Susan Berishaj

When I was starting my MBA application process, I wanted to hire the best coach and interviewed 8 highly rated coaches. Even from my first conversation with Susan, I had a feeling that I would achieve my greatest potential by working with her, and I am now certain that she was the best MBA coach for me.

There are three things that I found particularly impactful about working with Susan; first, she is personally committed to her clients’ success. She exceeded my expectations in the way that she took the time to thoroughly work with me in each step of the process, holding me to high standards and working through many essay drafts and mock interviews until we both agreed that I was putting my best foot forward.

Second, she is an exceptional storyteller. The story makes all the difference in an application, and Susan provided invaluable expertise to help me create a cohesive, compelling narrative about my unique background and goals.

Third, Susan went above and beyond with her empathy and introspection. She truly wants to get to know her clients, not thinking of the relationship as transactional. The MBA application process is an emotional roller coaster, and I appreciated the acknowledgement and genuine care for how I was doing. This emotional connection also helped me go deeper in the reflection process and draw out unique aspects of my character.

I applied to 6 schools (5 M7s) and was admitted to 5 (with 3 major scholarships). I didn’t work on all of my schools with Susan, but our work was transferable and greatly contributed to the successful outcomes of the schools I worked on independently. I will be attending Wharton, my top choice, and am extremely grateful for all of Susan’s support in helping me get there.

If you are a candidate who is ready to be introspective, work hard, and build your best possible application, you will be extremely successful working with Susan.

Susan served not only as an expert admissions coach helping me with crafting admissions strategy as well as hammering out every detail until she was satisfied, but also a career coach and a sounding board that has helped me create a clear and compelling career path – could not recommend working with her more!

I came from a T30 undergrad, had GPA and GMAT in line with all M7 averages, but had a rather nontraditional work background (no consulting/IB/tech, no name brand on resume, switched industries multiple times). I thought I had a chance at M7s but would really have to find my why MBA/specific school and be able to highlightmy professional skillset. I spoke to all the major MBA consulting firms (MBAMission, Fortuna, Stacy Blackman, etc) and asked friends about their experiences working with them. Susan stood out the most in our initial conversations – not only did she walk me through her process like other firms, she spent a good amount of time getting to know me personally and highlighting where she thought what she found compelling in my story that she wanted to help me highlight. From our conversation, she felt like a person who would go at bat for me to help me reach my goals.

Once we started working together, Susan’s tendency to push you to consider what’s best for you and why was invaluable in helping me consider my career options and school selection. It’s easy at this point to be in love with every school – especially M7s with their brand name – and not give post-MBA careers enough thought since you can figure it out after you’re admitted (I definitely was like this), but Susan helped me realize the importance of starting to think about these long term and one way decisions in a more detailed and nuanced way. She gave me multiple insights on different school cultures and pointed me in directions for further school research. One school that I initially had low interest later on became one of my top choices as a result of my conversations with Susan (also happy to say she helped me gain admittance and I will be attending said school!). She also spent considerable time initially getting to know my stories and experiences for crafting specific school strategies later on.

When application season kicked off, Susan’s time invested in understanding my story, her expertise in MBA admissions, and her attention to detail made sure everything we presented to the schools highlighted the strengths of my candidacy – everything from school strategy and essays to minor things like certain application portal questions went through multiple rounds of review. Each review would always include both macro ideas of how we should think about presenting a certain experience to school down to micro details on good prose and grammar. From the 6 M7s I applied to, I was invited to interview at 5 of them.

Once interviews invite started rolling out, Susan’s interview prep process also made sure I was more than prepared. We went through multiple sessions for every school, and Susan’s prep was tailored for each specific interview style. (for HBS, she grilled me so hard in the lightning round style Q&A for 5 sessions that I surprisingly felt calm and collected during my actual interview). Out of the 5 I interviewed for, I gained admissions to 3 with scholarship and was waitlisted at 1!

With my nontraditional background, I struggled initially to know what parts of my application I should highlight – I knew I went through an interesting path and had acquired professional skills that were different, but wasn’t sure how to present my experiences in a compelling way. After working with Susan I can confidently say the application she helped me I create presented the best and most authetic version of myself.

