8
Manufacturing
Mktg/Sales
Scholarship
LSE
MSc/MBA
I was working as a female career-track employee at a typical Japanese general trading company, and I was applying to MBA programs on a self-funded basis while on a leave of absence. As a result, I secured an external Rotary Scholarship. Because the Rotary Scholarship selection process takes place before one begins studying for MBA applications, having already gone through the steps of “recommendation letters,” “essays,” and “application forms” at that stage later proved to be extremely meaningful.
In my job, I was engaged in conventional export trading, traveling overseas for approximately 60 days per year, and using English daily for reading, writing, and speaking. As a result, I earned a 5.5 on the GMAT AWA, and I did not have any particular resistance to writing in English or to thinking in English. That said, I was by no means a returnee raised in an English-speaking country, and my assigned regions were so-called emerging markets. In terms of pronunciation and Western values, I was no different from a purely domestic applicant.
Positives
Flexibility of time
Because my workload was extremely demanding, I determined from the outset that it would be physically impossible to commit to several hours of fixed, face-to-face counseling each week within Japanese weekday hours. As a result, my top priority was the ability to secure flexible scheduling, including late-night appointments.
The value of Strategic Guidance
At Round One, there is a counseling service called “Strategic Guidance” that covers everything beyond essays. By paying a flat fee at the outset of the engagement, I was able to email Mr. Round directly at any time—about anything I was anxious about, worried about, or unsure of. This was truly invaluable. Even if I tried to explain my thoughts face-to-face to a native counselor using imperfect English, it would likely have consumed an enormous amount of time and money. While that time might have provided some personal satisfaction, I saw it as an inefficient use of resources. With email, I could calmly think through “what I was worried about” and “what I wanted to do,” and then convey those thoughts accurately to Mr. Round in writing. By reading my messages, Mr. Round could clearly understand my concerns and intentions and provide advice that was precisely on point. Without exception, he responded to any question within 24 hours.
Negatives (That turned out to be unfounded)
Handling emergencies
It is often precisely when time is most limited—right before application deadlines—that problems arise. I personally encountered several near-disaster situations. From the beginning, I worried that I might not be able to reach Mr. Round quickly due to the time difference. However, this concern proved unfounded. In fact, a face-to-face counselor would have been unreachable late at night Japan time. Because application deadlines are usually set in local time, Mr. Round—living in the same time zone as the schools—was actually reachable until the very last moment. On several occasions, I sent him emails marked as high priority late at night on the day before a deadline, urgently requesting to speak with him so we could discuss the issue in real time. In doing so, I was able to fully leverage what turned out to be one of Mr. Round’s greatest strengths: his responsiveness in emergencies.
Information specific to Japanese applicants
I initially worried that, since Mr. Round resides in Canada, there might be limits to how much Japan-specific applicant information he could cover. However, Mr. Round organized kickoff meetings that brought all clients together and created opportunities for information sharing among us. In fact, we even created a jokingly named mailing list called “Round Two,” which I relied on heavily. To this day, I believe the bonds among clients remain very strong. Each client also had access to multiple prep schools or corporate-sponsored applicant networks, and we shared as much information as possible. I myself actively expanded my network by attending school information sessions and made efforts to gather Japanese applicant information independently. Through these human networks, I believe Japanese applicant information can be sufficiently covered. Expecting Mr. Round alone to provide all such information would be unreasonable, and I believe it is important not to rely solely on one-on-one counseling as the sole source of perspective, but instead to maintain multiple objective reference points.
First, understanding yourself and helping others understand you
The aspect of Mr. Round’s work that I value most highly is his exceptional “writing craft.” To fully leverage this skill, I believed it was essential that Mr. Round first come to know me thoroughly. There were several ways to achieve this. One was to write logical English essays expressing my views on current social and political issues attracting attention in Japan and the U.S., and to share them with Mr. Round. This allowed him to understand my thought processes and values. Another was to help him “re-experience” my own life events. By this, I mean not only explaining the external background, causes, and outcomes of events, but also articulating—accurately in English—my internal emotional changes, how I thought, how I acted, and how those experiences ultimately changed me. Through this process, Mr. Round came to understand “how I would think and act,” enabling him to reflect a consistent and accurate version of “me” across all essay prompts, even if starting from a blank page each time.
You are the one who writes
During the application process, I often encountered people who mistakenly believed that Mr. Round would “write their essays for them.” That is wishful thinking. No one who does not understand me could possibly write “my essay.” The key question is how accurately and thoroughly I communicated myself to Mr. Round. Communicating oneself requires repeatedly viewing oneself objectively, writing large volumes of English, presenting ideas to a native counselor, and engaging in debate—an effort that naturally demands enormous time, energy, and English proficiency. Even after pouring my heart and soul into an essay draft, Mr. Round would sometimes calmly instruct me to “rewrite it.” At that point, we would again discuss where my understanding of the prompt was flawed or where my emotional transitions were unclear, repeating this process until we arrived at a version we both felt satisfied with. After completing each essay, I often sent Mr. Round a message saying, “Thank you for understanding me.” Feeling that he truly understood me through the essay-writing process was, for me, an incredibly moving experience—one that often brought me to tears.
I also took interview lessons at Round One. Of course, I was simultaneously taking one-on-one English conversation lessons with native speakers, but those were entirely different in nature—focused simply on becoming more fluent in expressing my thoughts in English. Interview lessons at Round One primarily involved mock interviews conducted online, but also included targeted practice on specific questions, as well as rapid-fire exercises to prepare for fast-paced interviews, all tailored 100% to my individual situation. What I found most valuable, however, was the post-interview feedback. The evaluation sheets provided multiple quantitative assessment criteria from a realistic admissions perspective, offering a rigorous numerical evaluation of performance. Beyond that, each criterion was accompanied by extremely detailed comments—explaining why a particular score was given, what was lacking, and how answers should be structured. These comments filled roughly four A4 pages, densely packed from top to bottom. Reading these evaluation sheets required courage, because they reflected brutally honest admissions-level assessments. I repeatedly revisited the feedback, practiced on my own, and refined my approach. Structuring responses, selecting concrete examples, crafting killer questions—these are skills that must first be developed independently, with Round One’s interview lessons serving as a testing ground. Then, after being thoroughly dismantled by the evaluation, I would rebuild again. At Round One, having both Mr. and Ms. Round as interviewers was also invaluable. Regardless of whether the actual interviewer was male or female, being able to practice with both in advance was critically important.
The above represents everything I know about Round One.
I am now preparing to move to the United States after gaining admission to a so-called “top” school. I firmly believe that choosing Round One was the right decision, and I sincerely hope to maintain a strong relationship with Mr. Round going forward.
