mbaMission | MBA Admissions Consultants

Gavi was a great partner throughout my application process. She was especially helpful in identifying the core message I wanted to convey in my essays and ensuring there was clear, consistent linkage between the essay prompts, my experiences, and how they connected to my post-MBA goals. Coming from an engineering background, I also really valued how she helped translate my skillset into a more compelling and business-oriented narrative. She also pushed me to fully own my background and recognize how my path was atypical in a way that strengthened my story.

She was a great motivator and played a big role in building my confidence throughout the process. I truly believe the way she helped me articulate who I am is what enabled me to gain admission to top programs.

If I were to do this again, I would spend more time upfront (1–2 hours) aligning on overall fundamentals and positioning, since many essays across schools follow a similar structure. From there, you can carry that foundation forward and adapt it across applications. Overall, I really appreciated her guidance and would highly recommend her.

I reached out to 4 admission consulting companies and ended up choosing mbaMission and Debbie Choy in particular. I like the fact that mbaMission allows potential clients to arrange an intro call with a specific consultant, as opposed to other companies who would match you with some consultants.

I enjoyed working with Debbie. She has a very personable and cheerful personality. She helped me tremendously in terms of connecting the individual pieces of experience into a coherent, convincing story. Debbie is also an effective writer and helped me refine my essays to be more readable and interesting. Debbie often guides me to make connections back to my theme/main point in my interview answers that I otherwise would not have thought about (E.g., tying MIT Sloan’s course cross-registration opportunity in the MIT engineering school with ESG investing). There were instances where Debbie offered to go the extra mile without charging me extra, which makes me feel valued as a client.

In terms of areas of improvement, I believe the firm, mbaMission, should prepare some materials that are uniquely applicable to deferred enrollment candidates. I’m a deferred enrollment candidate myself and I feel like some of the materials that I was instructed to read did not pertain to me. Also, I believe the flexibility of the admission consulting process can be improved. I started working with Debbie in late January/early February, and the deadlines are in April. With this short timeframe, I got a bit frustrated when I was asked to read the whole 160 pages guide. I understand that the existing protocol might be appropriate for candidates with a lot of time, and hence can prepare them with a holistic view of the application process. But for candidates under time pressure, I believe there should be some prioritization guided by consultants.

Some other smaller things that could be perfected include: 1) double-checking the contents and links sent in emails, and 2) not letting clients feel rushed. There were cases where the links sent in the emails were not working, and other times the prompts for recommendation letters might not be updated. In terms of the second point, very infrequently would I feel a bit rushed near the end of the meeting.

Results-wise, I received a deferred enrollment offer from Columbia Business School, awaiting MIT Sloan and Virginia Darden. I believe that this offer from CBS would not be possible without Debbie’s help, and I’m very grateful for choosing Debbie and mbaMission overall.

Jessica took a real interest in my success and went through my materials with a fine-tooth comb. I really appreciated her feedback and perspective throughout the application process. I was able to use select materials from our sessions and MBAMission’s broader resources for other schools I applied to that I did not work directly with Jessica on which was an added benefit.

I worked with John using a 3 school package and I believe I would not have had the same outcomes, particularly with scholarship money, that I received if I had not worked with him. I had no idea how to frame my “story” and he came in with great ideas and excellent editing/writing abilities to help me pull my application together into a very compelling application that adcoms loved! I got into 5/6 schools I applied to, all with major scholarship money. I’ll be heading to Wharton in the Fall. I think I might have gotten into some of these schools on my own, but John helped push me out of the pack and gave me an edge that led me to substantial scholarship money. He spent hours on the phone with me brainstorming ideas for essays, heavily edited essays for the 3 schools for which I was working with him (and then I rather easily transferred many of these essays to the schools I did on my own), and really helped me prep for interviews. My biggest issues with John were that he was late to almost all of our phone meetings, sometimes forgot to respond to my emails and would return essay drafts to me way after his promised deadlines. Also, there were times where I felt John lacked emotional support and was biased i.e. not congratulating me when I received scholarships to schools he didn’t help me with, and when I got dinged from my top school he focused on defending himself instead of supporting me. Overall I would highly recommend John! He was not without his faults, but he definitely helped me achieve my goals and in the end, that’s all that really matters.

When I started applying in 2016 for class of 2019, I wasn’t sure if I wanted a consultant and wasn’t ready to invest ~$4k-5k. I ended up not taking the full package, instead just an hourly service with Jessica as she was the most encouraging and impactful out of everyone I spoke with. She helped with the following: 1. School selection – she recommended schools that she thought I’d make a good fit for 2. Reviewing my resume – she helped conform it to the STAR format 3. Reviewing draft 1 of my essay – this was the most helpful as she gave me a strong foundation to build on I did not get through any of the (albeit highly selective schools) that I applied to that year. I applied to more schools next year, including one from her recommendation that I hadn’t previously considered and got through. I ended up using my current-MBA friends as my reviewers instead of going the consultant route, but her initial recommendations on how to shape my story to make it more impactful were crucial in helping me put the best foot forward. The best aspect about working with Jessica was her encouragement. She was great at following up even though I wasn’t her regular client and seemed genuinely interested in making sure I got a school that I wanted. The only reason I knocked off a star is that I did not get one crucial piece of advice from her, that for a trained consultant should’ve been easy to spot (please note, that this is NOT on her, just something I feel) – to improve my GMAT score to be more competitive. I was supposedly a poster story for a “non-traditional” applicant with high chances to get into HBS (my dream school, where I got interviewed and waitlisted, but ultimately rejected), and with the benefit of hindsight, my GMAT score was the only thing that held me back (I know that because when I called HBS for a review, they encouraged me to re-apply as my application was very strong.) In conclusion, I have the most respect and gratitude for Jessica for being a supportive mentor during a very daunting (and long) process!