181
Energy
Accounting
Sponsored
Berkeley-Haas
MBA
Background: Japanese manufacturing company (9 years), company-sponsored study abroad
Admitted Schools: UC Berkeley Haas, MIT Sloan, UCLA Anderson, among others
At my very first meeting with Mr. Round, I was immediately drawn to the way he listened attentively and sincerely tried to understand my story, as well as his ability to accurately grasp my intentions even when my English expression was imperfect. Above all, I felt an instinctive sense of trust in him, which led me to decide on the spot to engage Round One for counseling. Looking back, I am convinced it was the best possible decision.
Mr. Round once jokingly described his role as being like a Sherpa guiding climbers in the Himalayas, and that analogy could not be more accurate. Throughout the long and uncertain application journey, he consistently showed me the path toward the summit and guided me with steady, experience-backed steps until I reached the top. I hope the following account will be of some help to others considering their options.
I received comprehensive support across a wide range of areas, including building an overall schedule and application strategy that incorporated test preparation and campus visits; ongoing email consultations; editing emails to admissions offices; creating an application portfolio tailored to my individual profile; essay and interview preparation video seminars; a monthly newsletter packed with application tips; and information on school information sessions.
Responses to inquiries were always prompt—almost always within 24 hours—which was immensely helpful. Because I contacted Round One relatively late, around mid-October after my test preparation had largely taken shape, I often found myself wishing I had started receiving guidance earlier, as I believe my preparation could have been even smoother. For anyone who is currently undecided, I strongly recommend reaching out as early as possible.
I was able to secure a weekly counseling slot of two to three hours, during which we worked sequentially on my résumé, career goals, recommendation strategy, and each school’s essay prompts. Mr. Round has deep knowledge of Japanese companies and industry trends, and by developing a persuasive set of career goals early on, I felt that I had a strong foundation for both essay writing and interview preparation.
Once we began tackling individual school essays, our workflow typically followed a rhythm such as: submitting a draft for School A before the session → discussing and refining School A’s draft → brainstorming and outlining School B’s essay during the session (at which point I would log off) → Mr. Round editing School A’s essay during the remaining session time → reviewing the edited version (which was almost always perfect, leaving me with little to comment on) and drafting School B’s essay by the following week. In this way, I was able to complete essays at a pace of roughly one school per week.
Because Mr. Round truly understands each client in depth, he remembered content from previously written essays and suggested ways to repurpose effective stories for other schools, allowing the process to move forward very efficiently. Counseling notes and assignments were always summarized in text form, which meant I could focus fully on discussion during sessions without taking notes and still reliably reflect on everything when drafting. I also appreciated that he reviewed not only essays but every corner of the application, including short-answer responses, ensuring consistency throughout. As a result, I was able to proceed with confidence and ultimately applied to eight schools in Round 2, receiving interview invitations from all of them.
I first completed the Type A Comprehensive Training. The feedback reports provided after each session were extremely detailed, clearly documenting my responses, suggested improvements, and evaluations. In addition to assessing answer quality, they also scored communication skills and overall impression, making it very clear where I stood and what needed improvement. This allowed me to track my progress objectively.
After further refinement through Type B Intensive Training, we worked on Type C Killer Question Training, focusing on preparing strong answers to the inevitable “Any questions?” at the end of interviews. Mr. Round helped me develop several versatile questions that highlighted my interests and could be applied across schools, which was invaluable given my tight interview schedule.
I also had the opportunity to conduct one interview training session with Ms. Round. Practicing with someone other than Mr. Round—whom I was already accustomed to from essay counseling—added a healthy level of tension and realism. Her feedback was clear and aligned perfectly with Mr. Round’s guidance, so there was no confusion. Above all, she was incredibly charming and wonderful to work with!
The MBA application process was far more demanding than I had imagined, and there were moments when I wanted to give up. However, thanks to Mr. Round’s consistently calm guidance and cheerful encouragement—often delivered with a sense of humor—through weekly counseling sessions and email exchanges, I was able to secure admission to multiple schools, including my first-choice program at Berkeley. I am truly grateful. Thank you very much.
