Paul Bodine

I am very pleased with my experience working with Paul for my business school application. Over the last year or so I have applied to several business schools, using several admissions consultants. Paul is definitely my preferred pick and I only wish that I had known about him from the beginning. Throughout our exchanges by mail and phone, I was really able to gain a better idea of what exactly business schools are looking for and how to emphasize certain areas of my application to highlight my unique strengths. I had a feeling that he genuinely cared about my application – going above and beyond what I have seen with other consultants and even adding words of encouragement before my interview. In conclusion, I don’t have any reserves in recommending Paul – he is one of the best top B-school consultants out there and is simply an expert in the field. And he gets results – I was accepted into Columbia!

I worked with Paul from the moment I decided to apply to business school. Paul was a calm and insightful voice throughout the ups and downs of the process. My essay couldn’t have turned out better as a result of his input.

Separately, I was referred to Paul by my best friend who also had a successful application to both Harvard and Stanford.

I spoke to 8 consultants before choosing Paul and I knew from the beginning I had made the right choice – he responded swiftly, had already given me some insights on my profile and was direct about his assessment of my chances to applying for various schools. This was consistent throughout my interaction with him – never fails to have a quick turnaround (usually in a day or two), very precise in his advice and even manages the paid hours by the minute. Paul was invaluable in giving me insights on areas I needed to play up or fix, and this was really helpful as a Singaporean candidate with less familiarity with US schools. I got a R1 admit from my dream school (Kellogg) despite my red-flag GPA (3.8/5.0) and I absolutely would not have been able to do this without Paul. 100% recommend to any MBA applicant who needs some guidance.

Accepted to Kellogg, Booth, and Columbia, including a very significant scholarship at one!!! I truly cannot speak highly enough of Paul. We worked through each of my essays diligently, but always with a very personal touch from Paul so that he ensured my own voice stayed strong throughout. Not only did he consistently return his edits within 24 hours (I can’t emphasize enough the criticality of this quick turnaround time in the application process), but each round of suggestions from Paul helped me transform my essays from strong to stellar. Even after essays were finished, Paul was invaluable throughout the interview process, facilitating 1-on-1 prep time with one of his team members (a former admissions director at a top 10 school) as well as other interview simulations. I went into each of my interviews feeling confident about how best to articulate my story and how to make clear my strong interest in each of these schools, all in a differentiated manner.
In what is an extremely stressful 4-6 month process, Paul constantly provided much needed “de-stress” as I worked toward hitting deadlines and kept my confidence high throughout the process. If you are still reading this review, it probably means you are torn between various Consultant options. I can promise you – you will NOT find anyone better than Paul Bodine. 5 Stars and a HUGE thank you to Paul!

I am a re-applicant this year. I got no school with another consultant last year. This year, I worked with Paul and Sachin for re-application and I got 4 offers, including Booth, my dream school! Paul and Sachin are awesome! I am glad that I found them. They help me to distinguish myself from other applicants, provide insightful suggestions on my essays and are willing to answer any questions I have during the application process with a quick turnaround. I want to thank them for all the help they provided! I would not make it to Booth without their help!!

Paul is an expert admissions consultant, and I’m so glad I worked with him! After 10+ chats with different admissions consulting companies (including many on P&Q’s list of Top Admissions Consultants), I chose Paul because of his innate ability to understand my story, goals, and passions.

I began the process very early, and Paul was more than happy to accommodate my schedule. In the introductory call, I spoke in detail about my life stories: childhood, upbringing, high school, college, work, passions, etc. Afterwards, Paul would sometimes bring up small details I told him on the introductory call and recommend that I use those details in an essay or for a specific type of interview question.

When working through essays, Paul was a true master. His honest comments allowed me to think deeply about my passions and who I am as a person, ESPECIALLY for the difficult Stanford essay. If some parts of the essays were still ‘not working’, he’d offer to discuss on the phone to draw out some potential stories/examples. I certainly had to exert lots of effort in writing and editing essays, but Paul’s ability to identify the stories/examples to use was critical to the final essay outcomes.

Throughout the process, Paul was always able to answer my one-off questions quickly and efficiently. I truly believe that one such response (to my one-off questions) helped immensely in my final business school acceptances. In the end, I received acceptances to Stanford, Wharton, and several other Top 5 & Top 10 schools!

Paul Bodine is simply the best there is in the MBA admissions consulting market. I researched and held calls everywhere, and felt Paul was the only one to really understand my profile, identify the key aspects of my story, and communicate the best path forward regardless of my decision to work with him. I purchased by the hour and Paul immediately jumped in to help with application strategy, CV structure, school selection, and brief essay revision. He will not write your application for you, but rather will help you reflect and extract the most compelling presentation of your profile possible. This helped not only develop unique, honest essays, but also provided the necessary self-reflection for strong performance in interviews. Paul also went above and beyond the time I booked to answer the various questions and concerns that inevitably surfaced as a byproduct of this process.

Thanks to Paul, I was accepted at Booth with a $100k merit scholarship and Kellogg with a $70k merit scholarship.

A great supplement to Paul’s help is also his book, “Great Applications for Business School.” Really helped get the creative juices flowing and develop insights into what makes a Bschool app stand out.

There are many admission consultants and many MBA candidates. As a candidate, I wanted to stand out from the crowd. I applied the same criteria in choosing the right consultant who successfully helped others, could be instrumental unfolding the best story, would be straightforward about positive and negative feedback and most importantly would suit my specific need.
During the free consultation, he came up with actionable insights. I worked with him for a few weeks. The result? A savvy application story. I went to Haas.
I’m glad that I found Paul. Thank you and looking forward to see you bringing the best and the brightest in the upcoming years.

Paul is quite simply an incredibly smart and concise consultant who provides very timely and well thought out advice. Without ever having a regret, I have religiously trusted his views, insights and recommendations. You would be wise to hire him! Work with Paul and you will have a very positive outcome.

Paul was fantastic to work with and was instrumental in my admission to multiple programs including the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His extensive experience in the space helped me sail through the MBA application process with far less anxiety than had I gone it alone. Where Paul really excelled was in helping me reflect on my life journey and suss out the stories that really impacted me. I learned a lot about myself in the process. Work with Paul!