (outreach, etc.).

Greg’s reviews were very meticulous, methodical, and detailed. He answered my questions quickly via email (we had 3+ email threads going at any given time with a LOT of back-and-forths) and empowered me to put my best foot forward in each component. He put a lot of effort into understanding my background, story, and goals. He emphasizes working through the application as partners, and he does not fall short. He was invested in each component of my application as much as I was – and it shined through in each task, call, and review along the way.

Honestly, no amount of Reddit posts, ClearAdmit/GMATClub/P&Q blog posts or Admissions “Application Tips” posts would have prepared me to deliver the level of application that Greg helped me deliver. I’m incredibly proud of it. Two years ago I had all but given up on the idea of getting into a Top-20 program but now, with Greg’s help, I’m headed to my dream school with a scholarship award (that the school doubled from their original offer)!

Step-by-Step Process and Detailed Recommendation

The Tier 3 Package covers everything, including: 1) school selection and story development, 2) essay brainstorming and review, 3) resume review, 4) recommender selection, strategy, and review, 5) interview prep, and 6) scholarship negotiations (plus other auxiliary elements, as noted, like Q&A and guidance regarding how to reach out to and connect with schools). For those interested in the details, I’ll try to touch on each step below.

School Selection & Story Development: I had narrowed my list of schools down to about 5 before meeting Greg, but decided to shoot my shot on just one that I thought could deliver me the MBA program I felt I needed. Greg listened to my goals, suggested other potential school fits, but ultimately respected my decision to apply to just 1 school – something other consultants advised against. Story development was incredibly thorough; Greg left no stone unturned and actively searched for different breadcrumbs that could bring my essays and application to life.

Essay Brainstorming and Review: After our initial brainstorming call, we settled on a few themes to focus on for my first essay. The initial draft felt like an insurmountable challenge, but once I submitted it to Greg, we engaged in a very fluid and dynamic development and iteration process. In the early going, we were circling around the right themes and delivery, but we weren’t all the way there. To Greg’s credit, he never let us settle for something that wasn’t fully clicking or telling my story, even if it took more time or back-and-forth. It took 5 reviews, but Greg helped me deliver a really good, authentic, and representative essay.

The second essay required a lot of school research and outreach (something Greg strongly recommends his clients to do) and creativity. Greg gave me the freedom to inject my personality into the essay and helped me deliver, what I think is, a pretty creative essay that I was immensely proud of. Greg also helped with my Optional Essay that buttressed any soft spots in my application.

Resume Review: This was one of the first things Greg and I tackled since it seemed to be the easiest way for me to get the ball rolling. Greg was able to help me extract information from my professional and personal experiences and inject it into bullet points that worked together to maximize different parts of my experience and also echo my post-MBA goals. He also helped me translate things from technical engineering parlance to clear bullets with business relevance. Honestly – the resume looks very sharp and I’m going to be scared to change it!

Recommender Prep: I already had a decent idea of who I was going to ask to write my recommendation, but Greg worked to vet my thought process regarding my choice. He reaffirmed my decision to go with a recommender that wouldn’t deliver a flowery review, but instead one that would deliver an honest review that highlighted new topics, echoed the strengths of my application, and even reinforced certain areas of potential concern.

Interview Prep: After receiving an invitation to interview, we started off with a call where Greg walked me through the overall interview experience, steps to prepare for a wide assortment of different interview questions as well as ones that were typically asked by my target school. After my own prep, we had a mock-interview that road-tested each of my answers. He provided clear and methodical feedback and gave me a roadmap to address any shortcomings in my initial answers. After that, we had a follow-up call to practice a couple of questions one last time and to tie up loose ends.

Scholarship Negotiation: As Greg pointed out, Goal 1 was to get in, then Goal 2 was to hope for or attempt to get scholarship money. On an Admissions Officer’s recommendation, I had mentioned in my Optional Essay that I only applied to their school. Greg and I had weighed the pros and cons of saying this – the pro is that it would help show commitment and interest (Goal 1), and the con is that it left me with very little leverage in any type of negotiations (Goal 2).

However, after being admitted and awarded a small chunk of scholarship money, Greg advised me on how to craft an email to Admissions that addressed my decision to apply to only one school, highlighted all of the efforts I had made outside of the physical application to connect and engage with the school, and basically attempted to transform my deep commitment to the program into scholarship leverage. They ended up doubling my scholarship award!

I worked with Greg to prepare my essays, CV, and overall application for Wharton. From day 1, he went above and beyond to understand my story, identify strengths and weaknesses, and help me articulate everything I wanted to say in the most effective and concise way. One of the key highlights of my partnership with Greg was that I always felt I was a priority, which showed in the quality and timeliness of his insights and advice. He understood the school, what was important, and how to bring various elements together to maximize impact. Finally, his style shows a great balance between professionalism and friendliness. I highly recommend Greg and would not hesitate to work with him again.

Profile:

– Indian Male with Engineering background
– GMAT – 660 (Q50, V29); GRE – 315 (Q166, V149); GPA – 9/10
– 7 years of work experience in Data Science and Advanced Analytics with exposure to several impactful projects; Fortune 25 firm
– Domain knowledge in Retail and Healthcare
– Acquired knowledge in Finance through reading books and attending conferences

A step backward on my own:

I had my scores by the end of June and started out to apply for various business schools in Asia, US, and Europe to meet the Round 1 deadlines. As I navigated through the application process by drafting my own essays and resume, I received reviews from my friends that the essays lacked punch and subsequently realized that I had wasted more than a month of precious time to create a below-par application. It was at this instance that my friends directed me to seek the help of Avanti Prep and I decided to opt Greg as my admission consultant by initially leveraging GMAT Club’s moderator benefits, and then signing up for additional services beyond that.

Nature of our work together:

We began working together in November and Greg scheduled a free call to understand my interests and also explained to me how we would work during the course of my application. I decided to opt for his Hourly Services and we worked together for 17 hours encompassing a range of topics including School Selection (1 hour), Story Development (1 hour), Resume Reviews (4 hours), Essay Brainstorming (1 hour), Essay Reviews (5 hours), Recommender Strategy (1 hour) and Interview Prep (2.5 hours). Additionally, I also opted for Greg’s Scholarship Strategy (1.5 hours) to increase my scholarship amount in schools that I did not secure a full scholarship.

Although the official duration of service was 17 hours, the actual value derived from Greg’s reviews and my interaction with him was way more than the mentioned numeral, both in terms of benefit and even in terms of the actual time provided. Given the 17 hours invested, we utilized Questrom as the main focus of the Essay Reviews and Interview Prep, as it became my top choice and gave me the best chance to apply for our work together to the other schools that I was applying to. Through the process, Greg helped me to show my strengths, communicate detailed career goals and school interests, and overcome my low verbal score through my essays and interviews.

Results:

I applied to 9 schools overall and received interview invites from 7 of them. I received admit offers from Questrom (full scholarship for MBA + MSDT), Katz (large scholarship), Cox (large scholarship), and Mason (large scholarship + GA). I was also waitlisted after an interview at Simon, Maryland Smith, and Krannert. Given my scores, our School Selection process was very meticulous. Using Greg’s direction to research various schools, I started to love Questrom, and we based our future work keeping Questrom in focus. Since I had already secured an admit from the school that I wanted to graduate with a full ride, I did not make an effort to convert any of my waitlists.

Experience working with Greg:

The first thing that comes into my mind when I think about Greg is ‘Above and Beyond’. He did not let my scores be a deterrent for applying to Top 50 U.S. business schools. When he evaluated my profile, he conveyed to me that I have chances of securing an admit to the respective schools that I had shortlisted and began focusing on my strengths. He pushed me hard to bring about the experience that I had gained by working on several different projects and helped me leverage those insights to craft a brilliant resume and an impactful essay. Several weeks of deliberation over my essay with Story Development, Essay Brainstorming, Essay Reviews and tremendous attention to detail transformed my essay from a naive one to a sophisticated one. Looking at my final Questrom essay, I believed I had a chance.

I parallelly used Greg’s offered insights and advice to draft essays for other shortlisted schools and I was able to answer a variety of questions by referring to the time we had spent on Story Development, Essay Brainstorming, and Essay Reviews. I am immensely happy to say that I received interview invites from almost every school that I had applied. I was even surprised to receive an interview invite from Cox within 90 minutes of submitting my application.

During the Interview Prep, we did a realistic Questrom mock interview and then a methodical feedback conversation covering every question, ranging from the main questions to the easier questions to the tougher questions. Greg gave me a chance to answer all the questions in a real interview format and then explained to me how my answers could be improved. The Story Development and Essay Brainstorming played a crucial role yet again to connect my experience and strengths to answer the diverse questions that could be targeted at me during the interviews. Greg even pointed me to use the skills that I had gained outside of work to improve and diversify my interview responses. This helped me to get accustomed to the variety of questions that could be asked and I felt very confident during my interviews.

Finally, for an Indian applicant, the Hourly Services may seem expensive but Greg’s services are one of the most affordable you can obtain from an International Admission Consultant. The value you derive from Greg’s expertise is unmatched and you will start appreciating your results even before you reach the finish line. When I did reach the finish line, the return on my investment was already worth several multiples as I received a full scholarship to the school I loved the most despite my scores being only around average for that school.

Background:

• White Male – US with military experience
• 5 years work experience mostly in military and <1 year engineering
• GPA: 3.5 Engineering from large public university
• GMAT: 730
• Reapplicant to both schools

Greg’s Dedication:

I fully recommend Greg to any applicant to business school or any person looking for professional advice. I was connected to Greg through the recommendation of a mutual friend and his help guided me through an incredibly stressful time in my life. Beyond gaining acceptance to two of the best MBA programs with large scholarships to both schools, he also helped me through my transition out of the military, navigate several different job offers and strategies, and provided professional advice to help me achieve the best outcome for my situation.

This allowed me to make a significant career move nearly doubling my salary while also completing my applications. This assistance was outside of the terms of the Tier 3 Package, but it is representative of the dedication and excellent service Greg provides. Even before I enlisted his services contractually, Greg had already spent 3 hour-long phone calls strategizing with me to determine the best time to apply to school, free of charge. I highly encourage anyone who is remotely curious about business school to contact Greg. He will tell you honestly what he sees is the best option for you.

Our Work on the Application Process:

Specifically, when working with Greg on the application process, the Tier 3 package is truly all-encompassing. We worked on the two M7 applications together, and they were the only schools to which I applied. I would categorize our work in two phases: pre-application deadline and post-application deadline.

Pre-Application Deadline:

We started with filling out a comprehensive worksheet and then moved into Strategy and Brainstorming calls. After Strategy and Brainstorming, we attacked the process in 5 distinct streams: School Engagement, Resume, Essays, Recommendations, and Short Answers / Application Questions. In each of these streams, Greg and I meticulously went over each detail and tried to highlight different portions of my background, experiences, and passions to give a complete and honest view to the application reader.

