Business & Finance
Henry**
Henry
The Setup
Henry started with Crimson during a time of career advancement. Initially working as a Research Analyst Trainee at an asset management firm in his home country, he had been promoted to Research Associate and transferred abroad to the merchant bank side of the company. Despite having degree-aligned professional experience, Henry hadn’t clearly defined his intended career trajectory. His Strategist determined that goal-setting would need to be a primary focus of their work.
Henry had a long-standing passion for finance, having received his BS in Business from a Top 50 university in the United States. Despite choosing to continue in the field after graduating with a 3.85 GPA, he did not have a clear understanding of where he was heading professionally or what past evidence he had for his applications. As his Strategist sought to help him define his pathway, she uncovered a surprisingly strong passion for food and began guiding him to explore options for incorporating his food interest into his finance career.
Crimson’s Strategy
After identifying Henry’s strengths and weaknesses, his Strategist led him through a process of establishing a unique narrative and creating a clear road map toward the point of submission.
Developing the Narrative
Henry’s Strategist determined that the personal statement was Henry’s best chance of compensating for his low GMAT. The team began digging into his past to find stories explaining his personal attachment to receiving an MS in Finance. His Strategist probed deeply into his love of cooking, uncovering a life-long passion that had been a source of great bonding for Henry and his family throughout his childhood. This food thread grew as Henry began realizing the potential relevance of his current pursuits of becoming a Pizzaiolo. As he recalled going to three stores to find basil during the pandemic, he realized this cooking adventure had been a pivotal moment in his understanding of the fragility of the supply chain. He and his team continued examining this food-finance connection, and Henry developed a mission: dedicating his career to ensuring that families can feed themselves.
Creating the Roadmap to Submission
With a newly defined short-term goal of seeking employment and promotion within sustainable investments at JP Morgan, and a long-term goal of becoming an agri-tech investment fund founder and manager, Henry’s Strategist helped him uncover past evidence supporting his candidacy. They organized relevant stories, solidified his narrative, and parsed those out into the essays, required questions, and additional application sections for his dream programs. Their focus was to ensure that goal-aligned experiences and passions were presented in a clear and understandable form. This pathway to submission included a line-by-line application review to confirm that all moving pieces were cohesive.
The Conclusion
Research Associate Henry began his journey at Crimson without a clear sense of his career’s long-term direction, but through a strategic process of marrying Henry’s passions for food and investment, a future agri-tech investor was born. His application grew rich in evidence proving that the MS in Finance degree path was truly meaningful to him, landing him an offer at his dream school, USC!
Commentary from Henry’s Strategist:
"Henry is a deeply passionate, methodical, driven student who is eager to make a real difference in the world. He excelled at articulating his goals and was highly attentive to the details required of him throughout the graduate school application process."
Lin**
- Dartmouth University
- Yale University
- Cornell University
- Dartmouth Merit Scholarship ($70,000)
- Yale Forte Fellowship ($70,000)
- Cornell Forte Fellowship ($60,000)
- GMAT
- GPA
- Field-specific work experience
- Awards + References
Lin
- GMAT (740)
- GPA (3.6)
- Years of field-specific work experience
- Awards + References
The Setup
When Lin became a Crimson client, all she knew about her degree and career pathway was that she wanted to progress in finance and become an investment banker. While she possessed many key elements of a successful MBA candidate profile, including a BA in Business Administration with an International Business concentration from a European university, she did not yet have a personal story or a connection to any specific schools or programs. Her team’s task was to uncover where her years of work in the investment banking sector in Southeast Asia were leading her and how this could be connected to the successes, recognition and references she had attained within the educational scholarship fund she co-founded.
Crimson’s Strategy
The Roadmap Toward Submission
As Lin’s Strategist helped her draw out her personal story, the team uncovered a personal attachment to service. They then defined the personal attachment that became her application’s focus: helping those who share her experience of losing a parent early in life. Upon discovering Lin’s mission, her Strategist guided her toward beginning to work firsthand with the people she ultimately intends to support in her career. As a short-term goal with immediate yield, her Strategist helped her strategically repurpose her scholarship fund toward service of local orphans. Lin added additional evidence of interest to her profile by joining a nonprofit and beginning volunteer work with other organizations serving orphans.
Interview Prep
Lin’s approach to interviewing was initially strictly professional and lacked the necessary element of human connectivity. A large focus of her interview coaching was finding moments to show emotion as she talked about the things she was excited about, connecting with her interviewer through her storytelling and demeanor. Her Strategist supported her in choosing and structuring stories around the specific focal points that emerged through their collaborative research on the schools, programs and professors that directly supported Lin’s narrative and long-term goals.
The Conclusion
With her Strategist’s coaching, Lin developed a tag line as “the orphan investor” and added evidence to her profile supporting this aim. By helping Lin rethink her approach to applications, her Strategist allowed her to bring personality and humanity into both her application and interviews, yielding admissions offers from 4 top US MBA programs, including 2 M7 programs.
Commentary from Lin’s Strategist:
"Lin is an ambitious, dedicated student with a clear plan for her future and the will power to achieve her goals. Her productivity made her very easy to work with and her genuine connection to her target demographic was truly inspiring."
Jun**
- Cornell University
- Duke University
- UC Santa Barbara
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Technical expertise
- Work experience
Jun
- BA of Engineering in Mechanical Systems Engineering: 3.62
- MA of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering: 3.7
- Presenting accomplishments
- Framing reasons for pursuing a second master's
- Technical expertise
- Work experience in engineering field
The Setup
When Jun began working with his Strategist at Crimson, he had already received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from a Top 50 national university in East Asia. Upon receiving his first master’s, Jun began working as an engineer and then a section manager at an East Asian engineering company, later transitioning to a product owner role and transferring to an office in Europe.