Susan emerged as a beacon of hope as I embarked on my MBA journey. Despite being advised by multiple consultants that my verbal scores weren’t strong enough to gain admission to top B-schools, Susan instilled in me the confidence that my aspirations were within reach and in my first conversation with her I decided to go with her. SIA Admission possesses a distinctive approach to comprehending students’ backgrounds, delving deep into their experiences to extract their full potential.
Collaborating with Susan allowed me to introspect on various aspects of my life, facilitating healing through open dialogue, confronting fears, and clarifying my motivations for pursuing an MBA. The meticulous attention to every detail of the application process, provision of necessary feedback, steering towards the right path, and allowing autonomy to students were pivotal in securing interview invitations from prestigious institutions such as Chicago Booth, Berkeley Haas, Fuqua, and Tuck and successfully receiving admit from Chicago Booth and Berkeley Haas with grant.
SIA Admission offers comprehensive guidance encompassing pre-application preparation, including defining short and long-term goals, refining resumes, understanding B-school expectations, interview preparation, and effective time management throughout the MBA journey. Beyond my MBA achievements, Susan provided a safe space to confide life’s challenges without fear of judgment. Engaging with her has undoubtedly been one of the most rewarding decisions of my life, as she embodies both friendship and mentorship, fostering success with genuine investment. I wholeheartedly endorse SIA Admission not only for successful admissions but also for the transformative journey that imbues life with purpose and positivity.

I recently used SIA counseling service to help me prepare for my admission to the MBA, and I must say that my experience was nothing short of exceptional. From the beginning, Susan was extremely professional, knowledgeable, and attentive to my needs.
Susan offers one of the best services on the market and one of the most personalized approaches to help identify the right program and worked tirelessly to help put together a compelling application. Susan provided invaluable guidance on improving my application, reviewed my essays multiple times, and helped me prepare for my interviews. She motivated me to keep going in this exhausting process.
Susan’s expertise and attention to detail were evident throughout the process, and I genuinely believe that I would not have been accepted into my dream MBA program without their help.
In addition to her expertise, the admission counseling service was incredibly responsive to my questions and concerns. She was always available to answer my questions and provide guidance, which helped ease my nerves and made the application process much less stressful.
Overall, I highly recommend SIA counseling service to anyone seeking a top MBA program. Susan indeed went above and beyond to help me achieve my goals, and I am forever grateful for their assistance. Thank you so much for all your help!

Working with Susan turned out to be the best decision I made during the application process. Given that I am an Indian male with a 307 GRE score and a 2.72 undergraduate GPA, I knew getting into any of the top programs would be difficult. The other issue was that, despite having an interesting professional background (I’m an ex-racing driver who worked exclusively in motorsport), I struggled to translate my value add to an MBA classroom through my essays. After a thorough review of my background and by scheduling a detailed call to understand what motivated me, Susan was able to help me intrinsically work out how I would contribute to the classroom as well as help me figure out how best I could use my MBA to make the career pivot I desired.

Susan also excelled at helping me tell my story. By taking the time to understand my motivation behind pursuing an MBA, we zeroed in on particular elements from my background that helped me put forth a series of strong and compelling essays.

After failing during the 2021-22 cycle my attitude toward the process was extremely negative. Susan did an outstanding job of helping me stay focused on the bigger picture, which was the first step toward submitting the best application we could. Despite my poor metrics, Susan did not discourage me from applying to the schools I desired, and she was extremely patient as we reworked our school selection on multiple occasions. We primarily focused on schools that had a predilection for data analytics, an area of focus that is crucial for both my long-term and short-term goals, and in the end decided to apply to one M7 and two schools in Britain, one of which was Cambridge Judge the school I will be attending.

Coming to the process itself, I won’t lie, some of Susan’s essay feedback was infuriating. This was mainly because I felt she wanted me to elaborate on obvious elements to me but in retrospect may not have been to the admissions committee. She was, however, always available to explain her comments on my essays, and her logic and reasoning were sound. A good example is Susan’s guidance on resume development, which while arduous in process, delivers excellent results. This approach was calming to me because it demonstrated that I had someone on my side who was extremely methodical and considerate, as well as someone who paid attention to even the smallest details, which makes such a big difference when applying to multiple schools.

Susan’s interview preparation is the final aspect that must be remarked on. Following a series of grueling mock interviews, my actual interview with a professor from Judge felt like a breeze. Furthermore, because of the comprehensive nature of these sessions, we had already discussed the majority of the questions posed to me, leaving no room for surprises during the actual interview.