Greg is not only extremely detail-oriented in proofreading grammar and word choice, but he is also an expert at bringing out nuances in your experience that might easily be overlooked. He can help you discover not only why a certain program is best for you, but also how you would uniquely contribute to that specific program. All of this comes out during several detailed reviews, phone calls, and countless emails.

Greg is even a master at helping advise you in your communications with recommenders, thank you notes, and any other correspondence that might be crucial to your application. He is extremely timely in replying to all correspondence and has great organization maintained through independent email threads and calendar invites. And he is active in preparing you for on-campus visits, which can be a key part of an application and play a role in essay questions or future interview questions.

Post-Application Deadline:

Once the applications were submitted the work and Greg’s dedication did not stop. Almost immediately we had to prepare for the next phase of the application, the interviews. The first hurdle was the Kellogg video interview, with three one-minute questions. For the videos, we brainstormed, I mapped out thoughts that Greg reviewed, and then we had a one-hour mock video preparation session until I was comfortable with the format and ready to answer the questions.

We then started preparing for in-person interviews. Greg was extremely flexible when working with my schedule and navigating our time difference. We prepared with 10, one-hour sessions over a video call, generally taking the form of 1 mock interview followed by 2 feedback sessions. The mock interviews and questions Greg prepares you with are targeted, detailed and specific to each school. Greg also provided a bank of potential questions, also specific to each school. We spent a long time discussing the key points of each question and question type to ensure I had quality and genuine answers. I did not memorize any answers, but when I was in the interviews none of the questions caught me by surprise, and I had a very positive experience. Having prepared with Greg, the interviews felt more like a conversation, and I felt 100% confident and prepared.

After completing both interviews, Greg encouraged me to reach out to the connections (current students and alumni) I made during the past few months to update them on my progress. When the results finally came back I again turned to Greg to help navigate the admission offers I received. My first-choice school originally did not offer a scholarship, however, my second choice did. Greg helped me shape an email to admissions and encouraged me to reach out to my contacts to help get a match from my top choice. The strategy worked and I am excited to start at my top school with a large scholarship in Fall 2020.

Overall:

Working with Greg was an absolute pleasure. He was always on time and responsive, and the personal attention he afforded me was unparalleled. From the time we first spoke in April 2019 until being accepted almost 12 months later, Greg has always been honest and available. He truly provides a comprehensive service with the Tier 3 Package, and I believe it is absolutely worth the money. My results in going from applying to these schools and others last year and receiving no admission offers, to being accepted with a scholarship to two M7 schools speak for themselves, and those results more than justify the investment.

Even still, I believe there was more value to Greg’s service than just a better application. I learned about myself. I discovered what my career passions truly are and focused on my professional goals. I improved my writing technique, my interview skills, and my business communication acumen. In those ways enlisting Greg’s services gave me a crash course in pre-business school preparation. I feel ready and excited to start in Fall 2020, and thanks to our work together, I have developed crucial skills to help me in the recruiting process.

I give Greg my highest recommendation and could not be happier with the experience and results.

I come from the military, graduated middle of my class from college with a double major and sub 3.0 GPA, and scored below 700 on my GMAT. I’ve had good military experience, but my low scores, condensed GMAT preparation and lack of familiarity with the professional landscape and business school process didn’t quite set me up for success in my applications. Working with Greg at Avanti Prep helped me overcome all of this and land a spot at my dream school.

I signed up for Avanti Prep’s Tier 3 Package and was thoroughly satisfied and impressed. Over the course of 9 months, Greg comprehensively interviewed me to understand my life story and future goals and assisted me with transforming those personal and professional stories into compelling essays and resume, strong interviews and a complete package to my schools.

From the story and process planning, school selection, school engagement (Greg helped me connect with veterans groups), essay brainstorming, essay and resume reviews, and hours upon hours of video calls and interview prep, Greg was there and fully committed every step of the way. I wholly recommend the Tier 3 Package, as Greg went above and beyond his obligations consistently throughout the journey and put in even more hours to assist me in preparing for my interviews for which I had had little to no prior experience. He also helped guide me over countless resume iterations from having essentially no resume to one that’s received superb feedback from senior alumni and admissions personnel along the way.

I cannot stress enough how invaluable Greg was to the process. It takes a lot to win my trust, but through his skill and commitment Greg did just that, and I hope this conveys how highly I regard his work. Greg not only took the time to understand my story but to understand me. My goals and aspirations for the school and my future quickly became his. Between my busy work schedule, Greg kept me driving to meet the deadlines I needed to meet. He lives and breathes through his clients’ stories, and he was without a doubt attached emotionally to the success and failures of my application process as any professional would be with their own work. If I could do it over again or recommend him to anyone, there is nobody I trust more to deliver than Greg.

I wholeheartedly endorse Greg to anyone looking to secure an admissions consultant and have already referred several friends to discuss their way forward on their business school journeys. If you are looking for top-tier quality and total commitment, then I recommend you do the same.

I had been actively engaged in a job search for over 6 months in the highly competitive business development field in the beauty technology space and received feedback in one 30 min intro interview that there had been over 1000 applicants applying for that one position. Upon hearing this, and after several months of looking without luck, I knew I needed to upgrade my resume and cover letter to make sure I was putting my best foot forward in this sea of applicants.

When I first reached out to Greg, I thought my resume and cover letter were in decent shape and only probably needed slight tweaks… I honestly thought this, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know! During our initial consultation, Greg was very clear about how deep and far we could go in this process… where one review of each document would take us, versus two or three reviews… to make sure I felt comfortable with timing and budget, which I highly appreciated.

I ended up signing up for 7 hours of service, which we used for one extended strategy call, followed by 3 deep reviews of the resume and 3 deep reviews of my main cover letter. During the strategy call, Greg got a sense of my background, accomplishments and strengths and nuances of my experience in the industry. We also brainstormed potential approaches regarding how to best message these strengths and experiences in the resume and cover letter, and given the types of jobs that I was applying to… customized to what they were looking for.

I made some preliminary updates to my resume and cover letter drafts, and then we took the reviews one by one. After the first review, I couldn’t believe how much more succinct, clear and compelling my resume was beginning to become. We built on this over the resume review process… and it truly is a process! Greg really drilled me on my accomplishments and helped me identify the unique strengths and themes that I was unable to see within my own experiences. From an editing perspective, Greg made them shine in the best light, something I had a hard time putting into words before. We went through 2 more reviews and I felt comfortable at that point, though Greg still pointed out ways we could go the extra mile to make the documents absolutely airtight. His ability with words is something I’ve never seen before, it’s truly masterful and my resume and cover letter came out night and day from the originals. He also has incredible professionalism, time management, and is a pleasure to work with.

Not only did I see the rate of responses go up, but I think the most important thing is that I felt so confident sending my updated resume and cover letter out, so I ultimately sent out more. I also felt like the process we went through with the resume and cover letter helped me understand and crystallize how to best message my strengths and experiences, both when applying and during interviews. Finally, I received and accepted an offer very shortly after working with Greg on an amazing opportunity. I really believe that our work together got me there much more quickly. I would definitely work with Greg in the future and would highly recommend him for any project, application, interview, professional editing, messaging or storytelling endeavor.

GMAT 710, GPA 3-64, East European male, Analyst at Big-3 management consultancy.
I enrolled in one full Interview Prep session, which included a mock interview in the style of Booth, followed by a comprehensive feedback session. The session was scheduled for 2 hours and 30 minutes; we ended up going for 3 hours and 45 minutes.

This experience greatly deepened my insights about the interview process and helped me structure my mind and my story. I was able to communicate key ideas in a top-down way and Greg helped me shape my ideas in an easy to digest way.

I signed up for this session because of an expected beyond the average level of care. My hopes were fully fulfilled: I received unparalleled help in terms of the number of structured frameworks and of tailored support – Greg a great length to support me – well beyond expected hours and much greater personalization.
It included extra time, emails before and after, examples, results of research, specificity and attention to detail during interview prep, the similarity of the style to the real Booth interview.
I felt much better prepared than to any previous interview.

The result was a very personal and friendly engaging interview with a top manager of an India oil and gas corporation. My interview was very happy to see the “Booth” mindset and other aspects of “fit”. I am waiting for the final words from the AdCom.

My background:

Indian male, 30 years old, first-time applicant
Undergrad: Engineering from an IIT with a decent GPA
Postgrad: PGDM in Marketing and Communications from a Top 20 Indian school
5.5 years of work experience in advertising, branding, and product marketing roles
GMAT: 750

When I decided to apply to business schools, my profile had quite a few obstacles that usually end up crushing most applicants’ dreams – a highly competitive demographic pool, age, no blue-chip employers on the resume, lot of job switches, and what some schools would consider a second MBA situation as well. Still, I knew that this was my ‘one and done’ shot at business schools, and so, I decided to give it my everything. I targeted one M7, three top 10, and one top 15 school in R1.

Things I worked on with Greg:

I had the opportunity to work with Greg through the GMATClub moderator scholarship. At that time, I had already finished interviewing with the M7 school, had been denied by one T10 school, and was waiting for interview invite results from the other two T10 schools and the T15 school.

Greg offered to set up a free 30-minute consultation call to understand my profile and goals better. Even though this is somewhat standard practice with admissions consultants, what really stood out for me was that Greg offered the same level of support to a ‘non-paying’ (scholarship) client like me as he would have to a paying client. For me, this spoke highly about the level of support I could expect from him going forward. By the end of the call, I felt that he had a great understanding of where I was in the application process and accordingly suggested the service that would benefit me the most.

Shortly after, I received interview invites from all the remaining schools that I was waiting on, and Greg and I decided to work on interview prep for the two T10 schools. We decided to do two full-length Interview Prep sessions, each of which included a 1-hour school-specific mock interview session followed by a 1.5-hour question-by-question analysis and feedback session, which in reality lasted longer than that (at no extra cost).
Besides this, Greg also went above and beyond and offered free advice and tips for my T15 interview.

Based on my positive experience of working with Greg and the results (see below), I also additionally took an hour of Greg’s service for scholarship negotiations, and was not disappointed there as well!

My results:

I got into one of the T10 schools with a 40k scholarship, and the T15 school with a 50k scholarship!

(Even though I did not get into the other T10 school that we did the interview prep for, it’s worth mentioning that that school is one of the most selective ones and was a stretch school, to begin with. I definitely felt much more confident going into the interview with Greg’s insightful help and preparation than I would have otherwise.)

Further, I used Greg’s help to negotiate scholarships at both the schools where I was admitted. For this, I took one hour of service with him, which involved one strategy discussion call and one review of negotiation emails for each school. It was heartwarming to see that Greg didn’t just stop at helping me secure admits but wanted me to get the best possible outcome in terms of scholarship as well, and he ended up spending more than 1.5 hours providing thoughtful feedback and edits.

And while the T10 school refused to negotiate (which I came to know was the response that many other admitted students received as well), the T15 school came back and offered 10k more!! That is a 40x ROI and even that doesn’t speak enough of Greg’s expertise!

