Admissions & Career Advisory Testimonial #37 (English)

Testimonial #

Industry

Function

Funding

School

Program

Gen. Trading

General Mgmt

Testimonial #: 37

Industry: Gen. Trading

Function: General Mgmt

Funding: Sponsored

School: NWN-Kellogg

Program: MBA

Introduction

I can state with certainty that my MBA admission would not have been possible without Round One’s support.

The areas where I relied most heavily on their help were résumé preparation, essays, and interview preparation, but I also depended on them completely as a mentor for application strategy, schedule management, and many other matters. Below, I would like to comment on several key points that I personally learned from Mr. Round, in the hope that they may be of some help to others.

Résumé

Résumé preparation is something many applicants tend to gloss over, but in reality it is extremely important. Admissions officers review the résumé first—both during the document screening stage and again during interviews—so it is essential to make a strong impact here.
Following Round One’s advice, I revised my résumé countless times. Through the use of strong action words and careful layout design, it becomes absolutely necessary to create a résumé that makes admissions officers think, “I want to meet this person” or “I want to hear more.” I strongly recommend crafting a résumé that is boldly distinctive.
In my view, the key points are: readability of the layout (consideration for admissions officers), richness and unexpected elements in the content (to convey depth and appeal as a person), and quantitative, objective presentation of one’s achievements (clarity and honesty). Through sessions with Round One, I was able to significantly refine all of these aspects.

Recommendation Letters

Schools want recommendation letters from individuals who can vividly describe an applicant’s character and potential through concrete examples. There is absolutely no need to force yourself to ask someone with name recognition or a high title.
Applicants are prohibited from writing their own recommendation letters, and this should never be done. That said, recommendation letters provide an excellent opportunity to highlight strengths that could not be fully expressed in essays. From the perspective of positioning the recommendation within the overall application package, I believe applicants should be actively involved in shaping the initial concept. This also makes it easier for recommenders to write, and as the number of target schools increases—placing greater demands on recommenders—it helps with pacing and deadline management.
Of course, recommendation letters should be considered together with essays and ideally complement them. However, if the narratives align *too* perfectly, it may raise suspicion that the applicant drafted the letters themselves. Taking this into account when discussing content with recommenders is important, and in this regard as well, Round One’s advice was a tremendous help.

Essays and Interviews

These are the most critical factors in business school admissions, and also the areas where Round One’s support is most impactful.
They are the means by which you can directly present to admissions committees the person that emerges from all submitted application materials. I believe that even with low scores or a low GPA, it is possible to turn the tables here. (There are applicants who are admitted despite low scores, but there are virtually none who succeed after failing both essays and interviews.)
While schools can infer an applicant’s “specs” from scores and the résumé, they still require essays and interviews—and place great emphasis on them—because they want to assess the applicant’s character itself through face-to-face interaction. Admissions officers build an image of the applicant through the résumé and then confirm it in the interview. Understanding this internal logic, it is necessary to approach the process with a coherent story leading all the way to the interview stage. Round One clearly shows applicants this pathway.

In Closing

Preparing for applications while cutting into sleep and balancing work and family life is physically and mentally exhausting, and there were many times when I nearly gave up. At the same time, this process is also an opportunity for tremendous personal growth. Round One’s support went far beyond simple admissions coaching; by going through the application journey together with them, I truly feel that I grew significantly as a person. I also believe that I was able to build a relationship of trust with Mr. Round that transcended the typical counselor–client relationship.