About Jamaal

I know what it feels like to see your life change in a single phone call. For me, it was the voicemail from Derrick Bolton, then head of admissions at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, telling me I’d been admitted. I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of an industrial supply distribution center in New Jersey, having just woken up from a nap between consulting meetings. I had been following an online message board all day, watching acceptances ripple across the globe as Derrick called applicants — Asia first, then Europe — knowing my time zone would come later. That call was my turn. Stanford GSB, and later Harvard Kennedy School, didn’t just give me degrees. They reshaped my career and my life. They gave me the platform to manage hundreds of millions of dollars, start and grow organizations across sectors, advise and invest alongside some of the world’s most influential people — and begin the process of becoming one of those people myself. I didn’t grow up in these circles. I was a terrific student, but underexposed to elite institutions and networks. I leveraged a University of Missouri education, a backdoor entrance to Wall Street, an accidental entrepreneurial journey, and a huge chip on my shoulder to get into Harvard and Stanford. Since then, I’ve made a habit of getting chosen for—and helping others win—the most selective academic and professional programs in the world. I’ve helped more than 60 clients gain admission to schools like Stanford GSB, HBS, and Wharton, with a 100% success rate of clients getting into at least one of their top five choices. I’ve worked as a Senior Admissions Consultant at The MBA Exchange and at Stratus Prep, and I’ve been selected for fellowships like the U.S.–Spain Young Leaders Program (~5% acceptance), the GMF Marshall Memorial Fellowship (~7.5%), and the Obama Foundation Leaders Program (~2%). At my core, I believe doing this well requires three things: (1) remembering the person evaluating you is human, (2) brutal specificity in telling your story — no vague platitudes — and (3) showing how they’ll be better off for having chosen you. That’s the lens I bring to every client.