Rajdeep Chimni

As a re-applicant, I was aware of the complexities of the application process. However, I did not have a good idea of how to structure my application – resume, essays, goals, etc. As a result, my previous applications had been incoherent and inconsistent.

A Booth alumn who had worked with Chimni for her applications recommended him. From the first conversation, I knew that he is highly knowledgeable and heavily invested, and treats each application with the same care and detail as if he were making his own application. After talking to friends and reading Admissions Gateway reviews I joined Chimni. The 4 areas in which I benefited were:

Resume: Chimni helped me polish my resume, elevating it and giving it a solid structure. He helped me pivot how I looked at my work, academic and personal experiences and convey that in a strategic and targeted manner. With his help, I was able to draw out the broader implications of my work on my team, company, and clients both from a business and personal perspective.

Goals definition: Chimni took the time to understand my background, helping me think about career goals that make sense and relate to my passions and experiences, and then conduct targeted research on each school’s fit with those. I was able to refine my vision for a post-MBA career and clearly articulate how an MBA would help me.

Essays: Chimni helped structure the essays for each of the target schools, thinking strategically about what we wanted to communicate and giving me feedback on whether the essay was achieving that. He treated the essays with such a high degree of meticulousness and deep thought that by the time I had written a few revisions, my essays had been transformed into near-perfect expressions of me.

Interview Preparation: Once I received interview calls, he also helped with frameworks and strategies to answer questions intelligently and coherently. I was able to structure my thoughts around the most important questions before heading into the interview and this helped bolster my confidence to handle any one-off questions.
In summary, I found Rajdeep to be highly knowledgeable, strategic and meticulous and his help was invaluable in navigating the application process. If you are really serious about cracking a top-tier B-school, I would highly recommend working with Rajdeep.

A couple of my friends referred me to Chimni. The initial call was great, I thought he was dedicated and had a great track record.

What stood out for me during my experience working with Chimni was professionalism and expertise. He was efficient in helping me brainstorm the elements of my essay and make me think out of the box. Post the initial iterations on essays, I found it difficult to think outside of the box or start afresh. Rajdeep would devote time in helping me come up with new angles in such situations.

He was extremely approachable. There was no delay or lag in reviews. Rajdeep was always mindful of the task at hand and ensured timely completion of all parts of the process. I was impressed by his thoroughness when checking the resume and forms, pointing out some of the most easily overlooked gaps. He also emphasized on through checking of each element from my end, reminding me of the same even post-finalization.

Admissions Gateway provided support through every single step of the application process. Chimni even assisted me in writing to the schools for scholarships after receiving admits. The regular web sessions with students, especially during the interview process were useful. I especially benefited from the session with Wharton students held before the GD, which helped me structure my pitch and prepare well for my team based discussion. I had chosen Admissions Gateway initially because of this end-to-end collaboration and was happy to see that AG stayed true to its promise. Unlike most other consultancies, the team did not impose any restrictions on the number of drafts or mock interviews that I could request.

My results were great. R1 – Wharton (admitted with $40k scholarship), Harvard (interviewed, not admitted), Booth (admitted with $50k scholarship), LBS (admitted), Columbia (declined to interview).

Highly recommend Admissions Gateway and Chimni!

I heard about Chimni and Admissions Gateway from a colleague at work and was impressed by his track record. Chimni is a pusher. He knows when you’re giving 90% and pushes until you reach your 100%. Chimni did not push his own opinions on me and rather let me figure out my own stories and goals and helped shape them.

Chimni helped sculpt each line on my resume to bring out the impact of my experiences. Instead of writing simple job descriptions found in most resumes, he forces you to think about quantifiable results and how your work has made a difference. He is very hands-on and involved in every step of the process and focuses a lot on research and networking with current and ex-students to really get to know the school and your fit with the school. For the essays that ask about specific situations, he goes over all possible experiences you can write about and you select and build on the most relevant.

He did full justice to my applications and did not allow me to submit any essays that he believed were less than perfect. There was no limit to the number of iterations and he did not hesitate to go back to the drawing board even very close to the deadlines if needed.

