mbaMission | MBA Admissions Consultants

Krista was very helpful during the whole process. I decided to work with her right after my free consultation session as she sounded like a really smart and dedicated person, which was exactly what she was. Krista helped me shape up my essays very well, and particularly she helped me narrow down the topics for them according to each of the schools I applied to. Her cheerful personality made the whole process entertaining instead of stressful and when reading essays from friends who were working without consultants I could definitely see the difference her insights made on my own. It was a great experience working with her and I recommend it highly!

Harshad Mali is incredible. With so many moving parts, I started my MBA journey scattered minded and overwhelmed. Honestly, I did not know where to start so I decided to get a consultant. After checking out the tops 3 firms, I settled on mbaMission because they showed a genuine interest even though I had a low GMAT score, which I significantly increased before applying to any school. During the consultation call Harshad and I hit it off and started immediately. Within one call we had a clear path to my goals. Harshad’s work on my essays, resume, and all the typical material needed to complete an application was top notch, as expected, but what really stands out is the support Harshad provides that one can’t merely read about; building my confidence, being available 24/7 during crunch time, digging deep into my stories, and outstanding insight into each program. In fact, that insight played a huge role when I decided on which program to attend. Those are only a few of the many examples, but I think you get the gist. Financially, at this point in my MBA journey, my decision to work with Harshad has been the most critical, however, it has already paid itself back in exceptional dividends. I received scholarship for a few reasons I’m sure, but the offer letter stated one being leadership abilities. In my opinion, I would not have been able to display this ability without Harshad’s dedication to showing my intrinsic strengths via essays. Strengths: Punctual, brilliant message conveyor, organized, high level of empathic intelligence, transparent, honest, easy going, hardworking, has a holistic application approach, and is an all-around nice guy. Just an overall astute consultant. I highly recommend any driven applicant, who wants to win, to schedule a consultation with Harshad. Post script: I can’t help to think while writing this post that Harshad is going to read it and think to himself “Man, I could have said the same thing in half the words.”

I wanted to attend business school, but I had no idea where to start. I asked my network how they got through the process, and all of them recommended using mbaMission. What should have been an incredibly stressful ordeal turned into a streamlined process that kept me confident in my outlook the entire time. Krista responded to questions in a timely manner and was available to talk at reasonable hours. She helped me narrow my list of schools and produce a compelling story for each application. It really felt like she knew me better than myself after our first sessions together. Krista was a pleasure to work with, and I’ve recommended her to everyone I know applying to school in the coming years.

It has been amazing working with Harshad Mali from mbaMission! The quality of the service I received went above and beyond my expectations. I was very tentative about working with a consultant initially for two main reasons – Cost of the service, and I was concerned that the application would get heavily influenced by the consultant’s writing style and personality. But these concerns were put to rest from the time I started working with mbaMission and Harshad Mali. The first big breakthrough happened in the Brainstorming session. Harshad made me talk about my story starting from early childhood, patiently listening for the most part, but every now and then asking me questions to make me think about why I reacted the way I did, and highlighting important values that I had clearly failed to see. Through my conversations, Harshad was able to point out my leadership style and also guide me to pick my best experiences to share in my applications. Following the brainstorming session, my resume and essay writing became much more simple. I was also happy that my essays were my own, and Harshad’s contribution was to pick out the meat from my essays by cutting out extraneous information, so as to help me hit my word limit. Harsahd also brought his school expertise, and shared with me valuable information on labs, clubs, and activities. Because of his help and guidance, I was able to put forward a strong application, and in the end, received an acceptance from both Booth and Kellogg! I’m extremely pleased with my work with Harshad, and would recommend him to anybody wanting to put forward a strong MBA application.

Kate is an incredibly amazing consultant! I was skeptical of paying for application help at first, given the super high cost — but it was honestly worth every penny. I had applied on my own last year, and got waitlisted at my top choice. This year, after realizing that many others got professional application help, I begrudgingly decided to go for the hourly service in the reapplication process. I was pleasantly surprised. Kate pointed out strengths I didn’t know I had, and she really made my application shine. She has uniquely deep insight into the MBA admissions process, and every edit I received back helped focus my narrative. I got in (finally) this time around, and I really think that Kate was what made the huge difference for me. She has also gone above and beyond in the interview prep process — she walked me through the video essay interviews (which I was particularly nervous about – I had bombed the first time I applied), and she gave detailed, useful feedback as we practiced. She also prepped me for the in-person interview, and my actual in-person interview happened to be almost exactly the same as what we had prepped on! My recommendation? Splurge for the application help with Kate, you won’t regret it!

I never planned to pay for an admissions consultant – I just wanted to use the free calls to perfect my resume. But after many calls Harshad stood out to me. He didn’t hit me with a sales pitch, he quickly responded to an email with follow-up questions, and most importantly he demonstrated an interest in and understanding of my profile that the other consultants didn’t. A couple weeks before the R1 deadline I realized I needed help telling my story. I reached out to Harshad and, despite being fully booked, he agreed to take me on as a client. Working with him was as advertised: his emails were always on time (usually early) and the one time we ran into technical difficulties he responded to a 10 PM text message. The two most valuable things he did for me were 1) teach me how to tell a story and 2) give me directional edits. I kept an open mind and found his feedback to be invaluable. By working hard and doing the leg work I felt that we were able to maximize the time I paid for. With his help, I submitted all my applications in time for R1. Although my H/S lottery ticket wasn’t drawn, I was admitted to Wharton and 100% of the M7 and T15 schools I applied to, including some significant scholarships! He even helped me draft a professional scholarship negotiation letter. I do recommend Harshad if you’re willing to put in the leg work. My advice is to be very clear on what you want from him!

Right from the initial free consultation, I wanted to work with Katy. She was more thorough, professional and insightful than the other consultants I spoke with. I was impressed with the level of detail in her follow-up email analysis where she assuaged some of my fears about my candidacy. After signing up for a 2 school start to finish package for Columbia and Booth, she clearly laid out the road map, with information about key checkpoints such as when to start working on the resume, recommendations, short answers, etc. This helped me focus on the right aspects of my application at the right stages. During our brainstorming, Katy helped me to take an introspective view which enabled me to craft compelling essays. She has a great ability to see how various parts of one’s application come together to deliver the best possible impact. I did not have great stats, but I was able to build a strong application around my unique story and solid work experience, thanks to Katy. Her feedback during the mock interview proved vital, and in the end, I was accepted to Booth – a school which I initially thought was out of my league. I can’t thank Katy enough!

I interviewed three other MBA consulting firms, but only Rachel at mbaMission clearly pointed out my weaknesses during the one-hour consultation. Her confidence, background in Journalism and being a CBS grad herself really made her stand out from others. After the consultation, I decided to sign up for the one school package with Rachel and was accepted to CBS couple months later. Rachel was amazing to work with from start to finish. She was very organized and set up clear expectations at the very beginning. I was very stressful during the brainstorming process but it’s Rachel who helped me to pick out the most critical pieces of experience, crafted them into story and connected them throughout my application. She knows how to tackle the essays well and understands what admission officers are looking for. She is not only an phenomenal writer but an incredible story teller. Throughout the process, Rachel was always supportive, honest and critical. She replied to emails, questions and essay drafts promptly and provided candid feedback. When it came to interview preparation, Rachel herself was once an interviewer so she was able to provide lots of useful tips. We had a mock interview over the phone and I was able to receive real-time feedback, which really helped me to succeed at the actual interview. Overall, it’s a great experience working with Rachel and it wouldn’t have been possible without her.

