Reapplicant admitted to Haas and Tepper with $$I was a re-applicant and after my first year of applications, I knew that I had to strengthen my essays. Through my research and a friend’s recommendation, I researched MER. The key things that stood out were 1. Pricing for the comprehensive package and 2. The turnaround time.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t skeptical when I saw MER’s competitive pricing as compared to other MBA application consultants. But because of the recommendation and my introductory phone call with Poonam, I knew this would be the right fit. Poonam showed genuine interest in helping me with my application and offered a lot of advice and feedback in the introductory call itself. Moreover, while some other consultants were being very pushy about signing up with them ASAP, Poonam gave me enough time to think about my needs and plan accordingly. This experience with Poonam assured me that MER would be the right partner.
The brainstorming session is the first step with MER, and it is very important. Even though I had been through one cycle of applications, I still had to do a lot of introspection to answer all the questions in the brainstorming sheet. The questions are well structured and helped me list several life stories that I eventually used in my essays. After submitting this, I was surprised by the detailed comments and ideas she had about essays based on my school selection. Poonam read through the entire document in detail, and she even quoted a few of those stories, months into the application cycle. This was reassuring to me – Poonam took to a personal level to learn about her client. Based on the school’s essays and life stories, Poonam suggested a few structures that I could use. She highlighted the advantages of one structure over another, which helped me pick the right content for my essays.
My resume needed significant work. Being an engineer, my impact on the company is very technical – an impact that makes the product more efficient. It was difficult for me to demonstrate some of my key accomplishments as an impact on the company. In the session, Poonam helped me show the impact to the company as a result of some of those and convinced me to drop a couple by explaining why those didn’t add value to my resume from a B-school application POV.
The essays and resume strategy sessions showed me how well Poonam understands the application process and the purpose of each material in the application packet.
I appreciate Poonam’s skill of trimming down the essay to meet the word limit. I am a wordy writer, so Poonam told me to not worry if I went around 150-250 words over the limit, depending on the essay, of course! While retaining the same meaning, she would efficiently restructure sentences or cut out words in just one edit! I was impressed. Sure, there were a few instances where I thought my voice didn’t show in the edit, and Poonam helped me get to where I wanted the essay to be.
Poonam was very responsive to my questions about essays, resume, applications, etc. The night before one of my applications, I had a question for her. She replied within 15 minutes. Turns out she had made herself available to support all her clients during the application time.
As advertised, Poonam always delivered the edits in the 24–48-hour time frame. The quick turnaround kept me on a schedule and helped me be ready with my materials ahead of the deadlines. That said, Poonam was very accommodating of my hectic, start-up work life. Sometimes, she gave me an additional day or two to send my draft of essays. But she followed up consistently to make sure that I was on track.
I have a relatively low undergrad GPA. Poonam worked with me to clearly highlight the reasons of the low GPA, how I overcame some challenges, and more importantly, the lessons I learned. I think the low GPA essay alleviated any concerns around my undergrad GPA, which I think was one of the obvious weaknesses in my application.
Poonam understands the expectations that b-schools have from interviews and provided feedback that helped make my responses more powerful. She shared some strategies around when to talk about certain key topics, and which topics to avoid. For example, coming from a niche industry, there was a point that I had pushed to a very low-probability question in the end. Poonam showed me versions of my own response that could easily fit into common questions about “Tell me about yourself” or “why MBA?”. MBA applications are all about differentiation, and these tips definitely helped me do so.
Thank you, Poonam, for working with me on my applications. You have been very patient with my timing and have accommodated my hectic work-life through the process. For where I was in the process, your services helped elevate my application.
I received admits from Haas and Tepper with a scholarship and am waitlisted at Darden. I will certainly recommend MER to any prospective applicants whom I come across.
Click here for Harshal's testimonial on LinkedIn.
I was a re-applicant and after my first year of applications, I knew that I had to strengthen my essays. Through my research and a friend’s recommendation, I researched MER. The key things that stood out were 1. Pricing for......
Harshal- 2022 re-applicant- accepted into Haas and Tepper with a $15K scholarship
Received admit offer from McCombs with scholarship, Thanks, Poonam!I wanted to give the best shot to my applications as this was the final year of my applying so I went with Poonam who has already delivered exceptional results in the past with applicants. This was the 3rd year I was applying to B-schools and Poonam understood the importance of this year’s application for my career.
