Kelly Lundy

I loved working with Kelly and the Stratus team. Kelly helped me with the CBS and Stanford GSB applications. As advertised, Stratus use a team approach. During each of these applications I received guidance from Kelly, Susan Cera, and multiple editors (CBS & Stanford Alums). Kelly even connected me with her classmates at CBS during the process.

The methodology that Stratus uses not only helped me complete the applications for these schools, but the introspective nature of the process prepared me for the school interviews and will definitely help me throughout my career.

Kelly is truly a marvelous mentor. She supports you and enables you to develop your own authentic narrative. She spends a lot of time to learn about you. Many times, she nudged me to dig deeper into parts of my essays based on all the information she had gleaned from my introspection exercises. Further, she is extremely diligent and patient. I completed almost 15 drafts for both the Stanford and CBS essays with Kelly. Never, did I feel that she was not completely vested in improving the narrative or was growing frustrated with stagnation. She was extremely responsive and gracious with her time.

Finally, I want to commend Kelly on never talking about my chances or trying to sway me in applying to different school. Both Susan and Kelly were fully committed to help me create the best product possible to elevate my chances of getting admitted. They provided candid feedback in a timely manner and were never closed off to new ideas or suggestions.

Kelly was instrumental in helping me get admitted to Stanford, which was my primary choice, and I wholeheartedly endorse her as a mentor to help you through the MBA application process.

Thank you Kelly and Stratus Team!!

***Final Outcome: Admitted to Stanford, Interviewed with CBS, withdrew application after Stanford Admit. ****

Just two weeks before application deadlines, I reached out to Kelly Lundy from Stratus as I was scrambling to complete 8 applications. Kelly took the time to understand the circumstances under which I was reaching out and we quickly created a game plan to rework my resume and work on all of my essays. Kelly was very quick to provide feedback on my essays, which included probing questions, school-specific guidance, and personalized suggestions based on what Kelly has learned about me over the course of just a few days. Despite the expedited timeline, I was able to submit all of my applications before my deadlines. Just under one week before I submitted my applications, I received my first interview invitation and Kelly was quick to provide interview guidance and walk me through a mock! With Kelly’s help and extensive knowledge of the various business schools, I was admitted to 6 schools and awarded multiple scholarships. Kelly has a niche for delivering on her client’s needs with enthusiasm, care, and active communication and I’ll always be grateful to her and the Stratus team for all the support and for believing in me!

I applied to only one school with no backup plan, and Kelly was my secret weapon. She helped me tailor every part of my application and interview to successfully resonate with my target school. This means that she not only knew everything there was to know about admissions for my target school but also how to work with me to perfect my messaging. She was also friendly, responsive, candid, and just nice to work with.

I loved working with Kelly Lundy from Stratus! After looking into multiple admissions consultants, I decided to sign up for the hourly package with Kelly. Her expertise and deep knowledge of MBA admissions, especially as a Columbia Business School alum, was evident from our first consultation. With her experience in the tech industry, she offered personalized advice and targeted feedback on how to craft my essays. sharpen my resume, and prepare for my interviews! Initially, I found the essays to be very challenging. But with Kelly’s feedback, I was able to hone in on my career goals with school-specific details. Kelly also helped me improve my resume to quantify my impact and leadership experience. She was very quick with her feedback and edits, especially in the final days leading up to the deadline. During our mock interview, Kelly provided me with sample questions and advice that made me feel extremely prepared for the real interview. I also appreciated her checking in on me throughout the entire process! She was so encouraging and supportive. Applying to MBA programs can be a stressful time, but Kelly made the process so seamless!

I could not have gotten into my top-choice school this fall without Kelly’s help. I 100% recommend her for anyone considering an MBA admissions consultant!

Columbia was my dream school and I reached out to Kelly later in the application process to get her expert opinion on my essays and resume. I was confident in my application when I reached out, but Kelly was instrumental in helping me across the finish line! The details matter and she thoroughly reviewed the deliverables and provided succinct, actionable feedback that helped connect each point into a more compelling narrative.

The mock interview with Kelly really helped me refine my elevator pitch and focus my answers on the aspects that made me most competitive as a candidate. This process allowed me to enter my interview confidently and I was prepared for each question no matter the topic.

Kelly is clearly amazing at her job, but her kindness and positivity truly made the difference! She was always willing to answer questions and guide me in the right direction and I credit her support and rational perspective as a key reason I was accepted to my dream school!!!

I found out about Stratus after Susan Cera gave an introductory presentation at my current firm. I learned how the team-based structure at Stratus can help me get feedback on my application from various angles of the Stratus team. After briefly talking with Susan, she introduced me to Kelly Lundy, whose experience perfectly aligns with my MBA and post-MBA goals. Kelly helped me improve my application on all fronts and eventually helped me get into my dream school in a very quick timeline.

The most difficult part of starting an MBA application is to logically lay out a doable short-term and long-term goal, as well as how to achieve these goals with each school’s unique offerings, especially for someone who’s looking for a career/industry switch. Kelly, with her experience working in the technology industry, helped me brainstorm how to connect my personal and professional goals with each school’s abundant resources. She recalled back to her own MBA experience and leveraged her network of MBA grads to help me identify the most suitable paths and each business school’s offerings that I can take advantage of

When editing my essays, Kelly helped me identify the stories that best shaped my personality and came up with strategies to connect my previous experience with my areas of contribution at business school. As a non-native English speaker, I tend to write convoluted sentences with unnecessary details. Kelly used her experience and excellent writing skills to make my wording more concise and presentable.

After receiving an interview invite from my dream school, Kelly scheduled a mock interview with me immediately and sent me several articles to review, helping me understand the dos and don’ts during the interview. During the mock interview, Kelly leveraged her experience as an alumni interviewer and gave me some very valuable feedback on my performance. Going into my actual interview, I felt much more prepared and confident with the tips that Kelly gave me.

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience working with Kelly and the Stratus team. Without them, I wouldn’t have got an offer for my dream school this early in the cycle and have another year to prepare myself for my MBA adventure. I truly recommend Kelly and the whole Stratus team to everyone who’s considering applying.

Kelly was instrumental in helping me get my MBA application for CBS together in less than two weeks. Her advice helped me tremendously with pulling together a strong narrative in my application essays. She also took the initiative to link me to all sorts of information about clubs, courses, events, etc. at CBS that I’m not sure I would have found on my own.

What really set Kelly apart was how efficient and generous she was with her time. I was impressed with how much we were able to accomplish in the mere five hours we had together. Kelly was also happy to share advice regarding her experiences at CBS/post-MBA even after I had already gotten accepted and her services were ‘officially’ over.

All in all, Kelly went above and beyond to help (she once reverted comments within an hour of me circulating, since I needed to submit my application that day) and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to anyone looking for some assistance with their MBA application.

The mock interview I had with Kelly was extremely helpful in my admission process. She asked questions that were specifically catered to my target school and provided invaluable feedback. She made suggestions on how to add clarity, brevity, and specificity to my responses. As a result, I went into my actual interview a week later feeling very confident. Not to my surprise, the framework of the real interview was almost identical. I ended up getting admitted to the M7 target school I interviewed for, and I know that Kelly’s interview guidance played a huge role. Beyond that, she is very friendly and has a strong sense of what an interviewer will and won’t want to hear. Even beyond the interview, she’s answered my general questions about the MBA program and given me great advice on ways to interact with other admits prior to matriculation. I highly recommend working with her!!