Harshad was wonderful to work with. He was prompt, direct and helpful. While I only purchased a few hours of his time, he spent time getting to know me and my strengths. I had a terrible first draft of one essay. Harshad was direct with his feedback and have extremely useful comments about how to improve and where I should focus my efforts. We had 4 rounds of comments, and each time, I feel that my essay significantly improved. He really encouraged me to dig deep into why I was applying to school, and politely told me which paragraphs were not value adds and recommended their removal.

I purchased hourly services from Kate and she was extremely helpful! Kate helped edit and finalize the draft of my top choice school’s application essay. Kate made the most of every minute that I purchased from her, and she always got back to me via email very quickly. Kate helped me tailor the essay to the school, and after working with Kate, I felt confident that the essay was one of the strongest parts of my application. I would highly recommend working with Kate!

Krista Nannery is a great admissions consultant and truly provided me the support to get into my dream school! I don’t think I could have put together such a high quality application or would have handled it the way I did without her. I can’t recommend her enough. First, Krista is extremely competent. She’s thorough in her comments on my material, and always gives me such high quality feedback; I’m also so amazed how she always manages to do it within mbamission’s two day turnover timeline (sometimes earlier). She also writes extremely well – she has an amazing way of cutting down your words without letting go of any substantive content (and in fact making your material tighter and cleaer), and has this way of bringing out your personality in your writing. Importantly, Krista is creative – I love how she can magically transform my boring essay outlines into such colourful stories to capture the AdCom’s attention. Second, Krista i s experienced with the MBA Admissions process, and could provide me with such great, wise advice (not to mention emotional support) to handle situations I encountered in the admissions process. She gave me great feedback for my interviews (e.g. how to structure my answers, the tone to maintain in my interviews, the length of my answers etc.) – I definitely wouldn’t have performed as well on my interviews without her feedback. I also encountered distressing situations during the process, including when my interviewer didn’t respond to me and took a while to submit his feedback, but Krista provided me wise advice on how to coolly handle this situation, and even emotional support. Third, Krista is just such a wonderful person to work with, and truly made this painful MBA admissions process more pleasant for me. She’s funny, personable and passionate about her job, and I felt that she genuinely cared about her clients. I found it easy to talk to her on a whole range of issues I was concerned about over the phone, and she would always patiently address them. She was also enjoyable to speak to because of her bubbly personality, and would have interesting stories to share about her own MBA experience and previous jobs. If you’re thinking of engaging an admissions consultant, I would confidently endorse and recommend Krista. I genuinely think she has all the skills and qualities that make a great admissions consultant, plus also great experience to help you navigate the admissions process.

After working with Debbie on my applications, I was admitted to a top 10 MBA program! Debbie helped me with applying to 10 schools in only 1.5 months! I realized late in the game that I wanted to apply in Round 1, and I approached mbaMission to be paired with a consultant who could help me with my applications. I was very fortunate to have been paired with Debbie! For my first school, I had already prepared drafts by myself. I gave these to Debbie for review and confidently told her that these drafts were “near final” and only needed a quick read before submission. To my surprise, Debbie told me that my drafts needed a complete rewrite. I was shocked but appreciated her candidness and honesty. In the next week, I heavily relied on Debbie to provide feedback on my drafts. What I like about Debbie’s style is that she didn’t sugarcoat anything, always pushed me to reflect deeper on my experiences, and provided good advice to help me be more succinct in my writing. In my essays, I sometimes found myself getting lost in the details that the writing lacked the “so what?” factor. Debbie would redirect my attention to focus on the big picture and tell me to cut content if necessary. Further, her flexibility and positive attitude helped calm me down in times of stress and focus on the execution of the applications. After finishing my first application with Debbie, we had developed a great working relationship, and the rest of my 10 applications went rather smoothly. As a demanding client, I sent her at least 3 essays to review every day (Each school had 2-3 essays, so in total it was about 30 essays that I had sent her way). She always provided prompt, detailed and high-quality feedback. I even wondered how she was able to do all of this in so little time! Debbie is great at all aspects of the application, from helping me brainstorm ideas to outlining the actual essay and providing feedback. She was available through phone, skype, and email. I even did a mock interview with her over Skype two days before my actual interview and it made a tremendous difference. Before the interview, I was stuttering on the basic questions such as “Walk me through your resume”. But she gave me helpful feedback that allowed me to structure my answers and practice effectively, which made me feel confident going into my interview. In conclusion, Debbie is a stellar, seasoned, and top-notch consultant. Completing applications for 10 schools in 1.5 months was a daunting task, but Debbie maximized the limited time we had to help me craft stellar essays. If you work with Debbie, she will make sure that you are always submitting your best work! There were times when I submitted drafts that were weak, and Debbie held me accountable by asking me to rewrite the entire essay or think of new experiences to write about. I greatly enjoyed working with Debbie and definitely recommend with flying colors!

Kate was instrumental in helping me craft my story for my MBA applications. I did not have a business background and she helped me make my experience marketable and relevant for an MBA admissions committee. Having a professional available for feedback on all aspects of the application really streamlined the process, and Kate was always quick to respond with quality insights. I avoided countless hours of research and essay tinkering with Kate’s knowledge and unbiased input. Kate was always provided objective feedback in a friendly manner, making the introspection and reflection and enjoyable process. I would highly recommend Kate for admissions consulting services.

From the very beginning of the experience, mbaMission treated me with exceptional courtesy and respect. After the free 30 minute consultation, I did a “fit call” with Harshad Mali- that call confirmed to me that Harshad was the exact right consultant for me. Things to know about Harshad: 1) Harshad has detailed knowledge of school statistics, and an understanding of broad admissions trends. Harshad helped me get my game plan together to apply to four schools in short order and provided me feedback on historical trends of acceptance rates by round, by school. He even gathered other consultant opinions on my resume; 2) Harshad will push you until you have a cohesive product that is the best representation of you and your story. Just a week before the deadline, together Harshad and I started my Ross essay over from scratch because my previous version was not developing strongly enough. This was the best possible thing he could have guided me to do, rather than moving forward with a weak concept; 3) Harshad seamlessly understands scheduling, priorities, and the “admissions tempo”. Harshad ALWAYS provided great feedback on my deliverables and questions within 48 hours or less. On New Year’s Eve, we exchanged essay versions by the hour. He knew when we had to push to hit key productivity gateways, and let me have time to breathe between each of my applications, with consideration to the ones on which we were not partnered. When a hurricane destroyed my car and residence, Harshad was completely empathetic to my situation, urging me to focus on my life adjustments, and was encouraging throughout. He genuinely cared; 4) Harshad was a true partner in the process. Throughout the essay-writing journey, he gave me his edits to ensure that my voice was not lost before further editing/trimming was done. I had ultimate stylistic control, though Harshad proved to be the master of grammar! Also, when at the last minute I decided to partner on Harvard instead of Stanford, Harshad was in complete support and immediately started focusing our efforts on that best possible essay and short answers; 5) Harshad’s candid feedback, support, and knowledge will give you confidence in the entire process, from choosing schools to after the interview, and receiving offers. Harshad was with me every step of the way. The price tag on the school packages is a hefty one, but my experience with Harshad and mbaMission exceeded my expectations and helped me bridge the gap and translate my military career into something of value to the admission committees. As a result, I was admitted to my top two choices, the Ross School of Business and the Stanford Graduate School of Business (decisions, decisions)! Applying to an MBA program and making the transition can be grueling and daunting, so don’t do it alone. I’d recommend Harshad to anyone.

