Paul Bodine

I initiated conversation with Paul 1 year before round 1 deadline, in which he gave me advice on how to improve my admission chances. We reconnected 6 months later, and I started the application process with a stronger profile. With his help, I got into Wharton! It was a pleasant experience working with Paul, and I’ve recommended him to all my friends who are applying for BSchool.

Got into Stanford and Kellogg, and Paul was instrumental. Couldn’t recommend him more highly. At every stage of the process, Paul was helpful, accessible, and a pleasure to work with. Paul is indispensible when it comes to essay review. I always retained my own voice, and he had a keen eye for how I could tell my story with maximum impact. His guidance was specific and insightful (never generic), his response times were remarkably short, and the entire dynamic was underpinned by a consistent sense that he genuinely cared. Paul’s interview prep was precise and targeted and enabled me to put my best foot forward on interview day. Working with Paul was well worth the investment. I can’t imagine a standard higher than the one Paul sets.

Paul provided guidance and encouragement from start to finish. He reviewed my application and provided actionable feedback to improve the strength of my application profile across several key areas.

He arranged two mock practice interview sessions, where one of the sessions was conducted with an ex-admissions officer from a P&E top 15 ranked MBA school.

Paul’s experience as a published writer shows in his honest reviews and feedback throughout the process. He always returned emails and phone calls promptly with a typical turnaround time of hours for emails/phone calls, and up to 36hrs for larger review items.

I was admitted to Columbia Business School, and I don’t believe I could have shown the admissions committee everything I had to offer to the program without Paul’s advice.

Thanks Paul!

Paul played an integral role in my acceptance into LBS and for that, I’m deeply thankful. Paul was referred to me by a close friend whom Paul had helped get into HBS. Right from our first call, Paul was attentive and honest about my chances at my top choice schools. It was during this call that he impressed me with his knowledge of the MBA application process. He helped succinctly pick out certain aspects of my profile that we needed to focus more on in my LBS application in order to improve my chances. His essay editing is uncomplicated and concise, yet improves the overall readability of the essays drastically. Once I received an invitation to interview, Paul helped not only take a mock interview himself but also got one of his colleagues to interview me. I’m usually nervous about such things and I feel like this was an absolutely necessary step for me to help calm my nerves and perform to my potential. Overall, I highly recommend Paul to anyone looking to ace their MBA application.

I worked with Paul on my bschool applications and he was great! Very responsive, understands what makes a great app and provides very customized feedback to help set you apart. Without Paul’s help, I don’t think I would have been as successful with the application process. Because of Paul’s help, however, I attended a top 10 MBA program!

I worked with Paul to edit essays for four full-time MBA program applications. I purchased a 10-hour package to review the essays by e-mail and phone and to discuss overall admissions strategy. With Paul’s help, I gained admission and ultimately attended HBS. Paul takes a different approach from other consultants whom I considered – his is the ideal admissions partner for essay review, drawing from his own writing expertise. Paul takes the time to get to know his clients to better help draw out personality in their writing. He is realistic about admissions expectations without discouraging the applicant. And above all, Paul is timely and thorough in his responses to any applicant requests, big or small.

With Paul’s help I aced the admissions process and was accepted by all four schools where I applied: Wharton, CBS, LBS, and INSEAD.

It goes without saying that Paul is an expert in his field. Most importantly, he is a pleasant person to work with.

I am grateful to Paul and highly recommend him!

Paul was an amazing resource – his help with my application landed me at Kellogg. He provided candid, astute advise with my application and helped articulate my story and experience with clarity and relevance. I benefited immensely by engaging Paul’s assistance and would highly recommend him to any candidate seeking assistance to navigate the MBA admission process.

Gives good advice and very patient.

This guy is a genius. (Literally – he went to University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University)

The story:
Last year (2013)I applied to a few business schools and got denied from all – not even an interview was granted. I knew I was going to reapply (this year – 2014 ) and wanted some professional help. Soon afterward I started looking into all of the top consulting companies – mbaMission, Amerasia, Stratus Prep, MBAPrepSchool, Veritas Prep, HBSGuru and Admissionado. I had phone conversations with consultants from the companies and met in person with two.

