Vince

As the founding Education Director of The Stanford (University) Improvisors, Vince helps MBA applicants find and tell their best stories.

Vince often asks his clients, “How will you connect with your admissions office readers on an emotional level?” Having taught Technical Writing at The University of Tokyo and Improvisation at Stanford University, Vince specializes in helping technically-oriented applicants make a human connection with application readers.

He guides his clients to add emotional depth and rich detail to written application materials to help admissions officers understand what they will offer the MBA community. His creative storytelling approach will benefit engineers and consultants applying to business school. Vince also works well with mid-career leaders seeking one-year and executive programs at MIT Sloan Fellows and Stanford MSx.

Having served as a former president and six-year Board member of the Association of Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC), Vince has keen insights into the academic and cultural offerings at every top MBA program, including Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, INSEAD and LBS. His clients are granted access to his personal treasure trove of informative tips on essays, interviews, and more.

While earning his Bachelor’s at Stanford, Vince received the Lyons Award for Service. Before moving to Tokyo, he completed his M.A. in Learning Technology and Experience Design at NYU. While living in New York, Vince served as Founding Technologist at Columbia University’s Center for New Media Teaching & Learning.

Ultimately, Vince aims to empower applicants with the creative confidence to succeed in the admissions process and beyond.

Based in Tokyo, Japan and Marin, California, he supports clients worldwide utilizing his creative arts background and deep industry experience.

Selected Testimonials

Below are reflections from just some of Vince’s recent client success stories:

Accepted into MIT Sloan Fellows with a Dean’s Fellowship

Working with Vince was a pleasure. Vince has a unique presence and is compelling, insightful, and respectful. Vince provided outstanding service and was adaptive to my many communication preferences and constraints, such as time zone differences and electronic platforms for sharing written communications and hosting video calls. Vince often worked after-hours and/or on weekends to accommodate my schedule.

Vince immediately earned my confidence and became a trusted advisor. I relied on Vince’s feedback regarding selecting essay content; his recommendations were excellent. My application must accurately reflect my personality, better or worse, rather than the ideal student’s. Vince worked with me to highlight my unique strengths and helped me to present a genuine portrait of myself.

Vince was highly efficient with his time spent and provided outstanding value. Vince is an excellent writer, and his reviews of my written materials strengthened them in several important aspects. Vince’s reviews gave me meaningful feedback on content and format with minimal time billed. Additionally, Vince was tremendously responsive, often responding on the same day and almost always within one day.

Vince was an outstanding resource for interview preparation. Vince helped me to frame my natural conversation style rather than drill answering questions by the formulaic response. Vince’s interview preparation provided key insights that were critical in the overall success of my interview. My biggest challenge was concision, and multiple mock interviews and feedback sessions helped me focus my responses. Vince also provided excellent advice on topics I would have needed to pay more attention to, such as lighting, sound quality, and screen proportioning for the interview and video essay content.

Soon after learning of my acceptance to my “Dream School,” I was informed that I was selected to receive a Dean’s Fellowship. With Vince’s help, my application would have merited a Fellowship award. By this measure alone, Vince’s services paid for themselves several times. I have absolutely no doubt that Vince’s contributions significantly strengthened my application.

I highly recommend Vince!

Accepted into Stanford GSB

Vince was always helpful and supportive throughout my application process. He helped me polish my essay and improve my interview skills. These were critical success factors for my admission into GSB!

Also, leveraging many years of his experiences as a consultant, he shared deep application tips that I could not get elsewhere.

Vince has seen so many applications of successful admits. Gaining “Go” on my application from Vince boosted my confidence!

Thank you for helping me out, Vince. It was a pleasure to work with you!

Accepted into Harvard Business School

I appreciate all the generous and sharp feedback Vince provided on my essays and interviews. His queries were always insightful and right to the core, which enabled me to think deeper from different perspectives and better understand myself.

When I felt anxious and began to lose self-confidence, Vince helped me with the interview prep and told me that I could make it. I couldn’t have made it without his encouragement and trust.

Thank you, Vince!