As a non-traditional student with very few personal MBA connections, the application process seemed incredibly daunting. After being recommended to Jessica by another non-traditional applicant who received admission at Wharton, I was undoubtedly impressed by what she brought to the application process. Not only was I accepted to the school of my (and my wife’s) dreams, Jessica brought a layer to the application process I would have never discovered on my own. The sheer magnitude of self-discovery, through her method of consulting, not only helped me evaluate what I wanted from a school and how to write my applications accordingly, but what I want to accomplish both during and post-MBA. Her insights not only helped me receive admission, but helped me draw a better picture of who I am for my job hunting efforts and beyond. I would strongly recommend Jessica to anyone looking to apply to a top MBA program, especially a non-traditional candidate.

Harshad took over helping me with my applications when his colleague went on paternity leave. He hit the ground running, was incredibly responsive, and helped me shape the final version of my Wharton essay in the 36 hours before it was due. I nearly started from scratch at that point, and Harshad was supportive and cool under pressure. He absolutely delivered. We went back and forth on many drafts, even in a short amount of time, and my Wharton application was ultimately successful. I thank Harshad for all his valuable inputs and editing.

I chose John as my admissions consultant because I read that he liked storytelling and would help me tell my story to the Admissions Committee convincingly and authentically. He absolutely delivered. John and I went talked through my approach to the essays, and he guided me to craft my experiences in a structured way that would allow the Admissions Committee to find what they were looking for. We went back and forth on many drafts, and John pushed me to a winning draft of one of my Wharton essays. When John went on paternity leave, he ensured that I was in good hands to finish off the Wharton application (which eventually gained me admission).

Working with Kate during the MBA application process was nothing short of a fantastic experience! I signed up for a complete start-to-finish package with her, and would highly recommend it. From brainstorming, to essay writing, to mock interviews, Kate was with me every step of the way, and she made the journey so much less stressful. When I first spoke with Kate, I knew I had the grades, the test scores and the work experience for my top choice MBA program, but I had no idea how I was going to “tell my story”. The mbaMission Brainstorming guide and my 90-minute session with Kate really helped me reflect on experiences that shaped my education and career so far. Kate had this incredible way of helping me connect stories and experiences from my past to my future goals, and before I knew it, I had already outlines for all of my essays. I usually dread essay writing, but with Kate, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Her suggestions were always so useful – she constantly probed me to dig deeper and explain “why” a program was right for me, or “why” an experience from my work was relevant. Additionally, I felt so much more prepared for my real interview once Kate completed a mock interview with me. She certainly helped calm my nerves and gave me constructive feedback that I could apply when the real interview rolled around. I am so grateful to Kate for helping me turn my MBA dream into reality! She was an amazing support system and I would encourage future applicants reading this to choose to work with her too.

I am an international applicant, a non-native English speaker with non-traditional background (Physical Therapy). Working in the healthcare industry for 4+ years I decided to go back to school for exploring management roles in my industry. It was a big and a bold step for me to consider applying to a top 5 part-time MBA program as I have no business background in school and in my professional career. I was looking for an admissions consulting firm with a strong industry reputation and MBA mission stood out in the all the online forums (GMAT Club, Beat the GMAT) . I narrowed down to Kate as she graduated from one of my target school (Chicago Booth) and I was confident she would be able to assess my profile and my fit for the school as a Booth alumni. She also helped me to decide between applying to full-time vs. part-time programs and my chances of getting accepted into them. Kate was very thoughtful in her approach and told me from Day 1 that getting into my target school is a realistic goal if I work hard. She was able to understand and market my story in a way I could not have done it myself. I was able to highlight my leadership potential which I always thought as my weak area and career accomplishments from a quant perspective. Working on my resume inorder to make it b-school specific was the most valuable service from the package. As an international student, my profile had many challenging and unique experiences (some of which seemed irrelevant to me in the beginning) and Kate was able to highlight them in my essays. Kate was prompt on providing her feedback on my essays and was very open to change some of her suggestions if I did not agree on them.I was fortunate to get accepted in both Kellogg and Booth weekend MBA programs and ultimately chose Booth. Kate went over my career goals and my fit with both programs and helped me to decide on my final pick. I would highly recommend Kate to prospective MBA applicants students especially working professionals.

I did a tremendous amount of research and spoke with over a dozen consultants before I was very luckily referred to Jessica. After our first conversation, I felt uplifted, and I knew she was the consultant I wanted to partner with. Jessica genuinely supported my goals to apply to the top MBA programs and was dedicated during the entire process. Jessica is efficient and effective – she provided an agenda at the beginning of our talks, and we discussed and tackled those items during each session, spending additional time at the end for my specific questions. The resume support was tremendous. We went through six or seven iterations, and the final product was a complete transformation from the first draft in format, language, and theme. As a military veteran, I really struggled talking and writing about myself. Thankfully, I had Jessica to discuss my stories with and bounce ideas off of. After each of our brainstorming sessions, she helped me to identify the most defining, powerful, and compelling stories from my background, and we strategized how to approach questions for each school. As I worked through essays, Jessica provided honest, specific feedback and very fast turnarounds. Not only was she the mentor and coach that I needed, she is also an excellent teacher, and I learned to become a much better communicator through this entire process. I applied to GSB, HBS, Wharton, Kellogg, Haas, and CBS. I received interview offers at five of the schools, was accepted to four, and wait-listed at one. There is no way I would have accomplished my dreams without Jessica. On a closing note, going into the application process as an older candidate with a low GPA, I felt my goals were lofty and my chances, realistically, were slim. However, I didn’t want to leave anything on the table. Regardless of the outcome, I knew that this investment was going to be worth every penny. It has proved to be so much more than I would have ever thought. Not only did the start-to-finish packages and mock interviews prepare me for the business school application and interview process, it has also prepared me for pre-MBA summer program and internship applications. All the tools that I learned to use when writing my essays and preparing for interviews have been invaluable even after acceptance to business school. Make the investment to work with Jessica. It is hands down the most helpful thing you can do to prepare for business school applications AND beyond.

