mbaMission | MBA Admissions Consultants

I’ll keep this short and sweet. When I first reached out to Kate I was skeptical of even using an admissions consultant because honestly it’s quite costly and I didn’t even think my stats were comparable to what you read online. After speaking with her, I realized I needed help and didn’t really understand the admissions process at all, but she gave me confidence that it was actually possible for me to be admitted to a top business school. Overall she steered me in the right direction of what I needed on my apps, she thoroughly read my essays (commented line by line), and helped me craft a story. I already recommended her to a friend to try and would do so again in a heartbeat.

Jessica was beyond helpful and words cannot describe my appreciation for her. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. She was incredibly responsive, thoughtful, and held me accountable throughout the entire process. She knows exactly when to push and when to encourage. Her talent, experience, and genuine care for my success were all worth every penny. There is so much more that goes into the entire admissions process than I realized, and Jessica does a fantastic job of breaking down each portion into a manageable, organized timeline. Looking back, there is absolutely no way I would have made it into the schools that I did without her.

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for all of your hard work Jessica!

After taking the GMAT twice, I knew I wasn’t going to score better than a 700, which was in the range of the schools that I was looking at attending but on the low end. I knew that I needed to put together the strongest application possible, so I reached out to mbaMission to work on a 4-school package.

Before talking with Melissa for our free 30-minute consultation, I knew that I wanted to apply to Kellogg but I wasn’t sure what other schools would be realistically in my range. Melissa talked to me about what I was looking for in terms of class size, instruction style and culture and told me to consider Fuqua and Ross. She was encouraging yet realistic and having her help me narrow down what schools to realistically look at and prepare for was incredibly valuable.

Melissa is brilliant at helping you find your unique story to distinguish you from other applicants yet highlight your fit with the school’s mission and culture. She weaved together a narrative made up of disparate and individual stories that I had told her about, tied them together, and then packaged them in a way that appealed to the different schools I was applying to. The way she brought different parts of my life and experiences together that I never would have was creative and natural.

Other than essay writing, the most game-changing thing about working with Melissa was that she revealed the strategy to applying to businesses school in general and to each one individually and together we crafted a strategy for each school. Anyone can write the essays, do the application, and attend an interview, but it’s hard to make sure that every single interaction you have with a school is cohesive, well thought-out and intentional and Melissa helped me with that. She helps you attack the application process so that you are comfortable presenting yourself in the most authentic, confident, and appealing way.

Melissa was a godsend throughout the brutal b-school application process and if there is anything that I would advise applicants and prospective applicants to do in order to achieve the best results is work with Melissa. Throughout working together Melissa was understanding, encouraging, and realistic. At the end of the day there is luck involved in who gets admitted where, but I encourage everyone applying to schools that they think are out of their reach to apply and work with Melissa to put together the best application possible. I can’t recommend her enough!

I would not have gotten into Haas Business School without Jessica – period, dead stop. Her level of expertise and wisdom is unmatched. My first encounter with Jessica was during a webinar, and up until that point, I hadn’t given a personal consultant much thought. I figured I had been reasonably successful in my career and would be able to maneuver the application process myself. Having a few doubts, though, as I wasn’t the traditional candidate for a top business school, I scheduled a free 30 minute consultation. Jessica’s “presence” blew me away. She was all the things you’d want a consultant to be – intelligent, honest, succinct, great listener – but it was her passion and compassion that drew me to her. She’s the real deal, a truly authentic person. After completing my brainstorming homework, I came to our call feeling a bit defeated. I didn’t think there was anything in my story that was unique or compelling enough to get me into a top school. She disagreed and told me what she saw in my story. What she said not only touched my heart, but changed my worldview.

I could go on and on about her work. She’s efficient and quick to respond and brilliant at making sure every single word in your essay provides value. She’s stellar at listening to inarticulate ramblings and finding themes and important points. But most importantly, she’s your most valued thought partner.

To be honest, I hesitated before writing the check to mbaMission. It was a lot of money and I didn’t want to spend it if I’d be able to produce similar work on my own. What I know now is to run, don’t walk, to find yourself a consultant, and secure Jessica if at all possible. I’m in my mid-forties and she is hands down the best money I’ve ever spent. I will be forever grateful for her services.

Kate helps me with my MBA application to UCLA and Berkeley. I don’t have a high GMAT score and need to strengthen my essays and resume to improve my chance to admit to top MBA program. Kate did a great job in coaching me to provide strong details in my essays and succinct my resume. She also responses quickly to my requests with 2 days turnaround time. With Kate strong supports, I am admitted to UCLA this Fall and really looking forward to attending Anderson MBA program. I don’t think I will be accepted to these top MBA program without her help!

No matter where you are in the application process, Jessica Shklar will help you present the best and truest YOU to your dream business school.

Before using mbaMission, I applied to business schools on my own, thinking that I knew best how to present myself to admissions. After receiving only a single interview, I became worried. While I waited for a lone R1 decision, I reached out to several consulting services to see if they could help me on such short notice (R2 deadlines were fast approaching and I had not even started!). In a free one hour consultation, Jessica gave me so much great advice and really captured the essence of what I was trying to say in my application essays but in a more directed approach. Knowing that I was still waiting for a R1 decision, Jessica was never pushy about the services and told me she would help me on short notice as soon as I was ready.

After receiving a rejection, I called Jessica and she immediately developed a plan of action. She helped me hone in on schools to target. We had only 2 weeks to submit applications to six programs! In a whirlwind but incredibly efficient and effective afternoon conversation, Jessica helped me drill into the essays and my stories that would resonate with admissions at each school. In no way did she ever write my essays, but she helped me see the great stories that I didn’t realize I had. This was especially important as a non-traditional applicant (age 33 at matriculation, worked at various blue collar jobs, military reservist). She truly will help you present the best YOU to your dream programs.

Over a busy 2 weeks, Jessica supported me and was always responsive. While I can write so many positive words about Jessica, how immensely helpful, insightful, and just plain great to talk to that she is, the results speak for themselves. My 6 applications led to 6 interviews and then 3 admits and 3 waitlists. Even with such a limited amount of time, she helped me put together my best possible applications. She is an amazing resource and a MUST for any aspiring MBA candidate!

Jessica is a phenomenal admissions counselor. My working relationship with Jessica began over 5 years ago when I applied to the HBS 2+2 program as a college senior. During the initial consultation, Jessica and I immediately clicked and I knew that her knowledge and experience would be invaluable. I chose to go through my 2+2 application without any support and was not admitted. Five years later, I decided to re-apply to MBA programs. I submitted a request for another consultation from mbaMission and, to my surprise, Jessica emailed me back. During our chat, she was very optimistic about my profile and chances for admission. I interviewed seven other admission consultants just to make sure but with Jessica I felt the most comfortable. Over the course of 5 months, Jessica spent many hours helping to refine my application and make sure every aspect was perfect. I couldn’t be happier with the result – I was admitted to my top choice – HBS! Thank you so much Jessica – words cannot express how grateful I am to you. I recommend you highly!

If you are applying to business school you need to work with Jessica. Jessica has intimate knowledge about the process of preparing and applying to b-schools. She is also an amazing story teller. As a non-traditional student, with a very unconventional academic and work background, I was concerned not only about the process but also finding and communicating my unique story in the best way possible to compete with other candidates and to highlight my strengths to the ADComs. After doing my research on several other firms, I decided to work with Jessica and I hired her for the complete start to finish package for each school. I knew that she was a perfect fit for me after the first phone call. She was able to help me navigate the various nuances of writing essays for multiple applications, preparing for interviews and most importantly, keeping me grounded and focused throughout a very intense process. With Jessica’s help and guidance I was admitted into a top 10 business school. I highly recommend her and mbaMission.

If you have the opportunity to work with Jessica, I would highly recommend it – it’s truly worth every penny. I was on the fence about working with a consultant – it’s an expensive investment and up to that point I had done everything on my own.

I knew I wanted to work with Jessica immediately following our consultation. Jessica managed to articulate my story better than I could after just a 30 minute phone call and was also able to point out strengths and weaknesses in my application that I hadn’t thought about before. I felt confident that having Jessica’s years of experience and insight would help me craft a more effective and authentic narrative – and that turned out to be absolutely true.

The three things that I enjoyed most about working with Jessica are:

1.) Her ability to provide quick, candid and pointed feedback – there is no tip-toeing around feedback, she gets to the point quickly and that makes every minute you spend with her very effective and valuable.