In the strategy session about school selection, Poonam carried out a detailed discussion on the selection of schools, and I was happy with the outcome. In the counseling session, I was provided detailed instruction on essays, resume, and LoRs. Poonam conducted a comprehensive review of my resume, and I was happy with the final product. Overall, it was much sharper. The selection of stories, content, structure, and organization of my stories and positioning was spot on. She did her best to highlight my strengths.
Poonam provided top-notch editing services (Sentence structure, grammar, punctuation), and trimmed my essays to the allowed word limit. Throughout the process, she answered all my queries in a timely manner and scheduled phone calls as and when I requested. The turnaround time was good and was in fact better than what was agreed between us. On some of the occasions, when things got delayed at my end, Poonam went above and beyond to ensure that the submission on deadlines was not affected.
Poonam’s guidance on LOR was nice, too. She highlighted how LOR and stories should complement each other. I was able to share the feedback I received from Poonam with my recommender which resulted in a cohesive story. I was happy with the interview prep. I received comprehensive feedback after the mock interview session -both verbal and written. I was made aware of certain things I was doing unconsciously such as plenty of hand movements which I worked upon post my feedback from Poonam.
I had an excellent experience working with Poonam. More importantly, the softer aspect such as motivation and encouragement provided at a crucial juncture of the application process helped me a lot. I have received an admission offer from McCombs with a scholarship, interviewed with Duke Fuqua, and have been waitlisted by Stern and Haas.
Thanks a lot, Poonam, for your support. I am immensely grateful for the help provided during the application process. Definitely, I would recommend the MER services to prospective applicants.
Click here for Askand's testimonial on LinkedIn.
I wanted to give the best shot to my applications as this was the final year of my applying so I went with Poonam who has already delivered exceptional results in the past with applicants. This was the 3rd year......
Askand- 2022 re-applicant- Accepted into McCombs with a $20K scholarship per year, waitlisted by Haas
"myEssayReview - The perfect gateway to your dream"I availed the services of another consultant and applied for two universities last year, but I did not get through. This year, though my profile has not bettered much, I have applied for universities that are better in terms of ranking and reputation. I have been interviewed by 5 schools, waitlisted by two (Simon and Georgetown), and accepted by one (Schulich).
I signed up for MER services to seek support and guidance to apply for a full-time MBA program for fall 2019 intake. I signed up for a comprehensive package for 3 universities and additional 6 essays package to apply for other universities. I was a student of e-GMAT online courses and MER was referred by e-GMAT. However, I made extensive research on the GMAT club forum and found out that though she is among the top 5 consultants globally for MBA admission services, the fare charged by her for her services was half of that charged by other equally qualified consultants. Secondly, other equally renowned consultants were firms that employed writers whereas, in MER, the founder, Madam Poonam took up the job herself and attended each candidate individually.
I had a one-hour counseling session on 18.09.2018. The session was really fruitful. Madam Poonam patiently listened to my entire story on education, work experience, and community service experience and broadly outlined the list of universities that I could target. She strongly conveyed in the first counseling session that I should not apply to the same universities that I applied last year but failed to get through because I could not improve my GMAT score from the score I had secured the previous year.
Resume building was the most challenging part of my application as I not only have 9 years of work experience but also have a few outsides of work interests. Consequently, I had a lot to list in my resume, but she took tremendous efforts to ensure that only the best of my experiences found its place in my resume. My resume underwent at least 4 edits and 2 layout changes. In the entire process, she was only suggestive and did not enforce her ideas on me. Finally, we prepared an impressive one-page resume with quality content and with a balanced view of my work and outside of work experiences.
Understanding the profile starts with a questionnaire of 17 questions. She starts this process well in advance so that we do not miss out on important content even while applying to the first university. This sets up the base for a complete understanding of the profile of any candidate which will come handy in the later stages of application. Maximum disclosure of information during this stage can result in the best application as she positions stories from the information that candidates furnish at this stage.
She often said that for my work experience I had a lot to write but the real challenge was to present the story within prescribed word limits. So whenever I wrote essays, I presented her with at least 100 words more than that prescribed by the university and left a tough task for her to work on. She would realign the content, trim the sentences short, and paraphrase the content to make the story more compelling and effective. Though I always tried to present full story to ensure not to miss out anything, she knew better what to present and what to eliminate. This helped us in preparing exciting stories.
She is excellent in her editing skills. The most interesting aspect of working with her was that she never dismissed any of the word that I used in my essay for the sake of improving the essay or using an English rich in vocabulary. The final draft of any essay remained purely mine but just improvised in grammar and punctuation. Her qualification in English, her experience in this field and her students getting admitted to top B-schools stand testimony to her editing and persuasive story-writing skills.