I was introduced to Katharine (Katy) Lewis by a good friend who worked with her throughout the 2014 application cycle. This applicant was ecstatic to have accepted an offer to Stanford GSB and admitted to many other top schools; she could not have been more excited to recommend Katy and get me started with the application process. As part of the free initial 30 minute consultation (in January 2016), Katy reviewed my resume and discussed my work history, professional goals and interests, and initial school thoughts. My main concern was that I hadn’t achieved a GMAT score I thought was competitive enough; Katy re-assured me to keep going and check back around April / May to re-assess the situation. Once it reached April, I still hadn’t finished my testing but decided to move forward with the process in order to stay well ahead of the round 1 submission timeline. Katy was more than gracious to accept me as a client and start the process while still re-assuring me that the testing would never be an issue as long as I kept trying. I purchased the “complete start-to-finish” package for 3 schools: HBS, Stanford GSB, and Dartmouth Tuck. HBS and Stanford were my top choices; I was slightly unsure about Dartmouth Tuck and ended up changing this school once my final school decisions were due. A few thoughts on each stage of the process: Brainstorming: This is the starting point for all applications and consisted of a detailed questionnaire and a few brainstorming calls to solidify the overall arch to my application. It was initially a bit overwhelming — I needed to provide very detailed commentary on my overall background, from childhood to my current professional environment — but after diving in, it ended up being the most interesting part of the entire process. Portions of my personal history that I thought were relatively inconsequential ended up providing the best starting point for essays; Katy constantly reminded me of this. Her level of enthusiasm for my background and anecdotes gave me such confidence that I was a strong candidate – it made my essay writing process one of self-discovery rather than a chore. School Choice / Application Round: I ended up missing round 1 deadlines due to my testing and reset my priorities to round 2; during that time, I decided to add a handful of schools through the Consortium common application and Katy was able to help me pick and choose which schools I’d be most competitive as an applicant. I ended up choosing Stanford GSB and HBS, and through the Consortium common application I chose Yale, Cornell, UVA Darden, UC Berkeley Haas, and NYU. I was amazed by Katy’s level of knowledge for each school; she’s personally spent time at each of them and can talk for hours about the pros and cons for each school. Aside from that, she was always willing to put me in touch with a former client or contact so that I could get a better sense first-hand sense of each program. Career Goals / Personal Interests: Business school has always been a goal but I had some difficulty verbalizing my post-MBA goals. I’ve spent the last 7 years in the Risk Management division of a large Investment Bank and I did not want to give any impression that I wanted to return to a traditional banking or consulting type of role following graduation. Katy was instrumental in helping me solidify my vision for a logical career path following b-school. This was incredibly important as most (not all) interviews will dig deep here. Katy helped me focus in on a forward-looking vision that was based on my experience and a logical next step that I could believe in my head as I was interviewing. Essays / Final Applications: Submission of the final applications was hectic given the number of schools I was applying to but Katy never missed a deadline and always had feedback that proved invaluable. The essay writing process was iterative and she never altered or made direct changes to any of my written submissions; instead, she would provide comments on ways to re-think certain aspects or strengthen ideas that seemed thin in the context of my overall candidacy. At any point in time, I was free to ‘reject’ her suggestions if I didn’t feel comfortable but I never found that to be the case. At the outset I thought I’d dread writing the essays just given the number I had to do (~14); however, the extensive brainstorming process made it super simple to pair certain personal stories with essay prompts to the point that they almost wrote themselves. I’d perhaps have 4-5 total revisions per essay on those that I cared the most about. Interviews: I was absolutely thrilled and quite frankly couldn’t believe that I received interview invitations from HBS, UC Berkeley Haas, Yale, NYU, and Cornell. Every single school has a different approach; you may meet with any combination of current students, admissions committee members, and alumni. Katy was instrumental in helping me prep and I was never blindsided by the interviews that we prepared for. When all was said and done, I received admissions offers from HBS, Haas, Yale, and Cornell; the result could not have been more positive and I ended up choosing my top-choice of HBS! On a personal note, my relationship with Katy went from client to personal confidant. She was always there to keep my nerves in check and re-assure me when I was doubting myself. Her positive attitude and willingness to chat, at ANY time of the day, made this incredibly long journey surprisingly enjoyable. She was even gracious enough to invite my boyfriend and I to her home when we were in her neck of the woods. In short, this review could never summarize how incredibly instrumental Katy has been throughout this (lengthy) stage in my life. I knew she would get results, but I’m still completely blown away by how positive the results turned out in my case. Some friends of mine have recently expressed a faint interest in b-school themselves and, as a result, I’ve gone out of my way to have them at least speak with her. I would hate for anyone to miss an opportunity to work with such an incredibly talented and caring person.

I worked with Nisha & MBA Mission through the hourly package – as I had already narrowed down my schools and had an idea of what my application would look like. After spending some time understanding my goals and motivation for an MBA, we started outlining the stories that I wanted to tell in each of my essays. Nisha really helped me get my thoughts together and put them down in an essay in a clear and concise way. Nisha was very responsive even through the critical holiday season (I had applied in round 2 – in December/January) and her insights were extremely helpful. I was waitlisted at one of my top choices, and Nisha was extremely helpful in sending additional updates, which eventually helped me get in!

I worked with Harshad to apply for b-school in late 2016, and really appreciated all of his help and work! Due to taking the GMAT later than expected I had a short timeframe to get my applications done (about a month), and Harshad worked tirelessly in order to ensure that he provided advice quickly and efficiently. After undergoing the initial brainstorming for my applications, Harshad was able to analyze and boil down my various experiences in order to suggest an essay path forward that properly highlighted my best qualities to admissions. Even during a short timeframe (and over the holidays) Harshad responded almost immediately to every request or e-mail I sent. He was always available for a call in order to go through potential ideas or changes, and he was available 7 days a week. His edits of my writing were a lifesaver and he really helped me focus my message in all of essays and applications. He was 100% committed to helping me achieve my goals, and I ended up gaining admission to the school that I applied to! I would recommend Harshad to anyone who is applying to b-school. He was a great help, both in the admissions process and in providing great advice on all aspects of the b-school decision.

After burying myself under a pile of B-School essays, application materials and interview questions I realized I needed help and that came in the form of John Sisk at mbaMission. In our initial consultation session, he explained to me that applying to B-School is a marathon, not a sprint, and he was going to be there each and every mile along the way. The “Start-to-Finish” package was the right one for me as I was applying to six schools and had no idea how to even begin. John stepped right in to give me guidance on school selection and got my wheels turning on how to conceptualize my “story” for the various B-School essays. Over the next few months thoughts turned into well-articulated essays alongside a perfected resume. Even though I was already personable and social, John turned me into a better interviewer through expert advice and practice. These are just a few examples of how John will light the path for you to forge ahead. Through thick and thin, John will be there to guide you across the finish line. He certainly helped me achieve my dreams of getting into a top tier MBA program and he can do the same for you. I highly recommend his services and feel confident leaving you in his hands.

Kate greatly exceeded my expectations. At first, I was reluctant to hire a consulting service as I was afraid of getting a cookie-cutter approach resulting in a bland application. However, Kate took the time to understand what I wanted to say, was straight with me when I was being repetitive, and helped me suggesting edits while keeping my voice intact throughout the application. Furthermore, as it often happens, I had little time left to submit my application and was very thankful that Kate responded to all my inquiries promptly and comprehensively according to a scheduled she shared with me at the start of the engagement. Other consultants I spoke to briefly wanted to “force” me into applying to certain schools whereas Kate helped me polish my essays to accurately show what I liked of each school and how I felt I fit in. I am very happy with the outcome and feel proud of my applications for I know I drafted 100% of the content that got me accepted, but Kate’s input was instrumental in polishing my essays and ensuring all my messaged were received as clearly as possible.

I genuinely enjoyed working with Kate because she genuinely cared about my unique story and encouraged me to apply for top MBA programs despite my low GMAT score. Kate laid out a structured plan to address low GMAT verbal by recommending that I take a communication class and obtain an A to demonstrate my verbal proficiency and boost my entire candidacy. Throughout the entire process, Kate was extremely phenomenal at helping me structure my MBA resume and incorporate specific and important aspects of my story into my essays, which flowed like a conversation. She will promptly return all my draft essays with detailed improvements that helped me articulate my MBA goals in a succinct manner. I was absolutely thrilled to work with her and I ended up getting into one of my dream schools. I whole-heartedly recommend her for your MBA application experience. She is extremely knowledgeable and makes the application process easier than studying for the GMAT.

I used mbaMission basically because of the referral from ManhattanGMAT. My initial contact was actually with a different consultant than the one I used, it was with Liza Weale. She truly inspired me to not let my low GPA set me back from top programs. It took me however about another year to really start my application process (with GMAT and all) and unfortunately by that time she was fully committed. Thanks to her interactions with me, she was able to refer me to someone she felt would be a good fit: Rachel Beck. She was indeed right! During those 12 months of prepping, I also had decided to no longer pursue a full-time MBA, but rather an Executive MBA, for reasons that don’t need to be listed here, but that none are out of the ordinary. Rachel, a Columbia graduate, was very quick to get to know me, my ambitions, my weaknesses and fears, and from there start the essay writing process. Overall, the experience was great. It took me however a session or two to understand that the consultants are not going to lead you into every single step – you need to take the initiative a lot of the times, and come up with the questions/thoughts/essays for them to answer/review. There are two important areas where Rachel’s value-add came to life that really marked my application: 1: The main essay. I was very inspired in my first write-up. I over-wrote, but that was fine with me. I was in the zone. I thought I had a keeper… Until she reviewed it. I had not written what I was expected to talk about. Without her, I would have completely choked on this essay. It takes an experienced set of eyes to really know what they’re looking for – and she was exactly that. 2: The essay about ‘what else’ – this is where she marked the difference. The subject we came up with together really touched a nerve to the AdCom – and it even came up in my interview! It was a great experience and definitely the way to go to build a winning application.

