When people first encounter the Lab, the most obvious benefit that first comes to mind is cost. And it's true! You can get the ENTIRE Lab, which covers the ENTIRE admissions process, for less than what one hour with a traditional admissions consultant will cost you!
After several years of doing this -- and after hearing from Lab clients who had previously used expensive admissions consultants and were disappointed, we can also confidently add the following advantages:
- 24/7 access: No need to try to coordinate schedules or wait for a call -- you can access the advice in the Lab ANY time
- Quality advice does not get "diluted": Look, those huuuuuge firms with a tonnn of consultants? Most of those folks have other full-time jobs and have not dedicated their professional lives to learning as much as they can about admissions. They mean well! But the fact is, it's difficult for someone to simultaneously have a regular full-time job AND be an admissions expert. What this means is that two friends might hire the same admissions firm... but might get VASTLY different levels of expertise and service from the stable of consultants! Since the Lab's advice is created by admissions experts, EVERYONE gets access to high-quality advice.
- Repeating advice won't cost you extra: If a consultant says something during a call that you can't quite remember, you'd need to clarify it with them -- and they'll charge you for that (if you're paying them hourly!). With ApplicantLab, you can re-visit the advice multiple times. Users have said that this is especially useful for certain lessons that needed time to sink in, OR when thinking through complicated essay questions (e.g. HBS / Stanford being the 2 trickiest ones most mentioned).