201
Technology
Finance
Sponsored
MIT-Sloan
MBA
Admitted Schools: MIT Sloan (enrolled), CMU Tepper, Emory
Background: Telecommunications company (Sales: 3 years, secondment to the Financial Services Agency: 2 years, Finance: 4 years) *Company-sponsored study abroad
It was a long and challenging journey of approximately a year and a half after passing my company’s internal sponsorship selection in December 2021, but I was ultimately admitted to my first-choice school, MIT Sloan. Despite having limited time due to a demanding job and struggling with test preparation, I was able to reach the finish line with the best possible outcome. I am convinced that this was only possible because of Mr. Round’s thorough support. Below, I share the reasons I chose Round One and the aspects that made me glad I did, in the hope that this may be helpful to others.
Several senior colleagues from my company who were sponsored by the firm and admitted to MIT had chosen Mr. Round as their counselor, and based on those results, I became interested in Round One.
When I met Mr. Round and explained my background, I was particularly impressed by how well he understood my strengths. I have an unconventional career path, having worked at a telecommunications company while being seconded to the Financial Services Agency, which is unrelated to telecommunications. Other counselors had told me that such an inconsistent background would be difficult for Western admissions committees to understand, leaving me uncertain about how to present it. However, Mr. Round was the only counselor I met who stated unequivocally, “That experience will be a strong asset for you.” Being able to trust that he genuinely understood my background and would think carefully about how to leverage it to the fullest was the decisive factor in choosing Round One.
We were able to carefully plan everything from building an application school portfolio tailored to my personal characteristics to scheduling the entire application process.
Researching schools can be extremely time-consuming, but the school lists and information Mr. Round provided were very well organized and saved me a great deal of time when creating my application portfolio. As time passes, things do not always go as initially planned, and one’s own thinking can also change. Mr. Round responded flexibly to such situations. In my case, I decided rather suddenly in August to apply to one school in Round 1, but we quickly reworked the plan together and I was able to submit the application with sufficient preparation. The MBA application process involves countless tasks, so having clear guidance on what was needed and by when was invaluable.
We typically held counseling sessions once a week for two to three hours, and the speed at which résumés, recommendation strategies, and essays for one school could be completed within a single session was outstanding. Because my job kept me working late into the night on weekdays, it was honestly difficult to go back and forth multiple times on a single essay. Mr. Round was able to grasp my intent while revising multiple essays on the same day and bringing them to completion, which allowed me to move forward while balancing work commitments. As a result, even though my test preparation continued through January, I was ultimately able to apply to as many as nine schools.
Thanks to Mr. Round’s approachable personality, I felt comfortable consulting him about anything, which was extremely helpful. For example, during the application process, applicants must input personal information and essays into each university’s online system, and unexpected questions sometimes appear that are not explained in the instructions. During counseling sessions, we were able to complete these procedures together via screen sharing, which made it reassuring to address such questions immediately. In addition, even outside of scheduled sessions, Mr. Round promptly supported me with matters such as how to reply to emails from admissions offices and how to write thank-you emails to interviewers. These are just a few examples, but thanks to the wide-ranging support I received, I was able to continue the process without feeling anxious until the very end. To be honest, I consulted him on many things that I wondered whether it was appropriate to ask about, but he responded thoughtfully to everything, which I truly appreciated.