Working with Heidi was a phenomenal experience. Through the hourly service package, Heidi and I were able to prioritize our time to improve the areas of my application in order to gain admission into the top 25 business schools. She helped me highlight my accomplishments and prepare an application that would show who I am as a person. Heidi reviewed all my essays and resume, and her feedback highlighted the positives while giving constructive feedback. She pushed me to think about my experiences and helped me present them in the logical way. In addition, she pushed me as a writer and I learned to better articulate and show my story. I submitted 5 applications during the round 2 deadline. I was invited to interview with all 5 of the schools. Once I received the interview notifications, Heidi helped me prepare for my interviews through a mock Skype interview. Ultimately, I was admitted into two schools, waitlisted at two schools, and denied admission into one. Best of all, one of the schools I was admitted to was my first choice, and I will be attending that school in the fall. Heidi was truly wonderful to work with and I highly recommend her! Thank you for all of your help Heidi!

One of the best decisions I made in the application process was getting a consultant, and Jessica is by far the best and most knowledgeable consultant I spoke to. Starting off the MBA process and being a non-traditional candidate, I was unsure on how to sell myself to top MBA programs; however, Jessica guided me through the application process and gave me the confidence to excel. Ultimately, I was accepted into my dream school, which I highly contribute to Jessica’s thoughtfulness and patience throughout the process. A few reasons I think Jessica is the best in the industry: –She gives honest feedback, and pushes you to stay on-track. I really appreciated this quality, especially when writing each of my business school essays. –She has a gift for story-telling. During each call and essay edit, Jessica helped me extract and build upon the most important ideas of each story, which was very helpful. When writing about ourselves, we often think every aspect of our story is vital to write down; however, Jessica is a master at helping you condense but still answer the essay questions thoughtfully. –She is very timely, and turns around work quickly. I was so impressed with Jessica’s ability to turn very high-quality work around fast. Jessica is amazing, and I highly recommend her to anyone applying to business school.

John was a pleasure to work with and helped me manage an incredibly stressful waitlist process. After completing applications without an admissions consultant I found myself waitlisted (after interview) at Stanford GSB, MIT Sloan, and Wharton. John provided a logical and informed process to address my scenario and successfully navigate the waitlist. Even though the schools publically posted that they didn’t need additional information, John helped me find ways to positively communicate to them and tip the needle in my favor. I found him to be responsive, and he always provided value added advice. My only regret is not hiring John as my admissions consultant earlier so I could have avoided the waitlist process in the first place! I can honestly say that without John’s wisdom and coaching I’d be going through the admissions process all over again. Because of him I’ll be attending Stanford GSB in the fall!

Jess was wonderful to work with! I had the pleasure of working with her for two years, and throughout the entire process, Jess was incredibly supportive, knowledgeable and thorough. Jess really worked with me to identify key differentiating points of my skills and experience and then clearly communicate my story in the admissions essays and interview. She is a fantastic writer and helped me articulate ideas in a very succinct way. I ended up getting into my dream school and I thank Jess over and over for all of her insight and hard work to help me achieve my goals! I would definitely recommend Jess for your MBA application experience! Simply the best!

I cannot say enough good things about Nisha and mbaMission overall. I was not originally planning to use a consulting service, but I am so glad I reached out for help. I got started a little late in the application process, but felt immediately relieved after my first call with Nisha. Once she had an idea of my background and goals, we hit the ground running. I felt like I knew my story but was having a difficult time making it clear and concise on paper. Nisha really took the time to understand the nuances of my experiences and my short term and long term goals. She used this understanding to make thoughtful and tangible recommendations on my essays. Nisha provided valuable insight on the essays, but one of the biggest benefits of working with her was her ability to view my application overall. For example, I was worried about my not-so-stellar GMAT score, but Nisha helped me think through ways to offset it throughout the application. While brainstorming, drafting, and editing essays was the biggest reason I sought help, Nisha was willing to assist however I needed it. She made herself available for questions on any part of the process: campus visits, meeting with current students / admissions, etc. Having someone to ask the seemingly dumb questions along the way was such a relief. From my free 30 minute consultation all the way through interview preparation, I was thoroughly impressed with Nisha’s enthusiasm and willingness to help however and whenever I needed it. Thanks to Nisha and mbaMission, I got in to my top choice and I could not be more thrilled!

I had a great experience working with John Sisk from mbaMission on my essays, resume and short answers. It was great to have a third party who really knows what he is doing and has no bias towards my writing/content. With his support, I was accepted into my top two schools (HBS and Columbia). I would highly recommend working with him. (1) John pushed me. Each time that I thought I’d nailed it, he’d reply with insightful feedback, always asking why….why did I want to do X in my career, why does Y motivate me…He challenged me, pushing me to take each aspect of my essays to the next level, really examining my motivations and how they play into my overall story. He is an expert in the space and helped me to dig deeper to product essays I was really proud of. (2) That said, he never stressed me out. He consistently offered great advice, stayed patient, kept me calm and on track, and helped me get my essays across the finish line. He was honest, straightforward and optimistic. (3) I was late to the game and I wish I’d allowed for more time. John was always responsive, but 2 business day turnarounds can add up when you’re close to deadlines (and holiday breaks are upon you). We had a lot of essays going back and forth (and ended up wasting costly $$ b/c I was sending John multiple versions to review at a time due to the pending deadlines). Make sure to take this into account + reach out as early as possible. (4) Before I began working with mbaMission, I spent a lot of time reading sample essays and brainstorming. I ended up overwhelmed and wasting time. I wish that I had reached out to John sooner in the process for his guidance in how to approach the essays and structure my thinking. It was costly, but entirely worth the investment. To have an unbiased expert was invaluable.

I had my first call with Kate in April 2016 and we matched instantly, as she immediately understood my needs and my goals.

I am going to start by the conclusion: Kate was amazing. If I had to go through the process again, I would work with her again without any hesitation.

The first step of the process was to define my profile and my development needs in order to select the schools. After a deep brainstorming, she proposed me the programs that she thought were the best fit. She even proposed programs I did not know and that matched perfectly with what I was looking for. I also really appreciated that Kate was invested in my schools choices but left the final decision up to me

Right after, we “built” a profile from my personal story. We therefore worked on highlighting the parts of my profile that would be interesting for my application. I need to emphasize on the fact that, as an international applicant with 9 years of experience, my profile was “unusual” (older age than average, very “heterogeneous” professional path, degrees very far from what one can expect to apply for a business school) and “not linear”. It was hence not an easy “profile” for Kate. However, she was more than happy to take the bet.

Then we worked on every single aspect of the applications. Her coaching was very efficient as she always found the words to motivate me even when I was completely “broken” and “sunk” in my GMAT preparation as well as in my professional and family life. Her observations and remarks were straight to the point and relevant, without being directive.

On top of that, Kate was very adaptive. As far as she could, she always tried her best to adapt her schedule or her work to deliver her comments in case of an “urgent” request.

At the end of the process, on the 6 school we applied to, I was accepted in 4 among which my dream one!

