Client Case Study: Jen

Client Case Study: 29-year-old Asian-American woman accepted to Cornell Johnson MBA program with a $100,000+ Scholarship

Jen said that when she learned about The Art of Applying®, she was thinking about getting her application from 80 percent of its potential to its full potential. She knew she could only take it so far, and since she felt that time was of the essence — starting her MBA application process at age 29 — she wanted to make it count. 

She was especially concerned for her husband, who would be supporting both of them while she pursued her MBA. If she could not only get into an MBA program, but get into one with a scholarship, that would be ideal. 

We are happy to report that she achieved her ideal outcome!

Even though she had to take her GMAT three times to get a score she felt was workable, and even though she worried about the layoffs and reorgs dotting her tech-heavy work history, she was able to get in Cornell’s MBA program at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. And she didn’t just get in: She was awarded over $100,000 worth of scholarship funding during the two-year program. 

Jen found that The Art of Applying® was different from the very start. She called around to a number of companies that say they help people get into MBA programs. As she notes, “I just felt that The Art of Applying® offered the most personalized approach. There were many where I felt that they just wanted to rattle off my stats and then tell me that I didn’t stand a chance to get in anywhere. But I felt that the team at The Art of Applying® seemed to genuinely care about my story and I could already feel like they were going to set me up by helping me position that story in the best positive light.” 

We offered her the kind of support she was expecting — help with her telling her story in her application essays — but we offered her support she wasn’t expecting. 

“The Art of Applying®. really recognizes that this is a very stressful and emotionally draining process,” she observes. “You’re really evaluating who you are as a professional, and who you want to be, and that can be, for people who are very passionate about their careers, that can be very challenging. So, beyond just the essay support and the admission support, there was also an element of emotional support as well, and I thought was just invaluable and a surprising benefit of working with The Art of Applying®.”

Start Date: September 2018 | End Date: May 2019

Applicant Information

• 29 years old
• Asian-American
• School: University of California, Berkeley
• GPA: 3.5
• GMAT: 710

Acceptances

• Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management

Scholarships & Fellowships

• Forte Fellowship of $51,500 a year for two years

Attending

• Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management

Notable Quotes

“The Art of Applying® was actually recommended to me by a good friend of mine. But I think I wasn’t really ready to take the plunge until I’d done a little bit of research. So I actually called a number of different companies and went through some of their initial calls. I just felt that The Art of Applying® offered the most personalized approach. There were many where I felt that they just wanted to rattle off my stats and then tell me that I didn’t stand a chance to get in anywhere. But I felt that the team at The Art of Applying® seemed to genuinely care about my story and I could already feel like they were going to set me up by helping me position that story in the best positive light.” 

“My Breakthrough Call … was about an hour long … so already, they were spending more time with me. Basically, they ran through my entire story, all my hopes, aspirations, concerns, what I was hoping to get out of working with The Art of Applying®. It was a very detailed interview, to make sure that The Art of Applying® and I were the right fit for each other. So it already felt different from the other admissions consultants, who were clearly just trying to make a quick sale.” 

“I am one of those perhaps insane applicants that spends too much time on GMAT Club, on Reddit, on Poets&Quants, so it’s not that I entered this process knowing nothing about what to expect with admissions. However, I was looking for people who were experts, who would take out some of the ambiguity from the process. And I was able to assess whether I felt like you guys were experts, because I saw this content that you guys were publishing. I read through it and there was a lot of really great stuff in there.” 

“I was really surprised by the robustness of the program and how much you guys offered … support from my consultant, brainstorming through my narrative, taking out the juiciest bits to focus on in my essays, having experts to proofread and tell me if I was veering off course, or if something didn’t make sense. I also appreciated just having someone on my side that I could just ping me and ask questions with throughout my Accelerator period. And I also appreciated how I think The Art of Applying® really recognizes that this is a very stressful and emotionally draining process  . . . you’re really evaluating who you are as a professional, and who you want to be, and that can be, for people who are very passionate about their careers, that can be very challenging. So, beyond just the essay support and the admission support, there was also an element of emotional support as well, and I thought was just invaluable and a surprising benefit of working with The Art of Applying®.”