2.) Her ability to see trends in your experience/background and help you craft an authentic, powerful story.

3.) Her ability to be your biggest cheerleader when you need it most! Jessica always made herself available when I needed to talk to her and she believed in me every step of the way. As corny as it sounds, this is so important in the application process because there are so many ups and downs and sometimes you just need some encouragement and positivity.

Ultimately, I was accepted to my two top choices. Jessica was a critical in that result!

Working with Nisha was a great experience. She was very friendly and helpful in answering every question that I had. She helped make my essays concise and set in the correct narrative structure. Nisha’s turnaround was quick, it only took her a day to get back to my drafts. In addition to the essays, Nisha helped me practice for my interviews and typical why questions. I would highly recommend Nisha when the deadline was approaching she made herself available during the weekend and got back to me right away when I had questions and made sure I was 100% comfortable before submitting my application. With her help, I was admitted to Chicago Booth.

When I was looking to work with an admissions consultant in the summer to put my best foot forward in the application process, a very good friend of mine, who’d gotten into B school, suggested I take John’s and MBAmission’s help. During my initial conversation, I found John to be refreshingly honest. I knew I was aggressive with my school selection, given my background. John, while mentioning some of the pitfalls with my strategy, told me “You’ve done half the job. Now, leave all the worrying about your odds of getting in to me!” After this, I was convinced to enlist John’s help with the ‘All-in’ package.
Because I was consulting on a project in John’s city, we decided to meet up at a local Starbucks to go over essay outlines for my top choice school. John’s storytelling skills shone through immediately. I could see that he had taken the time to go over my background and stories from the brainstorming document I’d sent to him earlier. I was very impressed with the way John provided structure and detail to my essays, all while introducing ‘hooks’ from my past to keep the reader engaged. At the end of the essay writing process, I was convinced I presented the best version of myself to the admissions committee.
John also helped refine my message and delivery during a 30 minute mock interview over the phone. When the day of the interview came, I was confident of facing any question my interviewer could potentially throw at me. I was eventually accepted into my top choice program. In hindsight, working with John proved to be a great decision. He truly cares about his client’s success. I’m confident, my investment in MBAmisson and John will prove to be a drop in the bucket over the long run.

I had the pleasure of working with Nisha during my MBA application process. As many would attest, this is usually a very stressful process.

I attended an online MBA application workshop conducted by mbaMission, and Nisha was one of the facilitators.

One of my target schools was Michigan Ross, and Nisha is an alum. This, combined with the positive impression she created during the online session, made me choose her as my consultant.

Right from tweaking my resume, to fine tuning my essays, Nisha’s insights, and two cents was invaluable.
She was very helpful, and prompt in her replies/feedback.

I also did mock interviews with her. There again, she tried to simulate the real interviews as much as possible, and this practice made me feel at ease in the real interviews.

I am happy to note that with Nisha’s guidance, I got into all 4 of the top 25 MBA programs that I applied to. (Booth, Ross, Tepper, and Kelley).

And I am going to Ross! GO BLUE!!

I would highly recommend Nisha to any aspiring MBA candidate.

When I took the decision to apply to a Harvard Kennedy School, a year before the application deadline, I contacted a friend of mine, alumni from this school, to get insights from him on the application process. Among the precious advice he gave me, was the fact that I should work with a consultant. American people use consultants despite the fact that they know the system and that they can get lot of information from people around them. So, to him, as a foreign student, working with a consultant was really helpful in his application process but above all, because this consultant was Jessica Shklar. He specifically explained to me that choosing to work with Jessica was also a main factor of success. I immediately requested a 30 minute call with her.
It took me 10 minutes to understand that she was the person I wanted to work with. I am very difficult client (and I told her since the beginning!) because I like to challenge people and make sure that they add value to my work when collaborating with them. I am also very motivated when I have an objective in mind and I can spend entire days and nights thinking about it… hence, bothering people about it and asking endless questions.
I started to work with Jessica around <6 months before the deadline. At that time I had not taken my GMAT test yet and was starting to study it. Working with her in advance was helpful because she provided me with an assessment of my profile and gave me advice on how to improve my weaknesses and strengthen my profile. I remember that she raised two concerns that we would work on to improve my application: quantitative abilities (because of some low grades in finance classes), unprecise professional project (I knew I wanted to have a social impact but I was unable to define a path). For each of them, she gave me guidelines and advice on how to improve the gaps for the coming months. Because I had this assessment well in advance, I was able to prepare an action plan. She looked at my resume and gave me ideas of organizations and positions I might be interested in in the future, given my previous experience and my areas of interest. She even managed to introduce me to people working in some of these organizations to get their feedback.
Thanks to a very loooooonnnng brainstorming document that she asked me to fill in, she got to know me very well. It took me many hours per day during more than a month to complete it. But It helped her a lot to understand my whole story and to provide meaningful and relevant advice during the brainstorming sessions we had.
She also gave me advice to prepare for the TOEFL and GMAT/GRE. I had taken the TOEFL once, a month before contacting Jessica and was 12 points below the required grade, 22 below the preferred one. I had also difficulties to obtain a decent GMAT score. I was scoring in the 500s! She encouraged me to keep going and told me about success stories she witnessed. That positive mind is also key to succeed. She always encourage me when I needed it. This helped me reach my target TOEFL score at the second trial. And she also helped me change my strategy from GMAT to GRE. I obtained a medium score at the latest but my performance was far above that mediocre GMAT score.
Then, we started to work on the essays. At the beginning, I applied to one school, my dream school but after discussions with Jessica, I realized that studying in a school which is not my dream school would be better than staying on my current job. I would not take risks. I decided to add two other schools to my package and we worked on the three of them together. What I like is that she provided me advice without never telling me “you should do this or this”. She will always advise me based on her experience but I will always have the last word. And whatever the solution I chose, she would always support me.
To strengthen my chances of admission, I decided to visit HKS. That time again, she provided me with advice so that I would take more benefit from this visit. She pointed out a few things she knew were important for me and ensured that I would not forget to seek information about them.
For each of the three schools, we designed different essays, with the same basis but she always ensured that we would tailor them to the schools’ specificities. She insisted every time during the reviews to make sure that we’d answer the right questions instead of telling what I wanted them to know (which is something we all tend to do).
She also reviewed my recommenders’ letters, ensuring that they’d be specifically tailored to my specific profile and that my recommenders do not write “one-fit-all” letters.
I appreciated many different things during our collaboration:
– What I like the most is the passion she has for people. Doing her job requires a lot of empathy and she always showed enthusiasm with my story. At some point, I felt like I was not working anymore with a service provider but someone who is really committed to help me succeed;
– How responsive she is: she would always react quickly to quick questions and even, in many instances, send back the essays before the contractual deadline or during her days off;
– She knows the schools: thanks to her long-time experience, she is aware of what the schools are waiting for. Hence you don’t lose time explaining to her the different specificities and requirements- the only thing I did not want was to pay a consultant and have to explain him/her things that are available online; with Jessica, you rather spend your time demonstrating how you are a good fit for the school because she has done her own research;
– She really cares about every part of the application: we worked on about 12 versions of my resume to make it fit the application requirement and strengthen the best parts of my profile and as many versions of the +15 essays I wrote;
– She knows how to set limits: she’ll always tell you when you are going too far and which things are important or not; in my case, I had a tendency to look at every little nitpicky detail of my application and she made me realize that some imperfections are also a sign of authenticity; in the same way, she will never write for you, ensuring that your essays are written in your own voice. But she would write a ton of comments for you to address;
– She wants you to show the best part of yourself but always with honesty. I had some many interesting things to include in the different parts of my application and discovered that some elements I thought to be “normal” where things that could be valued if I take the time to analyze them from different angles; she has the capacity to present your accomplishments in a way that highlights different skills;
– Additionally, she would always put herself in the perspective of an admission committee member and take a fresh look and distance on the application, which is something I appreciated; It sometimes revealed things both of us knew but that were not clear in the application.

Finally, I got admitted to the three schools I applied to, with a scholarship for one of them… and this, despite a medium GRE score and some low grades in Quant classes.
I chose to attend Harvard Kennedy School as it is my first choice.
I am sure this would never had happened without her input and I am very grateful for it. I would not hesitate to recommend her to my friends in the future. And I definitely recommend her to anyone who is interested in working with someone qualified, dynamic and able to provide meaningful and actionable advice.

