Admitted to HBS - 7 applications, 7 interviews, 0 dings, 1 life changed forever

Congrats! Tell us how you did it
This topic has expert replies
Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2020 8:05 am
I cannot recommend Farrell (www.mbaprepcoach.com) highly enough and wanted to post my testimonial as a recommendation.

When Farrell and I first started working together, I had a plan, but I was lost. I was following the standard career path for my industry; start in engineering, get an MBA, move into business development. There was nothing in my plan that aligned with who I am or what I believe in. Farrell saw through this, and so would an admissions committee.

We started with introspection and goal setting. We dove deep into my entire life story, not just my professional journey! I told her of the good times that I love to share and the hard times that I’d rather forget. Farrell got to know me better than I know myself. She posed challenging questions that pushed me to my emotional limits but helped me uncover who I am and what I bring as a unique individual.

After learning about who I am, the school choices fell into place. Farrell identified MBA programs that aligned with my goals and pushed me to research each one, connecting me with her past clients who were current students or alums and recommending podcasts and business school guides. It felt like pieces of a puzzle coming together. I could see myself at each institution, working towards a future that would bring me true fulfilment.

After choosing the schools, crafting the essays was next. Farrell has developed a process that is structured and clear. She identified the stories that would bring life to each essay, coaching me to bring out in my writing the unique qualities that I will be able to share with my future classmates. She provided me with untethered feedback, designed to bring out the best in me and my writing, even if I felt the words were tough to hear. We worked through drafts, day and night (it felt like Farrell never took a holiday, she was that committed!), until together we had created something that would show the admissions committee who I truly am in a way that they would really hear.

When I got my first interview invitation, I was over the moon. When I received my 7th interview invitation, I was in shock. Farrell was just as happy as I was, but she wasn’t in shock. She would never lie to make me happy and was always transparent about my chances, but she was confident that she had helped me present myself in a way that made me stand out among a pool of brilliant candidates.

Throughout the interview process, Farrell was dedicated to help me adapt my story to each individual interview. We outlined anecdotes and fit them into a framework that I will use in interviews for the rest of my life. I recorded myself on video and she provided honest feedback that helped me refine my stories into short, effective responses that captured the key messages that I want to convey. Most importantly, Farrell was my biggest fan and I walked into every interview feeling like I deserved a place on that school’s MBA program.

In the end, I chose to accept an offer from Harvard Business School with offers from Duke, Kellogg, MIT and Berkeley and waitlists from Yale and Stanford. $25K offer from MIT and $60K from Duke. Great results for someone without any diversity points to speak of and a 720 GMAT.

However, I gained so much more from this process than these results. I learned about who I am, what I bring and what will bring me true fulfilment in life. Farrell has been my admissions consultant, my life coach, my harshest critic, my biggest fan and my best friend and I’ll forever be in her debt.

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Nov 30, 2019 10:06 pm
First of all congratulations at having made it to arguably the best MBA program in the world.
How much does GMAT score play a role for selection in HBS? what was your score?