Mark Lellouch

I got into Wharton, Yale SOM, and Chicago Booth with hundreds of thousands of $$$ in scholarships. And here’s how that happened.

There’s a saying that goes, “Successful people are just those who tried one more time.” I would add—they’re also the ones who believe in themselves.

Frankly, I didn’t. I came to Mark when my self-belief was at its lowest point—probably the lowest it had ever been.

Just six months ago, I was rejected by a couple of M7 schools without even an interview. Coming from a very challenging background—growing up in a country that is negatively perceived in the US, attending schools not well-known internationally, having a very low undergrad GPA (below 3.0), pursuing a career in an unrelated humanities field, missing family savings (I was fully supporting elderly relatives), and lacking any useful network—my prospects looked bleak. Add to that being a very young blonde girl with no connections to the US or knowledge of its academic system, and you get the full picture. I’d never even been to the US and had only heard of the Ivy League through movies, perceiving these universities as exclusive domains for “superhumans” with incredible connections and half of Manhattan as their neighbors.

After my first rejection, I reached out to other consulting firms. The feedback I received only brought me down further. They didn’t want to take me on as a client, telling me I wasn’t “MBA material” and should stick to whatever I was doing instead of dreaming of becoming Google’s CEO.

Mark became my first ray of hope in all this madness.

To begin with, he was KIND. I know you’re probably expecting words like “creative,” “productive,” and “structured.” He’s all that. But most of all, he is KIND.

From our first call, Mark believed in me. It might sound simple, but for me, it was everything. He told me I could do it. He recognized my unique life experience—one filled with overcoming personal hardships yet remaining sensitive and caring about the world’s issues.

Mark analyzed my profile thoroughly, highlighting a plethora of strengths I had overlooked—things I’d done GREAT. He helped me turn every disadvantage into an asset, showcasing achievements I hadn’t realized I possessed.

From there, the process was smooth. Mark was always in touch, offering the most helpful guidance possible. Sometimes, he’d just hop on a call to calm my nerves and address my doubts. Other times, he’d revisit my stories with me a thousand times, polishing them until they were perfect. He would suggest fresh angles I had missed, and often he’d simply remind me that I could do it.

Of course, there were dozens of rewrites, discussions, and debates. But Mark never once pushed me to say anything untrue, to overpolish the picture, or to pretend to be someone I wasn’t.

He never wrote anything on my behalf nor made me look like someone I didn’t recognize. Instead, he helped me uncover my strengths and present them in ways that would impress anyone—especially the admissions committees.

Mark held my hand throughout the entire process. He was bold with his advice, meticulous with the details, and deeply curious about my endeavors. He helped me shape my profile to present myself as an experienced business professional.

Through this, I began to see myself in a new light. I realized that I was talented, resilient, hardworking, and successful. Apparently, I was exactly what top MBAs in the world are looking for.

Mark was also instrumental in my interview preparations. Despite his busy schedule, he always found time to support and cheer me on. He ran multiple practice sessions, ensuring I could present myself authentically—warm, funny, engaging, and passionate—rather than memorizing answers and worrying about how to appear most “professional.”

I can’t recommend Mark enough. If you need a FRIEND (who is also an extremely talented MBA expert) to guide you every step of the way through the exhausting application process, Mark is the one.

Thank you, Mark! Thank you, Admissionado team!

You made my dream come true. I hope you help make many more dreams come true.

I had a wonderful experience working with Mark from Admissionado when applying to MBA programs outside of the US.

What made me first decide to move forward with Mark and Admissionado after speaking to multiple other MBA consulting firms was that even before I signed with Admissionado, I was studying and taking the GRE and Mark would always check in with me to wish me luck and congratulate me on the GRE test. I felt like this thoughtfulness and attention to detail he exhibited even before I paid and started with Admissionado demonstrated to me that Mark had my best interests at heart and was going to be genuine throughout the application process.

I had a lot of anxiety throughout the MBA process and experienced a lot of self-doubt, but Mark was extremely good at being supportive and encouraging while also always pushing me to think outside the box to ensure that I was able to craft the most engaging and compelling story to best pitch myself throughout my application essays.