What made working with Greg awesome:

Right from our first interaction, I felt that Greg was really invested in my success, even though we hadn’t worked on my applications from the start and I was essentially availing his Interview Prep services for free. Having heard stories of how controlling and money-minded some admissions consultants can be, it was refreshing to see Greg’s commitment to ensure that I achieved the best possible outcome.

His Interview Prep sessions were extremely thorough and tailored to the specific school in question. For both the Prep sessions, not only did Greg conduct a one-hour mock interview, but he also followed it up with well-researched and comprehensive guides of questions for each school. Beyond that, his experience and knowledge of what specific schools and AdComs are looking for immensely helped my response preparation.

During the feedback sessions, Greg’s attention to detail really stood out. He was able to provide laser-sharp feedback which helped me work on specific areas in my responses. Again, during all this, I felt there were many times when Greg went above and beyond our official engagement – whether it was spending 3 hours instead of the originally committed 2.5, or accommodating Interview Prep in his schedule on short notices as soon as I received interview invites, or even taking the time to provide detailed responses to my questions over email as soon as he could.

Similarly, I credit his communication expertise and meticulous feedback on my negotiation emails with the 10k bump that I received from the T15 school.

Overall, I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Greg and achieve two great admits with scholarships! I would wholeheartedly recommend Greg for his thorough professionalism, personalized coaching, attention to detail, and an unmatched level of dedication and commitment to the applicant’s success.

I found Greg / Avanti Prep through the GMAT Club consultant reviews and reached out for a free consultation. I had applied to a lot of top schools in round 1 but didn’t get any interviews except for MIT Sloan. Wanting to maximize my chances, I did an interview prep session with Greg. During the free consultation, we clicked immediately, and Greg offered a lot of great advice beyond just the interview related ones. During our interview prep session, Greg conducted an elaborate interview in the MIT-specific style. We then spent even more time for him to give me even more detailed feedback for every single question. For the actual interview, I felt very confident because we had practiced almost every single one of the questions asked. I ended up getting into MIT Sloan!

Background information and choosing a consultant:

It all started back in June of my application year when I gave my 2nd GMAT. I scored a 690 and knew I had blown away my chance of getting into a top 10 MBA school. I come from a very overly represented group of applicants. Thus, a GMAT score that was less than the higher end of school averages will not cut it for me. I scheduled my next GMAT for August and was hoping to close GMAT for good then. Luckily, I was able to get the desired score. The next day onward I scheduled 30 minute free consultations with 6 admissions consultancies over the course of next 1-1.5 weeks. I vetted out major consultants and zeroed in on Greg Guglielmo based on the depth of his responses, clarity, and process as explained to me.

One question that clinched for me was the answer to “based on my profile etc, what are the chances to these (my list of 5 schools).” Response from Greg was the most honest and straightforward one. I didn’t want to work with a company that will give me false hopes, only to come crashing down later. Greg told me that the schools of my choice (all M7) will all be extremely difficult but not impossible given my background. That being said, I understood the process on the very first call, leading to better clarity on what was expected to get in a really great application package. The call lasted 1.5 hours instead of the scheduled 30 minutes and Greg made sure that all my doubts were answered. Also, Greg did not try to talk me out of the choice of my schools but made sure that we will have a good method of attack for whatever schools I want to apply to.

Package, timeline, schools, and process:

Once I decided, I only had a month to submit several applications in R1, so I went for the comprehensive (Tier 3) package as I didn’t want to be constrained by the number of edits or the number of times I can reach out to my consultant. As mentioned before, I come from an overly represented group and as I was very interested in doing everything I can in getting that admit, weaving my past experience of an engineer in the aerospace industry to go into a consulting role post-MBA would play a massive role in how good a candidate adcoms will consider me.

The schools that I initially planned to go ahead with were Kellogg, Booth, Wharton, CBS, MIT, and NYU. Based on our strategy calls and limited time-frame I pushed Booth and NYU to R2 and dropped MIT as a combined strategic decision while bringing in Ross for R1. Along with school selection, I was also provided a very detailed questionnaire that had ~30 questions and took me several hours to complete as I knew doing this exercise will help me understand answers to questions such as why MBA, why now, strengths and weaknesses.

Once we had that figured out, I was asked to start bringing my recommenders up to speed with the process. Greg helped me in compiling a list of questions (most of the schools now ask the same questions although with different word limits) and discussing the specificity required from them in their responses. I did not help my recommenders in writing the recommendation as it is against the sanctity of the process.

I worked on close to 50 drafts of essays, and 5 drafts of resume. All these drafts were required as my initial drafts were either not answering the essay prompt or were too verbose. After submitting my R1 applications, we started working on R2 applications (Stern and Booth). In the meantime, I got interview calls from CBS, Wharton, and Kellogg. Greg made sure that I was well prepared by scheduling mock interviews before each school. Good thing is that the feedback that you get is actionable.

Do note that none of the admissions consultancies will write anything for you. As an applicant, you must do the work yourself. At most, the consultants will help you in using the correct verbiage and provide the best way of putting the same thought forward. I made sure to choose what I thought was the main idea and tone behind the different essays. It will always be your work and not of your consultant.

Key takeaways:

1. Comments on my drafts by Greg were top-notch; very particular and even included links to places where I would be getting the desired answers. I was very ably guided all along via regular and prompt emails. Without these comments, it would have taken me at least twice the time to submit even 1 application. Prompt email replies are something I truly appreciate as a working professional as it alleviates stress to a very large amount.

2. The most important point: the time-frame for getting the comments back usually used to be 1 day (sometimes even a few hours). I never had any round of comments sent after 2 days. I was not charged extra for providing such prompt service. I used to work on my drafts till 1 AM and would get up at 6 AM only to find comments back from Greg.

3. The mastery of language and ability to guide me over several reviews to tell my stories and reduce my initial drafts by more than 400 words even was just amazing.

4. In the end, I did not miss a single deadline and made sure that all my documentation (essays, online applications, and recommendation letters) were submitted on time and were of the highest quality possible. Greg completely understood the urgency that was required in meeting my application goals.

Results and summary:

The final result was that I got interview calls at CBS, Wharton, and Kellogg and was admitted to Kellogg for Class of 2018. Although I was dinged after the interview at CBS and Wharton, I am sure that the help provided to me by Greg was instrumental in getting those interview calls in the first place; especially at Wharton and Columbia where they have tons of engineers with my background applying every single year.

To summarize, my investment was worth the cost, effort put in all along made me more aware of the entire application process and provided me better insights into my strengths. Definitely and wholeheartedly recommend Greg Guglielmo.

Indian female – 730 GMAT – Engineering graduate with a 9/10 GPA from a tier-1 college – 5 years of work experience in Education and Ed-Tech

While researching ways by which I could bolster my application process, I came across Avanti Prep and signed up for a free consultation. Greg’s opinions and insights during that introductory call were honest, practical and really useful. It gave me a good sense of my chances of securing an admission in my desired Universities (all in the top 10) and the effort I’d need to put in.

I signed up for hourly services with Greg (5 hours) to work on Story Analysis and Planning, Story and Career Goal Development, Essay Brainstorming, and Essay Reviews for 3 schools. As a result of our working together, I secured an admission to a Top 10 Program and was waitlisted at another Top 10 Program – one that has a very very selective process.

Our collaboration started off with a detailed plan for the way we’d split the total time across different pieces for different schools. Greg’s school-specific insights were truly amazing! He would help me understand how to present my story and my goals more effectively for each school. This truly helped shape my thought process while working on the essays and significantly informed my presentation of self in the applications. His essay reviews were also extremely detailed. It was evident that Greg had spent more hours than planned on reviewing each essay. This brings me to my next point of how incredibly accommodating he was, evidently focussing on quality and results rather than clock-watching to the minute. Despite enrolling in only 5 hours (very limited to cover various application pieces for 3 schools), he graciously spent a LOT of extra time on every call and every essay review. Over and beyond that, even after our time together was over, he replied to every single email/question of mine in great detail making sure to offer any help he could.

I had such a positive experience with Greg that I referred two of my friends to him.

Apart from everything mentioned, something else that stood out to me was Greg’s nature to never be overly optimistic or overly pessimistic. He strikes a balance between being honest, realistic and being extremely encouraging, which comes as a great emotional/mental boost while you’re navigating through the taxing, strenuous and difficult process of applying for an MBA in the US.

I reached out to Avanti Prep once I received my interview invite from Columbia. Having been rejected from M7 schools in the previous application cycle with almost the exact same profile (extremely competitive demographic, 740 GMAT, 6 years work-ex), I wanted to make sure I converted my chances this time around.

I had already given a couple of interviews with other schools and my preparation was decent, but after my Columbia mock interview with Greg, I felt confident that I was going to do well in my interview. For starters, what was scheduled to be a 2.5hr call went on for ~4hrs due to the level of detail Greg dives into while not only analyzing answers to each question – but also helping me stitch through a cohesive story across all questions to create a solid narrative.

Greg customized the questions and mock interview experience so they were ‘Columbia–like’ which was extremely valuable to me. Columbia interviews tend to include questions that focus on industry trends, key focus of the industry etc. that are unlike questions asked in other business schools interviews which can throw a candidate off-guard if not prepared for questions like these. Greg covered how to approach these in detail.

Another key highlight for me was how Greg was able to emphasize on key points (passion for Columbia, my contributions to Columbia) I had to convey during the interview. It so happened that my interviewer did not end up asking me the question on how I wish to contribute to Columbia, but because of the strategic prep I was able to turnaround a related question and convey my thoughts on how I would contribute.

Lastly, a big takeaway for me was how Greg was able to help me understand how I was being perceived. On a couple of instances, Greg recommended I not use certain words or change my delivery of certain phrases because they could be perceived unfavorably. This level of feedback I thought can only come from a seasoned interviewer and greatly improved my confidence because I now had almost no second thoughts about anything I was going to say.

Greg is definitely someone I would recommend working with; I think his greatest quality is in working to get the absolute best outcome for you without being bothered by how much additional work he will have to put in. So much so, that after a 4hr mock Columbia interview, Greg chatted with me for almost an hour helping me decide between Darden and Fuqua and which school I should go for – he hadn’t even helped me with the application for those schools. The good news is that the Darden versus Fuqua decision didn’t end up mattering because I got into Columbia!

I received a 4 hour scholarship as a GmatClub school moderator.

To kick off I had a half hour call with Greg, which he offered free of charge. Talking to him, you immediately notice that he is super knowledgeable and he had some great pointers.

Despite the fact that I though I had already put a lot of time into school research, he was able to bring a couple additional schools on my radar. In addition, we were able to work out the school that would offered the best template for pieces of the advice to carry over to other applications.

After developing our method of attack I send Greg a couple of essays for one of the B-Schools I was targeting.
He came back really fast with very thorough reviews that pointed out the various parts of my essays that needed work.

