My story is a little unusual in that I had first engaged AA back in 2016. Life happened and I couldn't make the MBA application deadlines that year. 6 years passed and then finally in early 2022 - 14 days before the R2 deadline at Wharton EMBA - I decided to submit my application. After 6 years w/o any contact, I reached out to the AA team seeking help with my application and it took them only 24 hours to agree to honor/render the full service under my arrangement from 6 years ago. They not only squeezed me in but fast tracked the entire process to accommodate my circumstance. Incredible business ethics!

Mark is the highest quality professional out there in this area. I closely worked with him to pull together all key aspects of my application - resume, essays, LORs, and interview prep. His advice and pointers were crisp and completely revamped my application. He was responsive, was not shy in calling out weak areas in my writing, or poor presentation. He knows how to take raw application content and transform its presentation to make the highest impact possible on AdCom. My application went down the wire and Mark and team were there with me in the trenches till the very end. I do not think I would have been able to make the deadline, had it not been for Mark's guidance.

I was admitted into Wharton's EMBA class off 2024 earlier this month. Here are highlights of my profile

-M&A at a tech company in SF
-10+ years of WE
-EA score - 153
-Undergrad and Grad at a State University in the Midwest
-High GPA
-CPA and CFA

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I applied to 7 top International Relations schools in the U.S. and Europe. With Mark’s help, I was admitted to 6 of them (incl. Columbia SIPA, Johns Hopkins SAIS and Georgetown SFS) with very sizable scholarships and waitlisted by Yale.

From our first free consultation, I appreciated Mark’s honesty. I came from a non-traditional background, trying to switch careers to international development after spending 10 years in finance. This was challenging, as I already have two masters’ degrees in Finance and all my international development experience was pro-bono. Mark never tried to give me unrealistic expectations; instead, he emphasized how he could help and support me as I worked to achieve my goal. The whole process felt more than just an essay editing service but more like having a real mentor working alongside me through this challenging journey.

Notably, because of my lack of full-time experience in my prospective field, Mark encouraged me to emphasize my transferable skills. Recognizing my capability to research information thoroughly, he encouraged me to read white paper research about my chosen field to enhance my understanding of my subject matter. This work was translated into my essays: I was able to articulate very clear, specific career goals and demonstrate knowledge of the field I'm hoping to enter. This was key to getting me into my dream programs.

Mark was open to accepting different opinions. Initially, he suggested keeping minimal of my personal anecdotes in my essays to leave more space for career goals and “why this school.” But given my non-traditional background, I felt strongly that the anecdotes were essential to demonstrate my motivations and commitment of why I’m switching into international development. Mark did eventually agree with me after knowing my rationale.

Mark had a comprehensive grasp of the English language and an elegant turn of phrase. Whether replying to emails or editing my essays, his writing read beautifully. He was extremely patient. I regularly sent long emails to him, posing multiple questions. Without fail, he answered all of them in insightful ways and gave me tailored advice on how to proceed with my work. Mark also has a speedy turnaround time, almost always returning things to me before the three-day deadline, even during the extremely busy Christmas times.

In addition to his extensive help with my essays, he transformed my resume into the next level. It remains the best professional resume I have. The two interview prep sessions with Mark were extremely helpful. His interview advice was very tailored to me and my application. He accurately predicted many of the questions I was asked. And as we worked on answers, he told me not just how to answer them but how to form answers that would leave an impact on the interviewers. Mark was also generous with his time, the two sessions were supposed to be one hour each, but we spoke for almost three hours.

Mark was a great mentor and cheerleader throughout my stressful application process. While always professional, he made a tremendous effort to get to know and understand me and my perspectives so that he could help me to the best of his ability.

I would recommend working with Mark to anyone who’s looking for professional level advice and mentorship on graduate program applications.

Claudia and Rose from the operations team also did a fantastic job pairing me up with Mark. Their lovely spirits really made the admin side of things so much smoother and more fun!

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Mark helped me to prepare my application package to the Wharton school. And his help was instrumental in helping me getting accepted.

Mark was very attentive, listened carefully about my background, experience, and really tried to understand me. Based on my information, he helped me to carefully created a profile that would highlight my strength. He is very thoughtful and patient throughout the entire process. I would highly recommend working with Mark.

In addition, I really appreciate his help and he was always there whenever I had questions or any rush requests. Mark is also very knowledgeable about the program, helped me to understand what the program is looking for and position myself correctly.