Mark always stuck to the 72 hour turnaround time and was very good at ensuring all of my questions and notes were addressed. During the interview preparation process, he was good at throwing curveball questions to make sure that I felt fully prepared going into my interviews.

In the end, I was successful in all of the schools that we submitted applications for!

I truly could not have gone through this MBA application process without Mark and the rest of the Admissionado team and will be forever grateful to everything he did for me. I cannot recommend working with Mark enough!

Mark and the Admissionado team were a real pleasure to work with. From the beginning, when it feels like a scramble to achieve a full application, the step by step process was laid out thoroughly and it became easy to visualize the end goal, with each step having a concrete goal and understanding of why it was necessary. They stood by their promise to respond each time within a 72 hour window, and really pushed back on me when it was determined that something was ‘not enough’, while still helping to guide the thought process without being prescriptive. In turn, my own confidence grew with each step. They really take the time to get to know you as well as the schools you are applying for in order to help maximize your potential in the application. No small details or questions were left unanswered, which was greatly appreciated.

Mark is a brilliant consultant who has been instrumental throughout my EMBA application process. His advice and dedicated support truly elevated the quality of my application. He inspired me to construct my essays more effectively and assisted in helping me represent myself better during interviews. I cannot emphasize enough the value he added and I am grateful for his guidance!

I started working with Mark 2 years out of college and into my job. For someone with a low WE, it was definitely not an easy task to uncover all the leadership stories that can bolster ones application, but Mark was always there to provide the much needed inspiration.

My entire life went upside down shortly after starting working with Mark. I relocated back to my home country to support my company’s expansion there, but I was hit with the unfortunate news of my father getting cancer and eventually passing away, which forced me to postpone my MBA plans. Throughout this time, Mark and the Admissionado team was supportive and understanding, helping me put my application on hold temporarily until I feel ready to apply again.

A year later, I became ready again to tackle my MBA applications. But my perspective of life and my career has changed… The stories I wanted to tell changed as well. Mark and the team was patient throughout this rediscovery process and worked with me patiently to hash out my new stories. It was a painful process to go back to the drawing board but I was fortunate to had an awesome team to back me up.

I eventually applied to 5 schools with Admissionado, and leveraged the same materials to applied to 1 other school on my own, and got in Columbia, Booth, and Kellogg. I will be attending Columbia this upcoming fall.

My story is a little unusual in that I had first engaged AA back in 2016. Life happened and I couldn’t make the MBA application deadlines that year. 6 years passed and then finally in early 2022 – 14 days before the R2 deadline at Wharton EMBA – I decided to submit my application. After 6 years w/o any contact, I reached out to the AA team seeking help with my application and it took them only 24 hours to agree to honor/render the full service under my arrangement from 6 years ago. They not only squeezed me in but fast-tracked the entire process to accommodate my circumstance. Incredible business ethics!

Mark is the highest quality professional out there in this area. I closely worked with him to pull together all key aspects of my application – resume, essays, LORs, and interview prep. His advice and pointers were crisp and completely revamped my application. He was responsive and was not shy in calling out weak areas in my writing, or poor presentation. He knows how to take raw application content and transform its presentation to make the highest impact possible on AdCom. My application went down the wire and Mark was there with me in the trenches till the very end. I do not think I would have been able to make the deadline, had it not been for Mark’s guidance.

I was admitted into Wharton’s EMBA class in 2024 earlier this month. Here are highlights of my profile:

-M&A at a tech company in SF
-10+ years of WE
-EA score – 153
-Undergrad and Grad at a State University in the Midwest
-High GPA
-CPA and CFA

I absolutely loved working with Mark, initially, I had no idea about the application process but under his thoughtful guidance, we achieved an impossible! With Mark’s help I got into my top choice school with a generous scholarship, I applied to 3 schools and received offers from 2. Initially, I started the application process late and was under time constraints, Mark was always there, answered all of my questions, cheered for me, and when I was heading in a different direction, he was there to correct me. I absolutely recommend working with Mark, especially for international applicants because he is aware of the differences in the culture, business and will help shape your application in the best light possible.