Due to a very turbulent period in my work/private life I was not able to make full use of the scholarship.
However, if you are looking for an expert who can offer you great insight and guidance into the process of Bschool applications I can highly recommend Greg.

His essay reviews do not sugarcoat but offer great pointers on what to improve!

I was a second-time applicant with a strong GMAT score and a reasonable work profile. I had used another consultant in my first year of applications and decided to go with Greg the second time around.
Firstly, Greg is just an amazing person to talk with and share your stress as you go through applications. He never went for a hard sell on using his services but eventually, when I decided to go with him, he was fully invested and dedicated, unlike another consultant I had. Greg clearly has an idea of what admissions teams look for as he helped pick out the best stories and finesse them for the goals, essays, and overall application narrative.

I was very invested in the application process and Greg was equally invested which was refreshing given most consultants seem to always be on the clock. Greg helped me with two school applications and also helped brainstorm which two would give me the most diverse and applicable stories for other school applications.
Overall, I was very satisfied with Greg and would recommend his services as I received an admit to 3 top 10 schools (including an M7). I also received scholarships of $50k and $10k to 2 of the 3 schools.

I. Background

I’m a male engineer from India with 720 GMAT and some international experience. I belong to a common demographic for US B-Schools and had a complicated profile, with a Master’s degree in hand and already age 30 when applying. I happened to find Avanti Prep via GMAT Club. Greg had the strongest and clearest recommendations from past applicants on the website, which prompted me to request a Free Consultation. I had already talked to a few other consultants before talking to Greg. And then after just one call with Greg, I knew I wanted him to be my guide throughout this process. I availed Hourly Services from Avanti Prep, initially 5 hours, but expanded significantly along the way as I saw the major value of working together and decided to apply to more schools. In total, I ended up with 67 hours of service with Avanti Prep from July 2018 through April 2019.

II. Strategy

Because I did not have a good GMAT for my demographic, I wanted to test my chances across a wide range of the rankings. We worked on 10 schools in Round 1 and Round 2, ranging from M7 schools mostly through U.S. News top 20/25, one school a few spots lower down and one more school another tier below that. Given my higher number of schools, spreading Hourly Services across them was my preferred approach, rather than focusing on only a few of the schools through a Package. This way we could mirror the full depth of the comprehensive experience while adapting it for more schools.

III. Results

Even with some international experience, I knew this strategy was aggressive. If you believe studies on GMAT Club, Indian applicants with 720 GMAT have a 5% admission chance at U.S. top 20, and many people in the forums even say Indian males with sub-730 GMAT should look outside the top 25. Despite these odds, I received two M7 interviews (was waitlisted thereafter at one) and three scholarships offers overall. Right now, I’m enrolled at a top 20/25 school with a generous scholarship (50%). This would not have been possible at all without Greg’s magic. Trust me, Avanti Prep is the best investment you can make in your B-School journey. Greg is one of the most well-rated and reasonably priced consultants in the market at his elite level of expertise.

IV. Details

Given my needs, we used about 6 hours total on school selection, story and goal development and strategic calls, 6 hours on full cycle of resume reviews (literally start to finish), 5 hours on recommender strategy and feedback, 4 hours on application entries and review, 1 hour on video strategy and practice, 3 hours on interview prep (only did one session, maybe should have done more), 5 hours on post-application support (scholarship negotiations, waitlist strategy and updates) and most remaining time on essay brainstorming and reviews (sounds like a lot but was for 10 schools).

Also, unlike other consultants in the market, Greg is not money minded and was very generous with timing and pricing. You can feel that his main motivation is achieving the best possible outcome for you. He did not count time for my many annoying email queries, he rounded down the time and provided some free time as necessary to achieve the best quality, and given the size of our relationship, we proceeded at a customized discounted rate. I am certain I received far more than even the 67 hours I signed up for, and given the quality of experience and 50% scholarship result, it was undoubtedly worth it.

V. Experience

Greg is not just an expert MBA consultant, he is a wonderful person as well. He is approachable and friendly and makes you feel very comfortable. Despite my complicated profile, Greg did an amazing job of breaking down my long story and guiding me to assemble all pieces together in a symmetrical and persuasive way that created logical sense between my experiences and goals and allowed me to share the most interesting elements of my experiences. This process lets you put forth the best version of yourself. For this reason, I have no doubt you are achieving the highest possible outcomes given your profile.

Greg is a thorough professional and walks the talk when it comes to his work. The level of detail, professionalism, and responsiveness are extremely high. The way he helps you strategize the different pieces of your story for each school is at an expert level. We worked together on very tight timelines for Round 1 and Round 2 submissions and Greg never let me down. He has the unique ability to understand and respond in a timely fashion every query I put through him. I did put him through a lot of annoying nitty-gritty questions, but he was always so happy to respond to all of them. You really feel that Greg puts his clients first.

I’m happy to answer any specific questions regarding my experience with Avanti Prep. You can message me anytime. Good luck!

I am from Korea and I have studied/worked in Europe and currently working in South East Asia. I have worked both in public and private sectors (tech). I had embarked on the MBA journey on my own with limited information and was struggling to bring together a coherent story with my non-traditional background. While I was getting anxious 1 month before the deadlines, I was fortunate to get the chance to work with Greg – as a result, I was able to submit not just a deeply satisfactory application in just a few weeks but build a narrative that I will carry for the rest of my career.

Greg went above and beyond in every aspect in this process. Especially in building the grander career narrative, he tapped into his network, researched and consulted his connections that I could not have done at all in my location. Having worked in a prestigious financial firm and also having earned a top MBA himself, he had the resources he could leverage and he did so in brilliant ways. We came up with a very specific and realistic career goal drawing from his research process, but one that is so perfect for my rather hybrid profile – which I had actually thought was unfocused before I worked with Greg. This was an amazing breakthrough – even beyond the application, I now have an attainable career goal and narrative unique to myself. I am only impressed by Greg’s ability and dedication demonstrated in this process.

Greg is also a top-notch resume and essay editor. I was particularly impressed by what he had to offer on content development side – even on the parts related to my experience in public sector. His breadth of knowledge in various sectors possibly gained through the experience of working with a diverse portfolio of clients is certainly one of his strengths that will benefit applicants from various backgrounds.

Greg’s edits/comments during the essay/resume revision process were also thorough, on point and insightful. One word in an essay may lay the ground for an emotional tone. He thinks through even that one word, which I was really grateful for (especially in the essay with more of a personal element; demonstrates his sensitivity). In overall, I felt like we made a great team – his comments were communicated very clearly, I could easily build on them and produce something better. I believe this synergetic interaction with the consultant is the key in producing a quality product unique to oneself.

I also cannot emphasize enough how both personable and professional he is. He understood my deep motivations and gave both encouraging and practical advice throughout the entire process. While I was so pressed for time, his overall attitude and sense of commitment just provided a huge comfort. He was always very responsive, returned the documents as per his commitment, and shared additional resources (I had 2 hours of consultations as well and he offered very helpful career/MBA resources beyond these engagements). I would say Greg was more than a consultant but a mentor and advisor who kept me with faith and drove me towards excellence during the challenging application journey.

I can’t thank him enough but in sum, Greg exceeded my expectations in every way. I would not hesitate to recommend him to future applicants!

For context: I’m a male, 5 years work experience in finance and nonprofit work, GMAT in 690-720 range, undergrad GPA of 3.75 from very good but not top-tier university.

I asked Greg to help me using his pay-by-the-hour services with the intent to use those hours sparingly. I ended up using his help more and more because his edits on essays were so specific and pertinent and I felt I was getting good value for the cost. He has great insight into the process, what different schools are looking for, how to position oneself a bit differently for each school. I did video interview prep with him too and that was really helpful to identify where answers could be stronger or call out a connection to the school’s priorities that I otherwise may have missed.

Greg helped me apply to 5 schools ranked HBS (why not?) to UNC. I was much happier with the entire process having Greg onboard as my coach. He kept me on track throughout and helped me prioritize how much time to spend GMAT studying, when to quit and focus on essays, when I needed to do more, etc. His work and feedback was always useful, turnaround was really quick, and just a generally kind, smart person to entrust your application to.

In the end I got a good scholarship to Fuqua and when they called me to give acceptance they even referenced one of the little jokes Greg gave me as something they thought was a nice touch of my personality in the essay 🙂

If I had to do it again, I’d use Greg in a heartbeat.