I highly recommend working with Jessica if you’re looking to apply to business school. She got me into my dream school, and I genuinely wouldn’t have gotten in without her guidance. Here’s how it played out:

I decided to apply to R2 on a whim, and reached out to Jessica for an initial consult. During our first call, Jessica sought to genuinely understand why I was applying to business school, and what factors differentiated me from the rest of the applicants.

Over the next few months, Jessica acted as a thought-partner in every step of the application process. She would help distill and curate my essays, refine my resume, and even helped me prep for interviews. I was constantly emailing Jessica with questions, and she was exceptionally responsive.

The result was me getting into my #1 school (which I wasn’t even going to apply to as I didn’t see myself as competitive)! There is no question that Jessica helped make my application much more compelling. If you’re thinking about that dream school, go with Jessica.

I am a non-traditional candidate by most measures (mid-30, minority, advance degree, untraditional career goal and non-straight-line experience prior to application). I disclose this much information to underscore this point: your essay and interview prep will be greatly enhanced beyond your expectation once Jessica put her touch on them. She is straightforward, passionate, empathetic, experienced and effective. She guides you through all processes; you should follow her advice because she knows the difference between overpreparation and underpreparation and will definitely draw the line between the two to tailor your need/ability to deliver the results My experience working with her came after an extensive search for consultants. To illustrate my detour before I got to Jessica, I had this one consultant not respond to my email and my (desperate I supposed) willingness to work with her/him after s/he reviewed my resume I initially sent to her/him. I remember I said to myself: I must be a hot potato with a complicated life history that even the professionals are dropping me like one. Do yourself a favor and work with Jessica. -Stanford GSB admit

I could go on and on about why I would recommend Jessica to a close friend or anyone seeking a great admissions consultant.

I could tell them about Jessica’s rapid and methodical brainstorming techniques to help you get great stories out in essays, her speed at getting work returned back to you, her expert editing to get your essay down from a long winded and unpolished essay into a sleek and powerful piece, her passion and dedicated commitment to make you succeed, and her ability to actually make the process FUN.

But really the true reason I would recommend her boils down to one reason and one reason only. She gets the job done. I had a less than stellar GPA and a less than stellar GMAT/GRE and Jessica helped me get into two schools and waitlisted at a third. One being my #1 pick where I will be going this Fall. Enough said!

I worked with Nisha Trivedi through my entire application process. I can honestly say I would not have been admitted to these schools without her help. She does a great job at helping you combine elements into a cohesive story that anyone can understand. She also takes the time to explain her thought process and provide options when selecting statements/stories. I would recommend Nisha to anyone in the process – she can pick up at any point, work with any personality (she’s also worked with two of my friends), and help you deliver the best version for each school!

Harshad was the first person from mbaMission I had reached out to for my free profile evaluation. I had not yet decided on taking anyone’s help. But by the time I finished my 30 minute discussion with Harshad I had already made up my mind. At no point during the call did he appear to cajole me into working with mbaMission. Far from it, his frank and unbiased evaluation of my profile and my chances at my target schools sounded more like a concerned mentor advising his student. He also evaluated my post MBA career interests and suggested me a list of consultants at mbaMission who represented those backgrounds and I ended up working with one of them. But as luck would have it, when my consultant went on a maternity leave after helping me submit my applications for round 1, I was assigned to Harshad for the next phase-the interview phase. Barely a day after I was assigned to him, I got an interview invite from my top target school, Chicago Booth. I had exactly a week’s time to complete another essay as part of the school’s admissions process. That was when I actually experienced what it means to work with Harshad. He’s a no-nonsense person who gets down to business in no time. He quickly reviewed my entire application material including all the essays I had written and became thorough of my complete life history. He set up a call the very next day and helped me brainstorm on how to approach the essay. I was extremely impressed about how thorough he was with all my life stories in barely a day’s time. He immediately asked me to send my first draft and even volunteered to review it over the weekend. The next five days turned out to be the most intense period of my life. I had practically lost track of the number of iterations I had over building up my essay. But Harshad was always available. With turn-around times running in hours instead of days, he quite literally saved the day for me. I was extremely happy and proud with my final submission and I owe a lot to him. He immediately scheduled mock interview sessions with me for all my interview invites. During these sessions, Harshad was a completely different person altogether. His sole intention during those sessions was to boost my confidence and ensure that I didn’t become nervous or anxious. That said he carefully reviewed all my answers and corrected them wherever necessary. My application ended on a happy note with an admissions offer from Chicago Booth, which was my dream school when I started the process in June. I definitely owe a lot to Harshad for his dedication and patience. I strongly recommend him for anyone even remotely considering taking help for their application process.

I highly recommend Harshad to anyone looking for an admissions consultant. His support and guidance was critical to my success, and ultimately contributed to me getting accepted at both Wharton and Kellogg.

Before I was connected to Harshad, I’d spent several months narrowing my list of schools, visiting, thinking about why I wanted to go to school, what matters to me, and what I wanted to do when I grew up. In December, I found myself planning to apply R2 having done a lot of thinking, but with no essays or concrete application progress made. After a 30 min “real talk” consultation with Harshad, I was off. With his support, I turned the many thoughts into compelling coherent applications.

Highlights of the experience:
– Harshad doesn’t mince words, but he explains himself clearly and logically. His first set of comments on my first essay attempt were tough to swallow (but accurate) – this approach let me quickly kick it into gear and start making progress!
– He maintains the integrity and truth of everything his clients write. He helped me edit words out and make suggestions about which approach to take of multiple things I’d try, but he never inserted his own voice into my essays (and would explain when he couldn’t edit something until I worked on it further because it would require him to make decisions about the message)
– When I was holding back and my responses were suffering as a result, Harshad would always kindly but directly call me out. This is how I work best.
– He works like a madman in application crunch time to be there when his clients need him (all hours of the day/night, all days).
– Always provided actionable feedback (both on essays and when we did a mock Kellogg interview). I will carry his interview advice forward for all future job interviews

Because we started working together 4 weeks before my app deadlines, we agreed that it would make the most sense for me to purchase hourly consulting services. Harshad worked very efficiently, leading to cost savings over what I expected. As a consultant myself who bills by the hour, I really appreciated Harshad’s diligence in managing and communicating time he’d spent with me or reviewing my essays.

Harshad cares deeply about his clients and manages to work efficiently while also getting to know people and forming supportive personal connections. He is funny and optimistic and a pleasure to work with.

I had a great experience working with Kate from mbaMission! She was extremely responsive and guided me through everything I asked for. I was never stressed out during the process and felt a lot more confident about my application after working with Kate.

I started off the MBA process early and did a lot of research and prep on my own but decided to try out a free consultation with mbaMission just to see what they had to say. After 30 minutes with Kate, I learned so much about what it really takes to be a strong applicant and realized I had much more work to do.

I used the hourly services because I was already at the resume and essay stage of the process when I first started working with Kate. I was a little worried about using the hourly services given I had no control over how long someone else took to look over my material but Kate was quick and timely with all her responses! I never felt like she was wasting my time and trying to get me to buy more hours.

Kate provided great feedback on both my resume and essays – she gave me tips to help me come up with better examples and stories that really showed the type of candidate I was. Having a third-party, especially one so experienced and smart, read my essays was invaluable. Kate’s unbiased feedback helped me better understand which examples to use for which schools. Her notes were very easy to follow and she also got back to me with feedback way ahead of our set deadlines – allowing me to constantly make updates.

I’m very grateful to Kate for helping me get into one of my top choices. I’m glad I used an admission consultant because Kate’s prior experiences gave me new perspective into how to tackle the process.

After looking at the extremely competitive admission statistics for top business schools, I decided to work with consultant Kate Richardson to identify strategies to differentiate myself. I was immediately impressed with Kate during our initial brainstorming session. Kate challenged me to think of a breadth of life, academic, and work experiences that would show why I wanted to attend business school and why I would be a desirable student. This discussion proved instrumental for crafting responses to essay prompts and interview questions.
Throughout the application process, Kate motivated me to write essays that were unique and consistent with my story. During our revision sessions, we would discuss what I wanted the admission committee to learn from my essays and how potential responses would contribute to my overall application. I was also impressed with Kate’s knowledge of top business schools. She had very useful advice about the types of responses that each school would find more compelling.
I am very glad that I opted for the all-inclusive school packages with Kate. While I initially assumed that a consultant would be most valuable for the essays, I did not realize the value in having Kate help me to adapt my resume for a business school application, to prepare me for my interview, and to provide guidance for the myriad of short answer questions on the applications. It was comforting to know that I could email her at any time and receive a quick and detailed response.

