Leland+ for MBA

AI & Your MBA Application: Dos and Don'ts for Written Content

Are you thinking about using AI tools like ChatGPT to improve your MBA application essays, but are unsure how to do it ethically and effectively? Join me, M, for a practical and candid session designed to equip MBA applicants with the necessary knowledge and strategies for using AI to assist them in crafting authentic and compelling written content while remaining policy compliant. This session will help you understand how to responsibly integrate AI support into the written components of your application while maintaining your personal voice and authenticity. Learn how to use AI as a supportive tool without violating school guidelines or compromising the integrity of your narrative. I’ll share examples that show the difference between a compelling story that captures your real voice and an AI-produced generic essay.

MIT - Kellogg - Tuck Admit Resume

Successful resume from Asian who go into MIT, Kellogg, and Tuck

MBA Recommendation Letters: How to Write the Brief for a Strong LOR [10/15/2026] (Recording)

Leave this session with a clear plan for your recommenders and a ready-to-use brief template you can send them this week. Your recommendation letters are the one part of your application written by someone else, and they carry real weight with admissions committees. Most recommenders want to help but do not know what schools are looking for, which examples to use, or how their letter fits with the rest of your application. A strong brief, sometimes called a recommender packet, gives them exactly that. For Round 2, now is the time to prepare it, while your recommenders still have weeks rather than days. In this session, you will: • Learn how to choose between a senior title and someone who truly knows your work, and what to do if your manager cannot know you are applying • See what schools actually ask recommenders, including leadership competency grids and school-specific questions • Learn how to make the ask clearly and lock in a completion date • Compare weak and strong briefs side by side, and see what to include so your recommenders can write with specific examples • Prepare your recommenders for the constructive feedback question, where many otherwise strong letters fall short • Understand how to handle recommenders who ask you to write the letter yourself, and what international applicants should consider when a recommender writes in a second language Most applicants send their recommenders a resume and hope for the best. The result is often two letters that repeat the same achievements in general terms. A strong brief assigns each recommender different examples based on what they personally saw you do, so each letter adds something new to your application instead of repeating the other. I have guided 100+ applicants into every M7, across the top 20 in the U.S., and leading international programs (INSEAD, LBS, IESE, Esade, Oxford, Cambridge, NUS, and more). Give your recommenders everything they need to write specific, credible letters. Register now to claim your spot.

MBA Submit & Speak Part 2: The Interview Questions You Know Are Coming [9/17/2026] (Recording)

The MBA interview invitation is out of your hands. Preparing for the first questions they ask is not. This is the second session of the MBA Submit & Speak series. Your application is in, and the waiting has started, which makes this the best preparation window you will get. We take the handful of questions that open almost every MBA interview and work through what a strong answer to each one actually has to do. Across the three sessions, we move from the last days before you submit to the interview that follows. Attend all three to go from deadline to interview with one continuous plan, or drop into the single session you need most. In this session, we work through the questions every interviewer asks: • Walk me through your resume, and why the three-minute answer so often turns into six minutes of chronology. • Why an MBA and why now, spoken out loud, which is a different task from the same question on the page. • Why this school, in a year when every applicant has read the same website and repeats the same phrases. • Why you, and how to answer it without either shrinking or overselling. These are guaranteed questions, and that is exactly what makes a mediocre answer expensive. Your interviewer has heard hundreds of versions and is listening for the one that sounds like a person rather than a rehearsed applicant. Because you know these are coming, you can prepare them properly, and this session shows you what properly looks like. I have guided more than 100 applicants into every M7 program, across the top 20 in the U.S., and into leading international programs, including INSEAD, London Business School, IESE, Esade, Oxford, Cambridge, NUS, and more. Be ready for the questions you can see coming. Register now to claim your spot.

Successful MBA Client Case Studies: From Applying to Completing the First Year [8/25/2026] (Recording)

What does a successful MBA journey really look like, from developing an application strategy to completing the first year of business school? In this live conversation, I will be joined by Alana, a former client who has just completed her first year at her dream school, London Business School. Although her experience is at LBS, the lessons from her application, waitlist journey, school decision, and first year are relevant to applicants targeting leading MBA programs around the world. We will look back at her complete journey: how she approached the application process, presented her background and goals, navigated the uncertainty of being waitlisted, and ultimately earned admission. We will also move beyond admissions to discuss what happened after she arrived on campus. Alana will share how the academic, professional, social, and community experience compared with what she expected while applying. We will discuss: How Alana developed her MBA application strategy The challenges she faced during the application process What it was like to be waitlisted How she responded and continued strengthening her candidacy What helped her ultimately earn admission How she evaluated the opportunity and prepared for business school The biggest surprises from her first year How the reality compared with her expectations What she wishes she had understood as an applicant Her advice for current MBA candidates This will be an honest conversation about both sides of the MBA journey: what it takes to present yourself effectively during the admissions process, and what the experience is actually like once you arrive. Bring your questions about applications, waitlists, selecting a program, student life, career development, and the transition from applicant to MBA student.

MBA Application Teardown: Transform Your Short Answers [7/30/2026] (Recording)

Most applicants underestimate their MBA short answers. Admissions committees do not. This session is part of a three-part MBA Application Teardown series, where I take real, anonymized application materials, tear them down the way an admissions reader would, and rebuild them into something sharper and more memorable, live and in front of you. In this session we turn to the part of the application most people underestimate: the short answers and small boxes that applicants rush and admissions officers read closely. Across the three sessions, we rebuild the pieces that carry the most weight: your goals essay, your short answers, and your resume. Attend all three to see how a complete application comes together as one coherent story, or drop into the single session you need most. In this teardown, you will watch throwaway short answers become quietly powerful: • See why the answers you dash off at the end carry far more weight than their word count suggests. • Watch a generic, list-like answer become specific, intentional, and memorable. • Learn how short answers either reinforce your narrative or quietly contradict it. • Recognize the small tells that mark a rushed applicant, and how to remove them. These are the questions applicants treat as filler and admissions readers treat as evidence. A single weak short answer rarely sinks an application, but a pattern of them tells a reader you did not take the details seriously. Rebuilt with intention, the same boxes become some of the most efficient places in the entire application to prove who you are, and they are easy to miss in your own work precisely because they feel minor. I have guided more than 100 applicants into every M7 program, across the top 20 in the U.S., and into leading international programs, including INSEAD, London Business School, IESE, Esade, Oxford, Cambridge, NUS, and more. Make the shortest pieces of your application carry real weight. Register now to claim your spot in the live teardown.