Paul Bodine

I highly recommend Paul and have recommended him to everyone who I know who is planning to apply to business school. He was extremely helpful in helping me craft my story in a way that was authentic. I had a hard time with the ‘What Matters to You Most & Why’ essay and Paul was really helpful in guiding me to a place where my family story, passions, and motivations really came through. I worked with Paul for Stanford, Harvard, and Wharton but then used those essays as the starting point for my other applications and was also admitted to Kellogg, Booth, MIT Sloan.

Working with Paul was the best MBA investment decision I have made.

I was quite late to the MBA application process, started less than a month before the round 1 application deadline. After talking with several consultants, I chose another consultant also high on the Poets&Quants ranking list (Paul’s schedule was full at the time) and scrambled to submit my 1 application to an M7 school, but did not end up getting an interview.

Having somewhat lost my confidence, I was very glad when I got the opportunity to work with Paul on my round 2 apps. He is clearly much better among the two consultants I worked with! Again I had a time crunch… Having spent another two months to retake the GMAT but ended up with the same score, I started to seriously working on my application in mid-December. With Paul’s help, I was able to successfully submit all of my applications on time and received offers from seven out of the eight schools I applied to: Wharton, Booth$$, Kellogg, Haas, Tuck$$, Yale SOM$$, Johnson$$ and even received 40-50K scholarship from multiple schools!

Paul really pushed me to identify my unique story and goals and be specific about them which helped me stand out from a traditional background. He also provided very helpful guidance on how I can piece my various experiences together so they all convey one coherent story. He was prompt and efficient with responses and edits which helped to make the process as smooth and as stress-free as it could be. In addition, the Admitify team was also very helpful during the interview prep process.

I still remember the anxiety I felt during December on whether I will get an offer from any of the schools I was planning on applying to, but with Paul’s help and encouragement, I was so successful with the application process I was picking between my dream schools. Looking back, I would also want to say to anyone who is reading this review, trust in your ability and don’t stress out too much, miracles do happen. 😊

Overall, I am extremely happy with my results and would highly recommend working with Paul. He is the kindest person who produces incredible results. I don’t think I could have done it without Paul and his team. THANK YOUUU!!

Paul asked thoughtful questions and provided structured feedback to make sure my voice/story shined. Clearly a very experienced consultant (I spoke with a ton of consultants before hiring Paul). Super responsive and easy to work with. Applied to Harvard and Stanford and got into both. Can’t thank him enough!

Choosing Paul as my MBA consultant was essentially the best decision for my INSEAD MBA application journey, and I got admitted! I decided to engage Paul on an hourly basis following my friend’s recommendation, who was admitted to Kellogg after she engaged Paul’s services a year earlier. I would say I derived the most value from the following:

Thorough and comprehensive – Paul was extremely thorough in helping me uncover the details of my life stories and work experiences that would be useful for my application. His comments/suggestions for my essays, as well as helping to guide my recommenders, were instrumental in helping shape a very coherent story to present to the ad com. I think this is extremely useful for my INSEAD application, which has multiple essay questions that probe deeply into personal and professional life.

Timeliness/Promptness – Throughout my engagement with Paul, Paul was very responsive to my emails, replying to me quickly within a day even when he is on the road. The quick response time helped me tremendously in managing the application timeline, as I could manage my recommenders and essays with ease.

Honest/Personable – Paul was very encouraging while also being candid/frank with his feedback. While I think I had a strong international experience profile that helped with my INSEAD application, other admission consultants that I contacted prior to engaging Paul was dismissive of the weaker parts of my profile and made me pessimistic of my chances initially. Paul was very honest in his assessment while providing constant encouragement and suggestions to bolster my overall application profile. It made me feel that Paul was a companion for my MBA application journey more than a consultant.

All in all, I felt that I have gotten 200% value from engaging Paul’s services for my INSEAD MBA application journey. I would wholeheartedly recommend Paul for those who are still looking for an MBA consultant to assist them on their journeys.

I worked with two consultants and Paul was so obviously better it wasn’t even close. Paul provided very constructive feedback and helpful editing when reviewing my essays. He tightened my story and short responses with precision, which helped present a comprehensible narrative to admissions. I was accepted to both HBS and Wharton (only two I applied). Couldn’t have done it without Paul!

Paul is a phenomenal MBA admissions consultant. He is thorough in gathering information about your profile and background up front and an expert in packaging and weaving your stories together coherently. By the end of the process, you really feel he knows you about as well as you know yourself. He helped me select schools and meet all of the tight Round 1 deadline. His style is a balance of pushing you to keep on track while not being overbearing or adding anxiety to an already difficult process. He is realistic and data-driven with his approach, but does not shy away from challenging cases. I had other consultants tell me I did not have a chance at some schools that Paul helped me with — and that I eventually did get into. The Admitify staff is also a huge help with mock interviews and advice through the different stages of the admissions process, so I would highly recommend the comprehensive package for your top schools. With Paul’s help, I was admitted to some of the most selective programs (Wharton, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth)!