I worked with Chimni mainly to prepare for my HBS mock interview, based on my friend’s recommendation. Chimni’s approach was very different compared to other well-known consultants I worked with. He suggested a lot of input over the phone compared to email, which was the exact style I was looking for.

For example: Before the main mock interview with Chimni, I had 2 calls with him just to understand how to prepare for B-school interviews, HBS in particular. Post-interview, I had a call with him to go over the interview and we brainstormed about the HBS post-interview reflection note. And I will again emphasize that most other consultants would just do 1 call and answer other queries over email.

For me, this personalized approach was what stood out – the fact that he’ll have my back when I am stressed and make himself available for any questions during my preparation.

Overall, I would strongly suggest Chimni and Admissions Gateway. Looking back, I felt I should have subscribed to the whole application package and I could have created a much stronger application.

Working with Chimni was quite amazing. Most important was the strategic advice that was given right at the beginning. Before that, I was not projecting my candidature well. By the time I finished my resume I had greater clarity on my strengths and how to project them. The guidance at each step was comprehensive and helped me put my best foot forward.

I had a lot of content for my resume and essays but I didn’t know how to put it together cogently and also make it succinct. Chimni’s discussed various examples and frameworks which allowed me to think deeply and bring out only the strategic stuff. Another major hurdle was managing the word count as I had never written such essays. But through iterations, I improved at being able to tell my story well.

For the interview, Chimni shared approaches to each type of interview questions and the strategy in terms of how much time and what needed to be prepared. This was really comprehensive. I also used ClearAdmit to research the questions and bucketed them into the categories that had been shared. All the questions asked fell into one of those categories with a slight variation.

This time I started early and followed a plan and had great results getting into Stern with scholarship amongst other schools. Chimni helped me look at the big picture and showcase the most relevant parts of my profile.

I started early, reading blogs on multiple websites such as Poets&Quants and also talked to a lot of current students. I heard great reviews about Chimni so I was excited to work with him.

Resume building and conveying my thoughts in the essays were the biggest challenge that I faced coupled with a lack of international experience. I was also in a competitive pool of engineers and had a low GPA to contend with but my GMAT was good.

Chimni really helped me think at a high level and visualize the larger picture in terms of my goals and the stories I wanted to showcase. He helped me structure my experience and focus on key traits such as leadership, collaboration, and diversity. Also, he taught me to research schools very well and cater my story into each school.

It is an overwhelming process and whenever my energy was low I found support. Chimni also helped with a structured approach to preparing for interview questions and even weaving in stories that I had not previously prepared. Overall, it was a great experience and I was able to differentiate myself from a challenging pool of candidates and gain admission to INSEAD with scholarship.

My fiancee had great things to say about Admissions Gateway and Chimni so it was an easy choice.

I was from a great undergrad school with less than a stellar academic record, top-notch consulting experience but not from a firm considered gold standard, private equity experience but not from a global bulge bracket – so the profile touched ‘gold’ yet felt silver. Chimni helped me think through my choices and we decided to apply to the top-7 but include all my dream schools. I had done research on Poets and Quants etc but my discussions with Rajdeep helped me put almost a year of research into frameworks and decisions quickly. Having received 3 admits from 5 schools, I feel the strategy was on target.

I had made resumes for competitive roles (consulting, private equity recruitment) and felt I had a strong grip on resume making. But Chimni took the resume to another level. I learned to make my resume focus on leadership aspects in ways I hadn’t imagined. His frameworks and thumb-ruled assisted me greatly. I am confident I have my resume ready once the recruitment season kicks off.

Goals definition and essays – here is where I think lies the meat of the service. Chimni’s clear thought process, ‘growth’ framework for goals and essays, samples from the AG system, were invaluable. This process can take forever, but Chimni helped with shortlisting and hotlisting ideas. Chimni helped every step of the way, without regard for #brainstorming sessions or #iterations with the sole focus of getting a good job done. On occasions where I slacked and resulted in pushing work close to the submission deadline, Chimni was available even at odd hours on WhatsApp/email/phone, turning around deliverables in a couple of hours but not letting his guard down on ensuring perfect essay messaging.