I worked with Jessica on an hourly basis on my three applications for Round 1. Jessica is sharp, honest, and really passionate about her clients. The perfect combination for a bschool admissions consultant.

She was incredibly considerate of my time and always made sure we worked on things efficiently. For example, she was honest with me about which essays she thought needed another pass, and which she thought were fine as is. She was upbeat, and was sincerely committed to getting me into my schools.

What I personally appreciated most about Jessica was her ability to talk openly and honestly with me about the parts of my application that gave me a lot of anxiety – the GMAT and my interviews. She logically weighed the pros and cons of retaking the test, and walked me though the admission committee’s mindset during interviews.

I got interviews at all of my schools, and ultimately got to choose from two of them. I cannot thank Jessica enough for her help with my applications, and for helping me remain calm (or, as much as possible) during the process.

Sharing that story is vital to sharing qualities and actions to admissions committees. I knew I was a solid writer, but not much of a storyteller. Nor did I think I had any story worth telling. Afterall, I’m an overrepresented applicant who had a steady upbringing and no apparent struggles through life. What compelling story could I have had to offer?

I knew this was my challenge, and I knew an admissions consultant could help. But I was reluctant to work with one. I would read (and sometimes dismiss) the idea that a consultant could help you unearth stories that you would never think to showcase. Who knows you better than you? But it turns out that some of our most extraordinary life experiences don’t make it on the paper. They seem perfunctory to us (our own lives are always somewhat dull to us). Or time dilutes the struggle we felt. Or perhaps we don’t connect the dots across our major life events and see the broader picture of how our qualities and actions have brought us to where we are today.

Harshad helped me discover my story through intensive brainstorming and essay review. He helped me see incredible personal journeys I had undertaken; obstacles surmounted; and personal qualities, values, and (most importantly) actions that had emerged over my life–qualities that I knew I had to share with admission committees to communicate who I am.

I can include all the obvious about Harshad: he’s extremely quick in responses (earlier than his company guarantees), he’s fun to work with, and he takes a professional yet refreshingly personal interest in being a part of your MBA journey. Most importantly–he’s honest in his feedback. Working with Harshad, he will let you know when you haven’t quite cinched your essay. You’ll know when you’ve been redundant, left a claim unsupported, etc. But you’ll also know when you’ve written a great essay–and Harshad will go down that journey with you right down to the wire.

Harshad helped me showcase my best self in my essays, which resulted in admissions to Booth and two other top MBA programs. I’ll be attending my dream school this Fall, and I can’t thank Harshad enough for journeying with me. I highly endorse Harshad to any applicant who knows they have the right stuff but can’t quite materialize their voice and story onto paper.

After being rejected from all the schools I applied to last year, I felt I needed some professional help to be successful and I’m happy I picked Harshad to guide me through this challenge. With his help I was able to secure 3 offers of admission from some of the top-10 schools with substantial scholarship $$$.
He was incredibly helpful since the first 30 minutes consultation when I immediately appreciated his “we’ll make it happen” attitude. He was capable to identify the weaknesses from my previous applications and provided great insights to help me reflect on my achievements, redefine my career goals and strengthen my personal brand. The opportunity to work with a person who could deeply understand me on a personal level was fundamental to my success: he was truly there to fight this battle with me.
Harshad’s encouraging consultation style helped me to grow confidence in my work, kept me motivated throughout the application and boosted my morale when I was feeling discouraged (and trust me, there will be moments of discouragement!) At the same time I appreciated his frankness in pointing out my errors and his guidance in resolving my weaknesses. He always provided clear and compelling explanations in support of his recommendations so that I could understand the thought process and develop my own critical judgement.
Overall his ability to reshape my profile and develop a customized strategy joined with a great competence as storyteller made him the ideal consultant to work with. I wish I had him on my side on the first application round to avoid the unnecessary pain of failure.

I decided to apply to business school very “late in the game” mid-last summer, with no GMAT score and little direction on how to structure myself as an applicant…but I knew I only wanted to go to a top school. Come in Jeremy Shinewald, who I have since dubbed “half friend, half my MBA consultant” after sticking with me over the past 8 months.

Considering I only finished my GMAT in December and applications were due January 3rd; Jeremy was part of the process through the ups and downs of not hitting the GMAT score we needed, to re-editing application essays (50+ times as the application story evolved) to finally being admitted to my top pick, Wharton.

Not only would I not have been able to apply this year as I was so originally “lost” in the process, I most certainly would not have been able to gain admission to a school like Wharton without Jeremy. He was dedicated and committed, talking me through the process always and was on call. He went above and beyond any consultants “job” – he took my application to heart and took my success personally.

Jeremy is the founder of MBAmission and manages a team of 20+ MBA consultants – the value of his access to this team (he brought in others on the team when needed) and his personal depth of knowledge is incalculable. I never felt like I was his second priority to his firm. In fact, I felt like I was his main priority throughout. I truly can’t emphasize his responsiveness enough. It was clear that he cares very deeply for every client, as the founder of the firm and gets the micro right, letting the macro take care of itself.

When an MBA cost are high and the opportunity cost sometimes even higher, working with a company such as Jeremy’s MBAmission is a no brainer in my book. Presenting yourself as the strongest applicant and bettering your chances to a top school is a long term investment I would make any day. I could not recommend Jeremy more.

With PhD in engineering and working as a researcher, it was tough for me to apply to B schools but even harder was to prepare an application that can justify my career path. When I attended one of Jessica Shklar’s session on admission process, I felt that I should definitely discuss my unique case with her. The best thing about Jessica was she never timed the 30 minute free consultation. She made me feel comfortable and at the same time posed questions that were very critical for the application process. She never pressurized me to sign up with her. Instead she asked me to work on ways to improve my application before even deciding to go with her.
I wanted to apply to only top 5 B-schools. My biggest challenge was that I had no clue how to connect dots from my professional and personal life. Everything looked very discrete and was not sure how to put them as a story in my essays. I think signing up for start to finish package was very useful. Once I reviewed my brainstorming document with Jessica, she knew exactly what examples we should focus on. The advantage of Start to finish package is if you are working on more than one application with a different essay prompt, your consultant already knows the key professional and personal parts of your life from the brainstorming document. Thus, it was easy for Jessica to suggest stories we should be including in essay 1 vs essay 2.
Jessica is very well organized. She not only keeps a track of her time but also ensures that her clients meet their deadlines. I got all my essays with edits from Jessica on or before the expected 2 day deadline. If it is a quick question, Jessica will definitely reply asap. I remember discussing some behavioral questions with her over email before one of the top school’s interview. Even though those were not quick questions, she understood my need and was very willing to respond quickly over emails. Even though it was a professional relation with Jessica, I felt a personal touch.
The other advantage of Start to Finish package is that we also get a chance to do mock interviews. Jessica’s expertise in interview preparation was very helpful. She advised that never practice your answers because you don’t want to memorize your answers. This is very true. The best advice she gave me was to read several behavioral questions and think about multiple scenarios so that I have enough examples from my past to tell during interview. It really worked for me because for one interview question I was asked to tell more than one scenario in which I showed a certain behavior. At that time I did’nt have to take that awkward pause because I already had thought about so many different situations from my professional and personal life. All thanks to Jessica for asking me do this rather than rehearsing my answers.
When I started thinking about signing up with a consultant, things were hazy. I wanted to do MBA from a top B-school but was not sure if I have done enough in my past to get admitted to the schools I want. Jessica helped me at every step of the application process and with her support I got admitted to three top B- schools. Thanks Jessica for making this happen.

