mbaMission | MBA Admissions Consultants

I worked with Harold on my applications to Harvard Business School, Wharton, and MIT Sloan. Separately, I completed my applications to Chicago Booth and Kellogg without consulting support. I did not receive an interview from any of the three schools where Harold advised me, while I was admitted to both Booth and Kellogg with more than $100,000 in scholarship funding.

Admissions outcomes are inherently unpredictable, and I do not believe it would be fair to evaluate a consultant solely on results. That said, when I compared the five applications, I felt that some of the strategic guidance I received made it harder for me to present the most distinctive and authentic version of my candidacy.

I entered the process with what I believed was a competitive academic and professional profile: a GRE score in the high 330s, a GPA of approximately 3.95 that placed me at top of my class, and a record as a top performer at an MBB firm. Before joining MBB, I had also accumulated several meaningful leadership and extracurricular experiences. These included coaching my national team in an academic Olympiad and leading it to its highest-ever international finish, as well as achieving significant success at the global level in that Olympiad myself. I had also worked with startups and spent substantial time mentoring and coaching others. I had also been a founding member of a local NGO that supported food, clothing, and shelter for more than 5,000 people.

One of Harold’s recommendations was not to discuss my pre-MBB experiences at length because they would be more than three years old by the time I matriculated. His take was that admissions applications should always be forward looking and put great emphasis on recent work and future ambitions. Following that advice, the three applications we developed together focused primarily on my performance and progression at my MBB firm. Although that was an important part of my profile, I ultimately felt that this approach made my candidacy appear more conventional and did not fully capture the experiences that most clearly differentiated me.

There were several other recommendations that I followed in the applications we completed together but chose not to follow when preparing my Booth and Kellogg applications independently. The latter two applications felt more personal, distinctive, and representative of my full story. Given my academic credentials, extracurricular record, and performance at MBB, I was particularly surprised not to receive an interview from Wharton. Of course, it is impossible to know precisely why one application succeeds and another does not, but the contrast in both the application strategies and the eventual outcomes influenced my assessment of the engagement.

On a personal level, however, Harold was consistently approachable, responsive, and flexible. He worked around the unpredictability of my consulting schedule and was accommodating when my working hours changed. He also continued to check in after I received my results, including my Booth and Kellogg admissions, even though he had not advised me on those applications. After my Wharton rejection, he went above and beyond by arranging a complimentary ding analysis with another mbaMission consultant. I genuinely appreciated the care, professionalism, and personal support he showed throughout the process and afterward.

Overall, my experience was mixed. Harold was accessible, supportive, and personally invested in my outcome, and I remain grateful for the ways in which he went beyond the formal scope of the engagement. However, I believe that some of the positioning and application strategy advice I received ultimately weakened, rather than strengthened, the presentation of my candidacy. For that reason, I would rate the experience three stars.