About David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting
I’m David Lombardino, founder of DLA Editors & Proofers. Since 2008, I’ve worked one-on-one with authors, applicants, academics, and professionals on writing and communication where judgment, clarity, and outcomes matter.I collaborate with authors on books and screenplays, helping them strengthen structure, narrative focus, and voice.I work with applicants pursuing medical residency, fellowship, and other competitive programs on personal statements, interviews, and application strategy.And I help academics and professionals shape complex ideas into clear, effective writing.My approach is hands-on and collaborative, centered on careful analysis, specific feedback, and thoughtful decision-making.
David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting (dlaeditors.com) has 270 customer reviews on Five Star Index, with an average rating of 4.3 out of 5.
Also known as
dlaeditors.com
Website
dlaeditors.com
Category
Administration & Services
Listed on Five Star Index
2026
About these reviews
Replies
The company replied to 18% of reviews.
Latest
Most recent review: October 2026.
Edits
Reviews are shown as their authors wrote them. The company can reply, but cannot edit them.
Score
This company cannot pay to remove reviews or change its score.
David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & Consulting reviews
270 approved reviews, newest moderated first
13
138421
disappointed and bad.
I was very very very disappointed with the edits i received for my personal statement. First, I did not receive my edits by my "due date and time." (I received it 7 hours later). I had to call and email them trying to find out the status of it. All the edits were made within 10 minutes. I think the money I paid is worth more than 10 minutes of editing! Finally, the actual edits were unhelpful, generalized and opinionated as opposed to constructive criticism. They made 1 comment and just said "as i indicated above, etc" and said the same thing multiple times. I contacted the company about my experience and they said someone would call me back but no one did. I would absolutely not use this service again!
Response from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & ConsultingSep 26, 2014
Thank you for sharing your review of our services. It appears there have been a few misunderstandings. Our editor in chief has reached out to you to address your concerns.
FZ
Farhad Z.
very helpful special for me.
I had their help for personal statement, Resume to take part in residency match and it was very helpful to me.
SE
Sue E.
This is not worth the money, read below to find out why
So I sought ought these editors to review a personal statement for a fellowship program. My first editor made a lot of suggestions to make my personal statement "emotional and flowery." This editor thought that my initial personal statement, which discussed my research interests in detail, did not quite "cut it" for fellowship programs. I changed my personal statement around 180 degrees according to this editor's suggestions, which were honestly vague, and consisted mainly of saying, "show this, don't tell it." Yea, not helpful. I tried to incorporate this editor's changes and send it back for review, but this editor would NOT give me any other advice than the following, "you still have not incorporated a lot of my changes, but to get more specific feedback you will have to pay for a second edit." Stupidly, I paid for a second edit, and got a much better editor who was really able to work with me and give me helpful and very specific suggestions.
At the end, however, I was left with a very sappy personal statement, that almost read like an emotional novel. I had my research mentor look at it, who almost vomited because the statement was so flowery, like a beach novel. I agree with my mentor 100% when looking back on things. I went back to my original research-focused personal statement, doing basically everything that these editors had told me not to do. What was the result? I got 25 interviews, and many at top tier programs that I could not even imagine would consider me.
Moral of the story? While these editors may be excellent at English, remember one thing. They cannot see from the perspective of people in your own field. Remember, if you are a doctor, lawyer, engineer or other professional applying for a job or fellowship, remember that these editors cannot see from the eyes of other people in that profession.
The first editor ripped me off by saying I didn't incorporate enough of the initial suggestions, because I had actually done that (and the second editor agreed with me on this point).
I would advise you all, that, instead of using this service, go to your mentor or someone else in your field who actually knows what admissions committees are looking for, and ask them to edit your statement. I wasted several hundred dollars on this.
Response from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & ConsultingSep 19, 2014
Thank you for expressing your concerns to us. We are certainly disappointed to hear of the experience you had with us but are also thrilled that you received so many invitations to interview. Ultimately that is what is important!
One of the improvements we have made recently is to adjust our personal statement services so that now they can be ordered with more than one round.
We are particularly concerned that you understood we wanted you to make your personal statement "emotional and flowery." We have many years of experience reviewing personal statements and know for certain that is not the way to achieve a successful one. We apologize for any misunderstanding there was about this.
With regard to our knowledge of your field, we have not only reviewed thousands of personal statements but also interviewed program directors and admission committee members in a variety of fields. We know from this experience what it takes to make a successful personal statement, and it is for this reason that clients following our advice are regularly accepted into the top programs in their fields. This includes fellowships in hematology oncology, for which you were applying. Every year our clients applying for this fellowship receive multiple interview offers.
We apologize again for any misunderstandings there may have been but are also happy to hear of your interviews. We wish you every success in securing a position!
PA
Pathology
does not worth the money
I choose the PS Revision & Critique services and the only thing I get is asking me to rewrite most of my statement with general advices and the rest of essay was barely edited you can't tell the difference from the draft. the editor was uncertain in some places "I do not know where it fits in, either before or after the research paragraph" ...who should know then?!!
I felt just that I wasted my money with them.
Response from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & ConsultingSep 8, 2014
Thank you for sharing your review with us. We understand the challenges of writing a personal statement, as we have been guiding clients for over 10 years now. It is certainly not easy! In many cases clients send us personal statements in which they have already put a lot of effort, though also have more to go before arriving at a finished PS. With our PS Revision & Critique service, we first critique the PS to identify any content to be replaced or added (as noted on our website, we do not write new content for the PS), then we edit the rest of the content. While your PS had many good elements, the majority of the PS needed to be rewritten. In our review, we try as much as possible to provide specific and comprehensive advice on the content to be added. It can often happen that when substantial revisions are needed, we are unable to predict how exactly every piece will fit, since they are contingent on revisions that have yet to be made. For this reason, many clients elect to submit their personal statements for a follow-up review, to help ensure the final version before they include it in their applications.
FN
Fake N.
Amazing work, my personal statement was garbage before your suggestions.
My medical school (a top school btw) presented a horrible lecture on how to write a PS. I basically followed their blueprint, and my PS was so simple, boring, and overall, not very good. After DLA editors, I felt confident in my finished product. I could not be more pleased. Think of how expensive the application process is. Relatively speaking, this is a small amount of money for such an important aspect of the application, and I would absolutely recommend you spend the money and have the experts take a look!
CF
Charlotte F.
Thank you!
We are grateful for DLA. Our regular editor [Name] has a sharp eye for content and grammar. I also appreciate that she understands the heart behind our work. Her comments are helpful and encouraging. Thanks DLA!
RL
Reza L.
Very useful!
I've had the opportunity to know this company regarding the edition of my personal statement and CV. I found it very valuable, and strongly suggest it to others by all means.
NO
Notsogreat
Not great
Not as great as the hype- late returning edited paper by almost 2 days without any concession
Editions were minute but still a lot has to be done not to mention the formatting which is an extra charge
Response from David Lombardino | DLA Editors — Editorial & ConsultingSep 8, 2014
We have taken a look back at your project and believe there may have been some miscommunication. Our notes indicate that we returned the edited CV to you 2 hours after the original due date/time, per prior agreement with you. The CV was for the ERAS application and contained only the header information for the experiences, and not also the descriptions. There were few errors in the information provided. Though the CV still needed a lot to be done to it in terms of the descriptions being added, these were not provided to us for editing. There was therefore not more we could do than what we did in editing the CV. We would have been happy to format the CV but were not hired to do so.