While Chimni has a focus on getting the application process done, he often goes above and beyond. He has reviewed entire application packages (not just essays and resume, but the short answer ones, career descriptions and the entire gamut which applicants often underestimate). He has helped with scholarship forms and essays. He has even reviewed essays for schools we hadn’t agreed to work together on. He has helped think through post-admit school selection. Overall, I feel like I have gained a well-wisher and supporter in the MBA journey rather than just a counselor.

I got a full-tuition scholarship to Kellogg (along with admission to Columbia and Tuck), which itself is about a 20x return on investment.

I was deciding between a few consultants (Accepted.com, Menlo, HBSguru and Admissions Gateway). After my call with Chimni, I knew right away that I wanted to work with him because of his candid, action-oriented and well-informed approach. He has a great track record and the support provided was more exhaustive.

Chimni helped me break down the process into key parts with manageable timelines. Starting from the resume, within 1-2 iterations I could see the difference – Chimni deeply understood my work and helped me bring out the impact. He pushed my thinking on articulating my aspirations and conveying my story in a compelling way, through multiple discussions and connecting me to current students. For the interviews, he not only conducted mocks but also leveraged the Admissions Gateway network to get us real insights –Wharton students discussed their GD experiences to help us prepare.

What stood out the most for me while working with Chimni was how accessible he was, from strategizing school choice over scheduled calls to clarifying last minute queries on WhatsApp chats – his support was invaluable. Overall it was a great experience that translated into amazing results. I gained admission to Stanford (with $110), Wharton ($110K) & LBS (with GBP 25K).

Two friends who worked with Chimni and gained admission to Harvard had given me great reviews about Admissions Gateway. My interaction with Chimni was calm and focussed from the outset. He gave me an idea of how the process works, what the schools look for etc. I was surprised he didn’t get hung up on my weak GPA, which gave me confidence that I had a reasonable shot at the top schools.

The resume building process was thorough; moving the resume from appearing ‘operational’ to appearing ‘strategic’ was the big part. Chimni’s efforts were validated not just with the B-School results but also by the fact that I started getting a number of calls from companies wanting to hire me based on the updated resume I’d put up online. We broke down each resume point into four steps:

1. How it affected my company in terms of its presence in the space (retail banking, FMCG etc.)

2. How it affected the very client that I worked with

3. What I actually did (here went the operational part)

4. Quantify impact everywhere

The school selection was primarily based on my interest in finance and Columbia was my first choice. A lot of brainstorming was done around my goals. My interest lay in finance but my resume was weak on that front and stronger in consulting and data analytics, so I had to position the transition well. As time went on, I was able to merge Big Data consulting and my interest in working in the financial domain.

Another good part of working with Chimni was that no idea was imposed on me and not until I was convinced of the way forward did we move ahead; the whole process went on smoothly.

Not only was Columbia the target school but also the one which came out with the results the earliest, so my journey ended quickly – in mid-November. I have been chosen a Columbia Fellow and have been awarded a merit-based scholarship of $80K over two years.

I liked Admissions Gateway and Chimni’s personalized approach and Chimni came highly recommended by friends. He went beyond his role throughout the process and his confidence in my success was 100%.

Resume: Chimni helped transform my resume using the STAR framework, highlighting the impact that I brought to the firm. It helped shine the light on my leadership aspects and long-term effect of my work, not only preparing me for the B-school process, but also for the recruiting.

School Search: I had done research through interactions with students, alumni and online before connecting with Chimni, but had been unable to reach a concrete decision in terms of schools. He guided me and set a structure by walking me through (1) my chances at the school and scholarships (2) career opportunities and (3) the kind of culture I can expect. I received admits from 4 of the 6 I applied to with a high scholarship.

Essays and goal definition: Chimni helped in not only thinking through the essays but putting in perspective my recruitment targets post-admissions. He broke essays down into simple structures and frameworks enabling me to tackle them as small pieces and not get over-awed by the magnitude. He was available at all hours, discussing any element that I was not comfortable with. He helped me even in the schools we hadn’t agreed to work on. He aided in connecting with students and alumni to make the essay more targeted and personalized.

I am attending Kellogg with 120K and gained admits to Chicago Booth, Tuck, and Haas!