Why Should You Get Your Essays Reviewed?
First, because your essays are the only "differentiator" in your application. Second, because we give you the AdCom's perspective on your essays - unlike your family and friends, we view your essays through an impersonal lens, just like the AdCom does.
1. What does your review include?
A typical "single-essay" review has three major components - structural, content and language. Our reviewers' commentary will include suggestions for changing the structure of a sentence or paragraph or the entire essay, substance of the essay (does it answer the question and does it work?) and English language style and grammar corrections. They also frequently suggest word changes or phrase changes where appropriate. Reviewers also look for alignment with the school's requirements - word count, font size, spacing, etc. when they review your essay. For each essay, you can expect overall comments from the reviewer as well as detailed tracked changes in the document.
For a "set of essays", besides everything described above, the reviewer also provides overall comments on whether the essays fit together and how impactful your overall storyboard will be for your audience. As an example, they might ask you to stress more on personal vs. business experiences or encourage you to discuss a facet of your life in a little more detail. We do not write essays or provide "templates" for essays. We are only helping you project yourself and articulate your unique story in a way that is compelling for the audience - i.e., the Admissions Committee.
2. Is it one review or can we go back and forth with the reviewer?
Depending on the "level of completion" of the essay (i.e., how ready it is to submit), the reviewer may offer you a repeat review either free of charge (if it is very close) or at a nominal fee.
3. What makes you different from admissions consultants?
First, we are NOT admissions consultants. We don't tell you which schools to apply to, or where you will fit best, or whether you should apply to business school at all. Second, our four reviewers are from three schools - Wharton, HBS and Stanford. All four are either students or alums. Third, our rates are not ridiculous. We don't think anyone should pay an arm and a leg to get help with their application and our rates are very reasonable and cover the cost of our reviewers' time.
4. Why are B-school students from these schools doing this? Don't they have high paying jobs?
Yes, they do. For all but one of our reviewers, this is a part time job. Why do they do this? A few reasons - (1) to earn extra cash (2) to give some of this extra cash, rather than their salary, to their favorite charitable organizations (3) to help prospective students in their applications. Our reviewers' work experience includes Finance, Management Consulting, Not for Profit and Operations & Technology.
5. Are essays reviewed by the alums of the same school? i.e., will a Wharton alum review my Wharton essay?
We have a scheduler (who also writes this blog!) who schedules time on the calendar of the reviewers to review essays. I try very hard to assign the essays to the school alum. As you can imagine, especially as we near a deadline, this becomes a little challenging, but I can say we have a pretty good track record of being able to do this.
6. What if my school's deadline is earlier than 72 hours? Will you accommodate an urgent request?
Ask us. We'll try our best to accomodate your request. In the peak of busy season, there may be an additional fee associated with these requests.
7. Why do you review essays? Why are essays important?
Every year, thousands of applicants with incredible professional and academic qualifications and high GMAT scores get rejected from the best business schools. We believe the ONLY differentiators in an application is the essays. It can make or break your application and be the deciding factor into getting into a school of your choice. This is especially true if you come from a "classic" business school applicant demographic.
8. I don't see any testimonials here. Do you have satisfied customers?
Yes. Testimonials are pointless - anyone can make them up. We have several extremely satisfied customers and would be happy to put you in touch with some who have volunteered to recommend our services.
9. What is your success rate? How many of the essays you review actually "make it"?
We don't track success rates. For the same reason that we don't put testimonials on our website. We can say that our customers have been happy enough to come back to us for a second and third set of essays for various schools because of their satisfaction with the first set of school essays.
10. How do you maintain such low rates?
We don't do this for a living (which doesn't mean we aren't very good at it). We charge what we think is a reasonable charge for the reviewers time and doesn't break the wallet for applicants. Also, we don't maintain a fancy website and don't have a physical office to pay for.
11. Will my essays ever be shared in a public forum?
No. We enter into an explicit confidentiality agreement with you when your order is confirmed that your essays (in whole or part) will never be shared with anyone except the reviewer for the purpose of reviewing only.
12. Can I see a sample of your work?
Sure. Send us a request at essaycritique@gmail.com and we'll send you a mock up of our work. We don't share actual samples of work because of the confidentiality clause in Q. 11.
13. How do I send my payment?
Via Paypal - it is secure, fast and easy.
14. Can I try your services before I send you a set of essays?
Yes. Via the $50 single essay package. We do strongly believe, however, that the $150 package is our best value for money.
15. Can I speak to my reviewer live after I get comments?
You can request this and we'll try our best to accommodate the request. Often, people don't need this because the reviewer's comments are VERY detailed in the document.
16. What format should I submit my essays in? Do I email them to you?
Any format compatible with Word - RTF, doc, docx, Open Office, Google docs are all acceptable. If you only have PDF, we'll work with that too. Yes, email them to us at essaycritique@gmail.com
17. How much before a school deadline should I submit the essays?
Technically, we ask for 72 hours. However, because we can get very busy right before deadlines, we highly recommend giving us a week before the deadline.
18. I asked my mom and friends to review my essays? Is it still helpful for me if you look at them?
Yes - family and friends view you through a different lens. They hear your essay as though you are telling them, not one of ten thousand applicants that they don't know. We give you the independent, third party review that is critical because that's how you will be viewed by AdCom.
19. How do I know you're good and will be helpful?
You won't know until you try us - so please give us a shot. We look forward to working with you and helping you along the journey.
We look forward to working with you!
