28,603Leland Reviews

Pamela's thoughtful and personal approach helped me sculpt my application into an acceptance at my top MBA choice - Tuck! Her no-nonsense approach kept me on track and laser-focused on reaching my goals. Pamela is extremely detail oriented, providing invaluable feedback on all aspects of the MBA application process. She helped me determine which schools I should apply to, how to best present myself, and prepared me for interviews. Pamela was my key to success during this terribly difficult application season. I could not have done it without her!

Last year I was somebody with an average GMAT score and fairly limited work experience but a deep desire and intense need to go to business school, I was skeptical about making it to the top U.S. business schools. Today, It gives me immense pleasure to write about Pamela because she enabled me to secure admission along with a fellowship to Cornell Johnson and four waitlists from top B schools such as Duke, Tuck, Darden, and UCLA. She has emerged as much more than an MBA consultant to me, I have come to see her as a mentor and a guiding force. I started working with Pamela in August of last year. I was already working with a consultant at the time but was extremely unhappy with the output. I remember that in my first call itself, Pamela gave me insights that no one, including my current consultant and the many other consultants and admission coaches I had consulted with at the time, had done. She even agreed to do a trial run for me and agreed to edit an essay as a sample based on which I could decide if I wanted to do more than 1 school with her. I ended up applying to 10 SCHOOLS with her – that in itself should speak to her brilliance. Based on a few conversations with her, she was able to guide me and extract such content out of me that truly reflected my true story for the Adcoms. I was amazed by her candor, her unparalleled knowledge about schools, and most importantly her willingness to go that extra mile for an aspirant which is why I, you and every MBA aspirant need the ‘Jaffe Advantage’. I’m tabulating below some of the points that make her the perfect MBA consultant to help anyone secure an admit from their dream schools: 1. Knowledge and Rare Insights About Various Schools: School selection itself can be a daunting process but Pamela’s knowledge as an AIGAC consultant, about schools acquired from her active network and presence as an MBA consultant made the process much more efficient for me, ensuring that I made well-informed decisions. In addition to my research, her inputs on the employment avenues, extracurriculars, methods of teaching, etc. for each school make her a seasoned consultant. This helped me not just effectively answer the ‘Why a specific school’ question for my essays and interviews but it truly allowed me to identify which schools I wanted to apply to based on a comprehensive understanding of the school rather than just some superficial research, because of which today I’m going to a school, whose community I truly want to be a part of. 2.Focus on Building an Engaging Narrative: While all applicants have their own journey that they might talk about in their essays, the clarity and the finesse required to do that is rare. Pamela’s focus on enabling applicants to develop a coherent story and answer all the Whys and Hows along the way gave my essays a unique essence to convey who I’m as a person and really show the adcoms my motivations, my path, and my goals. As an immigrant, I sometimes struggled with putting across my thoughts in an efficient manner. Beyond the application, Pamela has taught me the valuable skills of putting them across in a succinct yet powerful manner. 3. Structured Approach and Strict Turnaround Timelines: Given the amount of writing involved in applications, it’s essential to have a stringent structure for each essay. Pamela’s approach to effectively answer the questions ensured that I did not get diverted and rather used every last word/character from the assigned limit, judiciously. Another thing I have really come to admire is how throughout the course of my applications, she abided by the 2-day turnaround timeline (In fact on most occasions she would get her edits over to me before the 2-day timeline). This really ensured that all my applications were submitted well before the deadlines while accommodating any additional edits that I required. 4. Honest Feedback and Focussed Problem Solving: Pamela’s feedback is the main factor that helped me hone my story and put across my best foot forward. She questioned and dug through multiple times whenever she felt I wasn’t able to convey something in my writing and had no qualms editing the same thing multiple times till every last word did justice to my candidacy. She gave me solutions and encouraged me to myself address every issue that could have been detrimental to my applications, using a structured approach that transformed my supposed weaknesses to my strengths. Today, I’m done with my applications, but I’m so inspired by Pamela and how she approaches different problems, that I find myself sometimes using her methodology to solve some of my problems and convey my message – I call it the ‘WWPJD’ (What would Pamela Jaffe do) During the course of my application, before I even got my results, I recommended her to a friend who also worked with her and I recommend her to anyone who wishes to prepare an authentic application. I can whole-heartedly vouch for her not merely as a consultant but as a mentor who has allowed me to attain a goal I conceived five years ago.

The first thing that stuck out to me when I began working with Pamela was her direct approach. She was not afraid to tell me what was realistic based on my profile and wasn’t afraid to be blunt about it. That isn’t to say she is not aware of how to present that information to clients as she never said anything that could be remotely construed as offensive. She is merely looking to best position her clients to best succeed and she is not interested in just taking clients’ money and stringing them along through applications that do not fit their profile. Her insight into the application process and understanding of how to best frame my candidacy was invaluable as I had no one else in my immediate network I could lean on for similar insight. Additionally, my candidacy was a bit unorthodox and Pamela was incredibly accommodating of my unique situation and helped me to succeed in gaining admission into my schools of choice. Bottom line – she knows what she is talking about and will be very honest in regard to how she thinks you can reach your goals but never at the expense of understanding that at the end of the day it’s about the candidate and the applications are theirs. 10/10 would recommend her and can’t thank her enough for her support over the entire process.

