28,919Leland Reviews

I was a little lost (and late) starting my applications, but Pamela really helped me focus my application on my strengths. Pamela’s no-nonsense approach is just what I needed. She let me know exactly where I needed to improve and what steps I needed to take- including re-taking the GRE. Pamela was also incredibly helpful navigating the waitlist and knew the best way to succeed. I would not have been accepted at Tuck without her help! Highly recommend.

The first thing that stuck out to me when I began working with Pamela was her direct approach. She was not afraid to tell me what was realistic based on my profile and wasn’t afraid to be blunt about it. That isn’t to say she is not aware of how to present that information to clients as she never said anything that could be remotely construed as offensive. She is merely looking to best position her clients to best succeed and she is not interested in just taking clients’ money and stringing them along through applications that do not fit their profile. Her insight into the application process and understanding of how to best frame my candidacy was invaluable as I had no one else in my immediate network I could lean on for similar insight. Additionally, my candidacy was a bit unorthodox and Pamela was incredibly accommodating of my unique situation and helped me to succeed in gaining admission into my schools of choice. Bottom line – she knows what she is talking about and will be very honest in regard to how she thinks you can reach your goals but never at the expense of understanding that at the end of the day it’s about the candidate and the applications are theirs. 10/10 would recommend her and can’t thank her enough for her support over the entire process.

Last year I was somebody with an average GMAT score and fairly limited work experience but a deep desire and intense need to go to business school, I was skeptical about making it to the top U.S. business schools. Today, It gives me immense pleasure to write about Pamela because she enabled me to secure admission along with a fellowship to Cornell Johnson and four waitlists from top B schools such as Duke, Tuck, Darden, and UCLA. She has emerged as much more than an MBA consultant to me, I have come to see her as a mentor and a guiding force. I started working with Pamela in August of last year. I was already working with a consultant at the time but was extremely unhappy with the output. I remember that in my first call itself, Pamela gave me insights that no one, including my current consultant and the many other consultants and admission coaches I had consulted with at the time, had done. She even agreed to do a trial run for me and agreed to edit an essay as a sample based on which I could decide if I wanted to do more than 1 school with her. I ended up applying to 10 SCHOOLS with her – that in itself should speak to her brilliance. Based on a few conversations with her, she was able to guide me and extract such content out of me that truly reflected my true story for the Adcoms. I was amazed by her candor, her unparalleled knowledge about schools, and most importantly her willingness to go that extra mile for an aspirant which is why I, you and every MBA aspirant need the ‘Jaffe Advantage’. I’m tabulating below some of the points that make her the perfect MBA consultant to help anyone secure an admit from their dream schools: 1. Knowledge and Rare Insights About Various Schools: School selection itself can be a daunting process but Pamela’s knowledge as an AIGAC consultant, about schools acquired from her active network and presence as an MBA consultant made the process much more efficient for me, ensuring that I made well-informed decisions. In addition to my research, her inputs on the employment avenues, extracurriculars, methods of teaching, etc. for each school make her a seasoned consultant. This helped me not just effectively answer the ‘Why a specific school’ question for my essays and interviews but it truly allowed me to identify which schools I wanted to apply to based on a comprehensive understanding of the school rather than just some superficial research, because of which today I’m going to a school, whose community I truly want to be a part of. 2.Focus on Building an Engaging Narrative: While all applicants have their own journey that they might talk about in their essays, the clarity and the finesse required to do that is rare. Pamela’s focus on enabling applicants to develop a coherent story and answer all the Whys and Hows along the way gave my essays a unique essence to convey who I’m as a person and really show the adcoms my motivations, my path, and my goals. As an immigrant, I sometimes struggled with putting across my thoughts in an efficient manner. Beyond the application, Pamela has taught me the valuable skills of putting them across in a succinct yet powerful manner. 3. Structured Approach and Strict Turnaround Timelines: Given the amount of writing involved in applications, it’s essential to have a stringent structure for each essay. Pamela’s approach to effectively answer the questions ensured that I did not get diverted and rather used every last word/character from the assigned limit, judiciously. Another thing I have really come to admire is how throughout the course of my applications, she abided by the 2-day turnaround timeline (In fact on most occasions she would get her edits over to me before the 2-day timeline). This really ensured that all my applications were submitted well before the deadlines while accommodating any additional edits that I required. 4. Honest Feedback and Focussed Problem Solving: Pamela’s feedback is the main factor that helped me hone my story and put across my best foot forward. She questioned and dug through multiple times whenever she felt I wasn’t able to convey something in my writing and had no qualms editing the same thing multiple times till every last word did justice to my candidacy. She gave me solutions and encouraged me to myself address every issue that could have been detrimental to my applications, using a structured approach that transformed my supposed weaknesses to my strengths. Today, I’m done with my applications, but I’m so inspired by Pamela and how she approaches different problems, that I find myself sometimes using her methodology to solve some of my problems and convey my message – I call it the ‘WWPJD’ (What would Pamela Jaffe do) During the course of my application, before I even got my results, I recommended her to a friend who also worked with her and I recommend her to anyone who wishes to prepare an authentic application. I can whole-heartedly vouch for her not merely as a consultant but as a mentor who has allowed me to attain a goal I conceived five years ago.

Laura provided critical tips and counseling during the essay brainstorming, editing, and interviewing stages. I was very proud of the final product and confident that I had maximized my efforts. Throughout the process, Laura's extensive experience and knowledge proved invaluable. Ultimately, I was admitted into Wharton, and recommend this service to anyone looking to apply for an MBA - it will make the process and your life easier.

Laura provided structure and direction around the goals that led me to business school. She complemented my stories with insightful tips and a sound strategy to help me share who I was with the universities. Her advice was targeted and personalized to the aspirations I shared with her. Upon completion of working with Laura Nelson, I not only had acceptance letters from multiple top ten business schools, but also a clearer understand of why I wanted to make this life change.

My consultant was Laura Nelson, and her help was priceless. She helped me with brainstorming and editing my essays. We spent countless of hours going through my essays, and she did not quit on them until I was satisfied. She deserves 5 stars in my book.

Strongly strongly recommend working with Alex Southmayd! Alex was articulate, kind, and funny, so he made me feel very comfortable in our sessions. He knows the content exceptionally well and can explain it like a human in a way that you can't forget. Thanks, Alex!

Alex Southmayd was a great tutor. He was very positive, encouraging and motivative, he guided me in all the areas where I needed more help. He always responded in a timely manner. The strategies he taught helped me to improve my reading skills. I would highly recommend working with him. It is really worth booking a couple sessions for attaining higher scores.

I had a really great experience prepping for the GRE with Alex Southmayd. Alex was really a star -- he's an incredible teacher, who was able to make some of the more complicated concepts really easy. He is patient, positive and really engaging.

Would absolutely recommend Alex Southmayd to anyone looking for GRE tutoring! After just two sessions, Alex helped me achieve my target scores, including raising my Verbal score 10 points. Alex reviewed my practice test before our session so that he could give targeted tips, and was able to recommend specific practice problems to reinforce the learnings from our sessions. He was always well prepared so I could get the most out of each session. The tutoring sessions were enjoyable and helped boost my confidence going into the test.