Jun’s persistent admiration for the technology and product culture in the US drove him to seek Crimson’s support in determining the best pathway toward earning a second master’s abroad.
Crimson’s Strategy
Jun entered the Crimson process with a clear goal of bringing elements of the US product and technology culture back to Japan. With his interests in product development and design, he initially thought a design program would be optimal. However, given his extensive engineering experience, his Strategist saw that a Master’s in Engineering Management would be a better option for leveraging his technical background and years of experience, steering Jun toward different programs and a shift in his focus and use of background experience.
Phase 1: Reframing Mindset
Jun was concerned that he already had a masters degree and thought being out of school for many years could negatively impact his candidacy. His Strategist’s first goal was to show Jun that this was not a hindrance, helping him reframe his perspective on his profile. They determined that the rapidly changing nature of technology justified Jun’s choice. He would focus on presenting his pursuit of a second master’s degree as an opportunity to refresh his knowledge in an ever-changing field. His Strategist highlighted that the wealth of experience Jun had built both academically and professionally should be packaged as something he intended to share with his program cohort as he continues learning and relearning.
Phase 2: Presenting the Story
Initially, Jun wasn’t inclined to talk about his undergraduate and previous graduate school experiences because of the amount of time that had passed since he had received those degrees. His Strategist supported him in understanding the importance of using all relevant stories across his lifetime that would support his decision to pursue a second master’s. As they explored these stories and worked together on his essays, his Strategist helped Jun see the value in starting his essay as far back as childhood, with an opening about his tendency in youth to be constantly tinkering. They crafted an essay that showed Jun’s journey from childhood to his pursuit of his engineering interest through his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering, and then followed with his work for an engineering company where he finally discovered his interest in product development, his focus for the next stage of his career.
Phase 3: Interview Prep
Jun is an English Learner whose writing was at a higher level of proficiency than his speaking, so his Strategist led him through ESL drills that would support him with speaking in interviews. They practiced timed responses to various prompts and worked on Jun’s ability to highlight certain elements of his profile that would allow him to sell himself well regardless of the questions asked. His Strategist also provided feedback on recorded responses, ultimately supporting Jun in successfully completing interviews, resulting in admission to several Ivy League and other top engineering programs.
The Conclusion
As an experienced engineering student and professional, Jun had a strong sense of what he wanted to pursue. With his Strategist’s guidance toward adjusting his way of thinking about his profile and the specifics of his degree pathway, Jun found programs that aligned well with his background and was able to uncover the best way to present his unique story.
Commentary from Jun’s Strategist:
With a wealth of experience in the field of engineering, Jun came to Crimson as a strong candidate for technical postgraduate degrees in the United States. He knew exactly what he wanted to get out of the Crimson experience but was flexible enough to consider the alternate degree paths I proposed after getting to know more about him and his ultimate goal of growing his technical leadership skills as a product leader. Through our work together, he was able to tell his story in a light that gained him admission to multiple Ivy League schools and tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships.
Kevin**
*Kevin’s Dream School!
- George Washington University
- Northeastern University ($10,000 scholarship)
- Pepperdine University
- Internships + references
- Evidence of leadership
- Software/programming skills
- Multilingual
- Lower GPA
- No intent to take GMAT/GRE
- Interviewing skills
Kevin
- Lower GPA (3.37/4)
- No intent to take GMAT/GRE
- Interviewing skills
- Internships + references
- Evidence of leadership
- Software/programming skills
- Multilingual
The Setup
When Kevin began the Crimson application process, he had just received his BA in Economics from a Top 50 US university. He had evidence of leadership from the undergraduate student clubs he’d participated in and great references from finance internships he’d held. He also possessed a variety of helpful skills, including his software and programming abilities and trilingualism. Initially, Kevin did not have specific career goals. His Strategist’s work was to show Kevin how to weave these elements of his background together to form degree-related goals and a compelling narrative.
Crimson’s Strategy
Phase 1: Uncovering Personal Attachment & Goals
Kevin’s Strategist dug into his past experiences to uncover the story of personal attachment needed for his application narrative. As his passion for sustainability became clear, his Strategist helped him set his short and long-term career goals at the unique intersection of finance and environmental sustainability. The team collected and refined relevant stories from Kevin’s past experience that illustrated his commitment within this newly defined area.
Phase 2: Building Evidence
With his short and long-term career goals now defined, Kevin’s Strategist guided him to build evidence of his progress along this degree-aligned pathway. He joined two associations that demonstrated his commitment to his future in environmentally sustainable finance, and the team continued working on his essay using this evolving narrative and the previously determined narrative line.
Phase 3: Interview Prep
Kevin’s interview preparation was focused on the structure and presentation of the content he would share with his interviewers. He and his Strategist worked on his delivery and fluency of speech, as well as specifically selecting the interview stories that would exemplify his most relevant experiences (leadership, both in internships and academics).
The Conclusion
As Kevin’s Strategist helped him clarify his unique area of interest and goals for his overall career trajectory, Kevin was able to refine the presentation of his story and intended impact through his application and interviews, yielding admission to his dream program.
Commentary from Kevin’s Strategist:
Kevin was a focused, productive, reliable student. He completed his work on time and always communicated well, so the graduate school application process flowed smoothly. I am very happy to have assisted him in gaining admission to his dream school, UCI.