Maren Savage

Working with Maren was one of the best decisions I made during my MBA application process. Her strategic guidance and honest, thoughtful feedback helped me bring clarity and authenticity to my story. Beyond her expertise, what stood out most was how available and supportive she was, always willing to hop on a call or check in when I needed it most. I felt truly guided and cared for throughout the process. I’m incredibly grateful for her support!

I was fortunate to be admitted to both GSB and HBS in Round 1 (applied September 2025), and Maren was absolutely integral to that outcome. At a very basic level, she ensured I actually applied, but more importantly, she helped me find my voice and refused to let me settle for a mediocre draft.

I work in PE now and was staffed on an intense deal starting in July, which completely blew up our original application timeline. Without Maren’s guidance across our weekly check-ins, her proactive deadline reminders, and her near-instant, thoughtful feedback on drafts, I genuinely don’t think I would have had the bandwidth to manage both work and applications, let alone submit strong Round 1 essays.

What makes Maren uniquely excellent, beyond her organization and responsiveness, is her insistence on excellence paired with deep, nuanced knowledge of the schools. I only applied to HBS and GSB, and she tailored my applications specifically to what each school values. Two weeks before the GSB deadline, my essay still wasn’t great, but I was ready to submit it anyway. Maren kindly but firmly pushed me to do better, reviewed every draft I sent (14+ in those final weeks), and provided creative, highly personalized feedback and brainstorming ideas. She took the time early on to truly understand my story and voice, and that investment paid off. Same thing happened with my HBS essays. Across both applications, the final essays felt authentically me and were actually something I was genuinely proud of — Maren was integral to pushing us to get there.

Beyond all of that, Maren is a pleasure to work with: calm, organized, kind, and reassuring even when my drafts were very much works in progress at the eleventh hour.

Her excitement was real and contagious throughout the process, from hitting submit to celebrating my GSB and HBS admits, she cared as much as I did.

I can’t recommend her highly enough.

I am so glad that Fortuna introduced me to Maren when I first reached out for a consultation. After talking to various admissions consultants, I ultimately decided to go with Maren over one from an established competitor for a couple reasons:

1) GSB is my dream school. Maren’s experience working in the GSB admissions office and familiarity with the PE candidate pool is incredibly valuable
2) I wanted to be able to spend as much time as needed working with my consultant. I appreciated that Maren only has <10 clients a season vs. close to ~20 for the other consultant I was considering
3) Her authenticity stood out to me during our initial consultation. These calls can feel pretty salesy, but I could tell that Maren was genuinely interested in getting to know me and making sure that I find a consultant that's the best fit for me even if it's not her (hence, she introduced me to 2 of her colleagues)

We worked on my apps from mid June to end of August for R1. I worked hard, but Maren probably worked even harder! I appreciated how Maren was able to match my pace and how quickly and thoroughly Maren would go through my drafts. We probably had at least 2 turns of essays every week. I strongly believe that all the hours we spent refining my story was what allowed me to create a compelling narrative that's true to myself.

When I got the call from GSB, they asked me who I wanted to share the news with first. The first person that came into my mind was Maren. That's how much I appreciated Maren, and I just knew that she would be elated for me.

Maren has an innate ability to turn a collection of life experiences into a powerful, cohesive narrative that brings out the very best of your background. She went far beyond what was included in my package—offering timely guidance, support, and advice at every stage of the process. I genuinely don’t think I would have gotten into HBS without her expertise.

Working with Maren was one of the most impactful decisions I made during my MBA application journey. As a younger candidate with fewer years of professional experience than most, I was very aware of how competitive schools like Stanford GSB and Harvard Business School are. I had even spoken to another admissions consultant who told me bluntly that my chances were low. But then I met Maren—and everything changed.

From the start, she believed in me. Over the course of our sessions, Maren helped me uncover the depth in my story and guided me on how to articulate it in a way that was authentic, strategic, and compelling.

What made Maren exceptional wasn’t just her expertise in MBA admissions (though she clearly has that in spades); it was her ability to be both a coach and a calm, steady presence. She helped me manage the emotional weight of the process, especially as I balanced multiple applications and intense pressure. In many ways, she was part interview prep coach, part therapist—helping me stay grounded, confident, and true to myself. Maren and I also had a lot of fun during our session, cracking jokes and getting to know each other!

Thanks to Maren’s guidance, I completed my applications and walked into both the HBS and GSB interviews feeling prepared and empowered. And most incredibly—I got into both.

I’m so grateful for her support and genuinely can’t recommend her enough to anyone looking to take on this process with someone who will believe in you, challenge you, and bring out your very best.

Maren is an incredible MBA coach. She is:
– Extremely detail-oriented: Maren and I went through every single piece of my application (word by word) to make sure everything fit in one cohesive, strong story
– A true subject-matter expert: Maren has unparalleled knowledge of what goes on in the MBA admissions office having been an application reader herself. Those insights were game-changing for my application
– Great at giving critical feedback: Maren ensures all her feedback (good and critical) is specific and goal-focused, so I was never left questioning why we should change something
– Easy to work with: she is super fast at responding to questions and always makes herself available
– An exceptional storyteller: so much of the MBA application is tying all the small decisions into one genuine storyline that appeals to the admissions office. This is definitely one of Maren’s strengths

Overall, I could not recommend working with Maren enough (putting my admissions results aside). She is an awesome person and makes the MBA process far less stressful than it can be and more fruitful than I expected.