Basic Profile Info
I am a 2011 pass-out from a Tier 2 Indian college (GPA of 3.3/4.0 in Computer Engineering), and have worked in Finance industry for 3.5 years before having an Employment Gap for 2 odd years. In this time, I was employed at Early-stage investment funds (one for a voluntary unpaid position) for a discontinuous period of 9 months. Since then I have been working for an Asian focused investment fund.
While I believe that I have strong work experience, the Employment Gap loomed large and my CV lacked major brands. I had worked at 5 finance shops with only 2 of them having global brands – but those weren’t my longest tenured roles. I was also a bit on the older side of the average student’s age or work experience for my target schools.
I was introduced to Greg by one of his Round 1 clients, and after our first call, I took a reference call with another Indian client (a Kellogg graduate) who worked with Greg. I am aware that the first client has also done well and is going to a T10 with a decent scholarship. I owe them thanks for the introduction/ vetting, and I am glad in retrospect that they were made. Greg was very forthcoming with such references.
Our Work Together / My Results
Greg and I started off by working across 5 schools with a Tier 2 package (two M7s, one T10, one T15, and a leading Canadian program), and with 2 schools on an hourly basis (one M7 and one T10/15). All of these schools were in Round 2. I was invited to interview at one T5 program and Tuck, and I was waitlisted before interviewing at Stern.
After that, I used Greg’s Interview Prep services and was Waitlisted at the T5 and Tuck, post which I took more services from Greg to help navigate the Waitlist process. After many steps and great efforts, this ultimately resulted in acceptance to the T5 program. I withdrew my candidature from Tuck once my plans with the T5 program were settled.
What Stood Out (with Examples)
1) Overall Approach & Impact: The first thing I want to highlight here is Greg’s earnestness to make your profile win. He truly brings a lot to the table. While I had unsuccessfully applied to an M7 (in Early Decision) with an Indian admissions coach, I thought my application materials were mostly ready when I on-boarded with Greg. And I couldn’t have been more wrong!! Greg made me redefine and re-nuance my goal, worked very very very hard on my stories and rehashed my CV entirely again. It was clear the competence and professionality he brought to the table was enormous.
Also, regarding Greg’s efforts, he offered to work with me on a pro-bono basis on my Interview Essays (where required), despite the Package originally being Tier 2, which ends with submission. This included multiple iterations in 5 working days. He literally measures every word, every sentence and remembers every detail of your story.
2) Main Essay Work: The in-depth nuancing and opening essay strategy sessions we did gave me a skeleton for each essay, but there were many times where we would improvise as needed, and Greg was super accommodative on that (again, the general theme is his keenness for you to submit your best possible version). I really liked this balanced approach and his deep knowledge of the DNA of the school in question. Multiple times, Greg pointed me to the right resources to research and reference.
Even when we were adapting stories/ anecdotes from one school to another, Greg helped me think through and re-position them with an eye on the newer schools. Given the nature of the industry and people’s tendencies to streamline, he could have easily approved the older versions and saved his time and efforts. But that wasn’t the case.
To International Applicants, I would also like to point out that Greg sometimes helped me avoid fatal mistakes on the grounds of handling and quoting sensitive issues. We (i.e. internationals) need to understand that the reader is from a very different socio-cultural background, and sometimes, our manner of presenting a situation/ idea can be taken in a somewhat offensive manner. I was happy to have Greg on my side for this.
On Goals Essays, we molded my career goals to fit the strength of the school in the best manner possible – another example of the thoughtfulness and customization.
3) CV Work: Although I thought I had my CV “done” from an Indian admissions consultant, Greg and I worked extremely hard on it, review after review, and we re-built every single bullet point basically from the start. He also provided me one extra review than was in my original Package. Greg’s way of building the CV was much different than my previous consultant and much more in-depth too. Post 2 reviews we were still at 1.5+ pages of CV which was eventually trimmed into a single page in a manner well-done.
Also, Greg’s CV reviews didn’t end after applying to the first school. I remember once merely 3 days before the application deadline, he pro-actively offered to review the CV again and adapt its presentation for some schools specifically. I was amazed not only by his efforts but more so, by the timing, to prioritize this final pro-active and pro-bono review just to put the best foot forward. (There was no change in my job experience, but just one story which came forward, which led Greg to recommend re-balancing the CV.)
4) Application Review: Greg’s application reviews (i.e. review of online application submissions) were in-depth and water-tight. He helped me to elaborate on CV points wherever needed, helped bring out job responsibilities where needed. And he really made it a point to not leave anything on table (in terms of information and explanations).
5) School Strategy: While Greg and I did not specifically work on school selection together (as I started with a Tier 2 Package), he did offer me resources online to help guide me. To be honest, Greg felt my choices of schools were aggressive with my kind of profile – and he wasn’t wrong at all, as he was going with past trends and results (which any rational person would do). I do want to clearly highlight here, and quite explicitly too, that his work was as intense (always intense) no matter the school or chances of getting in, whether a riskier application or safer one. Coming from a background where potential winners are given more support than underdogs, it was a very heartening moment for me. In fact, seeing his professionality led me to double downing on riskier options, and I chose 2 more M7s than I initially intended to.
In an industry where no one can say for sure what’s a “good enough” application, Greg put a lot of his efforts and time and even some unsolicited additional reviews to help me deliver my best and rise to the challenge of harder applications. And in a good irony – almost like a movie – this Fall I’ll be attending the most difficult program I applied to.
6) Post Interview Invites: I took Greg’s Interview Prep services for both schools I was invited to interview to (one session for each). My initial reaction was a shocker when I realized how under-prepared I was. After going through long mock interviews in each school’s style, Greg offered me detailed feedback on the way to answering questions, presenting myself and handling curve-balls. I had very little skepticism when I thought of purchasing the second Interview Prep package. My effort with the second school improved, but still, further nuancing and feedback were re-introduced by Greg for that school. Greg’s combined effort of interviewing and feedback was much beyond the 2.5 hours per package offer. These made me more adept not only in answering the core interview questions and articulating goals and fit in line with the specifics of each program but also in handling each school’s mini-curveballs during the actual interviews.
7) Post Waitlist Efforts: I was waitlisted at the two schools I interviewed (Top 5 program and Tuck), post which Greg was very accommodating in allowing me to upgrade from Tier 2 to Tier 3 Package (as the late upgrade is not technically allowable).
One of the most important parts was Greg’s openness to accept what could have been done differently, i.e. how to be self-aware and identify and address the needed areas for improvement. Waitlists are tricky and create a lot of what-ifs and second-guessing in the candidate’s mind. I felt very happy that we both took the result in a positive manner and were open to accepting the outcome and developing an approach to move forward.
After some Waitlist Strategy discussion, I was surprised to see Greg ending up doing 3 reviews of each Waitlist Letter submission (I submitted 2 of these per school). Yet again, he guided me in nuancing the emails and letters to the right tone of the school.
Finally, I am grateful that a couple of colleagues/ alumni of certain schools agreed to write an Endorsement/ Letter of Support for me. Greg offered more pro-bono help by offering advice for these letters as well. This was definitely a piece of work that I didn’t explicitly sign up for, but Greg was much more than happy to help in order for me to win.
Summary Comments
At the risk of sounding repetitive and giving unsolicited advice, I truly believe that application success is quite a grey and can’t be predicted. Your GPAs/ Your work experience/ Your age/ Your undergrad institutions/ (to some extent of your GMAT – after all we all want that 760-780!)/ Your Extra-Curriculars/ Who your Recommenders likely will be are often well beyond your control by the time you decide to apply.
What is in your control are your essays and your stories and their presentation. While one can’t say how the results of the application would have looked if I had used a different consultant (BTW my first application with an Indian consultant was very terrible and cost me a chance at an M7 which was very well geared towards my goals), I would advise the following parameters as **must have** in your consultant – **the ability and the willingness** to do deep reviews, see the application in comprehensive manner, and not be penny pinching on time. Of course, the onus is on the applicant to give decent drafts for review and ahead of time; Greg was on many occasions able to rapid-turnaround reviews (at no cost to the depth of the review), in some cases as early as the same day.
I have heard (and had one bad experience myself also) of several shenanigans of other consultants including: reviews which are done in a manner to push work – stories where even international consultants follow stereotypical skeletons of essays, superficial essay and CV reviews that offer little more than general comments, 5-10 mins of work done on Application Entries review, or consultants pushing their thoughts on to the candidate to save time and effort. None of that ever happened here. Quite the opposite instead.
There were very few times when I was in disagreement with Greg (including the topic for an Interview Essay, some mentions within the main essay, and even how to articulate some points during the interview prep). But we would always have a constructive debate and end up on a much stronger middle ground than where we started. This is a big testimony to his sincerity and his mandate – to get the best out of you and to get the best for you. I can assure you that this is one thing that has been constant in our seven full months of work together. I strongly feel that your probabilities of success increase several-fold when you take someone of his caliber and more importantly his dedication.
Please feel free to reach me for any references etc. I would be more than happy to help.

I got an hourly preparation service for mock-up interview with Greg and found it very useful for my upcoming interview with HSB and GSB. The good things were:
1) very close to the real experience the type of questions Greg asked and a similar pace to the real interview;
2) thorough feedback and detailed analysis of the performance with comments on both verbal and emotional performance, as well as specific wording and stylistic element;
3) willingness to spend the time to cover everything I had concern with.
I would mention Greg’s balance of friendliness and professionalism, which created the perfect atmosphere for my mock-up interview.

Short summary first if you don’t want to read the whole thing:
Thanks to Greg’s help, I was accepted to the Kellogg 1Y program, INSEAD, IMD, and USC, and I am convinced that I would not have been accepted had I not worked with Greg. Between the four schools, I received over $175,000 in scholarships. Since Greg is a small shop, he takes the time to get to know you personally and can really help you discover your voice. I consider myself a very compelling and articulate writer, but I was astonished at how much my essays improved after working with Greg. I would highly recommend working with Greg.
Longer version for those interested:
Age: 31
Sex: Male
Nationality: American (Texas), white
GMAT: 770
Schools applied: Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg 1Y, USC, INSEAD, IMD
Accepted to: Kellogg 1Y, INSEAD, IMD, USC
Scholarships: Kellogg ($35k), IMD ($20k), and USC (Full ride)
Background- I have been working in my family healthcare business for the past five years after starting my career in hedge funds and private equity. As I saw things coming to a close in my family business, I started thinking about what’s next. In the absence of a clearly defined passion or desire, I wanted to go back to school to get some more credentials and take time to think. Coming to the game a little late, I was worried about crafting my story and articulating why I was ready to get my MBA.
One thing that Greg did very well helping me craft my narrative for very different schools. Because I don’t know exactly what I want, my applications ranged from going to USC to pursue a job in the entertainment industry to going to Kellogg to return to the family business to going to INSEAD or IMD to pursue international consulting. Obviously, Greg helped me identify the parts of my story that resonated with each because I was able to secure a seat in each school.
I researched the heck out of admissions consultants, and I actually worked with 3 different consulting companies over the course of my admissions process. Greg and Avanti was the one that stuck in the end. I started out with a bigger, more well-known firm, and quickly felt like the process was too automated and impersonal, like a cookie-cutter approach. I was told from the beginning with the other firm that I had to follow a syllabus and they would email me changes. I said that I’d prefer to speak on the phone and they said that I had to schedule phone calls days in advance in order to speak to a human. Greg’s personal approach felt more aligned with my personality and communication style, so I went with Greg. He was always open for a phone call and would email me responses very quickly when I had questions. Greg even went out of his way to email me stuff when it crossed his mind, whether I had requested it or not. For example, I was visiting Tuck’s business school, and Greg emailed me that he knew a couple of students there and got me in touch with them. I didn’t even ask. I thought it was very thoughtful and intentional. This characterizes how Greg goes above and beyond.
By the time I had started working with Greg, I had already put together some background info on myself mapping out my life story, motivators, etc, but I’m sure that he would have done this with me had I started out with him. We had a long call going over it and discussing major themes and motivating forces. These early conversations became the seeds of my later essays.
This isn’t probably how everyone likes to work, but I wrote multiple stream-of-consciousness essays for each school and then shot them off to Greg for a quick read. Greg would look at all the essays I’d written and give me feedback on which one he felt would work best as a final essay. Then we’d work together to polish the essay. THIS IS WHERE GREG REALLY SHINES. Like I stated above, I feel that my essays were pretty good, to begin with, but boy was I wrong. Greg really made them more succinct, articulate, and in lots of places, more politically correct or less offensive. There were lots of times where he changed the wording because I didn’t realize how something might come across as insensitive. Greg helped me really articulate to each school who I was, why I wanted an MBA from that school, and how I could contribute to each school. In the end, I truly believe that Greg’s help on my essays made the difference in my getting in or not, ESPECIALLY ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS, where it was a bit harder to explain why this white guy from Texas wanted to go get an MBA in France.
Greg self-admittedly did not have much experience with Harvard Business school, so I worked with a third consultant who had specific experience at HBS. Greg still helped me with my essays there, but the other consultant helped me understand what HBS was looking for. While I did not get into HBS, I don’t necessarily think it was their fault. I think like a 31-year-old white male applying in round 3 with no clear driving passion or career vision, it was an uphill battle, to begin with. The other consultant used to be an adcom at HBS, and she told me to form the start that I had slim odds at HBS.
Greg didn’t nickel and dime me with time, and occasionally did stuff off the clock when he was personally interested in a question I had asked or something. Greg was always a pleasure to talk to and I genuinely enjoyed my time working with him. I highly recommend Greg. If you are looking for a very personal, highly communicative approach and a better value than the big names, Greg is the guy.
For the curious, I chose IMD. The personal, intimate, focused nature of the course seemed like the best fit for my personality type, even though it’s not as well-known as Kellogg or INSEAD. Kind of like Greg, I took a chance on the little guy and went with my heart based on feel, and I don’t regret it. I’m hoping I have the same experience at IMD.