Poonam promptly addressed all my queries during the essay writing phase and later. Whenever my suggestions were acceptable, she incorporated them in her edits. Whenever I experimented or thought a better content and questioned her on the suitability of the new content, she constantly encouraged me to think new and think better. I asked her numerous questions on low GMAT score, choice of universities and job prospects overseas even before starting the application. But she addressed all queries to my satisfaction.
She is very particular in maintaining the turnaround time. She not only maintains a strict timeline but also expects candidates to adhere to the timelines. Any draft that I sent for edit returned back within 48 hours. Strict devotion to timelines helped us complete an application for 7 universities in 75 days. She was highly helpful in my interview preparation. She provided me with a brief on do’s and don’ts during the interview along with a list of probable questions. This information material provided me a clear framework as to how I should structure my interview response. The mock interview was an exact simulation of the interview by the admissions committee of any B-School. She gave me a detailed oral and written feedback on each question raised during the interview and my responses to those questions. This detailed feedback helped me to work on my weaknesses and perform better during the real interview.
LOR is one of the crucial components of the application. I worked with her on a common GMAC prescribed LOR form which had four questionnaires with responses up to 500 words. As the admissions committee highly values the opinion of the direct supervisor, endorsement of the candidate’s qualities by the direct supervisor is very important. She was instrumental in highlighting my strengths, unmatched contribution in key areas and unique qualities through the eyes of my supervisors.
Mitigating weaknesses and highlighting strengths is the real strength of Madam Poonam, I would say. I availed the services of another consultant and applied for two universities last year, but I did not get through. This year, though my profile has not bettered much, I have applied for universities that are better in terms of ranking and reputation. I have been interviewed by 5 schools, waitlisted by two (Simon and Georgetown), and accepted by one (Schulich). The only aspect that created a difference in my candidature this time was the ability to highlight my strengths and mitigate the weaknesses while preparing my application. She had a very important role in that. Through the application process, she already gave me a glimpse of how an MBA program would be and partly prepared me for the program.
I am very happy to have worked with one of the best experts and mentors in the admissions process for an affordable price. My only suggestion to my fellow aspirants is that it depends on each individual candidate to get the best out of her as a qualified director extracts superior performance from an actor. I highly recommend Madam Poonam to my fellow MBA aspirants.
Click here to learn about Dinesh's career goals, application journey, and much more.....
Click here for Dinesh's testimonial on LinkedIn.
I availed the services of another consultant and applied for two universities last year, but I did not get through. This year, though my profile has not bettered much, I have applied for universities that are better in terms of......
Dinesh- 2018 applicant - accepted by Schulich and waitlisted by Simon and McDonough
Received 3 admit offers with scholarships. As a re-applicant, I could not have asked for more.I had an unsuccessful application last year and was looking to work with someone with experience in helping students achieve their dreams. I read excellent reviews on GMAT club and on the website itself. So I requested for free consultation meeting. The meeting was great. But most importantly, Poonam reviewed my resume and told me that it was way below par. This really put me on my toes and confirmed my decision to sign up for her services.
We started working immediately and from the beginning, Poonam’s guidelines helped me introspect. I definitely had to put more effort into thinking creatively to come up with a story-like approach for my essay. I bookmarked her essay analysis on the GMAT club and read it over and over again until I could come up with a creative answer for the question asked. For every part of the question asked, having an idea of how many words should be used and the examples helped me construct my essay which was polished and refined with the help of her guidelines. She gave me the sort of strict feedback I required in my first essay, and I think because of that the other essays went smooth
After putting together all the details of the story, the most daunting task was trimming it to the allowed word limit, and I was totally stunned to see that no detail was lost even when she trimmed essays from 750 odd words to 600 words. Absolutely amazing!! Needless to say that she took care of all grammatical aspects really well. Word choice to emphasize certain aspects was also fantastic that helped pruning words.
Lastly, I was extremely happy with her turnarounds as we finished our work quickly. Our last 3 essays finished in an average of 3-4 days.
I had a great time working with Poonam. She takes a lot of interest in your application, and it reflects in the work that is produced. Even after wrapping up the application, I kept in touch with her whenever I had any questions/concerns, and she promptly responded back.
I have received 3 admit offers (Smith, Carlson, and Boston) with generous scholarships. As a re-applicant, I couldn’t have asked for more. Thanks a lot for your help, Poonam. I've waited so long for this moment (3 GMAT attempts and 2 application seasons) and was over the moon when I saw the Smith mail(my first admit). Your guidance was key and it helped me better my application 100x when compared to last year.Click here to learn about Tanay's career goals, application journey, and much more.....