Regardless of your background or metrics, I strongly recommend working with Susan because, from personal experience, she can help your application punch above its weight.

I could not speak more highly of Susan Berishaj and her MBA admission consulting services. Coming from a non-traditional background with a blip in my professional experience, I was worried about the prospects of getting into business school. With Susan’s help, I was able to interview with Stanford GSB and was accepted to 6 of my 7 target schools (Wharton, Yale, Kellogg, Booth, Berkeley-Haas, and NYU), with a full-ride scholarship from NYU, significant scholarships from Yale, Kellogg, Booth, and Berkeley.

After interviewing a dozen MBA consultants, I narrowed it down to Susan and another seasoned consultant who had worked in the industry for 10+ years. Within 2 weeks, I decided to switch to Susan because she took the time to call and understand what she could do better next time to win my business. I got the sense that Susan held herself to a standard of excellence that no other consultant carried for themselves. Because she works on a very personal level, she sees each client as a person, not as an upsell opportunity.

On an intangible level, Susan lives and breathes the term “mission-driven.” She actively listens to every detail of your story, helps you shape your short and long-term career goals post-MBA, gives honest feedback that you may not always want to hear, and sticks with you every step of the way. During moments of vulnerability, such as a terrible essay, bad professional experience, or weak test score, she supports you with an optimistic mindset and constructive feedback. Her ultimate goal is to elevate your story to the best version it can be.

On a tactical level, Susan is incredibly methodical in her approach. She takes the time to set up a strategy call, reviewed my resume as many times as necessary to get it to her level of perfection, and edited every draft of my essays with careful thought and care. She consistently made herself available for Brainstorm calls, and weekly check-ins to ensure I had the right support and accountability. When it came time for the interview preparation process, we went through 3-5 rounds of interview preparation for each school. I felt so prepared by the end of the process, that my confidence naturally showed through.

I could not recommend Susan enough. As you consider investing in an MBA coach, remember that Susan will actually invest in you to be the best version of yourself in your applications. She is a lifelong friend and mentor now.

Susan provided excellent expertise and care that made my business school admissions experience extremely positive. As an international student, I was not confident I would be able to gain admission to my top choice M7 schools but ended up with admission to my top choice school. I worked with Susan on a 3 school application package from the initial application process through the interviews and eventual admissions. She was incredibly helpful in all of the obvious things, such as getting to know my story, assisting in developing my essays, preparing me for interviews, etc. But there were many strategic decisions she was very helpful with along the way as well. Overall I could not have higher praise for Susan as an admissions consultant!

Working with Susan was a phenomenal experience – I highly recommend working with her as an admissions consultant. Though the application process itself was intense, Susan did an amazing job to make it less stressful as she has a thorough process to help guide you each step of the way. Susan’s structured process, support, and guidance along every step of the journey were key in helping me to get into my top choice M7 business schools. Working with Susan on crafting and telling my personal story and goals was incredibly valuable. Coming into the process, I was not sure how to answer the prompts for each of the business schools. Susan not only helped me to reflect on my experiences and plans post-MBA, but her vast knowledge of each of the school’s characteristics and the specific attributes they look for was instrumental as it was then clear to me what/how to write for each school. Susan shared timely, clear, and actionable feedback that helped to make my story more nuanced and stand out. Susan dedicates a significant amount of time to each step of the application process – from school selection to preparation for the following year. Her support in helping me to determine schools of interest, identify recommenders, practice interviews, and select my school was invaluable.

Moreover, Susan always went the extra mile. For example, even after we had “cracked” the essay topic, she would help provide feedback until it was in the best place; or when practicing for interviews – she would always make additional time for me to ensure that I was ready for any question. Working with Susan far exceeded my expectations and I cannot thank her enough for all her help – I would not have gotten into my top schools without her.

I highly recommend Susan to anyone looking for help with the MBA application process. She was extremely helpful with figuring out my point of view, editing my resumes, essays, and recommendation letters, and getting everything across the finish line. I only used my package for help with two reach schools and was not interviewed at either, but Susan still helped me with interview prep for the school that I ended up getting admitted to. I cannot thank her enough!

