Jon Harari

Working with Jon throughout my MBA application process was a fantastic experience. While he is excellent in providing guidance and feedback throughout all stages of the journey (essay, rec letters, interview prep), he really shines in (a) helping you discover your unique and powerful story and (b) framing that story powerfully and cohesively across all aspects of your application. His feedback forced me to think about my application differently in ways that I couldn’t have done myself. With Jon’s help, I was able to get into my #1 choice of business school.

Like many people reading this, I found myself in a tough spot on choosing an admissions consultant. Using the MBAExchange and hiring Jon was one of the greatest decisions of my life. I truly believe Jon is a fundamental reason as to why I was accepted at multiple top 20 programs. He’s a great guy and someone you feel has your best interest at heart.

By no means do I come from a target school, maintain a high GPA, or scored in an elite range on the GMAT. However, none of this mattered to Jon. Jon took the time to learn who I am and understand my story. Everyone is unique and Jon helps to highlight aspects in your application that will set you apart. From the beginning of the process, Jon is very candid about your application and works closely with you to enhance all aspects of your application. This includes resume review, community involvement, and school research. Working on application essays can be tiresome and frustrating but Jon truthfully makes it worth it. His feedback and hands on approach have helped me turn my thoughts into words and give life to my essays.

Once your application is submitted his work doesn’t stop there. He maintains constant communication with the candidate throughout the application process and takes time out of his day to help with interview prep. This isn’t any cookie-cutter interview prep either. One thing I liked most about Jon was he would facetime me for mock interviews and would give me unique questions to review my response. During the practice sessions, I wasn’t sure if this would be useful but I was quickly proved wrong. I left each interview feeling extremely relieved that I participated in a mock interview and felt fully prepared for each meeting.

Any concerns or questions you might have throughout the process will never go unanswered. Please do yourself a favor and hire Jon. You will never regret it!!

Jon was very helpful at every turn in helping me navigate the admissions process, from selecting which schools to target all the way through preparing and practicing for interviews. Through working with him I got into my target school and will be attending in the fall!

Jon is an exceptional advisor and his services are more than worth the investment. Throughout the application process, he offered me candid guidance and deep insights on the strengths and differences among top MBA programs as well as the nuances of their admissions processes which ultimately proved critical to my success. Jon’s feedback on the essay writing process, in particular, was singularly helpful. Jon works with his clients to uncover narratives that are equally authentic to the applicant as they are resonant with the underlying essay prompt objectives and admissions audience. For applicants such as myself, who consider themselves capable writers but are well out of the habit of crafting personal statements, Jon’s guidance here was enormously beneficial.

When I ultimately had acceptances from two Top-10 programs to choose from, Jon’s thoughtful advice on best aligning my own selection criteria with my ultimate school choice was a crucial way of filtering out the ‘sales pitch’ noise that is part of the selection process. I would recommend Jon to anyone with high MBA aspirations!

Jon is truly exceptional. Jon took time to understand my background, strengths, and weakness, ensuring my uniqueness and strengths coming through both in my application materials and interview process. I come from a non-traditional background and Jon emphasized the importance of leveraging it. After I got invited to interviews, Jon spent tons of time to do mock interview with me, tirelessly giving me feedback on what I need to work on. I was wait-listed at one of the schools, Jon was patient and helped me set a strategic to-do list to get off the wait-list, and couple weeks later I got accepted by this school. None of this could be possible without Jon’s help. I am also admitted to another S16 school with scholarship. Overall, it has truly been a pleasure working with Jon and I would recommend him to anyone!

I cannot say enough good things about Jonathan. I would even go as far as claiming that Jonathan changed my life. I went from applying to 4 schools in R1 (not working with Jonathan) and getting 2 interviews, which resulted in 1 reject and 1 WL…to applying to 5 schools in R2 (with his help), getting 3 interviews and ultimately getting acceptances from 2 schools.

