- Student-Counselor Assignment: We paired Student R with a Former Admissions Officer from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Graduate Coach from Harvard Business School. As with every student, the student-counselor work was closely managed by the Director of Education at InGenius Prep.
- LinkedIn: Before the work began, Student R’s counselors saw that she did not have a LinkedIn profile. They advised her to create one immediately, helped her edit the profile, and then encouraged her to network using the site.
- Application Persona: We started our work with Student R by diving deep into her personal background and helping her figure out what was most unique about her. Since she didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do post-MBA, her counselors asked a lot of questions and sent resources to help her figure out her ambitions. By speaking regularly, we helped her craft an application persona. This central theme would soon drive all of her application components.
- Letters of Recommendation: We started working on Student R’s letter of recommendation process early. We created a list of potential recommenders and included the pros and cons for each. The process was complicated by the fact that she had not told her company that she was applying to business schools. We worked around this and coached Student R on how to build relationships with potential recommenders. When it was time to “make the ask,” Student R’s Graduate Coach prepared her with an outline of specific personality traits and work examples to highlight. She made the process as easy as possible for her recommenders. This proactive approach culminated in two stellar letters of recommendation that supported the overall theme of her application and filled gaps about her quantitative ability.
- Essays: Student R and her counselors brainstormed relentlessly in order to generate essay topics that combined her unique personal background with her current work position and future goals. Student R’s counselors worked with her on at least 13 drafts of every single business school essay.
- Resumé: Student R’s counselors re-formatted and edited her resumé.
- Final Review: At the end of the process, Student R’s Former Admissions Officer performed a Final Review of her application, analyzing it the exact same way she would have while in the admissions office. She reviewed to check for content, tone, structure, school fit, uniqueness, grammar, and spelling. Once the application was as strong as it could be, Student R pressed submit!
- Interview Prep: When Student R was invited to interviews, she scheduled strategy sessions and mock interviews with her counselors. They discussed common questions, practiced answers, and made sure that she was comfortable and confident before her first interview.
IN PERSON EVENT: How to Get Accepted to Top Universities!