Background
Engaging a (sub-par) consultant during the last admissions cycle had already been a bitter experience that I primarily made due to the seemingly beneficial geographical proximity (they were based in the same city as me) and undeniably ‘low-cost’ services (be sure to verify advertised claims). Already on the other side of 30, I felt that this time around was really going to be my last real chance at gaining admission to a Top MBA program and I didn’t want to leave any stone unturned. Here’s some brief background:
-Indian Male
-US Undergrad + First Masters (Top 30 School)
-750+ GMAT
-9 years of work-ex
-Re-applicant in R1 2018 (from R2 in the previous cycle)
As an Indian male engineer with nine years of experience when I would start the MBA program, primarily in family business (with some entrepreneurship and startup experience, all in India), I was in an over-represented, older, and non-traditional bucket.
Although I was re-applying with a much-improved GMAT score (50 points+), with 4 interviews and 3 waitlists last time around, I knew that it probably wasn’t just the GMAT that needed improvement and hiring someone who knows the drill was essential in achieving my goals. Admittedly, I began my research on choosing the right consultant very late in the process (less than 2 months to go before the first R1 regular deadline), and by the time I had decided to engage Greg, the first deadline was just 5 weeks away.
Consultation & Signup
Although Greg technically advertises a 30-minute free consultation before sign-up, we ended up talking for almost 2 hours during that initial conversation where he really took the time to understand my situation and offer his candid opinion. He was also the first consultant who offered upfront to connect me with his previous clients (post which, during my research, I made that a requirement for even considering a consultant – and let’s just say no-one was as forthcoming as Greg in making those connections). This was also a big bonus as I could actually talk about some of these connections (and subsequent connections made in their network) in my applications (in hindsight, these were strategic choices made by Greg given my specific school and career interests).
We ended up speaking again to finalize our arrangement and I ultimately signed up for a Tier 2 package for 2 schools with 23 extra hours to tackle 4 additional schools.
Quality, Efficiency, Precision & Personal Investment
Let me say here that Greg is really efficient with his time, and although I was a little skeptical of being charged by the hour once the 2 schools in the package were over, multiple times I saw him mark less time than I expected and make major progress within a review that seemed like it would have taken at least a couple of hours. Given the limited time we had, I had numerous anxious moments throughout the process, but Greg stood right by me before each and every deadline (literally burning the midnight oil on more than one occasion if there was a delay on my part in a particular review). No matter what, Greg was always committed to ensuring that we put our best foot forward.
Throughout the process, never did I feel even once that Greg just wanted to ‘get it done and over with’. To the contrary, he was really personally invested in crafting my story and achieving a common goal. I doubt that an individual consultant in a larger firm (where you often have only a part-time lead consultant, and sometimes have different individuals working on different parts of your application) would have worked in a similar manner. In fact, when it came time for interview prep, Greg threw in an extra interview prep call prior to a scheduled Skype interview I had with an M7 school to ensure I was fully ready. I found him always eager to go above and beyond during the process, and I would also say he challenged me to do the same, bringing out the best in me.
The quality and precision in his reviews are also remarkable. At times, it seemed impossible to be able to do exactly as he’d recommended in an essay review, but once that was done (sometimes, post a couple of iterative suggestions), the depth of his initial suggestions really shone in the final outcome. I was also amazed at how effortlessly, over the course of several reviews of my resume, he was able to shrink 2.5 pages to the standard 1, without compromising on the substance or impact in my work experiences.
Summary & Endorsement
Given my GMAT score and the fact that I was applying in R1, we decided to apply to 4 stretch and 2 reach schools. I got an interview invite at one of the stretch schools, a wait-list at one of the reach schools (Greg predicted this one) and an admit with a 50% SCHOLARSHIP AT A TOP 10 US PROGRAM (we were both over the moon about the $$$)!!!
I can confidently say that engaging Greg for my applications was the best investment that I made during the process. The improvement in my applications from last season to this one stood out like night and day. The work we did and the brainstorming that went in to craft my story will not only hold good for a long time in my professional career but also really helped me understand the value of my experiences thus far and aspirations going forward.
I have already referred multiple MBA aspirants who worked with Greg on their R1 and R2 applications during this past admissions cycle, and will happily continue doing so in the future!

I couldn’t be more thankful to Greg Guglielmo for helping me realize my goal.
I engaged a very well-known admissions consulting firm for my round 1 applications. I was rejected from three M7 schools and received a waitlist invitation to a top 20 school. My objective metrics were reasonably strong (3.5 years’ work at top tier law firm, 770 GMAT, strong extra-curricular involvement). While I felt my previous consultant did provide some useful pointers, I felt that perhaps his reviews were rushed and quite a high level. He did not drill down into the content of my essays or provide meaningful suggestions, and I did not feel I put my best foot forward.
I dusted myself off and re-applied in round 2, this time to a further three M7 schools and one more top 15 schools. After an initial free consultation (during which my consultant, Greg Guglielmo, spoke with me for nearly 90 mins – well over the allotted 30 mins), I signed up for 12 hours of service. Even though I had only purchased hourly services, I could immediately tell Greg was completely invested in my cause. The feedback on my essays was wholly different from what I’d previously encountered – I could tell that my unique position had been critically and carefully analyzed, with extremely insightful recommendations made. Greg was incredibly responsive (even over the Christmas period). He delivered difficult advice candidly, but also warmly and professionally. I completely reshaped my career goals and framed my past experience far more effectively.
Ultimately, I was fortunate to be admitted to two M7 schools – on 100% and 80% scholarships – as well as the top 15 schools to which I applied. I honestly believe I wouldn’t have had this success without working with Greg Guglielmo. Just the other day I signed a full-time offer for my dream firm – and I emailed Greg that same day to thank him for his (huge) part in getting me there!

Choosing a Consultant:
I had a pretty traditional & solid background when I applied, but really needed help with telling my story. I had spent a lot of time preparing for the GMAT and not a lot of time researching, so I felt a bit rushed applying to 5 programs in Round 2.
I was looking for someone who was experienced with the MBA process to help me brainstorm story ideas, solidify my goals, and improve my essays.
I had a few meetings with a few MBA consultants from larger firms but ultimately decided to go with Greg due to the thoughtfulness of his initial profile assessment.
Working with Greg:
I began with 10 hours and added a couple more hours later on. From the get-go, I felt like Greg was on my side. He made sure that we were making good use of the hours I purchased and I believe he spent more time on some tasks than he charged for, especially when it came to “crunch time”, which he did a great job of turning around edits.
I spent most of my time working with him on my Wharton essays. Greg did a wonderful job of helping me tie seemingly unrelated topics into a unique, cohesive theme. He also helped me strengthen and articulate my “why Wharton” piece, which was immensely helpful.
When I interviewed for the TBD, I was able to leverage some of the info from my essays to prepare for the prompt. The brainstorming session that I did with Greg, in the beginning, went a long way!
Results:
I was accepted into Wharton Round 2. I’m excited for my next two years at my dream school and I couldn’t have done it without Greg

As a reapplicant who worked with a different consultant last year and did not receive interviews invites, I was anxious about applying this year and hesitant to work with a consultant. I can say with great confidence that this year’s success is completely a result of my work with Greg and his unique, personalized and brilliant approach to crafting my application.
With a 740 GMAT, 3.85 GPA, 5 years of work experience at a big tech company, and career goals in brand management and entrepreneurship, there were no glaring red flags about my previous application. I felt lost when it came to improving my application, and apprehensive about my odds this year.
I initially set up a free consultation with Greg, which went probably two times longer than the allotted time; by the end of our conversation, I could tell that Greg was different than other consultants and really understood me and each school’s unique application process and values. He followed up with a comprehensive email with ideas and insight based on our conversation, and I immediately started feeling hopeful for this round of applications.
I initially signed up for three hours with Greg, but I quickly realized how invaluable his insight and help is and ultimately signed up for about 10 hours (Greg certainly rounded down more often than not, so I’m sure that 10 hours should really be more like 20). Greg not only helped me craft my essays but also helped with strategizing on recommender selection, prep, crafting my MIT Sloan video and eventually with scholarship negotiation. He also helped me with school selection and encouraged me to apply to Wharton (which is where I will be attending next fall!).
Greg helped with my applications for MIT Sloan, Columbia, and Wharton. I must say that the ten hours I worked with Greg were more effective than the 40+ hours I worked with my previous consultant. I felt confident about every essay and application component.
Ultimately, I received interview invitations from all three schools (versus zero invites last year) and was accepted to Wharton and Columbia, with a $100k fellowship at Columbia.
Greg’s expertise and insight are unparalleled. He has an incredibly deep understanding of every school’s mission, offerings, and priorities and helped me craft applications that spoke to exactly what each school was looking for. In each essay revision, he would offer brilliant anecdotes to include to highlight my fit for and knowledge about the programs. He suggested ultra-specific treks, clubs, competitions, and courses to highlight in my application, showing a very deep understanding of each school.
Greg is also a highly skilled essay crafter. He was incredibly strategic at cutting down content to fit word count without eliminating important details. He helped me prioritize aspects of my background that made me stand out but also fit into each school’s culture.
Greg was incredibly responsive and provided feedback often within 24 hours. Nonetheless, his feedback was deep and comprehensive. He provided clear strategies for improvement and what content to prioritize.
I’m most grateful for Greg’s help with my application to U Penn. In a last minute decision, Greg encouraged me to apply to Wharton, two days before Christmas. He ensured that he would make time to help me through my application in the days to come, and gave me hope that I had a chance at what would soon become my dream school. In an incredibly quick turn-around, Greg helped me craft a fantastic application, that showed no signs of being put together in just two weeks (I don’t recommend rushing through an application like that!)
I was accepted to Wharton and will be attending the school in the fall; I know that I would not have even applied to Wharton if it wasn’t for Greg’s encouragement, and there is no chance I would have been admitted without his expertise.
Greg’s insight is absolutely invaluable and his approach is unparalleled by any other consultant. He will make a huge difference to your application and is worth every penny and more.