I would not have gotten into one of these schools had he not suggested adding it to my list and he walked through reasons for why I should consider the school. Upon doing my own research, I realized I had totally overlooked it and it ended up being a very good fit, so I showed well through their application process.

I am ultimately going to Booth, which I know I would not have gotten into without Jonathan’s help. In fact, I would not have even written the optional essay if he had not told me about how important it was! Jonathan even helped me navigate negotiating with schools for scholarships, which was tremendously helpful.

Overall, he has a lot of experience, and provided really strategic advice throughout the process. I also found his interview prep sessions to be very helpful, as I didn’t really think I needed help on that front, but by applying his advice during my interviews, I received very positive feedback from my interviewers and ultimately received acceptances.

I would highly recommend working with Jonathan for your MBA journey!

As the headline says, I do not think that I would have gotten into b-school without Jon’s help. He is great. For me, it was all about the value that he added in strengthening my resume and essays. He knows what resumes and essays looked like for past admits, and what kind of stories are more likely to resonate with each school. He helped me shape my narrative so that I had a compelling story to tell admissions. We continued to iterate each essay until it was as strong as possible and we were both happy with it. When I reflect on the essays I submitted compared to my starting point, the difference that Jon made is very stark. He is supportive throughout the process, but also honest and frank. He doesn’t just go through the motions but is invested in your outcome. Always responsive and willing to talk things through.

I applied to five of the M7 schools and was admitted to two of them with $40K/per year scholarship at one (as a white male from finance). I could not be happier about my decision to work with Jon and certainly would choose to again if I had to do it over. Working with Jon is an investment in your future that pays off handsomely if it means admission to one of your top choice schools. And when framed as a percentage of the total MBA cost, it’s more palatable. If you want to maximize your chances of acceptance, work with Jon.

I’ll note that my opinion is that, for MBA consultants in general, client satisfaction is fairly dependent on whether the applicant is admitted to one of his/her target schools. An applicant who is rejected across the board would likely find him/herself less satisfied. That said, I am 100% confident that Jon added significant value to my application and cannot recommend him enough. His knowledge is excellent and he cares about your outcome. I’ll reiterate what I said earlier. I do not think that I would have gotten in without Jon and would for sure choose to work with him again.

My experience of working with Jon was positive and successful. He provided helpful guidance that allowed me to craft an honest, persuasive and effective story. I was very impressed with the quality of the final product, to a large extent because writing was never my strength. He is also very personable, frank and responsive. I strongly recommend working with him.

If you want to give yourself the absolute best chance at getting into a top business school you need to work with Jon. I talked to many different admissions consultants and none of them gave me the confidence that I had while working with Jon. I knew from the first conversation that Jon was different that the rest. He will push you to be your absolute best and produce a full application that you will be incredibly proud of. We were efficient throughout the entire process, getting the best work done in the shortest amount of time. We set aggressive timelines for the entire process and constantly pushed to get the best results. He genuinely cares about who you are, what drives you, and where you are trying to get to. He also is very knowledgeable about the entire process, constantly giving meaningful advice on the best way to approach an essay, how to frame your story the best way, and how to effectively manage the waitlist process. He always is pushing you to be your absolute best as exemplified by the numerous essay revisions until we got to something that was the best that it could be that we were both proud of. I also was waitlisted at one of my top schools and Jon stuck with me and continued to push throughout the summer. We discussed our waitlist strategy every week and eventually was accepted to a great school due to the advice and strategy that Jon had help me build. Jon is a great guy and I could not be more appreciative of everything he did for me. If you really want an upper edge on the business school application process you would be crazy not to be working with Jon.

