Shamus Donlon

Shamus was a fantastic consultant! After our first conversation, I realized that he was going to get me into a top program. He is candid and helped me hone in on my skills and translate them from engineering into business. Shamus went above and beyond, he is very accessible, helpful, and fun to work with. By mentoring me through this process, he made me a much more confident applicant and it definitely showed. With his help, I got into ~90% of the schools I applied to, with solid scholarships at a few of them. In the end, Shamus took the time to discuss which school seemed like a better fit for me, and I decided to go to Booth in the fall.
In summary, I would highly recommend Shamus to anyone trying to get into a great MBA program!

I started working with Shamus a year ahead of application deadlines. From the start, Shamus took the time to get to know me on a personal level so that he could support me in the best way possible. Given our long timeline, Shamus helped me brainstorm and strategize how I could best position myself for admission to a top school. Shamus had excellent advice for campus visits given his experience at Kellogg and put me in touch with contacts at various schools to help answer my questions. When it came to application time, I was intimidated by the essay questions and managing multiple deadlines. Shamus supported me along the way with frequent check-ins. Shamus pushed me to be introspective, which resulted in essays that I was extremely proud of. For interview prep, Shamus and I conducted multiple mock interview sessions until I felt confident and prepared. With Shamus’ support, I was admitted to my top schools! Throughout the application process, I felt that I was conveying my true self to admissions, and Shamus was extremely supportive of that. In addition to his professional advice, he provided emotional support throughout the entire process. I cannot recommend Shamus enough! Thank you!

I made the decision to use an admissions consultant early on in my MBA journey, and when a friend recommended The MBA Exchange, I decided to use one of their consultants to help me build my application to McCombs. When building my shortlist of consultants to work with, the first thing that stuck out about Shamus was his engineering background. Given that I studied engineering in my undergrad, I felt this would be a great initial connection. While this certainly proved to be true, by no means should non-engineers shy away from him. Shamus’ skills at developing connections and coaching others quickly shone through, and I believe he would be a great fit for anyone. From the initial process of highlighting my profile’s strengths to my interview prep, Shamus was attentive, honest, and thorough. His experience working within Kellogg’s admission department was a fantastic asset to have in my corner, and he was able to expertly use this knowledge to fine tune the details of application while still highlighting my personality. Overall, I would highly recommend Shamus to anyone looking for help in building the most competitive MBA application possible. He sincerely wants nothing but success the people he works with.