Accepted into INSEAD

Vince was a north star illuminating my path to INSEAD.

Paring his creativity with empathy, he unlocked my full potential, helping me get an offer from my dream school.

Vince was a source of inspiration for me. Leveraging his long-standing experience in improvisation and theatrical performance, he awoke my creativity and helped deliver my story with a fresh, boldest approach. “Entertain the audience!” was his consistent message, and he imbued me with creative confidence to take risks to differentiate myself. Our sessions were full of aha moments, and I felt like getting wings to fly after every session!

Vince is also a compassionate coach and encouraged me along the way. While I had some ups and downs until finishing the long marathon, he always believed in my potential and repeatedly said, “You can do it!” – these simple yet powerful words convinced me to believe in myself even in crunch times.

Reflecting on my life, I reaffirmed how my parents, friends, and mentors made a difference in my journey to date. Like them, Vince also positively changed my life’s trajectory. I truly appreciate that he made me realize how fun it is to be creative and that he helped me open the door to a world I have never seen.

Thank you so much, Vince!

Accepted into Yale SOM

Working with Vince, I found his pledge — “I’ve got your back” — faithful and how helpful it was to me. Without his support, I wouldn’t have been able to get admitted to Yale. Vince guided me for about ten months throughout my application process, having two weekly sessions. He kept providing me in each session with new perspectives and approaches which never came to my mind to polish my essays. While some say essay counselors are not necessary to complete MBA essays, from my experience, the deep self-reflection required to write MBA application essays is complicated and time-consuming enough for me to conduct alone.

The two weekly sessions also prevented me from falling behind the proper schedule because I was motivated to show him some progress in each session. Thanks to his comprehensive service, I could consult with him about whatever concerns or topics I wanted to share without hesitation, which allowed me to improve the quality of my total application materials for the schools I applied for.

I appreciate Vince’s support and commitment to my entire application journey!

Accepted into HBS

I worked with Vince throughout my entire application process. Vince is supportive, prompt, honest, and a reliable partner.

Based on his profound experience and expertise, you can expect critical and insightful comments to improve essays, suitable pace-making, strategic advice to make decisions, and more.

Working with Vince, you can’t go wrong!

Accepted into HBS

I found Vince on YouTube just a few weeks before MBA interviews and immediately contacted him about getting help with preparation. His response time was swift, and we met just a couple of days later.

I was applying to multiple schools, so he started by giving me a detailed overview of the types of and differences between those schools’ interviews, which helped me plan. Later, during our mock interviews, his specific and honest feedback was invaluable.

His personalized advice about making my responses very concise but still compelling allowed me to improve quickly, and he shared great ideas about how to best respond to open-ended questions.

I am glad I had the opportunity to work with Vince since I am sure it enabled me to perform well (and much better than I would have without his help) during my actual MBA interviews.

Accepted into HBS

I worked with Vince to prepare for my HBS interview, and there is no doubt in my mind that Vince’s help substantially increased my odds of being admitted. He provided me with concrete advice, ranging from tips to improve my body language to fine-tuning the delivery of my “story.”

Having now had the benefit of going through the actual interview process, I can confidently say that Vince prepared me for over 80% of the questions asked of me on the day.

I cannot recommend him more highly.

Accepted into Stanford GSB and Wharton

I worked with Vince throughout my entire application process, starting from brainstorming, writing essays, tailoring my application package, and interview practice.

A year ago, when I decided to apply for business school, I was a mile late in the game. Many applicants had already spent time with consultants for a year or had MBA holders advise them daily; whereas, I was still learning about the programs. I wanted somebody who would be my coach with adequate knowledge in the game, my professional partner with full commitment, and my torch, guiding me throughout the dark woods of graduate school applications.

Over the time I worked with Vince, he has never failed to surprise me. He is motivated, honest, and above all, a true educator―a believer in the power of education. I thank Vince for motivating me to handle eight schools at the same time; without Vince, I would have given up before reaching the mountain top. Above all, I recommend Vince’s capacity to blend the analytical mindset and the artistic flavor into the entire application package. As an enthusiast of storytelling and creative writing, I wanted somebody who could help me weave my passion into my stories without rendering it a fairy tale. If you are passionate about delivering your life stories and mission to the admissions clearly and effectively, Vince will help you hit home runs every time at-bat.

