28,919Leland Reviews

I was accepted into all of the programs that Susie helped me with and decided to matriculate at Northwestern’s MBA program. Here’s the actual text that I sent her afterwards: Thanks so much for your help! I was hesitant at first to open it up to someone else (you know how vulnerable it can make someone feel to do that), but you were seriously so awesome and supportive and your ideas were terrific. The essays were so, so much better because of you. Thanks!

I just finished working with Debby through this application season, and I have received offers from all 6 schools that I applied to. My dream program was Stanford CS, so when I saw that I could work with Debby, who was the Director of Graduate Admissions of the EE department at Stanford (how much closer can you get?), I immediately submitted an inquiry. After an initial consultation, I was convinced that Debby could indeed provide the kind of help I needed the most - revising my Personal Statement and Resume. Throughout the entire process, Debby was always very prompt in replying to my emails and questions, even during holidays - in fact, I never had to wait more than 2 days for her to get back to me, even with many essays to edit and lengthy questions to answer. Her edits and comments on my application essays were extremely clear and helpful, and her answers to my questions were very insightful and cleared up all the mist surrounding Graduate Admissions. She is very knowledgeable about Stanford Graduate Programs, based on her extensive experience working there. In addition, she has a lot of connections in this field, which can add to the pool of resources you have if you decide to work with Debby. Overall, Debby is really dedicated to her clients and really cares about them, and I very much enjoyed working with her. I would recommend her without hesitation to anyone planning to apply for graduate school.

Because of my special situation of having an undergraduate degree from a country out of the United States, trying to get an admission was kind of challenging for me. With Debby's great assistance I was able to get an admit from a computer engineering program; University of California, Santa Cruz. I met her in person while I was spending some time in San Diego and we discussed the application process and she suggested me what Universities could be a great option for me based on my GPA and scores. She also helped me to have all the information organized. Both her suggestions and the templates she provided me, helped me to start my first draft. After that she revised and edited my essays multiple times. Two important things that I really liked about her consultation service are that she was always very responsible and punctual. I would recommend her to anyone trying to go to graduate school.

I've had a long history of test anxiety, especially when it comes to the quantitative section of most standardized exams. Going into the GRE with a 156 as my original quant score, having tried and failed with two previous tutors, and after multiple potential tutors and peers told me it would be difficult to raise my score above the 160 threshold I was aiming for, my prospects looked gloomy. And trying to raise my score over the course of two short months filled with application preparation, in the midst of post-graduate coursework, and travel for work nearly every week? Downright impossible. And yet, from the get-go, Nirmal's unceasingly positive energy and saintly patience made this an easy task. From conducting lessons over Skype to scrapping his own lesson plan in real time as I struggled more with one section or did better than expected in another, Nirmal was always flexible in addition to being focused on making sure I fully understood the concepts the GRE tested from all angles. I've hated math for as long as I can remember, but under Nirmal's tutelage the GRE became less of a nightmare and more of a tough puzzle I knew I could solve. As a bonus, he also introduced me to meditative practice that I used on test day and continue to use in my everyday life. My only regret is that I didn't listen to the friend who recommended me and seek out Nirmal's help sooner. I can't imagine the leaps I would've made under less stressful personal conditions and over more time. Even with all that pressure, on test day I scored a 162 - my highest yet! If you're looking for a tutor for the GRE or GMAT go with Nirmal - this is one answer I'm 100% sure is right!

Looking back on my experience with Dione, I can say that it was tremendously helpful in guiding me through the preparation and application process. I came from an uncommon background for MBA recruiting and was quite unsure of how to best present myself as a candidate to top tier business schools. Dione and I spent a large percentage of our time discussing what aspects of my background to focus on and how to present my uncommon background in a way that would lead admission committees to be excited about my candidacy rather than skeptical about it. Without Dione's help, I would have attempted to compete head to head with more traditional applicants in a way that would have been detrimental. The perspective and guidance of Dione allowed me to craft an application that highlighted the unique things that I brought to an incoming class and why I was prepared to add value to the top business schools I was ultimately admitted to. Dione was also valuable in helping me craft my candidacy well in advance of starting an application. Her Plan Ahead program provided a frank and honest assessment of my strengths and weaknesses as an applicant. This gave me time to attempt to shore up some of those gaps through targeted work experience and extra-organizational volunteering. The other large advantage of the Plan Ahead program is that it allows you to transition seamlessly into more intensive consulting come application time. I am confident that I would not have been able to craft nearly as strong of an application for the business schools I was interested in without Dione's guidance. The cost for personal consulting is significant, it pales in comparison to the doors that I believe it helped unlock for my future.