My experience working with Jon was amazing! My profile: International, 2.5 years of work experience, GMAT 750, career switcher. I was accepted to Wharton and CBS with scholarship. Jon was extremely efficient and insightful in understanding my profile and setting the optimal strategy for the application. Amongst several MBA consultants I interviewed with, Jon was definitely the top consultant who had the most in-depth knowledge and expertise in the admission process. From day one, he genuinely tried to get to know me and build trust –which I believe was the most important driver of my successful outcome. I was intending to settle on my average GMAT score and move onto my essay and other applications, however Jon really pushed me to work towards achieving the best result for my GMAT and pointed me to the right resources. Taking his advice, I got my highest GMAT score in November. I started working on my essays and other applications for three schools in November. Jon laid out clear timeline from the start and made sure every aspect of my application was perfect (yes, I mean he would revise it over and over again until it reached perfection- true maximizer). Despite the 12-hour difference in time zone, Jon was extremely diligent, responsive and efficient in providing feedbacks. He always provided straight forward and high quality reviews, which helped me to revise and move onto next application efficiently. Above all, I enjoyed working with Jon the most during the interview preparation. Jon knew the exact types of interview questions for each school, and provided constructive feedback. His professional background in finance, wit and charismatic personality was the key to shaping my answers. Also, unlike other consultants, Jon was willing to provide multiple practice sessions until I was fully prepared to answer in a way that would demonstrate my best qualities. I would highly recommend Jon to anyone applying to b-schools!

If you want someone that will work with you on every aspect of your application until it is beyond perfect, Jon is your guy. About me: international, unconventional profile, high GPA and average GMAT, wanting to make a career change, and with a small gap in my resume. Now MBA candidate at a top ten school. (and extremely happy about that!!) I would recommend Jon to anyone, and here’s why: – He sees your potential and helps you deliver materials that are custom made to show how your strengths match the school’s profile. – He works fast: he will set a schedule, answer e-mails and review essays overnight so that you can keep working the following day. (I applied on R2 with not that much time so this was great) – He has an eye for detail: looking at every sentence and reviewing materials and emails before I sent them to make sure that they were perfect. He won’t just glance at it, I remember him giving me feedback on each of 30 practice videos I sent (had video essays). – He is honest and humble: he is probably one of the most impressive people I’ve met during my application period, and was still very easy to talk to, he would listen and consider all of my ideas and concerns before giving me his opinion. – Interview prep – also a great experience, in case you don’t have someone to practice at home he will be there to practice on flexible schedule. – Strategy and knowledge about how the admission process works from the inside: this was extremely valuable to me since I was on the waitlist. -Support (and lots of motivation): as I mentioned, I was on the WL and Jon never gave up and kept me on track until I was admitted. His motivation was invaluable to me and also the fact that he reached out to me to follow up rather than just waiting to see if I wanted to keep working on my candidacy. It was his own personal mission to get me admitted! To sum up, Jon is truly dedicated and focused into helping you achieve the best possible outcome, and I will always be grateful for this. Looking back, I know I could not have done this without his advice.

I spoke with several admissions consultants prior to hiring Jon, all of whom were knowledgeable and possessed strong pedigrees. I chose Jon because in addition to those qualities, our initial conversation demonstrated that he had a genuine interest in understanding who I was and what I valued. He wanted to know my personal “why” for each of the schools in which I had interest. This line of conversation set the tone for the remainder of our interactions – always personalized, never canned. Throughout our time working together, Jon was consistent in giving me direct, high-quality feedback in a timely manner. Initially, I was concerned that there may be a significant lag time in responses from him, as Jon and I began working together close to the Round 2 deadline (a very busy time for the best admissions consultants!). That was never the case. Jon always returned my emails and phone calls within 24 hours, and usually within 3-4 hours. His level of communication far exceeded my expectations. Most importantly, Jon pushed me to give my very best in every component of application and interview preparation. The application process can be daunting, so for me, having someone in my corner was invaluable. Jon coached me on how to frame my story and build a compelling case for why I was a good fit at each of my target schools. The result – I was accepted and awarded fellowships at two of my three target schools! I couldn’t be happier, and would recommend Jon’s services to any of my friends considering top ten business schools.