Clients fill out a detailed (and lengthy) questionnaire which includes our popular IMPACT™ rubric. IMPACT™ stands for the six crucial dimensions of the ideal MBA applicant that demand careful attention: Influence, Management, Passion, Awareness, Creativity, Teamwork. We want to know not only the obvious stuff, but most essentially the less-obvious stuff: Can you inspire others? Can you plan? Do you have fire in your belly? Do you have humility? Can you think outside the box? Can you see other perspective? This helps us focus our strategy as we start to move toward developing a clear branding and differentiation strategy. Our popular IMPACT™ methodology is seamlessly integrated into this kickoff effort.

We then study the responses carefully, along with the IMPACT™ framework as a guiding doc, to begin developing an initial strategy for where to spend time, and how to spend that time most effectively. This is Part I of the most pivotal phase of the opening diagnostic and synthesis effort.

The planning session is the crucial second half of the Competitive Edge Positioning process. Over a deep dive phone call, we chat with the Client to a develop a deep understanding to help us develop a clear plan moving forward: we should be able to determine the Client’s ideal application angle after asking the right questions and having an open and honest exploratory dialogue.

The concluding step of this initial (and most vital) stage of the process is for us to synthesize our thoughts into an actionable document (The Action Plan). This document will articulate at a high-level how we will cohere all the pieces into a clear and persuasive application branding strategy.

Sometimes, a fresh take from a highly scrutinizing “person in the know” can be incredibly useful when establishing the where and how of pointing the rudder. We have developed a unique methodology that involves the Client answering a handful of standard questions on video (the same questions go to all Clients who undergo this process). We then select an experienced M7 alum (sometimes someone with like-kind industry experience as well, the “Auditor”) to react to the video along with the material from the Discovery process and score the Client the way an admissions committee member might. This assessment is then passed along to the main consultant who then discusses the case with the Auditor to review potential angles to consider as the main consultant moves toward putting the finishing touches on the Action Plan.

“Measure twice, cut once.” Before we sign off on an essay to enter our exhaustive iterative drafting process (a process which involves our essay analysis specialists), we first assess the readiness of the Client’s proposed essay themes. We get every Client’s proposed essays to the same state of readiness before we pass it to the next phase. Typically, this happens with reviewing an outline or a high-level “logic map” ahead of time to get the contours and underlying themes rock solid before attempting to strengthen the effectiveness of that message.

Next to the strategic work we perform at the beginning of each service, the Essay Analysis / Iterative Drafting phase is the most transformative work we do together. Over the course of four rounds of analysis and feedback, we help Clients transform raw essays into crisp, persuasive, and authentic works ready for submission. This process requires mastery along two key dimensions: (1) Diagnosis – astutely ascertaining which aspects of the student’s essay are strong/weak, logical/illogical, viscerally moving/flat, etc., and (2) Actionable Feedback – making effective suggestions that inspire students to rewrite and rephrase their work in a manner that both improves their effectiveness, but also (crucially) preserves their authentic voice. Failure along either dimension can be critically damaging to the process. The experience and skill level of our Consultants and Essay Specialists here is peerless.

For the first three schools of a multi-school campaign, we involve a Blind Reviewer from the team to provide an objective assessment of the Client’s main essays. We have developed a tactical conceit for the Blind Reviewer to approach these essays under the hypothetical conceit that the Client’s application has been rejected: the job of the Blind Reviewer is to explain why. This methodology provides the sharpest insights with actionable (and constructive) feedback to the Primary Consultant to illuminate opportunities for potential improvement early in the process.

Another innovative creation from the Admissionado Labs! Once the Client has gone through the full Discovery process and has generated a first draft of all main essays for the first school, we cohere these elements into a simulated “final” application for a hand-selected committee of three tough critics (Former M7 Adcom) to review. Included in this “final application” is the video recording of the three questions we use in The M7 Insider AuditTM. Our committee of three reviews the candidate alongside a handful of other candidates (prior admits as well as waitlists as well as rejections), to facilitate a comparative analysis, i.e., a simulation of how the decision-making process works in reality. First, the scores are committed independently; this is followed by a dialogue to consider the candidate in a frank and qualitative manner. The highlights of this conversation are then passed to the main consultant at this critical juncture in the application process – leaving enough time to make any important adjustments to align the application toward the most optimal outcome. In order to make the dialogue as honest and constructive as possible for the Client’s benefit, we do not disclose the results of the internal dialogue.

This document needs to look one way for job hunting. It needs to be something entirely different for a business school application. This doc tells a vital part of your story, but needs to tell it in a very specific way, to achieve a very specific thing. We ink it up with actionable feedback over two rounds. If done correctly, this document should provide a roadmap for things you will want to convey in the rest of your application: aka “the things in between the lines of your Resume bullets.”

We can provide guidance on choosing recommenders, as well as strategies for approaching and soliciting recommendations themselves. In instances where recommenders are open to feedback, we provide high-level guidance to Clients and/or directly to the recommenders. The preferences of the recommenders are critical, and we will only provide feedback given appropriate consent. Letters of Recommendation Support includes up to two rounds of light-touch feedback for two recommenders.

We help prepare Clients over the course of two meetings. We begin cold–on purpose–with a Mini-Mock Interview, followed by tailored preparation tactics, key considerations, and a review of commonly asked questions. In our experience, the strongest lessons are forged with this “cold call”-inspired step. We then follow up with a second meeting where we conduct a formal Mock Interview followed by targeted feedback. In addition, we provide access to an amazing online tool Clients can use (without limit) to practice answering questions from a bank of prompts we have generated based on years of experience and input from past Clients and former M7 admissions committee members.

In addition to the process included in Standard Interview Prep, we include one additional Blind Interview from a second expert on the team who does not have access to any prior history or details of the client. We do this to simulate a truly unbiased interview. In this scenario, our Blind Interviewer can offer objective feedback (internally) on the Client’s performance and profile strength. We begin the Premium Interview Prep process with this Blind Interview, and then use the feedback from this session to provide a roadmap for improvement for the subsequent Mock Interview process with the Client’s primary consultant. (Same as with Standard Interview Prep, clients have access to our online tool they use for unlimited practice.)

After decisions are rendered, we provide one additional strategy session if Clients require assistance on choosing from multiple admits (we hope and expect this to be the case!).

In instances where additional support is required for Waitlists, we provide guidance on next steps and when appropriate “Letters of Continued Interest” (or the equivalent), with up to two rounds of targeted feedback per item, based on our recommended list of materials to submit.

We are available via email from the start of the engagement through to the end.

Our objective is to provide oracle-level guidance. If that requires phone calls, we’ve got you. We can help manage expectations regarding how much phone access to expect for each tier.

Clients fill out a detailed (and lengthy) questionnaire. We look at everything: professional, personal, everything. We’re looking for opportunities under a fine-toothed comb.

We review your responses ahead of our strategy call, to make sure our time together is as high yield as possible.

This call gives us crucial information about you: goals, strengths and weaknesses, your current work situation. We consider it all carefully to develop a battle plan to help you build as much ‘future application muscle strength’ as possible.

We now have a sense of the baseline, along with a sense of how to measure success along the targets we establish.

In addition to time spent on Discovery and Strategy, each tier includes a bucket of hours of support, depending on your needs. Some (or all) of these can be used on high-level strategy phone calls (for MBA applicants this is most common, and highest-yield).