I originally chose to work with Harshad because he has a reputation for being detail oriented and unapologetically direct. I knew that if I wanted to put my best application effort forward, I would need to work with someone who was constructively critical, and consistently honest and straightforward with feedback. I was not disappointed – and while Harshad does exhibit all of those qualities, he is somehow able to concurrently be supportive and encouraging, as well. From the very beginning I was appreciative of Harshad’s thorough nature, as he continually referenced details from my extremely lengthy intake materials. Similarly, I was struck by his ability to recall and suggest anecdotes that I had written about in previous drafts – even weeks or months later! Throughout the process he helped me to connect the dots of my story and align my past personal and work experiences to my future short and long term goals – guiding me in crafting my interests and experiences into a coherent narrative even I did not visualize at first. As we worked together Harshad always met his promised turnaround timelines and even sent reminders and updates about deadlines. Harshad also has a wealth of information to share about school culture from previous clients, in addition to insight to prepare for interviews. Overall, I felt that Harshad’s working style not only pushed me to submit the best applications possible, but also allowed me to more acutely conceptualize my own story and goals. Ultimately I was accepted to my first choice program, and could not be happier with my results. I would highly recommend Harshad to anyone who is serious about putting in the time and work to achieve the best possible results.

I worked with Melissa Blakeslee on a 4-school package and it was a phenomenal experience overall. I started the process extremely early, signing up with Melissa months before essays were even released. Beginning with the free consultation, I could immediately tell that she was focused on giving me as much value as she could. I felt that we immediately clicked because of her passion, knowledge about the programs, and sincerity.

Melissa coached me through the GMAT process (I scored a 710, and one month later a 740) and was very honest about how my score would play a role in my overall application profile. Once I hit a 740 she candidly told me the time investment to score higher would not be justified for the returns it would get me and we focused our efforts elsewhere.

Throughout the school selection process we spoke at least twice a week via email (frequently more), and Melissa was always extremely responsive to phone call requests. We weighed each school’s pros and cons as they related to me and my personality. She even set up phone calls to go over each school after I visited them and learn what my impressions were. That was truly the best thing about Melissa – she took the time to learn who I was and what I wanted. And to be perfectly frank, I didn’t even know what I wanted. We figured it out together.

As we worked through essays Melissa was a fantastic resource. Her edits were concise and thoughtful. We probably went through 4-6 iterations of the first essay, and then really flew through the next ones as I learned the process. We had an hour long brainstorming session for each one (did I mention how available she was?) that really focused on crafting a compelling story for each school. Melissa has a deep understanding of what each school is looking for.

As I received interview invites Melissa also scheduled mock interview phone calls that were very helpful. I’ve always been great at interviews but she gave me tips and tricks to really hit the points interviewers are looking for. Despite those tips being a huge help, I would say the best thing Melissa did was talk me off the ledge as I got nervous beforehand. Her calming reassurances showed that she truly cared about me and my success.

I could go on and on about how great Melissa is, but just sign up with her already. The results speak for themselves. I was accepted into every school I applied to (Kellogg, Ross, Darden, and Tuck) with significant scholarship offers at all but Tuck. I’ll be attending Kellogg in the fall and could not be happier about my decision to hire Melissa. As great as she is at her job, she’s also a fantastic person that I am still in frequent contact with and consider a great friend. If you want more than just an essay editor or someone who reiterates advice you can freely find online, choose Melissa!

I was unfamiliar with the MBA application process and decided to choose mbaMission (Jessica) to guide me from start to finish. I evaluated several consultants at the time and, after talking with Jessica, I felt that she was the right person! In the 30-minute free session, Jessica tried to help me as much as she could within the time limit. If you have a chance to evaluate many consultants, you will certainly know that the free session is actually the marketing session. However, this is not the case for Jessica. I bought 5 school start-to-finish package and eventually got interview at HBS (post-interview waitlisted and dinged), Wharton (admitted), and Booth (admitted). So in this review, I would like to tell you 3 key points about Jessica that eventually led to my successful applications.

1. Identification of Meaningful Personal Stories

In my case, I was able to list out personal stories that really shaped my life but, at first, connection among them was relatively weak. Hence, I was so tempted to write about my job, initially. Jessica was an expert in identifying meaningful personal stories and she would keep asking you to explain those stores in details. During the process, you would start to realize by yourself how much impact those events were. In the end, a few personal stories represented the core part of my essays and were used for 4 schools (out of 5) and accounted for at least 70% of word counts. I wrote only 1 paragraph about my job for each essay and its role was to support my personal stories.

2. On-Time Delivery and Perfection

Jessica always commented my drafts, on time, and she would not stop doing it until the essays are perfect. She would ask you to write as much as possible up 50% more than maximum word counts and gave you tons of comments that, sometimes, took me a week or so to address. This is a very efficient process. You overwrite it first and then remove certain parts, one by one, so, in the process, you will see the big picture and force yourself to consider each point in depth. You would likely run out of energy before she does. On each school, I worked with her at least 8-12 drafts. And even my final draft sometimes still had her pending comments that I needed to remove because of limited space.

3) Genuine and Authentic

My essay got me an interview at HBS so it was great, although I couldn’t convert the interview to the offer. The essay question was “Introduce yourself to classmates” and was the great opportunity to show your personality so I wrote it in a very personalized and funny way, while mentioning some of my achievements but not too many (imagine you brag for 10 minutes. How could that be interesting to your classmates?). Before I submitted my essay, I sent the essay to my boss (and my recommender) for review. And he said “this essay is so authentic. It feels like you are speaking to me….. It’s alive”. Jessica helped me set the tone for my essay and, in my opinion, I like HBS essay the most.

So in my opinion, I strongly recommend Jessica. You need experts who can look into your stories and express independent opinions. During MBA application, you will burn out. So better invest now and get the best shot.

I was a non-traditional applicant with a liberal arts major from an Ivy and work experience in startups. I’m a female Asian-American. The weaknesses I knew I had to overcome were a sub-3.5 GPA, lack of quantitative background, and scattered work history due to the nature of the startup world.

As I searched for a consultant, the first mistake I made in the application process was seeking a consultant with a high “success rate.” After all, my ultimate goal wasn’t to write a bunch of essays; it was to be admitted to my dream school! When I spoke to Jessica, she made me realize that the firms that boast about their numbers push applicants towards safety schools in the interest of keeping their numbers high. She politely explained that her own success rate included having countless clients who felt as though they were her only client, glowing testimonials, and half of her business from referrals. The fact that her own incentives were in line with mine, not against them, was a refreshing break from other consultants – many of which told me straight up that I had no chance at my dream schools, so I shouldn’t even try.

When I asked Jessica about my weaknesses, she was nothing but positive. Unlike other consultants, who continued to harp on the fact that it would be difficult to overcome the GPA and work history, Jessica instead focused on my upward trend in grades and how fascinating the work I did in each of my jobs was. She encouraged me to apply to my dream schools. I could feel her genuine excitement upon hearing my story. This is what sold me.

Our first brainstorming session was unforgettable. I’d prepared a 22-page document full of answers to questions about my upbringing, work history, and personal values – not just my numbers and resume points. Jessica read every single page in order to touch upon the most poignant details about my life in our conversation. She eventually drew so much “content” out of me (that I didn’t even know I had!) that we were able to come up with an outline for a very personal story.

This story ended up forming the foundation of our relationship. For three months, I’d lock myself in my room to finish a draft, send them to Jessica, anxiously wait for her response, open her document full of thoughtful and honest edits that matched my own effort, and repeat. I was shocked by how far every draft progressed. In just 6 drafts, my essay went from scattered to polished. I’m confident I couldn’t find another person that puts as much care into her review as Jessica does, especially considering how personal the story was to me.

In the end, I used the final essay as my main introduction for 5 out of 6 applications to Top 10 schools. I secured 3 interviews, was accepted to all 3 with Jessica’s help (2 with scholarship), and I’m now at Wharton – a dream!

Before I had secured any interviews, I told Jessica that no matter the outcome, she had helped me be more introspective about myself than ever before. The story she helped me write helped me come to terms with something I hadn’t had the courage to face. If you work with Jessica, you’ll be getting so much more than an acceptance letter to business school.