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I entered the MBA application process with a vague idea of what to do, but with Admissionado and Mark Lellouch's help, I walked out of the process with an admission to one of my top choices (Haas) and a hefty scholarship!

From day 1, Mark was encouraging, honest, and direct, giving me the feedback I needed to hear instead of just agreeing with me as some of my friends might. He briefed me on each of the schools I was applying to, helping me understand what each focused on, and helping me organize my thoughts to target each school. In every communication, he was polite, responsive, and always provided a point of view that gave me something to think through. As a consultant myself (albeit not an admissions consultant), Mark is everything that I try to be with my own clients!

As an added bonus, the resume that Mark helped me refine not only helped me with my MBA admission, but also was a key driver in landing me 3 big tech and consulting job offers as well! All in all, I would highly recommend Admissionado and I can't imagine completing the application process without their support.

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My big thanks go to the Admissionado team and Mark personally. If I knew all this in advance, I would be more prepared. My only regret is that I didn’t apply to more schools. I'm sure I would have made it to the top 10 for sure. I applied to 3 schools, received invitations for interviews from all schools, and in 2 schools I got on the waiting list (one of the schools is in the top 5). I was admitted to the top 20 school with a scholarship. If my GMAT were 720+ , I would have been accepted to the top 5.

I was very happy to work with this company Admissionado. I have heard before that they are the best in their field and now I am convinced by my own experience. I definitely advise working with Mark personally.

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I took the Junior Deluxe package + MBA Resume service. I got into my target school, and I am convinced that without Mark’s help my application would have been declined.

My background and career path are non-traditional, and I have had little exposure to international MBA graduates. I knew that with enough time and research I could probably get by without a consultant, but balancing work + post-grad diploma + GMAT prep was already too much to handle at the time and because there was so much at stake I decided to shell out for a consultant. In hindsight, it was one of the best decisions I could have made.

Mark is pleasant to deal with but can be brutally honest when he needs to get you out of your comfort zone. We went over my MBA resume and essays multiple times. I would say that the stories and content come from the applicant and are like a collection of pictures and Mark helps you create a montage of these unique stories representing what the adcom are looking for in an MBA applicant.

I highly recommend Mark to applicants who do not have a good idea of how to market themselves to an adcom.

I was immediately reminded of why I decided to hire a consultant after Mark’s first review of my resume.

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I had a great time with Mark, through the Deluxe Package. With his help, I got admitted to two of the schools that i was aiming for: HEC and INSEAD.

I immediately clicked with Mark, as he was very kind and open to my ideas and discussions. He listened to my "biography" and understood very quickly my strengths and weaknesses. On this basis, we were able to form a solid strategy and worked on a very short schedule to keep up with the deadlines. Although you have to work hard yourself, you will always be assured that you are working on the right track, and that the end will be rewarding: you will know more about yourself (honestly, who doesn't want to) and will be admitted into your dream school (yay)!

Mark also helped me with the interviews, where he opened my mind about the whole process which really reduced my preparation stress and made me much more confident going into them.

Mark and the whole team, Claudia and Rose, were very responsive and were always available and encouraging.

Overall, I had a great experience with Mark and the whole team and would like to recommend them to anyone who is kinda lost in this admission process and want to succeed.

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Mark Lellouch from Admissionado was crucial in getting me accepted into Berkeley Haas and LBS's full-time MBA programs! I highly recommend Mark.

Mark tries to lay the roadmap of pursuing an MBA. Mark asks you very tough questions about your BIG IDEA, which is essentially showing to schools that you're a business opportunity with extremely high potential. Additionally, Mark makes sure that this BIG IDEA is a realistic goal given your background and experience. It's important that your goals for doing an MBA align really with your past. This required some deep thinking and digging in the beginning. However, once your vision is clear, you're off and running.

Additionally, Mark has invaluable feedback to accurately answer essay prompts. With hands-on editing and extremely detailed comments, Mark transformed my approach to answering and conveying information in a clear and concise manner. I couldn't recognize the first draft from the final one.

Mark Lellouch is an excellent and experienced coach that is well worth the investment. I highly recommend Mark and Admissionado.