I applied to 7 top International Relations schools in the U.S. and Europe. With Mark’s help, I was admitted to 6 of them (incl. Columbia SIPA, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Georgetown SFS) with very sizable scholarships and waitlisted by Yale.

From our first free consultation, I appreciated Mark’s honesty. I came from a non-traditional background, trying to switch careers to international development after spending 10 years in finance. This was challenging, as I already have two masters’ degrees in Finance and all my international development experience was pro-bono. Mark never tried to give me unrealistic expectations; instead, he emphasized how he could help and support me as I worked to achieve my goal. The whole process felt more than just an essay editing service but more like having a real mentor working alongside me through this challenging journey.

Notably, because of my lack of full-time experience in my prospective field, Mark encouraged me to emphasize my transferable skills. Recognizing my capability to research information thoroughly, he encouraged me to read white paper research about my chosen field to enhance my understanding of my subject matter. This work showed in my essays: in my final drafts, I was able to show a very clear, specific articulation of career goals and to demonstrate knowledge of the field I’m hoping to enter. This was key to getting me into my dream programs.

Mark was open to accepting different opinions. Initially, he suggested keeping minimal of my personal anecdotes in my essays to leave more space for career goals and “why this school.” But given my non-traditional background, I felt strongly that the anecdotes were essential to demonstrate my motivations and commitment of why I’m switching into international development. Mark did eventually agree with me after knowing my rationale.

Mark had a comprehensive grasp of the English language and an elegant turn of phrase. Whether replying to emails or editing my essays, his writing read beautifully. He was extremely patient. I regularly sent long emails to him, posing multiple questions. Without fail, he answered all of them in insightful ways and gave me tailored advice on how to proceed with my work. Mark also has a speedy turnaround time, almost always returning things to me before the three-day deadline, even during the extremely busy Christmas times.

In addition to his extensive help with my essays, he transformed my resume into the next level. It remains the best professional resume I have. The two interview prep sessions with Mark were extremely helpful. His interview advice was very tailored to me and my application. He accurately predicted many of the questions I was asked. And as we worked on answers, he told me not just how to answer them but how to form answers that would leave an impact on the interviewers. Mark was also generous with his time, the two sessions were supposed to be one hour each, but we spoke for almost three hours.

Mark was a great mentor and cheerleader throughout my stressful application process. He was consistently encouraging and helped bolster my confidence in my work. While always professional, he made a tremendous effort to get to know and understand me and my perspectives so that he could help me to the best of his ability.

I would recommend working with Mark to anyone who’s looking for the highest level of professional advice and mentorship on graduate program applications.

Claudia and Rose from the operations team did a fantastic job pairing me up with Mark. Their lovely spirits really made the admin side of things so much smoother and more fun!

My big thanks go to the Admissionado team and Mark personally. If I knew all this in advance, I would be more prepared. My only regret is that I didn’t apply to more schools. I’m sure I would have made it to the top 10 for sure. I applied to 3 schools, received invitations for interviews from all schools, and in 2 schools I got on the waiting list (one of the schools is in the top 5). I was admitted to one of the top 20 schools with a scholarship. If my GMAT were 720+, I would have been accepted to the top 5.

I was very happy to work with this company Admissionado. I have heard before that they are the best in their field and now I am convinced by my own experience. I definitely advise working with Mark personally.

I entered the MBA application process with a vague idea of what to do, but with Admissionado and Mark Lellouch’s help, I walked out of the process with admission to one of my top choices (Haas) and a hefty scholarship!

From day 1, Mark was encouraging, honest, and direct, giving me the feedback I needed to hear instead of just agreeing with me as some of my friends might. He briefed me on each of the schools I was applying to, helping me understand what each focused on, and helping me organize my thoughts to target each school. In every communication, he was polite, responsive, and always provided a point of view that gave me something to think through. As a consultant myself (albeit not an admissions consultant), Mark is everything that I try to be with my own clients!

As an added bonus, the resume that Mark helped me refine not only helped me with my MBA admission, but also was a key driver in landing me 3 big tech and consulting job offers as well! All in all, I would highly recommend Admissionado and I can’t imagine completing the application process without their support.

I had a great time with Mark through the Deluxe Package. With his help, I got admitted to two of the schools that I was aiming for: HEC and INSEAD.