Future challengers: good luck, hopefully with Vince!

Accepted into HBS

Vince helped me strengthen my essays by making them more concise and clear. Not only giving advice that other people might offer, Vince kindly provided creative ideas to make my essays stand out. His creativity helped me through interview mock sessions. He was dedicated to asking questions that are not on my prepared question lists to accurately find out my weaknesses regarding interviews, which helped me realize where I should prepare more. His friendly and positive atmosphere helped me go through the demanding and high-stakes process of applying to MBA programs. I am glad that I was able to gain admission to my dream school, thanks to Vince.

Accepted into Wharton

I worked with Vince to prepare for my Wharton interview and team-based discussion (TBD), and his assistance was invaluable.

Firstly, Vince is an incredibly kind individual, and you can tell that if he is working with you, it is because he believes in you and is interested in your story. A lot of the interview process is about believing in yourself and your ability to contribute something unique to your class, and Vince was able to pinpoint my “selling points” as a candidate and give me the confidence to sell myself.

Secondly, Vince knows the interview process inside out. Vince helped guide me through what would happen on the day. This may sound like something small but in a high-pressure situation having worked through my TBD pitch and potential interview questions knowing I had these down, so to say, really helped calm my nerves and allowed me to present my best self at the interview.

Thirdly, as someone who went to university and went through the job interview process in the UK and South Africa, Vince gave me the confidence to approach the interview with a more “American style.” Thanks to his expert coaching, I could boldly express myself in the one-on-one conversation and, ultimately, gain admission.

In my opinion, it is the small things that make the difference between a good TBD interview and a great one. Vince’s input helped me to excel. I know many potential candidates are concerned about the mountings costs of the application itself, flying to the interview location. Then the cost of the MBA itself and you may be weighing whether a consultation with Vince is worth it. Rest assured, it is! We all want to get into our first choice program, and every applicant is exceptional – I think Vince’s insight can make the difference and ensure you shine on the all-important interview day.

Accepted into Columbia MBA

I worked with Vince for my entire application process. I decided to work with him not only because he has excellent results over the years but also because he values quality above all else. If you have specific schools that you are eager to get into, Vince is the right person to contact. He knows what to do and how to do it.

Although I started working with Vince in early November, I spent almost 50 hours working with him. In addition to the regular two hours session every Sunday, he helped me a lot in the last minutes of the process, including interview training. He tried hard to know me very well and taught me how to show my strength in the limited space in the applications.

The application process was a black box, so I became nervous countless times, but every time after talked with Vince, I got confidence and motivation to move forward. He had been a great coach throughout the process. Having a reliable coach close to me was very important to me.

Thanks to Vince, I got admitted to my dream school. I believe the best thing I did in the process was that I decided to work with him. Thank you again.

Accepted into INSEAD

Working with Vince has proven to be the best decision I have made during the application process. He showed a genuine interest in my goals, encouraged me to think deeply, and was always easy to approach. Above all, he is a thorough professional – he always honored his commitments, was prompt in his response, and managed my expectations. Vince is also a “Connector” – I greatly benefited from his network of tutors, writers, and other resources which wouldn’t have been available to me otherwise.

In the end, we managed to put together crisp, insightful essays – well within the deadline – which wouldn’t have been possible without Vince’s support. INSEAD was the only school I applied to. Thanks to Vince, I will be moving to Singapore come January.

I highly encourage you to work with Vince, rest assured your application packet will be the best it can be.

Accepted into HBS and Stanford GSB with a Fulbright Scholarship

You encouraged me to be genuine and helped me find the right, true stories that captured who I am. You helped me present them in the right way, not on the techniques that make me fit into the MBA mold. An example is your advice to “imagine showing this essay to your future son or daughter.”

Because of this holistic approach, your service has the potential to be not only an effective admissions advisory but also a unique journey of self-discovery and empowering dreams.