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See full review here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UwHO1CEShg8py5T_jYt4XS23ZOCfJOQOJx8ap04HY_s/edit?usp=sharing
Or here: https://medium.com/@bryancai/quick-guide-to-admissions-consultants-92f3199268ef

**** SUMMARY, READ DETAILED REVIEW FOR MORE INFO ****

Do not recommend going with Mark Lellouch or Admissionado, based on a firsthand experience and direct comparison with another consultant from MBA Mission

Reasons:
- Does not help build your story with you together; plays mainly a critics' role (this is bad, vs. this is bad and this is what could work better)
- Unstructured in his comments and contradictory
- Could not answer direct questions on the application
- Took vacation during most critical part of application (early August); zero handover done to other colleagues
- Did not play as a coach, and was not encouraging

Recommend selecting admissions consultants based on personal recommendations only - ideally from people with a very similar background to you; online reviews do not tell the full story and even if consultant has 1 bad review, run away as that is a red flag

The best admissions consultants are not just critics, they build the story with you and they also play coach and cheerleader to you

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Inspired by the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness”, I have divided my review of Admissionado into the four different stages of my application journey.
The first stage is called “All in”. Six months back, in November 2018, I appeared for GMAT. After reviewing GMAT Club forums and a few amazing applicant profiles, I was 99% sure I was not going to get into any dream MBA school. It felt like I had everything going against me: I was an older Indian applicant 32+ with around nine years of work experience, a pretty regular finance and strategy resume with no out of the world achievements, and no globe-trotting work experience. Moreover, last year I had applied to a few b-schools only to be dinged by all without any interview. By God’s grace, I came across this very page of Admissionado reviews. Reviewing their website, including the candidate reviews from India and China, impressed me.
The free consultation was a bonus as I wanted someone to assure me that I wanted someone to assure me I had zero chance of getting into a top b-school. To be frank, even the short questionnaire for the free consultation was a bit depressing as, to me, all the questions seemed to emphasize why I shouldn’t apply for MBA. I ended up having a one-hour complimentary call with Claudia. Unexpectedly, she gave me hope by saying that I did have a chance of getting into a top b-school, in spite of the weaknesses in my profile. The fees she quoted represented a steep six months of savings. I had couple of days to accept Claudia’s offer as the R2 deadlines were near. Encouraged by her confidence in me, I decided to take a leap of faith and went “all in” with application.
The second stage of my journey is called “Knowing thyself”. I was introduced to my consultant, Mark Lellouch, who has impressive credentials; for the first time in my life, I was interacting with a Stanford GSB graduate. Admissionado has an exhaustive induction process and I had to fill out a detailed questionnaire. This helps the consultant to learn more about you as a person, your aspirations in life, unique strengths, and unusual talents. I was honest in my responses and, before my first call with Mark, I was afraid that my profile would be chided away by the demi-god from Stanford. To my surprise, Mark was warm and humble and thorough with my profile, and he uncovered strengths that I ought to capitalize on in my application.
Being a finance professional, I was thinking of applying to good b-schools in the U.S., but Mark recommended I apply to London Business School because of my age and years of work experience. Though LBS was not on my radar, I liked their curriculum and institutional thought process. I followed Mark’s advice and started LBS application.
Admissionado gives you structure and ample material to write good essays, but the best part is they don’t spoon feed you, they mentor you through this Journey whereby you discover yourself and your stories, sharing the best of these in your essays. Mark responded promptly to all my queries and reviewed all my essays 5-6 times before the deadline. Even though Admissionado charges extra for 24-hour returns, Mark reviewed my entire application one last time before the deadline on emergency basis without levying any charges. Submitting an MBA application definitely made me wiser about myself and gave me clarity on my strengths and how an MBA from LBS would advance my career and allow me to fulfill my professional aspirations.
The third stage of the journey is called “Rehearsing”. I was elated to be selected for an interview. The stakes increased dramatically as I was just one step away from my dream school, without any guarantee of getting in. Mark made the interview process simple – detailed notes on how to ace the interview round along with likely questions, plus two one-hour sessions for prep and a mock interview. Half of the work was actually done while preparing the application, now it is more about delivery and personality. The detailed interview questionnaire allowed me to assimilate the best stories from my life and work experience. I prepared and rehearsed all the questions and I believe that, without such a questionnaire, the interview prep would have become generic. The mock interview I did with Mark helped raise my confidence and identify areas for improvement. I went into the interview having rehearsed extensively and executed according to plan.
The last part of the application process is called “Happiness and gratitude”. I woke up early on 29th March knowing that the LBS results would be in my inbox. I clicked open the email and forwarded it to Mark and Claudia, still trembling. I couldn’t believe it. Thanks to them, I had gotten an admit, something I never thought possible. I am still short of words to express my gratitude.


Kindly note – the views and opinions expressed above are my own, written out of a feeling of gratitude. I have not received any monetary benefits for writing the same.

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