I immediately clicked with Mark, as he was very kind and open to my ideas and discussions. He listened to my “biography” and understood very quickly my strengths and weaknesses. On this basis, we were able to form a solid strategy and worked on a very short schedule to keep up with the deadlines. Although you have to work hard yourself, you will always be assured that you are working on the right track and that the end will be rewarding: you will know more about yourself (honestly, who doesn’t want to) and will be admitted into your dream school (yay)!

Mark also helped me with the interviews, where he opened my mind about the whole process which really reduced my preparation stress and made me much more confident going into them.

Mark and the whole team, Claudia and Rose, were very responsive and were always available and encouraging.

Overall, I had a great experience with Mark and the whole team and would like to recommend them to anyone who is kinda lost in this admission process and want to succeed.

I took the Junior Deluxe package + MBA Resume service. I got into my target school, and I am convinced that without Mark’s help my application would have been declined.

My background and career path are non-traditional, and I have had little exposure to international MBA graduates. I knew that with enough time and research I could probably get by without a consultant, but balancing work + post-grad diploma + GMAT prep was already too much to handle at the time and because there was so much at stake I decided to shell out for a consultant. In hindsight, it was one of the best decisions I could have made.

Mark is pleasant to deal with but can be brutally honest when he needs to get you out of your comfort zone. We went over my MBA resume and essays multiple times. I would say that the stories and content come from the applicant and are like a collection of pictures and Mark helps you create a montage of these unique stories representing what the adcom are looking for in an MBA applicant.

I highly recommend Mark to applicants who do not have a good idea of how to market themselves to an adcom.

I was immediately reminded of why I decided to hire a consultant after Mark’s first review of my resume.

Mark Lellouch from Admissionado was crucial in getting me accepted into Berkeley Haas and LBS’s full-time MBA programs! I highly recommend Mark.

Mark tries to lay the roadmap of pursuing an MBA. Mark asks you very tough questions about your BIG IDEA, which is essentially showing to schools that you’re a business opportunity with extremely high potential. Additionally, Mark makes sure that this BIG IDEA is a realistic goal given your background and experience. It’s important that your goals for doing an MBA align really with your past. This required some deep thinking and digging in the beginning. However, once your vision is clear, you’re off and running.

Additionally, Mark has invaluable feedback to accurately answer essay prompts. With hands-on editing and extremely detailed comments, Mark transformed my approach to answering and conveying information in a clear and concise manner. I couldn’t recognize the first draft from the final one. Mark Lellouch is an excellent and experienced coach that is well worth the investment. I highly recommend Mark and Admissionado.

This is the first consultant experience I had that I enjoyed, which resulted in my first successful application after many years of trying. I saw Admissionado had good reviews on GMATClub so I set up a free profile eval on the website. Claudia got back to me almost instantly (she really responds very quickly) and started the process of connecting me to a consultant.

Mark Lellouche reviewed my responses and scheduled an introductory call with me where he shared his thoughts on my profile and my application strategy. I liked what I heard and how it seemed customized and realistic for my situation, so I went ahead with the Deluxe package. Immediately I filled out a very detailed questionnaire so that Mark could come up with a succinct summary of my strengths, weaknesses, and plan for my target school. Having an assessment like that on the front end really helped me clarify how I wanted to present myself across the entire application – resume, essays, forms and all.

After getting the front end down, we then started working on the application components – resume, essays, etc. Throughout this, Mark never wrote for me, but rather challenged my drafts as a cold eye and gave me clear prompts on how to modify my material to best present myself to the school. This is Mark’s best attribute by far – he is able to give you the right instruction and advice for you to articulate the best image of yourself clearly. I was stunned at how good my materials looked after reviews with him compared to my initial drafts…especially my resume.

I was invited to interview and Mark supported me through that as well with the same excellence as in the writing phase – by telling me HOW to think when responding rather than WHAT to say when responding. It is this crucial difference that has helped me grow as a person, not to mention getting a successful admission to my dream school – one that I’ve tried multiple times for many years to get in with different consultants who were not as effective. Claudia was also very supportive throughout the entire process, and as mentioned above, responded very quickly.