When I started searching for MBA counselors, many started to sound similar – either promising to move mountains or being pessimistic on my candidacy. As a white American male in Finance from New York, slightly older than the average candidate with a 700 GMAT score and 3.3 GPA, I was realistic about my candidacy but optimistic with strong essays and direction I could succeed in the process.
From Day 1, Greg broke this mold and working with him was by far the best decision I have made throughout the admissions process. Even before engaging, Greg offered to do a quick read through of a draft essay I wrote for a school, offering complimentary comments as part of his free consultation. He was frank about my odds but optimistic, passionate, and ready to go to battle!
Throughout, Greg was extremely responsive to all questions. While we engaged on the Tier 2 package for 2 schools and supplemented that with hourly services to finish the rest (I was very ambitious applying to 8 schools), he did not let the confines of our engagement limit his work – i.e. if an essay needed 30 more minutes than I had purchased, he was genuinely engaged with producing the best results.
In addition, Greg structurally went above and beyond in terms of availability and engagement. We began with a kick-off meeting in person – something not typically included in any of the Avanti packages, but he was truly willing to do whatever it took to partner and put our best foot forward. In addition to the numerous additional hours he put in on top of our agreed upon engagement to drive home essays to the finish line, he also provided introductions to people within his network who would add value to my application and, more importantly, my overall business school search process. Greg epitomizes someone who pays-it-forward.
The first rounds of revisions really steered the ship, beginning the high level with structure and content, while latter reviews brought the full polish to the essays. Greg was always extremely professional, kind while balancing that with providing strong feedback and getting the best out of me.
I can confidently say Greg was the best choice for an admissions counselor, providing A+, institutional-caliber service with a bespoke, customized, personal touch. As a result, I received interview invitations to Wharton, Fuqua, Darden, and UNC Kenan-Flagler and am happily enrolled at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

I’m an Indian applicant with seven years of work experience and a GRE score of Q164 / V157 (GMAT equivalent of 660). I applied to the following schools.
1. Questrom- Accepted with 70K
2. Georgetown McDonough- Accepted with 20K Scholarship
3. Kellogg- Dinged after Interview
I was looking for a comprehensive service that would help me prepare my MBA application. I researched many consultants that would be cheaper as well as effective. Finally based on my friend’s suggestion and talking to fellow mods, I decided to reach out to Greg.
I was applying in R2 but started my application very late (after Christmas)
Greg and I discussed my profile, goals and target schools. We initially started with my resume. I was in the assumption that my resume was good enough. But the first edit by Greg was brutal. He pointed out all the flaws in my resume. It took a total of 7 edits and more than three and a half hours to finalize my resume.
Questrom- I did apply last year with poor test score and the same resume I had before Greg edit. So I decided to reapply. Greg helped me to prepare a story, edit my essays and provided suggestions that would fine tune my essay. I received an Interview Invite. No matter what, the first interview always makes us happy and nervous after getting rejected the previous year. Greg helped with the interview prep as well. The question by question rigor for the mock interview helped me prep for the actual interviews. And finally, I was accepted into the program with the 70K scholarship.
Georgetown- I initially did not have plans to apply to Georgetown at all since I was targetting other schools. But I received an email that extended the deadline by a week. I immediately emailed Greg about it. He was happy to help with short notice. We created a story from my professional & personal life to write the essay. He was able to edit the essay in short notice, and I was able to submit my application in four days. He also helped me the same way he did for Questrom Interview. The result- Admitted to Class of 2020 with 20K Scholarship. And I will be matriculating in Georgetown this fall.
Kellogg- I wasn’t sure to apply, and Greg as well since my scores and profile are well below average for Kellogg. But I decided to go for it anyway. So we decided to put in the application. Kellogg often waives interviews for Indian applicants, so I wasn’t expecting an interview invite. But I was excited that when I saw the email with an interview invitation. Greg helped me prepare for the interview. I guess we had our Mock interview for over an hour discussing the plan to answer the questions.
His mock interview session for all the schools was almost perfectly accurate, and I was able to prepare for the curveball questions and create a template to answer any questions.
Greg was super helpful and he would respond to my emails within a day even though he was busy with his other clients. And always made himself available for phone calls and questions.

Hiring an admissions consultant is never an easy task – especially with the plethora of options in the market and the significant cost involved.
I approached Greg when I seemed to have lost direction regarding my MBA process and he turned out to be my best investment till date. My first attempt at GMAT landed me a disappointing 640 followed by a second attempt a month later which got me 700. I was confused and doubted my chances to land a good school with that score. Greg was warm and friendly and offered to hear my story over the first free consultation. Although only the first consultation is usually free, Greg voluntarily spent another session with me just to understand my background and what factors mattered to me while picking schools. He was methodical and helped me analyze what mattered to me and what were my priorities. He helped me understand, very realistically, that a top 15-20 school would be quite challenging with this profile. I appreciated his honesty in not making over-arching promises, unlike what most consultants would do to land clients.
Few things regarding my background:
– Age: 24
– Indian IT Engineer
– 700 GMAT
– Under 3 years of work ex
– Applied to all schools in R2
I decided to hire Greg after our second meeting. I signed up for a Tier 3 (Comprehensive) Package for five schools and added about 14 hours of service on top of that to handle three additional schools.
Working with Greg:
1) Quality of advice and coaching – Greg brings with him years of experience working with people across the world. His expertise in decoding one’s story and presenting it in a way which catches attention, uniquely enables him to interact with diverse clients with ease.
2) Quality of reviews – Greg’s review comments were elaborate and descriptive. He gave careful attention to every word and reviewed a document iteratively until it was perfect. Be it resume reviews, to essay reviews, to reviewing abstract submissions like presentations, Greg was thoughtful and valuable in his insights.
3) Essay and editing skill – A story has to sound convincing and appealing. Greg brought out the uniqueness in my story – he could identify and highlight what is a differentiator in a seemingly plain storyline. He helped me prioritize what needed to go in the essay and what could be sidelined. His editing skills are impeccable. Greg can concise a lengthy essay into the set word limit, without compromising on the details and impact.
4) Video essay works – We worked on two video essays together – one for Kellogg and another for Georgetown. Both times, Greg supported me end-to-end. He would get very involved in the whole process and his inputs were valuable. He guided me not just on the preparation of the content of the video essay and my delivery, but also with being mindful about aesthetic factors like the attire and light and sound conditions.
5) Extreme attention to detail – Greg gives extreme attention to detail in all aspects of his work – from resume building to essay edits, to composing emails, to formatting a document. Greg is tireless and diligent in his work and never compromises on quality even with the stringent timelines.
6) Depth of our mock interview-and-feedback sessions – Greg initiated video calls to simulate the interview experience. He was prepared with a set of questions for each school I was to interview with, and the whole experience helped me tremendously. Greg customized the interview prep for each school and did not make it generic. He was up to date with the research on each school and even scheduled more than one mocks when required. I felt so well prepared to go into the actual interview because I had practiced with Greg.
7) Ongoing Assistance – Greg is always available over mail to answer any query. He goes beyond his immediate role to assist you if he can help in any manner – like sharing the information which he thinks might interest you, assistance in filling the application forms and continued support through the whole process.
8) Other factors like availability, response time, professionalism, friendliness, positive energy – Greg was very professional and yet approachable and accommodative. There have been times when we have overshot the agreed time by an hour, but Greg would never leave me feeling like we have not concluded the conversation.
His energy makes one feel comfortable and that in turn makes brainstorming smoother. I shared a great rapport with him and I should give him most of the credit for it. His response time has been top-notch. At one point, we were to submit three applications in one day and Greg worked around the clock with me, at times running late into the night.
Outcome:
I applied to 8 schools, all in Round 2: Kellogg, Columbia, Cornell, Ross, UNC KFBS, CMU Tepper, USC Marshall, and Georgetown McDonough. I got admits from all three schools I interviewed with: Tepper, Marshall, and Georgetown. To top it, I got strong scholarship offers from both Tepper and Marshall. I am currently enrolled with Tepper with a $60K scholarship. I am extremely pleased with these results in the context of my profile.
This fantastic outcome after nearly nine months of working tirelessly with Greg was a sheer delight! I felt Greg’s support throughout the process. He was always with me through successes and failures and cared genuinely about my success. We were true partners. Not only was he an excellent consultant, but he also went beyond his paid services to mentor me on a few interviews which were not a part of the package. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Greg and would strongly recommend him to anyone who is considering an MBA consultant.
Apart from the fabulous outcome for which I shall always be grateful to Greg, I have also grown as an individual at many levels – I now compose better essays, can edit and review work more skillfully and have also been able to define my post-MBA goals in the whole process. This preparation will hold me in good stead as I start MBA recruiting.
Hiring a consultant makes a huge difference to your candidacy, and I can vouch for Greg’s work! He is worth every penny!

It has been amazing working with Greg from Avanti Prep. The quality of service I received and the results that I ended up with were way above my expectations. I worked with Greg on an hourly basis for my resume, essays, and interview prep and received a full scholarship to a top ~40 U.S. program.
I am an Indian IT Male with a low GPA and ~680 GMAT. Greg helped me bring out positives in my profile and highlight them in the best possible way. He was kind enough to offer me a free hour of service to finish the process for one essay we were working on. In the beginning, I had some issues with the payment, but Greg was kind enough to start working even while he awaited payment.
In the resume, each of my bullet points was made much more direct, concise, and result oriented. Greg edited each of the points and even asked me for more specific information so that we could include those in the resume. He also helped highlight elements of my personal experiences that I had overlooked but that others would find interesting. After 3 complete round of reviews, my resume was completely transformed and strong enough to be submitted to any b-school.
Though my essays were already in good shape, Greg helped me to structure the content and bring out the “school fit” aspect. Greg helped me add a lot of school-specific content about fit with the culture, location, and academics. These are the things that I had overlooked in my essays.
I reached out to Greg for interview preparation just 4 days prior to my actual interview. Even with such short notice, Greg was kind enough to help me. He conducted two very thorough mock interview and feedback sessions. The questions very closely reflected what I was asked in the actual interview, and thus I felt fully prepared to give clear, confident, specific, and concise answers.
Greg gave great feedback and helped me to refine and structure each and every one of my responses. He discussed every single one of my responses to the mock questions and offered detailed advice on a question by question basis. I cannot imagine it being any more thorough.
After the second mock, I had gained my confidence and was ready for my actual interview. Greg helped me put my best foot forward to get the dream result I had always wanted. He was extremely kind, friendly, and full of positive energy. Though I had availed just 3 hrs of interview preparation, the actual session went way beyond 4 hours. He also helped with post-interview thank-you notes.
Greg was always available for any questions and concerns I had during the process, and he remained available for some email questions even after our time was up. We got a lot of queries resolved via email and all his responses were very quick. His response time was always less than 4 hours.
These services helped me to get an admit from Questrom School of Business with a full tuition fee waiver for the MBA plus MSDi program. I am extremely grateful to Avanti Prep for the guidance throughout the application process and would recommend Greg to anyone looking for an admissions consultant. Without Greg’s help, I would have never got into a business school with such a huge scholarship.