I had an unsuccessful application last year and was looking to work with someone with experience in helping students achieve their dreams. I read excellent reviews on GMAT club and on the website itself. So I requested for free consultation......
Tanay, - 2015 re-applicant, accepted into Carlson, Smith, and Boston with scholarships.
I got an admit offer from ISB. It wouldn’t have been possible without your support!I first read about myEssayReview when I was looking for tips on ISB essays and found the essay analysis by Poonam to be very helpful and clear. As a re-applicant to ISB, I felt confident in myEssayReview services. So I approached Poonam and signed up for 1 school package.
When I first submitted the essays they were all over the place. Poonam’s suggestions made me realize that most of the time I was missing the link in my stories; she was able to spot the missing links and get out the relevant content from me. She asked valid questions and simplified language so that it becomes clear what I wanted to say in my essays. Thus, she helped me in generating ideas for each essay question and create a sensible story that will impress the Ad Com. The word limit specifications of ISB were very stringent, but Poonam was very effective in trimming down the essays to the specified word limit while keeping all the content and not changing the meaning. She used simple and clear language that is easily comprehensible.
Poonam was very flexible with the turnaround times, sometimes coming back within 12 hours in crunch times. She never missed a deadline! She was aware of the deadlines and concerned as well and made sure that the essays/LORs were complete by the deadline. Throughout the process, she satisfactorily addressed all my concerns and queries.
I must say, working with Poonam was a great experience. Thank you, Poonam for your support. It wouldn’t have been possible without the splendid job you did with my essays 🙂
Click here to learn about Tribhuvan's experience at ISB and much more.....
I first read about myEssayReview when I was looking for tips on ISB essays and found the essay analysis by Poonam to be very helpful and clear. As a re-applicant to ISB, I felt confident in myEssayReview services. So I......
Tribhuvan – 2015 re-applicant , accepted into ISB
I was accepted into Booth. I couldn't have asked for more.I signed up for myEssayReview to get some help on my essays with two weeks left on the application deadline. I am a re-applicant, and I applied only to Booth. I got all my application material in place except for my essays, which I felt needed some unbiased review. I ended up on the GMAT club reading all the reviews and comparing different products, costs, and services offered. After spending a few hours, I decided to go with Poonam and bought the school package from myEssayReview.
Within hours, I got an email from Poonam. I then emailed her my essays and resume; she reviewed them all and scheduled a phone call for the next day. We discussed the plan and I mentioned my concern on the tight deadline. Poonam assured me that the timeline was not that bad and that she had helped other folks with less than ten days left. After the initial one hour meeting, I was a lot more confident than I was before talking to her.
The best part of Poonam's review process is the critique she offers in the first round. The critique offers plenty of advice on areas you have to improve the essay or sometimes even to rewrite the essay. I had to rewrite a couple of my essays. Yes, initially it was tough to digest the fact that I had to rewrite two of my essays with only two weeks left. But it turned out to be a piece of cake with Poonam offering incredible advice and providing me the right direction. She helped me pick the right stories relevant to the context.
Poonam helped me understand what the Ad Com was looking for and provided me the motivation to take time to reflect on my achievements and to put my stories in a chronological order leading up to short term and long term goals. I am sure every one of us has a lot of stories through our experiences and accomplishments but choosing the right ones and presenting them in the right context is what makes the difference and Poonam is a Pro in helping you cherry-pick your stories. Also, she did an excellent job of keeping track of the word limit and offering advice on the language (remember a Ph.D. in English and a teacher with 30 years of teaching experience).
I think the key lies in understanding the critique and incorporating the advice by bringing out and presenting the best in you. I was able to wrap up all of my four essays in nine days. I was impressed with how the essays shaped up.
And, yes I got admitted into Booth for Winter 2015, which wouldn't have been possible without Poonam's valuable services.
Poonam, I don't think I can thank you enough for accepting to work with me on such a tight deadline. You have helped me wrap up the essays in nine days, which is incredible! I appreciate all the valuable guidelines and the comments you provided me to bring the best out of me and reshape my essays. I clearly see that I made the right choice by choosing myEssayReview.It was a wonderful experience working with you and I thank you for helping me with my application and to get into Booth! You are awesome and I wish you the best in your future endeavors!
I highly recommend Poonam for anyone looking for help on their essays and you can clearly see the difference once the essays are finalized.
Click here to learn about Srinivas’s career goals, application journey, and much more.....
I signed up for myEssayReview to get some help on my essays with two weeks left on the application deadline. I am a re-applicant, and I applied only to Booth. I got all my application material in place except for......