I would definitely recommend Admissionado and Mark. They were very helpful and exceeded my expectations of what a consultant can really do for you. Mark’s greatest skill is being able to guide you to articulate the best version of yourself.

As an older applicant who started this journey several years ago, I was stuck without being successful after having three interview invitations. But this time was different. I finally got an admission to the MIT Sloan Fellows MBA program.

Originally I was skeptical of working with an MBA admission consultant for its cost-effectiveness. This time, as my last trial, I wanted to objectively check my candidacy at least. I remembered Admissionado which a current MBA candidate at a top European school had recommended me during the interview last year.

After more than an hour of initial conversation with Mark, I decided to work with him, though I could invest my money in vain. However, It was important for me not to regret for not doing everything what I could do.

While working with Mark, I realized that there are certainly some points I can never reach to think when I prepare for the applications by myself alone. Mark advised me how to polish my career goals to be much more specific, logical, and realistic.

Especially, while you prepare for an MBA interview, you might not judge how your answers will affect to the interviewer’s evaluation. During the three interview prep sessions, Mark evaluated each of my draft answers and suggested me the best answer choices. He also helped me to carefully select questions to ask to my interviewer. In addition, he thoroughly analyzed the logical flow in explaining my career motivations, and effectively advised to fill any logical gap to make them more impressive.

After an interview, though you may feel that your interview did not go well, you have the last chance to regain through a ‘thank-you note’ to your interviewer. Depending on how you write it, you can lose definitely the remained chance or can recover what you lost during the interview. Upon my request, Mark kindly spared his time to review my ‘thank-you note’ draft and polished it to shine.

Thanks to Mark and Admissionado Team, I could finally end my long journey to an MBA admission. It was a truly different experience to have some who can support you. I would happily recommend Mark to anyone who don’t want to lose the last hope.

I worked with Mark as a re-applicant to four M7 schools. I ended up with admits from 3 of them and a waitlist from the fourth. From the very first Skype call, I felt I was working with a very seasoned consultant who knows the nuances of getting into an M7 school. I found Mark to be excellent at understanding my goals, beliefs, and experiences. He took enough time to walk through all facets of my life so far and followed up with detailed discussions.

As a re-applicant, I experienced a world of difference in his approach and its effectiveness when compared to my previous consultant in another online-based consulting service. He pushed me hard to link what I have done so far and what I want to do post business school and helped me develop a strong theme. He is also sincere and doesn’t hold back on what he feels, and this was very useful for me. End of the day, you don’t want a consultant who tells you everything is good all along and the results telling a different story.

I highly recommend Mark to anyone who wants to get into a top school. He will not only help you strategize better but will also help you self reflect and bring out a purpose which you couldn’t articulate coming into the admission season.

Apart from the personal profile and goal guidance, essay assistance and letter of recommendation support, something that really helped me was the interview preparation and mock interview.

First, Mark helped me identify which were my best stories and how to analyze them under the STAR approach. This helped me shape my top professional achievements and mistakes into stories that would highlight my strengths, leadership capabilities and areas of improvement.

I didn’t have much time to prepare for my mock interview, in which I felt I did pretty bad. However, Mark told me I had good stuff to work on, and pointed out which things I shouldn’t waste much time on.
After only a few hours of practice I felt I was ready to face my first interviewer for MIT.

Although I felt I did much better on the following three interviews, I got admitted to all four schools for which I was interviewed!
I don’t believe I would have had the same results if it weren’t for Mark’s help!

I signed up for a 5 school JRD package with Mark and it was the best decision ever. With Mark’s help, I got into several M7 schools (with scholarship) and will be attending my dream school (one of HSW- and I come from an extremely overrepresented community- so the odds were stacked against me). Mark is extremely smart (he was a Stanford GSB grad himself) and extremely humble. With his advice, I was able to arrive at strong post-MBA goals based on my background (we went through several iterations for this- he didn’t let me stop till they were rock solid). What I especially liked about Mark was that he wouldn’t just edit something or cut out irrelevant parts of the essay, but he would give out a detailed explanation as to why he is doing what he is doing. There were several times when I had a writer’s block but Mark was quick to respond to my emails and help me brainstorm (He would turn around essays way quicker than the 72H guarantee that Admissionado gives you; Email responses were always within 6-8 hours). Also, the editing team does a great job in polishing your essay (making sure the tone is right and that you don’t appear arrogant or shy). There were many instances when I just couldn’t figure out a way to trim down the essay to the word-limit, but Mark and Admissionado’s editing team did a phenomenal job in assisting with this as well. I was completely satisfied with the output of each and every essay and don’t believe it could have been any better.

