The SWC Annual Performance Report: 2024 - 2025

Malvika Patil
16 minutes ago
5 min read

We don’t do things quietly at Sam Weeks Consulting.

This year, our results were loud; we beat last year’s admit rate, welcomed new team members, broke scholarship records, and ranked (again) in the industry’s top consultant rankings. We’re proud of what we achieved, and even more excited about where we’re headed.

Let’s dive into the numbers.

Client Success

This year, we had a busy admissions season with 61 MBA applicants. Of those, 57 clients received offers to one or more of their target schools, giving us a client success rate of 93%.

In total, our clients submitted 253 school applications, with 125 applications being successful, giving us a 49% school success rate.

We continued our strong showing at top programs:

54 clients applied to M7 schools, and 39 were successful. That’s a robust 72% M7 success rate.

42 clients applied to Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton, and 18 received admits: a 43% HSW success rate.

We’re proud that our clients received admits from every M7 school: Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, Wharton, MIT Sloan, Booth, Kellogg, and Columbia.

And our international school applicants showed an equally stellar performance. Among 15 clients who applied to INSEAD, LBS, Oxford, or Cambridge, 11 received admits, representing a 73% success rate for top European programs.

Scholarships

The rising cost of MBA programs, combined with a rocky job market, has pushed more applicants to seek financial aid, and we’ve responded with our strongest year yet in funding outcomes.

This year, 46% of admitted clients received scholarship offers, with total offers amounting to an incredible $3,976,984. That’s an average of $69,772 per admitted client.

One standout client even set a new record, receiving a staggering $851,200 in offers across 9 schools.

Poets & Quants Rankings

Our results didn’t go unnoticed.

Sam Weeks Consulting was ranked the #2 Boutique MBA Admissions Consultancy in the world by Poets & Quants.

Sam was recognized as the #5 Most Favorably Reviewed MBA Admissions Consultant globally.

These rankings were based on P&Q’s rigorous two-step process of review verifications with clients and the P&Q team. Clients who provided reviews especially loved our weekly live editing sessions, honest feedback, and attention to detail.

Here’s what some had to say:

“Sam is like the Y Combinator of MBA applications. YC gets you the best investors; Sam gets you the best schools (and scholarships, because why not get paid to attend an MBA?). YC gives you credibility; Sam makes sure adcoms see you as a future rockstar, not just another applicant. Y Combinator sets you up for long-term success; Sam ensures your MBA dreams don’t just happen—they happen at your top-choice school.” – Stanford GSB admit

“Sam made me no false promises, he expressed quite clearly that I would have to work incredibly hard if I wanted to achieve my goals. He supported me, pushed me, and helped me unpack a really challenging moment for me in my life for my essays, that I don’t know if I would have had the courage to write about otherwise. He always made availability to chat with me when I needed it and shared a plethora of resources with me such as those found at MBAconsultant.com.” – HBS and Wharton admit

“I spoke with over 15 admissions consultants (mix of small and big-name) before deciding to work with Sam. The clear differentiator was his process – no other consultant I spoke with wanted to craft the entire application LIVE. We spent our first couple of hours discussing my life story and background. Sam was able to quickly piece together common threads in my life that could serve as a good foundation for my narrative. We spent hours every week on Zoom, brainstorming and writing essays until we both felt they were complete. He was open to redoing and reworking essays as many times as we felt necessary – his goal is to create the best product possible. We had so many iterations of every essay, which made me feel like we left absolutely no stone unturned.” – HBS admit

Client Profile

Here’s what our average client profile looked like:

Average GMAT: 695. This score reflects test score deflation due to the new GMAT Focus Edition.

Highest GRE: 336 (170Q, 166V)

Average GPA: 3.56 / 4.0

Our client pool remained diverse:

Gender split: 54% male, 46% female

Industry backgrounds: Mostly Finance and Consulting

Geography: 46% of clients were from the United States, followed by strong representation from India and Canada. We also welcomed three clients from Vietnam - a notable increase over previous years.

The SWC Team

We welcomed Nanako Yano, a dual-degree graduate of Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, to support clients targeting dual-degree programs. Nanako brings invaluable insight for applicants aiming to combine business education with policy or public leadership.

We also brought Mario Triviño on board, who is a top-rated GMAT, GRE, and EA coach with direct referrals from successful clients.

They join a squad of expert SWC team members including Jon Cheng, Alex Zarganis, Zack Hoyt, Malvika Patil, and Rowan Hand.

MBAConsultant.com

Our self-paced platform, MBAConsultant.com, continues to gain traction.

It now supports 14 schools, including all M7, as well as Haas, Johnson, NYU Stern, Fuqua, and leading European MBA programs. With 100+ example essays, the platform helps clients build strong, authentic applications with flexibility.

Check out MBAconsultant.com here.

Reddit Roasts

We decided to roast Reddit.

We ventured deep into r/mba to find real applicant profiles to roast, break down their stats and stories, and respond to popular questions from the community – in our style. Our Roasts have helped many prospective MBA candidates get direct guidance about their applications, and we love being able to contribute to the community.

Redditors love the Roasts; we’ve even had some people binge watch the series! Check it out here.

Online Reach

Sam’s presence on LinkedIn grew to 15,000+ followers, and he was featured in top industry outlets, including Forbes. He spoke about his distinctive consulting process and how applicants should choose a consultant that they can connect to and collaborate with productively. Check out the article here.

We’re also ranking on the first page of Google for 80+ key MBA admissions search terms. Here are some of our top-read articles:

Looking Ahead

This was a milestone year, and we’re gearing up for another strong admissions cycle.

From scholarships to admits, rankings to reach, the numbers this year show how much we’ve grown, and how committed we are to delivering even more impact for MBA hopefuls around the world.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

Read the full performance report here.

Want to work with us? Get in touch for a free 20-minute consultation.