Srinivas (2014 applicant, accepted by Booth Evening MBA for winter 2014 quarter )
Straightforward and Satisfying!I knew that I needed someone with experience and skill to guide me through the SOP as it has been emphasized numerous times that exam scores wouldn't matter much if I couldn't convince the admissions team that I was worth giving a chance to. I was shifting from the Engineering stream to Economics and Finance and I needed an iron clad story. And myEssayReview comes with excellent commendations about the same.
Poonam scheduled a free consultation meeting that helped clarify the major doubts I had about the sop and CV and I was able to discuss my unique case and the aspects of my education that could be highlighted in the essay to make it convincing. After the meeting, I felt confident about signing up. The one hour session after the first review of SOP was insightful. I know that I would not have included a number of key points in my SOP if I wasn't encouraged to do so. Poonam helped me strategically highlight certain aspects of my personality to make me sound intellectual and focused on my career. I wanted to highlight my interest in teaching and pursuing an academic career as the main reasons of my eligibility to the program. Poonam helped me frame them accordingly. After four iterations, my SOP sounded crisp and succinct and did not have the redundancy it would have had if I was left to my own devices. The PhD in English shows.
My biggest worry with the recommendation letters was that the admissions team would know that I was involved in the writing process. Poonam’s idea of delegation proved to be rather clever and the ultimate solution to my problem. This way, they echoed my SOP but sounded different. I did have more doubts than the average candidate, but Poonam helped me work around them. Her replies were very prompt; I received her edits and response to my email 24 hours on the dot. As punctual as her website says.
Applying to grad schools can be a terrifying experience. I am very glad to have had an expert help me with the SOP, CV and LORs. That gave me enough confidence to wade through the rest of the process with significantly less worry. I was accepted by all the schools I applied to, and I am thrilled to begin my graduate studies at the University of Warwick this Fall. Thank you, Poonam. You've been amazing. You managed to assemble my whirling dervish of ideas into an essay that sounded compelling.
I knew that I needed someone with experience and skill to guide me through the SOP as it has been emphasized numerous times that exam scores wouldn't matter much if I couldn't convince the admissions team that I was worth......
Aishwarya- 2015 applicant, accepted into Warwick
I am accepted by Masters in Business Analytics program of Columbia University and Chicago University. Thanks, PoonamMy friend sent website link of myEssayReview to me. I looked through Poonam’s profile and feedbacks from other clients and then made up my mind to sign up for myEssayReview services for my application for by Masters in Business Analytics program of Columbia and University of Chicago.
After having done initial review of my resume and goals essay, Poonam scheduled a one hour brainstorming session which very well and gave me a clear direction of approaching all essays. Poonam gave me a sound structure of telling my story in chronological order. She helped me tie my childhood stories to my academic career, professional career and my career goals. Her editing was very effective. Sentence structure was simple yet effective – a combination of long sentence and short sentences. Her choice of words was precise.
I had signed up for school package, so I also got resume and LOR service. Resume construction service was very helpful. My original resume just described what I did. After her editing, it showed what I achieved. Her feedback on my LORs was equally effective. I was happy with the turn arounds. Every time I got her feedback within 24 hours. We had a smooth communication on what should put in the application to make it better.
I am accepted by MScA program of both University of Chicago and Columbia University. I have decided to go to Columbia.
Thanks, Poonam. I definitely will recommend myEssayReview service to my friends.
My friend sent website link of myEssayReview to me. I looked through Poonam’s profile and feedbacks from other clients and then made up my mind to sign up for myEssayReview services for my application for by Masters in Business Analytics......
Tianyi- 2016 applicant accepted into MScA program of University of Chicago and Columbia
I had only three weeks before the deadline; with your help, all the essays were edited and ready well before the deadline!I had only three weeks before the deadline; with your help, all the essays were edited and ready well before the deadline!
The structure you suggested helped me organize the information without using much jargon that would help anyone understand the essays very easily. Also, you effectively trimmed down all my essays. My goals essay was close to 800 words which was trimmed down to 600 words without compromising on the content.
Better choice of words and sentence structure was used that resulted in better clarity. In the editing process, I learned a lot about the sentence structure. Also, I received the critiques/ edits in less than 24 hour period. Thanks, Poonam for your help.
I had only three weeks before the deadline; with your help, all the essays were edited and ready well before the deadline! The structure you suggested helped me organize the information without using much jargon that would help anyone understand......
Mohan- 2012 re-applicant, accepted by Chicago Booth