The other area where Mark’s coaching really helped me was with interview prep. I strongly recommend you choose this add-on option if you get through to the interview stage. He coached me on my tone, the type of words that I have to use (for example- rewording “hard-working” as “tenacious”), the way I need to structure my responses to “curve balls” and the time limits I should try to stick to for all the responses. Though it was supposed to be a 1H call, it went on for way over and there was never any rush from Mark (the same thing happened during the introductory call).

I used a different consultant last year and didn’t get in anywhere (no interview calls either), but that changed this year- all thanks to Mark. I would strongly recommend Admissionado for helping YOU get into your dream school. Also, not to forget- their Operations team (Claudia and Lauren) does an amazing job in responding to your queries.

I am thrilled to let you know that I have been offered admission to the Stanford MSx Program

I could not have done without the strong support that I had with Mark and the team at Admissionado.

I really connected with Mark and felt that I had known him for a long time. Mark was very meticulous and attentive in his approach. He really grilled me during the prep interviews questioning every answer that I gave him. On the day of the interview I felt fully prepared and really confident that I could answer any question posed by the Adcom.

Claudia and Lauren were very friendly, funny and truly professional in their approach.

I must admit that I initially I doubted whether I really needed an admission consultant and whether the money was going to go down the drain. But Admissionado brushed away my doubts after a few exchanges of email and things went really went from there. Thanks Admissionado!

I got great help from Mark from the beginning to the end, including interviews. Since I’m not from the states, his ways to address the most important issues that adcoms might find important was great. Also, he has a great ability to realize what’s important to focus on what’s not. I am more than happy to recommend Mark to anyone.

In Latin America it’s common to contact regional consultants to prepare applications for top business schools. However, there are very few available and I was too close to R2 so they all rejected me because they had already taken up so many students. I decided to give Admissionado a try after reading its great reviews online.

Mark was the consultant who worked with me during the process. After our initial call, Mark managed to point out my main strengths, weaknesses, and best career accomplishments. This information was important through the whole application, including the interviews.

Then we started with back and forth emails to determine my career goals. Although it took too long (sometimes it wasn’t easy to not get discouraged), I managed to build a story that fits with my values, strengths, and passions. Mark’s guidance was essential for me to achieve this milestone. You might believe that you have your professional goals figured out, but in my case, I needed to dig deep into my interests and experience to build a solid story.

Afterwards we started working on the essays. Some prompts were very easy for me, but others were extremely difficult. There was a particular essay in which I never managed to write a story that convinced neither Mark nor myself. I wasn’t surprised to be turned down by this school, I never felt I’d really fit in there when I compared it with the other schools I applied to. This is important: the consultant won’t write the story for you, he/she will help you select what are the personal stories that best fit each prompt, then will help you to polish it, and finally, like they say, will make it Shine (this word really describes what happens with the final version).

Apart from the personal profile and goal guidance, essay assistance and letter of recommendation support, something that really helped me was the interview preparation and mock interview.

First, Mark helped me identify which were my best stories and how to analyze them under the STAR approach. This helped me shape my top professional achievements and mistakes into stories that would highlight my strengths, leadership capabilities and areas of improvement.

I didn’t have much time to prepare for my mock interview, in which I felt I did pretty badly. However, Mark told me I had good stuff to work on, and pointed out which things I shouldn’t waste much time on. After only a few hours of practice I felt I was ready to face my first interviewer for MIT.

Although I felt I did much better on the following three interviews, I got admitted to all four schools for which I was interviewed! I don’t believe I would have had the same results if it weren’t for Mark’s help!

To sum up, although Admissionado is a lot more expensive than regional consultants, my experience was extremely positive, and I would strongly recommend it for Latin American prospective MBA students.