The best part about mbaMission is the fact that you can work with all of its consultants. Knowing that I wanted to attend Chicago Booth, I requested Kate (an alum) and could not have been more pleased with the experience. I started with the 30 minute free consultation and quickly realized I would need some assistance reviewing my essays. After Kate described all the available services, I purchased the hourly package due to the flexibility – under this option, the consultants work on anything you need (resume, essays, interview prep, etc.). There is a standard two business day turnaround on essays, so factor that into your schedule.
Kate was personable, honest, candid and extremely efficient (very important in the hourly package option). She not only corrected grammatical issues, but also improved the flow and content of my essays. Kate challenged me to increase the personalization of my essays and I could clearly feel that she was an advocate of mine; she did everything she could to bring out the best in my application to Chicago Booth. After feeling comfortable with my essays, I used the remainder of my time for interview prep – again, this is a great feature of hourly services. Kate had a few practice questions to go over, and shared some of her experiences as an alumni interviewer. Throughout the entire process I learned more about myself and why I am pursuing my MBA – Kate was an invaluable asset during the application process and she is one of the main reasons I will be starting at Chicago Booth in June!

When I first started the MBA application process, I really had no idea where to begin. I was one of the first of my peers to apply to business school and was coming from a somewhat non-traditional background (family business).

After doing some preliminary research, I decided to reach out to MBAMission and set up an initial consultation with Jessica Shklar. In our first meeting, I was immediately blown away by how much interest Jessica showed in my story and how much it genuinely seemed that she cared about my future (and admission to the business school of my choosing). Even in our first consultation, she was already coming up with the best possible ways to tell my “story” and present my accomplishments.

Throughout the admissions process, Jessica was there every step of the way. From reviewing my resume until it was absolutely perfect to going through iteration after iteration of my essays, Jessica was always willing to help and guide me through the process. Jessica was especially helpful during the “waiting” process, always willing to calm my nerves and answer any calls/emails/questions I had (no matter how often and I’m sure annoying!).

In summary, I really could not be happier with the consulting experience Jessica provided for me. I would not be where I am today without her help and truly believe that she is the reason I was accepted to Columbia Business School.

I chose mbaMission and specifically Jessica on the recommendation of a friend who applied to business school the year before me and thought that mbaMission was the reason that he was able to get into a great school and complete his applications on time, and I could not agree more.

I was extremely impressed with Jessica from the start of my consultation and have recommended her to friends already. The consultation is a free 30 min session and I assumed that she would mainly sell me on mbaMission. However, she did so much more than that. I did my consultation 6 months prior to starting the application process and I asked her what I could do to strengthen my application. Because she had spent time looking into my resume and activities, she gave me actionable items which I did over the next 6 months that really strengthened my application with tangible examples – and that was even before I hired her!

I decided to apply to 6 schools and I do not believe that I could have done it without Jessica. The ability to send an essay off to Jessica and have her look at it with fresh eyes and a different and honest perspective was so valuable. Not only did it help me stay on track with timing throughout the process, but she also had a different perspective and would point out when I said something that didn’t make sense due to company/industry terminology, didn’t answer the school’s question or was not my best work.

Her ability to answer quick questions that would have taken me valuable time to research (and who knows if I would’ve gotten the correct answer) and help me with interview prep kept me sane through the process and helped me feel confident and prepared during the interviews.

I think that the brainstorming sessions however, were where Jessica really went above and beyond my expectations. My brainstorming doc was a total of 26 pages full of disjointed random things and stories. I was so impressed how Jessica was able to connect my work, health situation, volunteer, and family experiences all into one strong story full of rich, measurable, tangible examples. She even pulled some great quotes from my doc that I used as my intros to many of my essays! The story she helped me create really painted the best picture of me as a candidate and enabled me to get into one of my top schools which I am so excited to attend!

I considered taking a go-it-alone approach to writing applications. With a solid GMAT score and 6.0 on my AWA, I felt perfectly qualified to write good essays. However, I had a low GPA from a non-prestigious school and felt those red flags might overshadow my strong work experience and extra curricular activities. I wanted to make sure I communicated my accomplishments and goals as effectively as possible so I made the decision to work with a consultant.

Initially, I felt a little apprehensive about hiring outside help. I worried that this person would encourage me to say what Adcoms wanted to hear and submit essays that didn’t truly reflect my voice and personality. I worried that the other applicants working with the same consultant would present similar stories in similar voices. I worried that I might be wasting my money on a service that gets paid regardless of the outcome. I interviewed consultants from multiple companies, asking them specific questions about their experiences with past clients. Besides being incredibly intelligent and articulate, Jessica Shklar stood out as someone who remembers her clients better than anyone and even seemed emotionally invested in their success. As we worked together over the course of several months, at five key times I remember thinking to myself, “wow, working with Jessica was a really good decision.”

Receiving feedback on my first resume draft. I thought my resume looked great, like, if there was one area where she would have little to no feedback, it was this. When she returned my resume covered with red ink, I realized I had a lot to learn about describing my work to readers who are completely unfamiliar my career field. My problem: I was too modest in some areas, not specific enough in others, and a little too qualitative in my descriptions. After five drafts the final resume looked incredible. Nothing about it was embellished or untrue, Jessica’s outside perspective simply helped me describe my own experience – basically giving me full credit for everything I had accomplished.
The initial brainstorming session. Over the course of 2 hours we pored over my nearly 20-page questionnaire and pulled out some of my most interesting and impactful stories. After dreading the application process for so long, I finished that conversation with an overall plan for my apps and couldn’t wait to write my first essay.
Finishing my first essay (one down, a dozen to go). From start to final draft, the first essay ended up taking seven days. I thought my initial draft was terrific and almost good enough to submit. Jessica returned my document with insightful and constructive comments that literally covered the pages. For example, she would suggest that I change one word to make a specific sentence sound more positive. Or she’d tell me to explain things in more detail while suggesting ways to make other sentences more concise. Besides helping me keep the essay within the word limit, this was important because instead of just using one example to showcase my leadership experience, I now had room for two really concrete examples. Looking back at its evolution, that first essay went from good to amazing. Jessica’s feedback made me look forward to revising each draft. Her mentorship has even helped me professionally by making me a more effective and efficient writer at work (though not for this review because I have so much to say).
Finishing all my applications one month before the deadlines. I’m usually the type of person who procrastinates and needs every last minute. With Jessica’s help, I started in July and finished four outstanding applications by September. Rather than feeling stressed out, I actually enjoyed writing my essays to include the “why an MBA and why our school” ones. By telling me when I seemed too cookie-cutter or vague, Jessica prodded me to think more carefully about my short and long-term goals. I took my time, researched more thoroughly, and developed a better sense for the classes I wanted to take, the industry I want to enter, and most importantly, why I wanted to go that direction.
December 20, 2012: getting accepted to Wharton, my target school!
I can’t say for sure that I would have gained acceptance to Wharton had I taken a go-it-alone approach, but in my opinion, Jessica’s guidance was the most impactful factor that turned my otherwise good application into an exceptional one. Not only did I get into my target school, I transformed my resume, learned to write more effectively, and formed a plan for B-school and beyond. Looking back, my decision to work with Jessica wasn’t just a good idea; it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself.

During the first free consultation call, Jessica gave me real advice and the real deal while other companies whom I called gave me terrible mum answers, and told me that they wouldn’t really help me until I signed up for their program. This is when I decided to go with mbaMission instead of other companies – I just felt that if the other companies cared so much about making sure that you pay first prior to helping you, then every help will be well-calculated going forward and they would not help you if they don’t see an end-goal in sight.

Throughout the entire process, Jessica was very helpful in helping me craft my story. I had a few paths that I wanted go delve into (including quitting my job to start a startup), but she was direct about what she thought was a good idea and what wasn’t. As I am now actually starting a startup, I’ve come to realize that the things which she shot down indeed were correct (she told me before that I would never have enough time to launch something given I was only 8 months away from application deadlines).

Additionally, although mbaMission has a 2-day turnaround guarantee on all products, she constantly met if not completely shattered those deadlines. Not having enough time on my plate to really focus on these applications, I would often email her questions and thoughts at 10-11pm (when I had a break at work), and she would respond within 15-20 minutes. Of note – she is very direct in what she believes, and would not give you a wishy-washy answer – even if it is something that you might not want to hear at the moment. To me, that was the most efficient method of changing/challenging my thoughts (if they were wrong). As someone who is relatively opinionated, the last thing I wanted was to have someone give me light suggestions which I could easily dismiss.

Finally, I would like to point out that the connection does not end after you get into whichever school you ultimately end up in. It has been almost 1.5 years since I last worked with her on an essay, and she still checks in on me. If you want someone who really cares and is not there just for the carrot, I highly recommend Jessica.

