25-Year-Old Black and Jewish Woman Accepted to Columbia Business School, USC Marshall, and UVA Darden, and Berkeley Haas with a Full Scholarship
After graduating from Columbia University, Emilie worked for a year and a half as a management consultant for a large biotech company in New York. Not thrilled with the role and looking for a way to leave consulting, she moved to Southern California and worked at a health tech startup, and eventually a smaller market-access firm.
Emilie knew she wanted to go to business school since 2016. When it came time to start her application process, Emilie had The Art of Applying® in the back of her mind. She was familiar with the Application Accelerator® after being connected to Kaneisha by chance in a Facebook group for Ivy League alumni of color.
Emilie shared, “I was looking for a program that felt all-inclusive [because] there are so many questions in the beginning when you’re thinking about applying to business school.” With The Art of Applying®, Emilie found the structure and support she was looking for.
Emilie maximized every aspect of the Application Accelerator®, from collaborating with her consultant to staying positive with Mindset Calls. She focused on making sure her essays were strong and that strategy paid off.
With the help of her consultant and group calls, Emilie was able to craft a story that felt true to her. She said,“For the school that gave me the most money, Berkeley Haas, I didn’t write about my business background. I wrote about who I am as a person… and they loved that! When I got my acceptance call they said, ‘We can really tell how authentic and genuine you are.’”
After four years preparing to apply to grad school, was this marathon worth it? Yes! Emilie cried happy tears when she found out she was accepted to Berkeley Haas, her first choice school, with a full-ride Consortium scholarship.
Start Date: September 2018 | End Date: May 2020
Applicant Information
- Age: 25
- GPA: 3.6
- GRE: 317
- Work experience: 3 years in healthcare consulting
- School: Columbia University
- Major: Human Rights
Acceptances
- Columbia University Business School
- University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business
- University of Southern California Marshall School of Business
- University of Virginia Darden School of Business
Scholarships
- University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business – Full Consortium Scholarship
Notable Quotes
On making the commitment and investment in working with The Art of Applying®:
“There was more offered in [The Art of Applying®] than in other more one-off programs where you’re paying someone to do just your essays… and I didn’t really know what I needed. I felt like paying just one amount for all the potential things [I could need help with] made more sense to me… It felt like a lot of money, but the focus would be to try to get scholarship money, so that the investment would turn into more money and for me it did!”
On her strategic approach to using the elements of the Application Accelerator® and how she leveraged her story:
“I focused a lot on my essays, and that’s where I felt like I was best served in terms of my application. I knew my test scores were going to stay kind of average. I knew I couldn’t change my GPA. I knew that I was already good at networking with students and alumni. So, I [felt] The Art of Applying® [could] serve me best by making sure my writing was cohesive and clear.”
On her advice to prospective applicants who haven’t worked in the private sector and are wondering if The Art of Applying® can help them get into business school: “For the school that gave me the most money, Berkeley Haas, I didn’t write about my business background… I wrote about why healthcare matters to me as a woman of color who was raised by a single mom and how that impacted me in the clinic, when I was helping other single moms [who were] Hispanic, Dominican, black, etc. And they loved that!”
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