Jessica had rave reviews from my former manager (“the best”), and I used her for Round 1 of the 2016-2017 cycle with 2/2 admissions at HBS and Wharton. Both a business executive and perceptive storyteller, Jessica outperformed at every step, packing our time with prompt, actionable feedback delivered with off-the-charts energy and humor. In our first conversation, she quickly synthesized my profile (strengths and specifics to improve – e.g. trying the GRE) and cited information on schools I hadn’t unearthed in hours of research and calls. During our sessions, Jessica took time to understand the influences that have shaped me, and my future goals. She then drew out my most compelling accomplishments and experiences, weaving them into a memorable yet strategic narrative that stood out to my target schools. In particular, she is an exceptional writer. She is skilled at understanding the point you are trying to communicate and crafting a succinct, accessible way to get it across. She helped me tell a very context-specific story in a way that was clear and persuasive to any reader, which I believe got me into my top school. I worked with Jessica on my brainstorming, essay (editing again and again until every word had weight), and career goals. She also demystified the process by providing honest answers on what schools expected and how I matched up (How to use the short answers, or present a low GPA?). My engagement with Jessica gave me the edge I needed to get into my dream school, and clarity and focus going forward. Work with Jessica – you will not regret it!!

I had a wonderful experience working with John Sisk from mbaMission. I knew John was committed from our very first conversation, a free, 30-minute phone consultation. He asked detailed questions about my previous experiences and future goals, and based on what he heard, encouraged me to take a quantitative course prior to applying to bolster my quantitative profile. I ended up taking an Accounting course through UCLA Extension (one of several online options John provided immediately following our phone call); I do believe this made a positive difference in my application process, and I credit that entirely to John. As I began to write my essays, John was there every step of the way; he provided timely, detailed, and thoughtful feedback and also made himself available do discuss questions over the phone when I preferred. John was on paternity leave for part of my application process, but ensured a very smooth transition to another consultant from mbaMission (the founder), who was equally as helpful and responsive. The success I had in my application process (getting into 4 out of 5 schools) was certainly due in part to mbaMission! They helped me articulate my story in a way that clearly resonated with admissions committees. My “voice” was not taken away in the process; rather, it was strengthened by their advice and guidance.

Having never applied to a program outside my country (Pakistan), let alone a top global leadership program, I had little idea about where to begin with when I started thinking about applying to a business school. My initial thoughts were that a good GMAT score was all that was needed. It was not until I took 30-minutes free consultation session with Helen Summers from mbaMission that I realized that GMAT is just part of the whole story. She broke it to me that business school application consists of many parts that tell a coherent story together. She was also very honest in telling me that my age and my experience were not going to be attractive features of my application to a full-time program. However, she didn’t discourage me and recommended that I should either apply to a full-time program that targets mid-careers (there are only three in the world by the way) or an executive program. After contemplating for some time, I decided to apply for MIT Sloan Fellows Program. I knew that a novice to admissions process like me needed guidance to produce a good quality application. So, I contacted Helen again who referred me to Harshad Mali. Me and Harshad had an introduction over email and he gave me a bunch of documents to go through. This initial phase primarily consisted of me going through a lot of material and thinking about my own personal story. Scant guidance at this stage was by design so that originality is forced out of me. However, after the first brainstorming session, Harshad grabbed the reins of the process and started guiding it in minute details. At one crunch moment when I had lost all hope of submitting a quality application before the deadline, it was Harshad who kept encouraging me and kept giving me the right feedback till I submitted my application right on time. Harshad is no make-you-feel-good consultant when it comes to essay reviews. He is very direct in his feedback and he makes sure that he informs of this reviewing style in the initial introduction call. And frankly speaking, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. The first review of my essay came back with a scathing critique and red marks all over, making me instantly realize what was wrong with my approach. I promptly corrected myself and from then on, it was smooth sailing. Another feature that made me feel warm was that Harshad was able to connect to my life story at a personal level. This enabled him to bring the best out of me and help me write essays that truly represented me. I felt like I completely owned everything I wrote as my personal authorship and Harshad was only guiding my efforts while he had a very good idea about what the final product would look like. Whether requested or not, Harshad was always there whenever needed. It didn’t matter whether it was day or night, weekday or weekend. We were working in completely opposite time zones. But Harshad made sure that this wasn’t a hindrance in our communication. The efforts paid off and I got invited for the interview. For a starter like me, this was a huge achievement and this wouldn’t have been possible without Harshad’s help. But of course, our finish line was the final acceptance. So Harshad prepared me for the interview as well. We had a mock interview one week before the actual one. Again, he was very honest in his feedback. It included coaching on things as important as how to tackle behavioral questions and things as trivial as how to keep a smiling face all the time. I finally got admitted to MIT Sloan Fellows. This was something that I couldn’t think was within my reach when I started thinking about applying to B-Schools. I can safely say that this was only made possible with Harshad’s help. I strongly recommend him to any B-School aspirant. And if you are from South Asia, Harshad should be your top choice.

I was connected to Harshad by Angela Guido, another mbaMission consultant and generally amazing human being whom I’d met through the Forté Foundation MBALaunch program. I’d had my sights set on attending Chicago Booth from the time I opened my first Manhattan prep book, and I knew it would be a challenging process. I come from a social impact background, and I knew I could really only afford a couple of hours of admissions support. Although I was applying to a number of schools, I decided to devote my time with Harshad to structuring and editing my Booth essay. A Booth alum himself, Harshad was incredibly thoughtful and easy to talk to, and before I knew it I was sharing my life story with him. He helped me to choose an essay topic that felt authentic and meaningful. Notably, Harshad has a depth of expertise about the school and its philosophy, and he helped me to connect the dots between my own values and those of UofC’s “Chicago Approach.” Harshad is an expert storyteller and with his guidance I was able to shape my thoughts into a cohesive and compelling piece of writing. He is strategic and logical, and asks thought-provoking questions. Working with Harshad felt like participating in a writing workshop, and at the end of the process I was proud to submit my application. After I was accepted to Booth in Round 2(!) with some scholarship funding, Harshad helped me to draft a respectful inquiry about possible additional funding, and the school was able to increase my scholarship package. This fall, I’ll be attending Chicago Booth with a very generous scholarship award, and I owe a great debt of gratitude to Harshad for this outcome. I would absolutely recommend working with Harshad for your MBA admissions process.

If you are considering a top school I highly recommend that you sign up for Jessica Shklar’s free 30-minute consultation and you’ll quickly understand why I decided to hire her on the spot for the complete start to finish package. She is exactly what you need her to be when you need it – a strong critic when your work/writing isn’t your best (trust me she’ll know), a strategist providing advice on how to create rapport with admissions officers (a key differentiator for candidates when you’re applying to M7 or T10 schools), and a mock interviewer prepping you for yours at the top school you apply to. She won’t do the job for you, but will give you the guidance, suggestions, hand-on work, and be a sounding board so that you may succeed throughout every step of the MBA application process. I was not a perfect applicant but Jessica helped me maximize my strengths and address my weaknesses and the results exceeded my wildest expectations landing a spot at a top school! Simply put, she’s a true partner in your corner helping you out! After a year and a half of working with Jessica, I am more focused in how I approach everything and a much better writer than before, both of which have me better prepared for B-school this fall at my dream school. Thank you Jessica!!!