Working with Harshad was very beneficial for me. He challenged me to get introspective on my own experiences to craft a great story for my applications. Like anything else in life- to do great work is going to be hard work. Despite having average scores at best, we worked extremely hard and I was able to accomplish my goal of getting into a top MBA program. As a reapplicant, I wanted to do everything I can to put out the best product and I am lucky to have Harshad guide me. He was a sounding board when I had any thoughts or questions from school selection on through the interview process. He was always available for quick calls and random questions that come up. I highly recommend Harshad to any MBA applicant.

When I started doing my research on admission consultants, I was confused about many things – whether I should go with a consultant or not, which consulting firm to choose, which type of consultant to choose, which schools to target etc. After doing some more research and speaking to different consulting companies, I chose mbamission. I had my initial consultation with Dan and after hearing my story, he suggested that Harshad would be a great fit for me. Initially I was not sure about Harshad but did some research and agreed to have a second free consultation with him and that was the best decision I made to start my b school journey. After speaking with Harshad for the first time, I knew that he was the best fit for me. I had no doubts anymore and went ahead with him. During our initial discussions, he made me realize that the story which mattered the most and which would make my application unique was the one I was not even considering. Then I started remembering more details about that particular situation and was blown away with how fitting it was. That was the moment I realized how lucky I was to have Harshad as my consultant. Believe me, he is unbelievably good. The result, I got into my dream school and that too with a scholarship.

He is not just a consultant who only cares about the business and getting thing done with you. He is more like a friend, a guide, who will always be there for you during the whole b school application cycle. He will support you in every possible way and will always be true and honest without sugarcoating things. I never had troubles reaching out to him and there were times when he reviewed my work and gave comments on a weekend. Even though we were in different countries and time zones, he always gave preference to my schedule.

I got to learn so many things from him which would go a long way in my career and life. I could not have chosen a better consultant and no matter how many times I thank mbamission and Harshad, it would not be enough.

I am very satisfied with my experience with Harshad and recommend him to anyone wanting to apply and be accepted to a top b school.

I had the unique opportunity to work closely with Jeremy on my entire application, and his ability to pay attention to detail while also focusing on the big picture fabric of my application and its message was incredible. But beyond his skillset and abilities, what struck me most from working with Jeremy is just how much he truly, genuinely cared about how my application came together and how important it was for him that my story was conveyed in the most appropriate, and honest way possible. Jeremy truly cares. He is dedicated well beyond his rates and responsibilities to see that each and every client feels like he or she has delivered his or her best foot forward – and in today’s world, that is a rare treasure. I’m proud to have been admitted to my first choice, Stanford GSB, and will be attending this fall.

In July when I was agonizing over which consultant to choose, my conversation with Melissa B. at MBAMission sealed the deal. But when I decided to go with MBAMission, Melissa recommended Kate to me after knowing my background and my target universities. I wanted to work with an admissions consultant especially because I didn’t have many people around me who had applied for business school in my circles.

Right from school selection to first understanding my story before we went into any application, Kate was AMAZING! She was particular that I not set my sights too low and yet be pragmatic about my chances which made me apply to a range of schools in the M7 and few outside of it, especially being an international student. I finally ended up choosing 4 M7 schools and 1 non-M7 school to work with MBAMission.

I got rejects from three schools and got admitted into Booth (one was still pending at the time of writing this). What’s funny is I chose to work with Kate because I thought that it would be an advantage while writing my Booth essays. Yet, Kate’s knowledge and insights on other universities were amazing. She would always supplement my research during my essays.

When I look back at my rejections, I know very well that it was NOT because of my essays but rather a question of profile / fit / round. That said, ‘all you need is one!’ and I know fully well that my applications would be nowhere as good without Kate’s help. Her attention to detail was awesome and it always amazed me how she would transform my essay, with essentially the same story and build-up, into something absolutely different.

During my interview preparation with Kate, she gave me some truly invaluable tips which I know I will be using going forward as well! Not just that, if I felt my essays needed an additional spark, Kate would always reach out to other consultants at MBAMission and get their thoughts as well which was not something I ever expected out of her.

I think what really stood out to me while working with Kate was just how amazing a person she was and was genuinely interested in my successes and failures. That is really important while working with a consultant since you are going and pouring out details of your life story to someone whom you haven’t met before and you need to be really comfortable doing that. My calls and frequent e-mails (trust me when I say frequent!) never disappointed and I always felt comfortable and relaxed during the entire process.

Lastly, the thing that stood out to me most was when I got my rejections, she gave me additional material to prepare for my Round 2 essays if I ever needed them and ensured that I planned ahead even though I wouldn’t be working with her. Before I received my Booth acceptance, I was able to complete my essays for 2 other universities as a backup all because of Kate’s push. Thankfully I never had to use them 😀

As an applicant with a non-traditional background, I knew that I was going to need all of the guidance I could get on the business school application process. I decided to enlist mbaMission’s services, and the company’s founder highly recommended Susan. Working with Susan was the best decision I could have made. She gave me invaluable advice and asked me all of the right questions that I had no idea I needed to be prepared to answer.

When I started with Susan this past fall, I was very late in the admissions process. I intended to apply to schools for round 2, but was still studying for the GMAT and deciding which schools to apply to at the same time. Right off the bat, Susan helped me set realistic expectations for studying/working full time/applying to schools in a short time period. She helped me cut down my school list to schools that would be a good fit for me and that I could realistically get into. She advised me to stick with previous GRE scores (and helped me realize that these scores would get me into b schools) so that I would not waste any more time studying for the GMAT and actually start focusing on working on my applications.

Susan also made sure that every single minute of my time with her was spent wisely. For example, during our first brainstorming call, Susan realized that I needed to do more research on my short term and long term post- MBA career goals; specifically, how my target school would support me in these goals, before we could proceed any further. She stopped the conversation short so that we would not waste any more time, and gave me guided questions to think about as I did my own research on these topics.

Susan never missed a deadline and usually returned any items I sent to her for feedback early. Susan’s feedback was always thorough and insightful.

Susan provides very blunt criticism (as others have touched upon), but without her help I know I would not have gotten into my top choice school. She makes you work really hard, but it will pay off immensely!! She sincerely wants to make sure that you have the best application possible. I am a better business school candidate because of working with her.

Self reflection is hard, and as it turns out, the MBA application process requires a lot of it. Each candidate comes in with different strengths, and it becomes about showcasing them in an interesting and meaningful way. I approached the application process with a lot of determination, but some hesitation because my GMAT score was right on the cusp of what is widely considered a “safe” score for the top programs. John worked with me to craft my story in a way that let my strengths shine, and showed me that the GMAT is only one data point among many in this application. Not only did he help me make my application something that I was proud of, but was always patient and available. He was willing to review everything I wrote, including emails to professors, alumni and current students, as well as talk on the phone regularly for advice. I can honestly say that John was instrumental in helping me gain admission to my top choice of program. I cannot wait to start b-school in the Fall, and am so grateful that John was referred to me. If you are considering using John, you will not be disappointed. Trust me, it is worth the investment!

I am an international applicant and decided to work with mbaMission all based on the google research. I was originally looking for someone native and experienced that could help me polish my essays but what happened after was a fantastic and rewarding life experience.
I was matched with Kate Richardson, a very experienced associate from mbaMission. She was very nice and patient from our first talk. I felt so comforted that I found someone I could ask for help and expressed my anxiety during the application process. Kate helped me so much on my self-positioning of my choices for schools and gave me helpful advice on my future career planning. Even standing from the point of an international student, I felt Kate very professional handling all the questions, which truly helped me a lot during the application. My application process was not as smooth as I expected and I got waitlisted and rejected from my dreaming schools but Kate was always there helping me analyze and get out of the desperate situation. Finally, the advice I got the offers from several schools out of my package. And Kate was very nice to help me list the all the pros and cons and gave me advice objectively.
I appreciate her very much for everything she has ever done for me during the process and now I would like to recommend her as the first choice of MBA consulting associate for all the international students.

I’m what an Admissions Committee might call an “unconventional” MBA candidate – I took no math classes in college, and my career experience was entirely creative. As a result, I decided that having some sort of professional assistance during the application process to help me construct my narrative was going to be a good decision.

After speaking with a few different consulting companies, I came across mbaMission, and more specifically, Kate Richardson’s profile. The reviews for both Kate and the company were overwhelmingly positive, and I was pleased to discover that an “Hourly Services” option was offered at a competitive rate; I basically knew what I wanted to say in my applications and where I wanted to apply, so I didn’t need a “package” deal with tons of additional services. I really just needed an additional form of guidance, and more importantly, a voice of reason.