Background:
– International working in the U.S.
– White male, early 30s
– Consulting (non-MBB)
– Mid-600s GMAT
– Lower-than-average work experience for Wharton’s EMBA
Choosing Avanti Prep:
A friend of mine recommended Greg when I was considering applying for an EMBA. This friend was admitted into Booth’s full-time program and heavily attributed this to Greg’s assistance – so I knew I had to give Greg a call!
Initial Experience:
Even from the initial consult, I knew that Greg was a straight shooter and provided direct, honest, yet fair and friendly feedback. He provided me with realistic expectations – focusing on how to unpack the strengths in my profile and overcome what was lacking in my application: lower GMAT from a crowded personal and professional demographic and applying with several years less experience than the traditional EMBA applicant. I took Greg’s comments seriously and knew that my story, essays, and recommendations would need to stand out from the crowd.
Process and Reviews:
Along with enhancing my resume, Greg’s input really stood out in storytelling and essays, which for Wharton’s EMBA can span up to four essays. In the essays related to career objectives, why Wharton, and what I could give to Wharton, Greg continually pushed me to provide more specific school references and articulate those references with real depth and sincerity. This was intensely frustrating at times, however, upon reflection I understand why it was necessary. At first, my essay read like a laundry list from Wharton’s website, however, Greg pushed me to write about the “why” more than the “what,” and “how” all of this fit into my overall goals, desired growth, and intended contributions. For example, he forced me to question how exactly I hoped to grow both in the classroom and out, why this was necessary given my goals, what unique contributions I could make to the class, and what specifically appealed about certain classes, professors, and program offerings. As such, my essays transformed from a simple regurgitation exercise into a thought-provoking and intensely personal articulation of reasons for my choices.
At the same time, Greg’s guidance was instrumental in helping to infuse my essays with a sense of passion, purpose, and personal stories. I felt I was, therefore, able to convey a strong blend of the professional and the personal and tell my story in a way that truly reflected who I am and what I wanted to share. Without Greg’s assistance – and constant reminders – I would not have honed my essays into what they became: sharp, pointed, personal, and engaging.
Greg also helped me proactively approach some of the weaknesses my application; these included a less than stellar GMAT score (we were diligent in brainstorming and articulating the other areas from which I could showcase my analytical and quantitative abilities) and lesser work experience than other EMBA candidates (we were equally diligent in brainstorming and articulating the unique contributions that I could make to the class at this stage of my career).
Overall, Greg’s attention to detail, tremendous command of the English language, and vast experience helping others in their MBA journey helped provide me with the confidence that I had done everything I could to maximize my application. Greg was also considerate of my workload and always provided ample time for review and feedback that fit within my busy schedule.

I contacted Greg after submitting my application to Berkeley Haas last application season and decided to use his interview prep services after receiving the interview invite.
During the session, I realized I was not very well prepared for the actual interview, but Greg gave me very thorough and detailed feedback after the mock and helped me prepare better for the interview questions. He pointed out what were my problems when answering the questions, what I had to focus on during the interview, how I had to structure the answers, what topics I had to focus on. He also gave me tips about how I had to behave during the interview and what qualities I had to emphasize about myself. I was admitted to Haas last year! Although I was not able to attend the MBA program due to some personal reasons, Greg’s initial help with interview prep helped me immensely during the next application cycle and I was able to gain admission to Stanford GSB and HBS!
I am confident that Greg’s very detailed help with interview prep played a critical part in my success, giving me confidence and ability to correctly choose and structure my answers – I was admitted to three top schools!

Let me curb some fears of working with an application consultant before I get started…. Greg Guglielmo was WORTH EVERY PENNY in this entire process. I came into application season with a GPA and GMAT score that both are slightly below average for the schools I was looking at. I knew it would be an uphill battle to get where I wanted. I chose to work with Greg at Avanti Prep because I knew I would need all the help I could get to have the most polished applications I could. It didn’t hurt that he came strongly recommended from a friend of mine who just started b-school last fall.
I’m a married Midwest man who had to consider my budget in the application process, so I chose to only work with Greg on one school and hoped that I could get some carry-over benefit for my other applications. My target schools were Kellogg, Tuck, Sloan, and Fuqua. After talking it through with Greg, we decided to work together on Kellogg. This worked very well because most of its deadlines were ahead of the other schools.
When we started off, Greg got to know me on a very personal level through scheduled phone calls and emails to framework how I would present myself to the admissions committee. After that, we got to work on my resume. I had no idea how much work my resume needed. I had a ton of industry lingo that had to come out and simplified my accomplishments into something admissions committees could understand. Greg was always very pointed and specific about what he wanted me to fix.
Once we both felt comfortable with my resume, we got to work on the essays. I’m not a gifted writer, so Greg was a huge help in this department. Greg went as many rounds as we needed to get my essays looking their best. He never took more than a day or two to get my essays edited and sent back. After my essays were in tip-top shape, Greg was more than willing to spend time on the phone to discuss the rest of my application (LT and ST goals, international exp, extracurricular activities, etc.). Greg also helped me with a mock interview and gave me pointers for the video essay which proved invaluable. He helped shape some of my answers for typical interview questions in ways that I hadn’t thought of but made perfect sense. Greg was also extremely accommodating for a very late letter of recommendation. One of my recommenders procrastinated too much; however, Greg was able to turn around a review of his LOR the day of the deadline.
The Spillover Effect: Although I only had Greg help me with one application, my work with him substantially improved my other three applications. My goals were in much better form than they would have otherwise been. I know my essays were not near the same quality, but they too were much better off. With a 710 GMAT and 3.37 GPA, I’m in at Tuck and have an interview scheduled with MIT later next month. I can confidently say that I would not be where I am right now without Greg’s help at Avanti Prep. His personalized touch, responsiveness, thoroughness, and skill should put Avanti Prep at the top of your list.

I first got in contact with Greg via one of the profile review threads on GMATclub, he offered a quick and helpful review with details on how I could contact him for a free consultation session. I took him up on his offer and in the consultation, we ran through my profile, motivations and work experience in more details.
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Profile:
Background and nationality
English, based in UK – recently turned 30
Undergrad Information
BSc Economics – University of Bath – Second Class Honors First Division (roughly converts to 3.4 GPA I think)
GMAT: 740 (Q49, V41, IR 8, AWA 6.0)
Work experience and leadership:
(I have removed organization names for sake of anonymity, but they are all internationally recognized)
Associate at Segregated Hedge Fund within top tier Investment Bank/Asset Manager (London, UK), 2 years
Analyst at Middle Office in top tier Investment Bank X (London, UK), 3yrs
Contractor at top tier Investment Bank Y (London, UK), 1yr – this was only ever a short term role while I was looking for good permanent opportunities
Full-time Internship (post-university) at top tier Investment Bank Z (New York, USA), 1yr
Full-time Internship (third year of degree was a year-long industry placement before returning for final year) at top tier Investment Bank W (London, UK), 1yr
Community and others:
Amateur soccer player, fitness training, tennis, skiing, athletics, and stock market investing.
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I had already sent off a couple of applications and had the deadline to UT McCombs only a couple of days away. Greg gave me a few ideas on how to improve my initial application and let me know that he could help in more detail if I signed up for an additional last-minute session.
I sent him copies of my admissions essays and he reviewed overnight before getting back to me the next day with a lot of great advice and how to really make my essays pop out. We ran through a few iterations (which definitely saw Greg run over the original hour I had paid for!) and the difference between my initial application and the final one was night and day.
Although our session was focused on the UT application, I was able to use the advice Greg had given me to build my final two applications around (UNC Kenan Flagler and UW Foster). I was very happy with the standard of my three applications after first working with Greg, and feel like they were much stronger than my first two applications.
At the end of my five round one initial applications I had the below results:
1. Stanford (pre-Greg) – no interview
2. Berkeley Haas (pre-Greg) – interview invite
3. UT McCombs (with Greg) – interview invite
4. UW Foster (with Greg) – interview invite
5. UNC Kenan-Flagler (with Greg) – interview invite
I scheduled another hour-long session with Greg to run through interview practice. He had clearly done his research so that we could run through practice questions from each of the schools I was going to be interviewing with and I was able to go into all my interviews feeling well prepared and ready to go.
I received admissions offers from all but Berkeley (I feel like the standard of my written application probably played a role in this rejection):
1. UT McCombs – Full scholarship
2. UNC Kenan-Flagler – Full scholarship
3. UW Foster – Large scholarship (but not full)
I chose to accept my McCombs offer and can’t wait to start there!
Overall the things that stood out to me most working with Greg were:
– His enthusiasm throughout the whole process
– His work ethic and commitment to providing excellent service (especially for the rapid turnarounds I required given how late I decided to ask for his services)
– Ongoing email exchanges where Greg provided help and advice for free
– His detailed knowledge of every step of the application process
– Extremely detailed and insightful edits for my application essays (including really deconstructing and telling my story and proposed contributions to the program)
– Really drilling down into my goals and optimizing them for my applications (as well as my own future!)
Overall I really cannot recommend Greg and Avanti Prep highly enough, every step of working with him was an absolute pleasure, and he definitely took my applications to another level. I would recommend that anyone who has not made their mind up over whether to take up Greg’s services definitely do so!

There’s something to be said about going with a smaller consultancy and getting non-canned, dedicated support. Greg was exactly that – if you want thoughtful, dedicated and tailored advice, I would highly suggest his services. I paid higher fees for Manhattan Prep and I can guarantee he is so much more worth it hour vs. hour – no comparison. He’s a great blend of very knowledgeable and very supportive, which address the two biggest stresses of the MBA application process: the intellectual challenge of getting in and the emotional roller-coaster of the process. I am thrilled to say with his interview prep support, I got into my top choice – and I really don’t know if I would’ve had it not been for Greg!

As a somewhat ‘vanilla’ candidate (graduated from Big 10 public university, 750+ GMAT, white male), I was determined to make the most of my interview invitations at HBS and Stanford.
I sought out an admissions consultant to conduct ‘mock interviews,’ to receive a strategic read of my application, identify likely interview directions, gain blunt feedback on my presentation style, and receive support for HBS’ post-interview reflection.
Greg Guglielmo from Avanti Prep provided all three, going above-and-beyond the call to support my candidacy and contribute to my ultimate admission.
Through the course of our first of two mock interview sessions (via Skype), Greg’s familiarity with my application materials went far beyond a glance of my resume. His interview closely mirrored the GSB interview format and struck a perfect balance between being informal and professional.
Following the mock interview, Greg offered pointed feedback on stronger and weaker answers, as well as more holistic feedback on my delivery, storytelling and the organization of my thoughts. His advice was actionable and eventually implemented in the interview itself.
The second mock interview (HBS) session was both similar in its professionalism and different in the interview style itself – though again, very much akin to the actual HBS interview.
Following both conversations, Greg provided a very helpful summary of the key takeaways from our conversation and pointed me in the direction of helpful online resources to consult in the lead-up to my interview.
After receiving admission to both HBS and Stanford, I reached out to Greg to see whether he would be willing to acquaint me with a dual admit client of his. Greg put me in touch with an HBS student who went through the same decision as me the year prior. The student provided insights that were very helpful towards my ultimate decision, a point-of-view that I would have never gotten if not for Greg’s support.
In a crowded field with no shortage of generic and impersonal consultants, I found Greg to be an enthusiastic breath of fresh air. I wholeheartedly recommend Greg based on my interview prep experience with him.