I have no doubt that I am attending a Top 15 school because of my work with Jessica. I did a ton of research on both consultants and companies: mbaMission in general and Jessica in particular was undoubtedly the best decision I made in the application process. Seriously: her slots will fill up quickly; lock her in as soon as you can! I did a few 30 minute consultations, and just minutes into my talk with Jessica, I was sold. As a non-traditional candidate, other consultants did not fill me with confidence; Jessica made me feel like my story and candidacy had value – and that it was precisely what made me non-traditional that would get me into a target school. And then she helped make it happen. She has a tremendous gift for drilling down the parts of your story that are both most compelling and that will help you the most with adcoms. The first brainstorming session – and the 20 page document she had me submit beforehand – helped me shine a spotlight on what points I want to focus on and develop a cohesive narrative of my work and personal history. To say that she’s gifted at this is not hyperbole – she truly possesses an unbelievable talent at teasing out the most impressive parts of yourself while crafting an engaging narrative. She has so much insight into the adcoms for top schools and the best and varied ways to approach each individual app – this is info that no amount of googling will help you get and gives you the edge you need to make your app stand out. Every step of the way, she goes above and beyond. She makes you feel like she’s genuinely interested in your success and that the relationship is so much more than transactional. When I didn’t think it possible to shorten my essays any more while preserving meaning, she did so again and again; she was a miracle worker. When I got an interview invite for a school I didn’t even work on with her, she sent me a list of common questions and was available for help. When I had an unfortunate debacle with my transcript, she polled her fellow mbaMission consultants and went out of her way to help me come up with a plan that ultimately landed me where I am today. She’s brilliant, fierce, feisty, thoughtful, knowledgeable, and compassionate – all characteristics that make her a joy to work with. I could go on and on about her virtues and value, but trust me when I tell you this: she is the best of the best.

I purchased a school package with mbaMission thinking it would be helpful to have someone edit my resume and essays. I couldn’t have imagined how much more Susan would be for me. When I struggled to find a way to make my story interesting, Susan helped me see how I was unique and my qualities worth sharing. When I was trying to narrow down the schools I would apply to, she was honest in telling me which she didn’t feel were great fits. When I felt unprepared and unsure during my pre-interview practices, she knew how to be encouraging while providing constructive criticism. Even more, seeing that Susan was truly invested in my success made all of the hours spent revising my applications slightly less painful! I know Susan was instrumental in my acceptance at Kellogg. My experience makes me think how disadvantaged other applicants must be who don’t receive the same insight and support. I would absolutely recommend Susan to anyone considering business school!

I did a “fit call” with Harshad Mali- that call confirmed to me that Harshad was the exact right consultant for me. Some points from my own experience: 1) Harshad will push you until you have a cohesive product that is the best representation of you and your story. Just a week before the deadline, Harshad and I started my Emory essay over from scratch because my previous version was not developing strongly enough. This was the best possible thing he could have guided me to do, rather than moving forward with a weak concept; 2) Harshad always provided great feedback on my deliverable and questions within a day or two. Never late. He reminded me about the coming deadlines. He pushed me to complete essays few days before the deadline. He knew when we had to push to hit key productivity gateways; 3) Harshad was a true partner in the process. Throughout the essay-writing journey, he gave me his edits to ensure that my voice was not lost before further editing/trimming was done. Harshad was with me every step of the way.

Signing up with MBAMission was very straightforward and I’m lucky I got paired with Harshad Mali. From our first 30 minute intro call, Harshad gave valuable insights to my overall profile. As an Indian Applicant, it is quite challenging to differentiate yourself from the applicant pool. I have a diverse background and in many different industries but Harshad understood my story right off the bat and really helped me come up with a coherent narrative that highlighted my strengths and uniqueness. Harshad is no BS consultant and gives honest, straightforward feedback. I worked with him on polishing my resume and essays for five schools and preparing for interview at a top school. Harshad was always prompt and on-time with his reviews and there was never any delay. In fact, he often returned my essays on the same day even though MBAMission has a two day essay review policy. He often poked holes in my drafts but doing so helped me re-think what I wanted to say with more clarity and effect. I also worked with him for interview preparation. Here too, he was direct and effective with his feedback and even took additional time out of his schedule to help me with my preparation. He was also available for Skype calls whenever I had additional questions for essays and interviews. Working with Harshad has been very rewarding. Although we worked together quite professionally, I found him to be more like a close friend who kept my best interest his top priority. Like a close friend, Harshad often said what I needed to hear and not what I would have liked. I’m glad I trusted him with his feedback on my application. I would recommend Harshad Mali to anyone who is serious about gaining admissions to top business schools.

John was incredible in guiding me through all aspects of the admissions process. I had just taken the GMAT for the 2nd time when I first talked with John towards the end of October and was fairly happy with my score but unsure of the best way to move forward in the process. John and I worked together on our game plan from there, and because I was adamant about going to business school in Fall 2016 we decided to move on from the GMAT (although my score could’ve used a little bit of a boost) and start focusing on the applications instead. He was instrumental in helping me choose which target schools to apply to and I appreciated how up-front and honest he was about my candidacy strength for some of the programs I was considering. I’m glad he talked me out of applying to a couple that would’ve definitely been too much of a reach for me based on my below average GMAT score. John and I completed four applications from late October to early January, and he was great in putting in the extra effort as needed to help me successfully meet the aggressive timeline we had put together. He was especially helpful around the application deadlines, too. I would say that John’s biggest strengths were to help put together a strong story and personal statement, helping tie all of my life experiences together for the more creative personal essays and video essays, his feedback/encouragement during interview prep, and his level-headed voice of reason throughout the ups and downs of the process. I am 100% confident that I would not have been admitted to the schools that I was admitted to and that I would not have received any of the scholarship offers that I was awarded. John was instrumental in helping me make the final decision on where to attend business school this fall, too, and I’m very grateful for that as well. John seemed to genuinely care about me and my future plans and I really liked how passionate he was to help me be successful in getting into my target schools. I now consider John a friend after going through this process with him and I’m confident that we’ll stay connected moving forward. Overall it has been a great experience working with John and I highly recommend him for anyone considering applying to b-school.

I would highly recommend working with John Sisk from mbaMission. His experience in journalism and his degree from a top business school give him a unique perspective as an admissions consultant. Entering the admissions process, I had a strong GMAT score and strong enough GPA to get into a top school, but I needed help rounding out my story. That is where Johnny was so helpful. After our free 30-minute consultation, I already had a great idea of how I wanted to put my story together, and over many iterations that story came to life with John’s help. I hesitated in spending the money to hire a consultant, but I found that I got great value from John using the hour-by-hour option. Having been accepted into my top school, I can say that I would not have done a single thing differently. John was instrumental in strengthening my voice and I cannot thank him enough. John continually offered strong advice and was very patient as we worked through my drafts, which made him very easy to work with. He was always completely honest, telling me what worked and what didn’t, but at the same time he was very optimistic and would ensure that the process never got me down. He was also timely in getting his responses back to me within the 2-day turnaround window, which was critical in feeling confident that my drafts were in the best shape possible before deadlines. Thanks John!