Once I began working with Kate, I found her to be direct, a clear communicator, realistic about my school prospects, and very fast in responding to my questions (of which I had many!). She didn’t try to sell me anything unnecessary, and overall, we created a winning application essay that represented me in my best light.

Ultimately, I earned admission to a Top 25 program, and even received scholarship $$$. There is no question that I couldn’t have done it without Kate’s professional expertise and moral support through such a grueling application process.

If you’d like to find someone to help you with your MBA applications who is extremely knowledgeable about many different programs and will respond directly to your needs with no time wasted, look no further than Kate Richardson.

I used Katharine Lewis for a 2-school package (all-inclusive). It seems like a lot of money upfront and I didn’t know if I ‘needed’ a consultant at first – some mentors and friends said that my profile is so good, why would I want one? But I am SO happy with my decision, and Katy definitely made it worth it.

From helping me navigate the MBA admissions process, to reading multiple drafts of my essays until they were perfect, to doing mock interviews, to coaching me through the waitlist process for HBS, Katy was absolutely phenomenal and she has truly become a great friend.

Katy has such extensive experience that she knows how to guide the essays, recommendations, application (like what extracurriculars to highlight there vs. other places in essays, etc.). Also, the mock interviews she gave me truly helped me prepare for the real interviews, and she was able to provide wonderful additional reading for me to help me in my preparation

I got into Wharton (with a large fellowship), into Stanford GSB, and waitlisted after interviewing with HBS.

I am pleased with the results and Katy was instrumental in all of this! Katy has become more than a consultant for me- she helped calm me down, maintain confidence during the waitlist process, and encourage me in every aspect! I am looking forward to staying in touch with her well beyond this admissions cycle.

I worked with Kate on the Chicago Booth Full-Time application and found her to be of great help during the whole process, especially with the essays and application form. Kate was very responsive and helped me incorporate my unique experiences into the application in ways I wouldn’t have thought of myself. Kate was great at helping me navigate this stressful process, and I can say with confidence that I wouldn’t have achieved the same outcome without her! I was accepted to Booth with scholarship $$$ and cannot be happier!

When I began evaluating consultants, I was looking for someone with a similar background to mine. On paper, Harshad and I could not be more different. Angela assured me that he is extremely talented, but I still had my doubts about whether or not he would be the right fit for me. Boy was I wrong.

Based on my credentials, I was an underdog in the b-school admissions process. I had a number of prospective consultants break the news that I was a long shot for top-tier schools and they encouraged me to lower my expectations. Not Harshad. From the get-go, it was clear he was in my corner. Instead of trying to convince me to settle for lesser schools, he immediately focused on what I could do to best position myself to be accepted into my top choice programs. This attitude was the primary reason I chose Harshad and it was quite possibly the smartest move I made in the entire process.

Harshad’s approach really worked for me during the essay-writing process. He dug deep into my background, my motivations, and my career aspirations and made sure my essays were a reflection of who I truly am. He was masterful in pointing out my strengths for me and also in encouraging me to think about how my weaknesses could be addressed through an MBA–this self-reflection made for great essays. I was also impressed by how economical he could be with word count–all of the content was my own but he was able to really help me eliminate fluff and say what I really meant to say. Another thing I really appreciated about Harshad was his follow-through. If he said he would get you revisions on a draft by Wednesday AM, I could count on it being in my inbox when I woke up Wednesday morning. He was reliable and always made himself available for me throughout the process.

Harshad pushed me really hard, but I appreciated all of his feedback. I knew that he was challenging me to be better because he genuinely cared about my success as an applicant. Harshad was the first person I emailed when I got my GMAT score, the first person I notified when I received invitations to interview, and the first person I pinged when I got off the phone with Admissions Officers letting me know I was in. He was more invested in my success than some of my closest friends. Applying to B-school is an arduous and humbling process; there were many times I questioned my worth along the way. Harshad was always there to pick me back up when I was knocked to the mat.

I have serious doubts about whether or not I would have succeeded in this process without Harshad. In fact, I’m almost positive I wouldn’t have gotten into my top schools. With Harshad’s help, I got into my dream schools, Wharton and Columbia, but had other excellent options like UVA Darden and NYU Stern as well. I was waitlisted at Kellogg but I’m pretty sure that’s because I opted not to have Harshad help me with that one in an effort to save money 🙂

I can’t recommend Harshad highly enough. I direct anyone I know who is about to embark on this process to him.

Jessica Shklar is an amazing advisor.

– She helped me elevate my story and application. I thought I knew it going in – but she helped me really interrogate my goals, arguments, and narrative. She never directed me on what to write – rather, her wealth of experience about the application process helped me identify what to emphasize and what was missing based on what each school is looking for. She sharpened and refined, helping me present to each school the best version of myself.

– Hugely effective use of time. She’s incredibly efficient both in the hourly services, but also in writing editing. She didn’t just elevate my work – she taught me how to be a crisper, more effective writer in general. Hard to overstate how important that is for business school applications.

– Most importantly, Jessica is a kind, thoughtful person and made me feel good about my candidacy. B-school apps are tough and there are lots of people ready to tell you why you won’t get in or play down your goals and expectations for yourself. Though I wasn’t confident about myself going in, Jessica helped me embrace my strengths and be confident in my overall candidacy. I actually think this is a necessary factor in being successful. Your consultant should be your cheerleader!

I will now be attending a top 5 b-school in the fall. So, so grateful for her support. Working with Jessica was the best investment I made this year and 100% confident it wouldn’t have happened without her.

Katharine and I did 2 mock interviews before my real HBS interview – the preparation and practice with her was invaluable! The style of the interview she conducted turned out to be very close to the real thing! Katharine knows the ins and outs of the admissions process and what the adcoms are looking for. Overall, working with her was a big help and definitely helped my confidence and preparedness! I highly recommend working with her if you are applying to HBS.

Debbie was an excellent consultant for my MBA admissions process, and I have now been admitted to a Top 10 business school. Debbie gave me straightforward, no-frills feedback when I needed it. I was particularly flummoxed by the “goals” essay, where I felt confused by what I felt in my gut, the advice I was being given, and what the AdComs were looking for. Debbie helped me simplify all of these messages and ultimately arrive on a story that I felt comfortable and authentic telling, which was also easy and compelling for my audience to understand. Debbie had a really warm and engaging style that also helped me connect with her and feel comfortable sharing my honest perspective. Thanks Debbie!

I was incredibly fortunate to work with Heidi Granner on my business school applications. I purchased the start-to-finish package for two schools, which I used to apply to HBS and Stanford GSB. With Heidi’s help, I was accepted to both, and this fall will be attending my dream program, Stanford GSB.

A bit of profile background on me: I am a white male working in finance (two years in IBD followed by two years in PE); 3.9 GPA; 730 GMAT.

Going into the application process, I knew one of my biggest challenges would be distinguishing myself within a highly overrepresented pool of applicants – white males working in finance. Heidi offered invaluable advice that helped me craft my unique story. As with any mbaMission pair, Heidi and I kicked off our partnership with a brainstorming session. I was skeptical going into the session that I would come out of it feeling good about my essay topics (after all, this was our very first call), but two hours later I had outlines for each one. I was blown away by Heidi’s perceptiveness in picking up on common themes across my life and developing them into powerful stories I hadn’t considered.

Heidi is incredibly easy to get along with. Applying for MBA programs is a fairly emotional process – applications force you to dig deep and show a vulnerable side of yourself on paper. Heidi’s friendly and approachable demeanor made this process much more comfortable. She was easy to open up to, which allowed me to probe topics I otherwise wouldn’t have considered and write about myself and my goals in an honest way.

Heidi’s feedback on my essays and resume was always prompt and clear, allowing me to efficiently edit my materials throughout the process. We stuck to each deadline she set, and she graciously made herself available for ad hoc calls. In what can often be a hectic and stressful process, I never once felt like I couldn’t rely on Heidi to provide timely, thoughtful feedback.

All of this is to say that you will get far more than your money’s worth working with Heidi. She was an invaluable guide and sounding board to me. While I’m happy to be done with the application process, I will truly miss our partnership together, and I couldn’t have accomplished what I did without her. I cannot recommend Heidi highly enough!