Dione was an absolute pleasure to work with. When I started doing research on various consultancies, I imagined working with someone who would simply take a few looks at my essays and give me brief feedback via email. Dione went above and beyond. She took a clear interest in me and my narrative and worked closely with me to make sure that my story was not only coherent (tying together my disparate professional and personal experiences), but also that it would ring true to my aspirations and simultaneously align with what each school was looking for. Additionally, Dione was refreshingly critical and gave me a 'real' outlook on how my application would be viewed given my career to date and my background as a South Asian American male. She was also incredibly responsive - I honestly don't know how she could provide so much depth in her feedback on such quick turnarounds. I’m so lucky to have been paired up with Dione and could not have imagined a better experience. If you have a chance to work with her, there really shouldn't be any hesitation. Totally worth it. Thank you Dione for all of your guidance and for helping me get into Wharton (and interviews at HBS and GSB)!

Working with Dione was extremely helpful. I found her to be very focused and always pulling me back to the root cause or 'why' of why I was applying to business school. It sounds simple, but this allowed me to not only hone my story but also reflect personally on my motivations for applying so that when interviews came around, I was able to present my best possible self and story. Dione was very flexible, working with me mostly through pushing my thinking on essay edits, and providing helpful interview prep and tips. She was never pushy and great at explaining her logic and how the adcomm might view a certain element in my application.

I highly recommend working with Dione. As I reflect on the past 6 months of my MBA application journey, what I appreciate about Dione the most was her patience to understand who I was. There was no rush for me to start churning out applications, drafting essays, or pushing out recommendations. Instead, Dione and I spent hours speaking about past experiences, stories, and my friends and family. More importantly, she asked me questions that no one else had ever asked me. Questions that made me dig into my goals, dreams, and aspirations to define where I wanted to go professionally. And once I figured that out, Dione and I explored the experiences I needed to have and the skillset I needed to build to get me to where I wanted to go professionally. Through this patient and introspective process, I was able to prepare applications that effectively demonstrated to schools the important role that I wanted them to play in my journey. After it was all said and done, I was offered admission to my dream school. Six months ago, I wouldn't have believed that the excitement of an acceptance call would be matched by the clarity and empowerment that I received from defining my dreams - and game plan to get there - with Dione.

Dione was an incredible and professional consultant throughout the entire application process. First, she walked through my life story and got a feel for what really made me ‘tick’. Next, she helped me develop a strategic plan for my application and we began the arduous process of developing applications for six elite MBA programs. When I sent Dione my drafts, she would always be quick and thorough with reviews. In fact, I found myself hoping (to no avail) that she might take a bit longer so that I could procrastinate. She has a wealth of experience in marketing and communications, so she understood how to focus my messaging. She helped highlight elements of my personal narrative that I had overlooked but that others would find interesting. In addition, she is very kind and is always helpful even with tight deadlines. My applications would have been far more time-consuming and much less focused without her guidance. Prior my first interview, Dione gave me a mock interview. She shared some honest feedback that I really needed to hear; she is always polite but will never withhold feedback that might help an applicant. In the end – of my six elite target schools – I was admitted to four and am currently waitlisted at one. I received 2 full tuition scholarships and a sizeable scholarship from another program. I have decided to go to MIT Sloan School of Management, and I couldn’t be happier! Thanks Dione!

Dione helped me to prepare for my interview with the GSB. She gave me a LOT of very honest feedback. She pointed out my strengths and weaknesses and managed to give me a clear overview of what was expected of my answers. She helped both polishing my stories and presentation and I really appreciated her supporting words trying to bring my nerves down. I cannot believe we covered so much in the short time we had together. As I got my acceptance call I couldn't wait to share the news with Dione as I feel she really had a big impact on the result.