Working in education – where virtually every friend and colleague was pursuing/had pursued something other than a business degree – I knew that I would need support navigating the MBA application process. I had only spoken to one other consultant before my “trial” call with Katy – and I immediately knew that there was no need to look further once we had spoken. In those 30 minutes, Katy assured me that my background did not put me at a disadvantage – and she had already gathered a general sense for what my strengths would be in my application. I walked away from that first call feeling like Katy already knew me and saw my potential. Those feelings intensified when Katy and I met for the brainstorm session. Katy was able to consider every random detail from the 24-page (massive) brainstorming document I sent her and extract from them a cohesive and powerful story. In doing so, she helped me to uncover the motivations that led to my past personal, academic, and professional choices – all of which suddenly seemed to reinforce my decision to pursue an MBA. Following our call – and with a clearer sense of self – I felt ready to conquer my applications. One thing (among many) that I love about Katy is her ability to be completely honest and supportive at the same time. I had spent loads of time preparing an essay draft (about an event from my childhood). While Katy appreciated the story, she challenged me to reconsider my lesson-learned from it – and ultimately how it shaped me as a person. This reflection, which Katy facilitated with the utmost sensitivity and care, helped me to understand why I have the passions that I have, and where they stem from. Again, I found myself discovering so much about who I am through the experience of working with Katy. Expect to go deep with her! Finally, as many might relate, I didn’t have a lot of money to invest in an MBA consultant. I was very open about this with Katy. That said, I never felt as though Katy wasted a minute of my time; on the contrary, I often felt as though she either had a superpower OR was giving much more of herself than I deserved (per our contract). Katy is extremely generous with her time and every contribution she makes on your behalf is always her very best. As others have remarked in their reviews, Katy will make you feel like you are her first priority – no matter the number of hours you have with her. Katy told me upfront that admissions to Berkeley (my #1) wouldn’t, and couldn’t, be a guarantee, given its low acceptance rate. But, her ability to bring out my full potential, coupled with her impressive “insiders” knowledge of every great business school (including Cal), made my hope a reality. I will be attending Haas in the fall, thanks to my amazing consultant and friend, Katy.

When I set out to write my applications, my mind was a giant cloud. I had lots of ideas about why I wanted to pursue an MBA, but, as a career switcher, I didn’t know much about the ins and outs of business school admissions process and what adcoms looked for. I wanted to be authentic but whenever I sat down to write, my ideas were all mixed together in a giant spaghetti ball of thought. Jessica has a deep understanding of the application process and helped me to organize my ideas. With her direction, I was even able to understand more about myself and why I desired an MBA on the route to what I desire to accomplish. Not only was she extremely knowledgeable and affable, I felt that she genuinely appreciated my story and cared about my progress. Throughout her webinar and even the free consultation, I never felt I was being sold and received great insight from those offerings alone. That said, purchasing a couple hours to talk through my application was one of the best investments I made. Hands down, you need someone with experience with the application process and admissions to proof your entire app; I didn’t know any such person, so Jessica’s very professional assistance was invaluable.

When I decided that attaining an MBA was going to be the next step in my life, I knew that I was going to need help in the application process (especially given the fact, I only planned to apply to one program). I knew that I was going to seek help from an MBA admissions consulting firm – but did not know which one I was going to choose. After having multiple 30 minute (free) consultations with a few firms (e.g. Stacy Blackman, Veritas Prep, and mbaMission), I decided that I liked mbaMission best. However, I am not writing a review to compare mbaMission to other firms. I am writing a review of the work Kate Richardson (my mbaMission admissions consultant) performed that allowed me to get into the Johns Hopkins/MICA’s Design Leadership program with a merit-based scholarship. Kate is truly a great consultant. She catered to my needs and made the admissions process smooth and even quite fun. I would say the top three things that Kate helped me with were: 1) essay writing/editing, 2) strategy and detail, 3) staying true to myself. As it pertains to essay writing/editing, Kate helped me recognize what stories in my life were going to make the strongest impact on the admissions committee and helped me outline what specific parts of those stories were going to be most pertinent to illustrate. Furthermore, once I started writing the essays, Kate provided insightful notes on my drafts that allowed me to fine tune the tone, clarity, and vividness of the messages I was trying to get across. Regarding strategy and detail, Kate helped me ensure that the content of my essays, recommendation (only one is required for the program I applied to), and Linkedin profile all dovetailed one another. This is extremely important given the fact that the essays I had to write had 500-word limits. It is not efficient or effective to say the same things in multiple essays or have your recommender share the same story you wrote about in an essay (unless he/she has significantly different things to say than you do). With Kate’s help, I felt confident that my materials never overlapped, but complemented one another. Thirdly, Kate never pushed me to write or do anything as it pertains to my admissions portfolio that I felt wasn’t me – which I think is most important. I felt that the application I submitted was the best representation of myself that I could have provided the admissions committee (while staying true to what I believed needed to be said). In closing, if anyone is thinking about get an MBA and has the capital to hire an MBA admissions consultant during the admissions process, I highly recommend Kate without reservation. She is knowledgeable, intelligent, and easy to talk with. More importantly, she gets the job done.

Jessica was very patient and very knowledgeable about the application process and the programs. Throughout the process, she always made herself available and strictly adhered to the 24-hour response rule. She even provided an expedited feedback right before round I deadlines that helped me get the application in on time. I purchased a complete three-school consultation package with Jessica and added on two more – all in round one. Overall, I’m very happy with the result – I got into four top 15 schools with partial scholarships from two. I suggest putting down your deposit with Jessica as soon as you can because her time tends to get booked up really early in the process. The biggest value add I got from Jessica was on the essay and the resume. We did 7 rounds of resume editing and the final version was nothing like the first draft. I knew that I needed to make my resume more “results oriented” but honestly I didn’t know how. Jessica helped me in a way that she played the role of an admission officer, asking the right questions and kept pushing me if my answer wasn’t “results oriented” enough. She also helped me discovered a lot of bullet points that I didn’t think were important but from the eyes of an admission officer, they were. We worked on a ton of essays – at least two for each school, 5-7 drafts for each essay. We started with a brainstorming call that collected all the stories that we were going to use for the essay then we put them together to make the initial draft – she made it fun, kind of putting together a puzzle. Jessica was really good at cutting down on words to without losing the original meaning of the sentence. This is super important because anyone who’s been through the process would tell you that word counts and space are you biggest enemies Pretty much every essay I gave her was 1.5 times of the word limit, and she cut them down to below limit in a concise way with ease. Moreover, Jessica knows how to tell a story in a very interesting and eye-catching way that attracts the readers, kind of like how a good journal reporter writes interesting stories. Again, not every admission consultant can do these things. Mock interviews and the question lists that Jessica gave me were extremely helpful. I interviewed with 6 schools, and I’d say more than half of the questions were on the question lists. I also had a video essay which was nerve-wrecking but Jessica took extra time to help me prepare that so I was pretty ready by the time I got to it. Last but not the least, through brainstorming sessions and interactions, Jessica really challenged me as an individual and got me to think about what I really want to do post-MBA and for the rest of my life, not simply for the purpose of the application. Through working with Jessica and from her candid feedback, I learned my strengths and weaknesses, my preferred working style and figured out where my passion lies. Luckily, I don’t have to go through the application process again but I’d do it again with Jessica because she made it fun and easy.

Ok, so I cannot overstate how much I recommend mbaMission for anybody seriously applying to top MBA programs. I eventually got into Harvard Business School with below-average numbers, but even during the application process I was telling everybody I knew that mbaMission was a MUST-do if you’re serious about business school and can afford it (not cheap). Also, the Start-to-Finish package is the way to go 100% – and probably cheaper than the other options in the long run. Trust me, I broke this down and probably spent 2-3x less than I would have with the hourly rate. You have no idea how much you will reach out to your consultant, and you will thank yourself many times over for biting the bullet in the beginning. My consultant was John Sisk, and he was fantastic. I chose him because I knew I would struggle with telling “my story” and John seemed to be strong in that category. He led me through the process in a clear, honest, productive, and efficient way that was ultimately very successful and enjoyable. I was no-doubt stressed during the process, but that’s just part of it. John took the stress WAY down for me and he was my partner in crime during the entire process. My expectations were exceeded at every level (from essay editing, to resume crafting, to strategies visiting campuses) and I can’t recommend mbaMission or John Sisk enough. EVEN IF I had not been accepted to ANY of my schools (Stanford, HBS, Sloan, Haas, Anderson) I would have been 100% glad I used mbaMission.