I worked with Paul from the very beginning of my MBA application process for all my schools – ultimately received admission to HBS, Wharton (with scholarship), Sloan (with scholarship). Paul was very thorough and invested the time to understand who I am, identify stories that are differentiating, and bring to life the best version of my application. He was always quick to respond via email (feedback within the day or two), available for calls, and gave you the blunt honesty at times, as well as the encouragement and confidence boost when you needed it. At one point, I questioned my entire story and Paul listened to my concerns and happily went back with me to square one to explore alternative stories despite having already worked with me to build a full draft. I also found Paul’s pricing fair, his hourly service very honest, and never did I feel like he was looking to quickly end a call or say an application was ready until it truly felt done.

Paul, thank you so much for all your support – I really enjoyed working with you!

Paul is a fantastic consultant and large reason why I was admitted to the Stanford GSB and Wharton (with a fellowship of over $100k). I spoke to several consultants and was thoroughly impressed by Paul’s knowledge, friendly demeanor, and evident passion for his work.

I used Paul’s comprehensive school package and it was worth the investment. Paul always responded in less than a day and gave invaluable insights to my application and essay. He really helped me get to the core of ‘my story’ and my career aspirations. Paul was also valuable in interview preparations and helped me calmly and clearly deal with the interview process. I wholeheartedly recommend Paul to those who want to put their best foot forward in an MBA application. He’s the best admissions consultant around!

When I decided to apply to business school this year, it was important to me to feel that I had submitted my best foot forward for each school’s application. For this reason, I was willing to invest in the service of an admissions consultant. In hindsight, the business school application process is pretty stressful as it is, so it was definitely nice to have an expert on your side to assure you on what are the “best practices”, so to speak.

After speaking with a couple consultants, I felt that Paul was the only one who genuinely understood my story and comprehended the potential angles in which I wanted to frame them in order to communicate the best version of my experiences. I bought unlimited packages for two schools and would recommend doing so as opposed to the hourly services. Very happy with our engagement. Paul is patient, very responsive, and highly knowledgeable about top business schools’ admissions process. He is also a wizard in essay editing. He is a prolific writer—no doubt his (timely, quick, and value-add) feedbacks helped elevate the quality of my applications. Paul certainly doesn’t write your essays for you, but what he does is he provides the kind of detailed feedbacks on your writing that pushes you to think about your experiences in more detail and to choose which of those experiences should be included in essays. Additionally, Paul has been in this industry for a long time and it definitely shows. He knows a lot about each school, and his insights helped me decide which schools I would like to apply to—given my profile, preferences, and post-MBA goal.

With Paul’s counsel, I really felt that I had put my best foot forward with my MBA applications. As a result, I was accepted to Booth and Kellogg with a full scholarship to one of them. Thrilled with this outcome. Working with Paul = huge ROI!

Paul is hands-down the person you want on your team when you’re applying to MBA programs – he’s super responsive, very thoughtful, and tells it like it is. I knew going into MBA applications that my quant GRE score wouldn’t be as high as I’d like, and after working with Paul was still accepted to 3 top programs (Kellogg, Tuck, Fuqua) – and even got a large fellowship offer from one of them! 10/10 would recommend.

Positives of working with Paul:
The “full service” package was truly full service – from identifying which schools made the most sense for my profile to support in developing essay ideas/editing to answering my occasionally anxiety-ridden emails, he was fantastic
He’s willing to work with candidates who don’t have the ‘perfect’ profile – when I started looking for consultants, there were at least 3 who turned me down due to a lower GRE score; Paul saw potential and was willing to work with me to highlight my other strengths
Super knowledgable – he literally wrote the book on MBA admissions and has a wealth of resources beyond basics on everything from school rankings to financial aid packages and recruiting statistics
+Interview prep was included – this was super helpful to practice answering interview questions live and understand how to tailor for each school

Things to be aware of:
Costs are fair but can add up if you don’t purchase the ‘full’ package. I was on the fence about a couple of schools when I first hired Paul and ended up buying individual hours to prep those applications; I could have planned better to avoid the additional cost but feel this was worth the investment, given the outcome.
He won’t sugarcoat the downsides to your profile – I was looking for someone directive and honest, so I appreciated our frank conversations about what was needed to balance out my poor GRE score

Overall, I couldn’t have done it without Paul and would hands-down recommend his services.