I was looking for someone who was honest and who would get right to the point but was not a bulldog like Sandy Kreisberg from HBSguru. I wanted someone who would listen to my story and help me pick which pieces paint the best picture of myself. I also wanted someone who has been in the industry for a while and who takes his clients seriously. Some consultants out there do consulting as a side job – I have had a few side jobs in my life and no matter how dedicated I plan to be I can never find enough time in the day to give these jobs the attention they deserve.

I initially came across Paul’s name on gmatclub. He has the top rated business school book on one of the lists. I thought “hmmm this guy wrote the book about admissions maybe I should check him out.” I then found out that he writes frequently on the Businessweek forums and read a few of his posts. He seemed to really help direct people.

I contacted Paul and answered a few questions for him about myself via email and then set up an initial phone call. During the call I was shocked at home much he knew about me. He brought up things on the questionnaire that I totally forgot that I answered – it was almost creepy how much he knew! On a serious note, my point is that he obviously paid deep attention to me and I wasn’t even a paying client yet. He had me convinced to work with him.

After I enlisted his services–he was everything I was looking for. He also has many connections in the industry since he has been working in it so long (since 1997).
We decided to map a plan of attack. He took a deep dive into my background – I think the call lasted 2 or 3 hours. Then came up with a few things I could/should do over the next few months to polish my application. He even told me exactly which GMAT score he thought I should get to make up for my low gpa. This was the type of detailed feedback I needed. On these forums many people say things like — “ohh 710 gmat is good, over 700 and your fine.” But this may GENERALLY be true but it doesn’t take into account your demographic, or what type of industry you work in, or whether you had quant classes in college…Paul was able to take into account all the aspects of my application and based off of the many idiosyncrasies of my application suggest certain things. I trusted his decisions also since he as an extensive history of helping many applicants over the years.

Another thing which made Paul awesome was he connected me with someone from a school I was targeting. He helped many people get into top programs and he would call them up and ask if they’d speak with me. This gave me deep insight into these programs. One person gave me little tidbits of what I should say in my essay that would show how much I knew about the program! Additionally, he knew a few people on some of the schools admissions committees and would share how he thought I should approach them based on their personality.

Work Product:
Paul’s editing is absolutely top notch (Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins – can’t beat that). He can edit a 3 page essay down to 250 words and somehow capture exactly what you wanted to say and not drop a bit of detail. It was magical. One day I was in a rush and I asked him to do a quick edit just so I could have a clear essay to work on again (my version was too convoluted) he managed to whip it out in minutes…literally like 30 minutes.

He also asked all the right questions. When I wrote an essay he would not only edit the essay but say something like “why don’t you mention that thing you told me about that happened 2 months ago….” or ” I think this story does not work as well as the story you told me about a few weeks ago…” This is the type of direction I really loved. This constant back and forth really helped me understand myself, my story and I am certain it helped me kill the interviews.

He also did mock interviews with me. He would ask different questions based off of which school I was interviewing with. He knew which schools ask which questions. Many of the questions he asked I actually received in the interview.

Timeliness:
As I mentioned above, he is very quick. He would always respond within a day and generally within hours. But the best part was, he would often email me saying “..I have a dinner this Friday so I may not be reachable until Saturday morning..” or ‘I am out of town Wednesday so don’t expect emails until Wednesday night” This was soo important to me because it allowed me to plan my work schedule.

He was also always open to a quick phone call or skype. I remember a few occasions where I would be freaking out about some little worry in my head and I would email him “Got a minute for a call?” and he and I would be on the phone minutes later discussing my worry.

Attitude:
You can already get an idea of his personality from everything I wrote above but I also want to point out that he is super nice. He is always very friendly and open and willing to talk to you about anything. He will talk to you about the same thing numerous times and give his advice on what he thinks you need to do.

Bottom Line:
Paul is the complete package. I purchased a 3 school comprehensive package from him and I was accepted to all those schools. I also then purchased some extra hours for 4 other schools and was accepted to those as well. Do I think I could have gotten in without his help – no. I struck out last year and this year he helped me win the World Series. It is the right train of thought that he gave me that helped me have many little wins along the way which lead to the ultimate acceptance.

You’ve got to check this guy out – google his name.