57
Finance
Ops/Logistics
Scholarship
IE
MBA
I was a self-funded applicant and, from the outset, was aiming for European MBA programs, which are said to place greater emphasis on essays and prior professional experience than on test scores. At the same time, my work was extremely demanding, and I was in a situation where I had to work late every day. Under these circumstances, I began essay counseling with Ms. Round in September, and almost immediately I became convinced that choosing Round One was absolutely the right decision.
Ms. Round has extensive business experience herself and is a graduate of INSEAD, one of Europe’s top MBA programs, so she has a deep understanding of the type of candidates European MBA admissions committees are seeking. Her counseling is highly professional, efficient, and focused, yet never superficial. She provided extremely accurate advice in identifying and selecting which aspects of my professional background—and activities outside of work—would be most appealing to admissions committees.
European MBA programs typically have a large number of essay questions and evaluate candidates from multiple perspectives. As a result, when writing on one’s own, it is easy to fall into repeating similar stories across different essays. In such moments, Ms. Round would say things like, “This direction isn’t ideal. This essay is asking about an experience like XXXX. Do you have something similar?” Me: “I had an experience like XXXX.” Ms. Round: “Then please rewrite that experience using a structure and development like XXXX.”
Through this kind of swift and precise guidance, she skillfully drew out experiences that I myself had thought were unremarkable, and transformed them into compelling narratives. Watching each essay come together with consistency and suddenly begin to shine was truly impressive and made her professionalism unmistakably clear.
In addition, Ms. Round’s counseling style is extremely friendly and motivating, making it easy to consult her about anything without hesitation. Even amid the long and grueling application process while working full time, I genuinely looked forward to each essay counseling session. Being able to enjoy writing essays in this mental state allowed me to produce essays that, even in my own view, brought out my strengths to the fullest and reached an excellent level of quality.
I was also deeply grateful to Mr. Round for his support with application timelines, school selection strategy, and communication with admissions offices. During the application process, moments of anxiety inevitably arise, as do urgent questions about how to respond to admissions inquiries. In my case, my GMAT score did not improve as hoped, and I had to revise my target schools and application timing multiple times. Even then, Mr. Round always responded with remarkably quick and thoughtful advice. I lost count of the number of emails we exchanged. I truly believe that consulting services offering such attentive, individualized support to each client are extremely rare.
Round One’s interview training is also outstanding. By practicing with both Ms. Round—who knew my essays in depth—and Mr. Round—who approached interviews from a different perspective—I was able to prepare for two complementary types of interviews. With Ms. Round, I focused on drawing out the strengths of the experiences I had written about in my essays. With Mr. Round, I practiced responding to more objective questions, including those not directly tied to my essays. As a result, I was able to approach the actual interviews in a relaxed state. The highly detailed feedback reports were also incredibly useful, and I reviewed them repeatedly right up until just before my interviews.
As a result, despite my low GMAT score, I was invited to interview at the schools I applied to and ultimately received an offer from a top European MBA program as a top candidate—unexpectedly accompanied by a scholarship. I owe this outcome entirely to Round One’s outstanding essay counseling and strategic guidance. Even if I were to go through this application process again, I would choose Round One without hesitation. I strongly recommend Round One to all of you.
