Paul Bodine

I interviewed several consultants before deciding to go with Paul. I noticed that we were a good match from our initial discussions, Paul is a great communicator, fast to respond and most important he knows about Grad school application. He gave me invaluable insights and advice on my MBA application!! I got accepted to Wharton!! I couldn’t have done it without Paul’s support!!

I was inspired to contact Paul after reading his book, Great Applications to Business School. From the moment I spoke with him, I was struck by his genuineness, his friendliness, and his knack for quickly understanding my background and identifying the most salient details of my “story”.

Over the next few months, I worked with Paul on my applications for 5 business schools. I purchased his hourly service, and most of our communication was done over e-mail. As someone who lacked friends/relatives/co-workers who could provide the right perspective, I am so grateful that I had Paul to coach me: strategizing, providing a second set of eyes over my materials, and pushing me when he knew I was capable of better work. I was motivated by his investment in my success, and also impressed by how efficiently he could review my writing and give feedback (each hour went a long way!). As a result of his help, my final resume, essays, and (very likely) my recommendations were miles better than anything I could’ve done on my own. By the time I finally submitted my applications, I felt confident that I was truly channeling the best version of myself.

And it paid off. I received interviews at all 5 schools (4 M7 + Haas), and was ultimately admitted to Haas, Kellogg, and MIT Sloan — each with scholarships ranging from 80k-120k. These amazing offers proved to me the incredible return on investment in working with Paul. I can’t recommend him enough.

Paul is an incredible asset to help you get into the school of your dreams. He is not kidding when he says he will give you the ultimate effort in getting to know you and to help you craft a memorable essay. He is a master at slowly helping draw out the critical points of your essay and polishing it down into a gem any school would say yes to. I was working in a tight timeline and he was always able to help deliver incisive reviews in usually less than 24 hours. Having him on the team was extremely helpful for unearthing important points you might not consider writing about and help you highlight the stories that make you unique. The proof is in the pudding on this one, all top schools gave his product a thumbs up.

Prior to working with Paul, I spoke with a handful of consultants to get a feel for the market. Paul was the only one to immediately begin thinking through an application strategy that was tailored to my unique strengths and weaknesses within minutes of me giving him background on myself. Paul was ultra responsive, thoughtful, and concise in his feedback. The entire process was highly efficient and transparent. Every piece of feedback he provides is derived from years and years of expertise and is sprinkled with his intimate understanding of each school. Additionally, he is as a very calming presence which was very important to me through the stressful business school application process. Really appreciated all of Paul’s guidance and wisdom. He’s the best in the business and I have the results to prove it as a Chicago Booth admit!

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!