Pamela Jaffe was a phenomenal consultant and support throughout my MBA application process. From the initial consultation, she understood my background and connected with me on my challenges in a way few other consultants ever had! She developed a personalized strategy for me that inspired confidence in myself. She also provided valuable assistance in school selection, helping me focus my search and narrowing it down to 6 programs. She has an established process and her own structured frameworks that did an amazing job at distilling all my past experiences. She helped me take those results and formulate my personal story that was relevant and made sense for MBA application essays and interviews. Pamela understands what the admissions committees look for and her advice was always spot on! She was always accessible and her communication is prompt. What stood out to me about Pamela: – True, customized approach that was suitable for my application strategy – How well she understands Adcom members on the other side of the table – How invested she is in her clients. This level of care is reflected in her feedback and interactions: quality and detail-oriented from essay reviews to mock interviews – Her expertise not only on the major US programs but also on the European programs I was considering as well Pamela is a consummate professional and her assistance was truly an end-to-end experience. I bought 6 school packages from her and I received Round 2 acceptances from 5 of them. Best investment I ever made. I am proud IESE Round 2 full-time MBA admit! I would enthusiastically recommend Pamela to anyone.

Pamela was a critical thought partner throughout the application process. Her services were definitely a value add and really helped keep me on track with timing. She shined brainstorming ideas around essays and had in-depth knowledge about the schools I applied to, even helping me mock-interview, leading to admission to both Stanford GSB & HBS. This process is long and arduous and working with Pamela was one of the best decisions I made along the way!

1. Pamela helped me shape my story into something cohesive and compelling. With her help, I was able to get a sizable scholarship at an M7 school. Her experience really showed when it came to editing essays. She balanced her earnest advice with her desire for me to use my own voice, in order to ultimately come up with something that was “me.” She knew what schools look for, and we worked together to craft applications that demonstrated these qualities. She was very timely, sticking to agreed turnaround times (really helpful when things got very hectic at work!). 2. She was a sincere partner throughout the process. She always gave her honest opinion and looked out for clients’ best interests. She was generous with her time and resources, her inputs consistently thoughtful–even on the eighth iteration of the same essay. She truly wants her clients to succeed and even advised me on school applications that we weren’t working on together. 3. Tying back to the earlier point, Pamela was very considerate. All my interactions with her felt genuine, and she was happy to give her thoughts on the other schools that I was working on separately. When I asked to work with her on an application rather late (and during the busy season), she came up with a solution that was a win-win–something that I likely would not have been able to do with a larger firm. Overall, Pamela will take your candidacy to the next level!

Pamela was instrumental in helping me get accepted during this competitive year – if you are considering getting an MBA consultant I would 100% recommend Pamela!! Pamela truly enjoys her job, wants to get to know you, and really is a partner throughout the process. As I found out about interviews and acceptances I think I sometimes told Pamela before my parents because I really felt like she was invested in this journey with me. She’s very direct and clearly outlines timelines and expectations but remains incredibly flexible and compassionate (one of the advantages of being a private consultant over what I heard about larger firms) Due to financial constraints, I only had Pamela help me with 2 of my 4 applications. That being said, she went above and beyond to make sure anything we were doing, be it my resume or interview prep, was helpful for all my applications so I would have the best chance of success to get into as many schools as possible. She really wanted me to succeed. I have a non-traditional background and she helped me craft my unique story and know how to best communicate to an MBA admission team. The interview prep was on point – I really don’t think I would have gotten admitted without this preparation beforehand!! Familiar with US and European programs – She helped me navigate how to tweak my applications to best suit certain schools and talk through the differences in interviews. All in all, I initially didn’t know if a consultant would be worth the money, but after going through the process (and let’s be honest, applying for MBA programs is grueling), I would 100% recommend Pamela!

I was an optimistic applicant, but having grown up in the Dominican Republic and very much isolated from the MBA culture and peer applicants, I did not grasp the level of detail top programs asked of applicants. Willie helped me choose my target schools, craft my story and highlight the parts of my profile that would stand out in my applications while mitigating aspects that were weaker. I ultimately received admits from my two top choices, one of them a member of the M7. I will be forever thankful for his patience and thoughtful advice. In my experience as a genuine outsider, I can't recommend Willie's services enough and I am certain I wouldn't have been able to navigate the application process as successfully as I did without his help.

I needed to cram all my application creation into 2 weeks because otherwise work would always get in the way. Willie was my savior, confidant and at times even my shrink. I was able to produce 4 excellent applications that resulted in 4 acceptance letters. I am not going to lie, it was tough and I wanted to quit multiple times, but Willie helped pace myself and see the light at the end of the tunnel. He is the kind of guy you want in your corner, especially when you are fighting for your dream to go to a top tiered B school. Willie was not only patient, we was also insightful and proactive, letting me know what articles to read to better my essays and letting me know that I have a certain addiction for adding semicolons everywhere (hopefully I have gotten better at it; I'll let you be the judge). While it might be an expensive service I can say without any shadow of a doubt that one of the most important factors for having received 4/4 acceptance letters.

Everybody knows that getting accepted by an IVY in their third round is next to none. Getting virtual mentorship and strong advice on MBA essays is quite complicated, but Willie managed to find ways to help me out in both aspects! I literally had close to 20 days left before the application deadline and blank essay pages. I pulled myself together and wrote three draft essays that I sent to Willie to correct. He made fundamental changes to the essays and we went back and forth EVERY DAY to finalize the drafts. Even though he was very busy with everything else on his plate, he was dedicated enough and spend time with me on a daily basis to perfect the essays. I could not believe that we would be able to polish the essays virtually over email but he made it happen. Willie made the whole process easy and comfortable for me!! The questions he asked made me think about my career, short-term and long-term goals. This was not just about essays, it was more about helping me understand what I really want to do in my future career. Willie has amazing mentor skills that he shares gladly. It is very rare to find people who are so eager to help you out through the process. Willie also helped me out with the MBA interview process. Once again, talking to him boosted my confidence in knowing what I want to do in my future, where I want to go, and why. I am forever grateful for his hard work and fast correspondence!!