161
Energy
Engineering/R&D
Sponsored
Stanford-GSB
MBA
School enrolled: Stanford GSB (MBA)
Other offers: Wharton, MIT, UC Berkeley, INSEAD, IESE, Tuck, Washington (Olin)
Background: Energy industry, 8 years (company-sponsored)
I received notification of my company-sponsored MBA approval on July 27 of the year prior to enrollment. With only about five months remaining until the Round 2 application deadlines, I was in a state of panic in early August, wondering whether I could really gain admission to my desired MBA programs. It was then that I learned about Round One through a recommendation from a senior colleague at my company, and I decided to sign up immediately.
Although my application journey was short and very much a “bulldozer-style” sprint, I believe that receiving offers from every school I applied to was only possible thanks to Round One’s support. Looking back, the following points stood out as particularly valuable.
For applicants who must prepare in a very short timeframe, deciding what needs to be done by when is both critical and anxiety-inducing. Immediately after signing up with Round One, I had a meeting with Steve to discuss my overall schedule. We talked about when I should take my first TOEFL attempt, when to schedule my first GMAT attempt, and other key milestones. Receiving advice from a professional who has guided many applicants before was immensely reassuring from a psychological standpoint.
The way my application portfolio was structured was also very rational from a pace-making perspective. For example, following Steve’s recommendation, I set Tuck’s November Round deadline (November 1) as my first target school, and INSEAD’s deadline (November 29) as my second target. This strategy created healthy pressure for developing essays, short answers in application forms, as well as for interview preparation, ultimately making the rest of my schedule far more manageable.
I found Skype-based essay counseling to be extremely efficient. For time-constrained applicants, even traveling to a prep school can feel like a burden, so being able to communicate via Skype during early mornings or late nights was physically much easier. In retrospect, given my personality, if the counseling had been face-to-face, I would likely have been tempted to spend essay counseling time discussing broader anxieties and questions about the overall application process. However, Round One clearly separates essay counseling from Strategic Guidance, ensuring that essay counseling time is used exclusively for essays. While preferences may differ, for me this meant no wasted time and was a major advantage.
Emma was very familiar with trends in my industry, which made communication smooth. As I had heard from senior colleagues, her advice on phrasing and positioning was truly that of a seasoned professional. As noted in other testimonials, Emma does not drastically rewrite or restructure clients’ essays by force. Because of this, there were moments when I wondered, “Is this really good enough?” and I even asked her directly to tell me honestly if she thought the content was weak. However, I believe the final results speak for the quality of her essay counseling. These offers would not have been possible without her support.
Having fixed essay counseling slots (fixed day of the week and mostly fixed time) was also extremely helpful for maintaining pace. With a self-booking system, it is easy to think, “Maybe I’ll skip this week,” when work gets busy or travel comes up. With fixed slots, as long as I had an internet connection—even while traveling—I could attend sessions. Over time, battling through a mountain of essays the day before each weekly session became a regular habit.
At every interview I attended, I was asked “Any Questions?”—sometimes repeatedly. This was personally the most stressful question for me, but being able to prepare several patterns in advance together with Emma acted as a powerful psychological safety net.
With a limited English vocabulary and little ability to come up with polished verbal expressions on the spot, I learned a great deal from the phrases used by Emma and Steve. After each Skype practice, I would repeat and internalize those expressions so that I could use them naturally in the actual interviews.
They also supported me with detailed aspects such as short-answer questions within applications and email correspondence with interviewers. For someone like me who had never conducted business in English, every part of this process was a valuable learning experience.
I hope this account will be of some help to those preparing for MBA applications. I sincerely wish everyone the best of success in their own journeys.
