Admissions & Career Advisory Testimonial #200 (English)

Testimonial #

Industry

Function

Funding

School

Program

200

Manufacturing

Mktg/Sales

Scholarship

IMD

MBA

Testimonial #: 200

Industry: Manufacturing

Function: Mktg/Sales

Funding: Scholarship

School: IMD

Program: MBA

Overview

Admitted Schools: IESE (with scholarship) / IMD (with scholarship) / HEC Paris (with scholarship)

Background: Marketing at a Japanese manufacturing company, 32 years old, self-funded applicant

School Enrolled: IMD

Application Timeline

July

After meeting with Mr. Stephen Round, enrolled in Round One
Kick-Off Meeting with Mr. Stephen Round
Established an overall timeline, including school research and test preparation, toward building an application portfolio

August

School research and test preparation
Introduced by Mr. Stephen Round to several alumni from schools I was interested in speaking with
Received ongoing encouragement related to school events and test preparation

September

Strategic Guidance Meeting with Mr. Stephen Round
Decided on the application portfolio, recommenders, whether to conduct campus visits, and the essay counseling schedule
Began essay counseling
Attended counseling sessions once per week
Worked on school-specific essays, recommendation strategies, and drafting and refining an English résumé

October–December

Essay counseling
Conducted two to three sessions per month
In parallel, engaged in coffee chats with alumni and current students, attended school events, and studied to improve test scores
Completed test preparation in mid-December and finalized essays in preparation for January submissions

January

Completed applications
Began interview preparation upon receiving application pass notifications
Attended one to two interview training sessions per school with Mr. Stephen Round

February–March

Conducted interviews and received admission offers

Reasons for Choosing Round One

Nearly two decades of experience as a business, supported by a long history of successful admissions
A philosophy of maintaining service quality for each individual client by limiting the number of students through an interview-based screening process
Mr. Stephen Round’s personal character

What Made Round One’s Services Outstanding

• Quality of counseling (quality of outputs and efficiency of the process)

I believe the strength of R1 lies in its counseling services, which enable applicants to efficiently arrive at high-quality outputs. MBA essay counseling involves enhancing the quality of essays and interviews by leveraging each applicant’s unique background, while aiming toward the standards expected by each school based on the counselor’s experience. At R1, the process for reaching those standards is well structured, which allowed me to reach my goal efficiently. During the application period, I also had opportunities to speak with past R1 clients, and they unanimously mentioned this efficiency—something future applicants will surely experience as well.

• Comprehensive support

For many applicants, the journey toward MBA admission is long and lonely. Because the time required for preparation and the optimal sequence of steps differ from person to person, it is essential to create an individualized schedule and proceed steadily. In this regard, R1’s support extends beyond essay counseling and interview preparation to include advice on test preparation, school research, and the overall application timeline tailored to each individual. As a result, R1 played an excellent pace-making role throughout the long application process. Personally, when my test preparation did not progress as expected, I received precise advice on how to proceed with other preparations in parallel, which made R1’s comprehensive support particularly valuable.

• Mr. Round’s personal character

In addition to the two points above, throughout the long application process, Mr. Round’s sincere and cheerful personality was a great help in maintaining my motivation. While also possessing the necessary strictness of a professional, he always conducted counseling with a gentle demeanor and often provided perspectives on my past experiences that I had never considered myself. Writing strong essays requires deep self-reflection, and encountering a counselor I could truly trust during that process was extremely valuable—not only for the application itself, but also for gaining a deeper understanding of myself. He is a counselor I hope to stay in touch with going forward.

In Closing

Choosing an essay counselor for MBA applications can be difficult due to the limited information available, but if you find yourself even slightly interested, I strongly recommend contacting R1 without hesitation. I am confident that you will experience firsthand what I have described here. I hope this testimonial will be of some help as you consider which counselor to choose.