I cannot recommend Susan enough as an admissions consultant. With Susan’s help, I got into all five MBA programs that I applied to (Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, Haas, and LBS) with several scholarships including my top choice school. Susan led me through a thorough and structured process from start to finish, including personal story and goal development, school selection, application development, recommender strategizing, interview practice, and even acceptance decisions and early recruitment planning. Susan was truly talented in her ability to identify a rich and thoughtful application story that was true to myself and my passions – a task that seemed daunting at first. Her feedback is succinct and effective, and she was willing to dedicate whatever time necessary to ensure my best application.

I chose to use an MBA consultant because I entered the application process slightly late and was overwhelmed by the amount of work in front of me. Susan’s role in distilling this work into actionable steps and helping to guide me through the decisions and priorities was invaluable.

Susan provided extensive, detailed knowledge specific to each of my 5 schools to help tailor to unique preferences, notable offerings/professors, and school culture. This encyclopedic knowledge of each school was invaluable in customizing each application and resonating with the schools’ interests.

I strongly recommend Susan as an MBA consultant to anyone applying. She offers specialized skills at each step in the process as well as an impressive ability to maintain the bigger picture and guide you through the process from start to finish (and even further than that).

Susan is simply amazing. Her support is end-to-end and you get more mock interviews than necessary to absolutely knock the MBA interviews out of the park! Susan was my guiding light in preparing my essays, narrative, and interviews.

She is extremely knowledgeable in the MBA space. She has a finance background from Yale which was extremely comforting. I am from a state school background with no remarkable employers, so there was a lot of impostor syndrome going in – Susan helped me feel more confident about the schools I chose.

Before Susan, I was thinking I would barely make my way into a top 50 school due to my background and very average GMAT/below-average GPA. After Susan’s guidance, I confidently applied to LBS, Oxford, Cambridge, Duke, NYU, Cornell, and Vanderbilt. I was only dinged from LBS, waitlisted at Cornell and Cambridge, and accepted everywhere else, even receiving a $76,000 scholarship to Vandy.

Really at the end of the day, it’s next to impossible to maximize your MBA potential without a seasoned consultant who knows how to play the game. I’m not sure if I would have gotten into any of these schools if it wasn’t for her.

At the end of the day, if ROI is your concern, Susan’s extremely fair fees will pay themselves over with better acceptances or scholarships.

Susan also simply just cares! I concluded working with her in December 2021 but she still sends me monthly email updates with info to help me prepare for my MBA.

She doesn’t just want you to get accepted, she wants to see you succeed.

Susan is the best consultant I’ve worked with. I initially looked to her for help on applying to MS, but a few days later I noticed she could also help me practice for job interviews. Susan really helped me know myself as a professional and person because she was interested in knowing me before helping me with my resume and cover letter. When I applied for MBA programs, I had help from two other consultants. They were great, but Susan was amazing. I not only got offers from the schools I applied to (Emory, Vanderbilt) but I also got job offers. I was very stressed about the whole process of interviewing. As an international student, I knew my accent and English grammar could be a problem, but she worked with me on it. She is a top-class professional, and I would highly recommend her. Even if you’re having a hard time finding a job, she can help you. The amazing work she did with me to build my resume emphasized a valuable experience.

I had a great experience working with Susan. Not only was I accepted in my first choice, but I enjoyed the entire application process.
In February 2020, I decided to apply to 3 of the top MPP programs (Oxford, LSE, and Cambridge). I was overwhelmed by the number of requirements for each school and confused about the entire process, so I started looking for help. I interviewed over 10 consultants and when I spoke with Susan, I knew I wanted to work with her. She is passionate about helping people achieve their goals, listens to them, and understands them. This was very important as she was able to help me reflect on my goals throughout my application. Even though I knew what I wanted, I didn’t know how to put that on paper, and she helped me to do it. She has a methodology in which I learned what the universities were looking for and how would that fit my purpose, increasing the chances of acceptance. We did a lot of work before we even started drafting the essays. This included creating a strategy for each of the applications and a timeline. While working on the essays, we had many iterations. All of Susan’s comments were very valuable to improve the content of my essays and to be able to include all the important things in a limited number of words. Although my programs didn’t require an interview, she recommended scheduling calls with relevant professors and alumni and helped me prepare for those calls. She also helped me select my recommenders based on what they needed to reflect on the recommendation letters. At the end of the process, she thoroughly reviewed each application before submitting them. I was accepted into two of the three programs I applied to. After the application process, she continued following up on the results and after I got accepted, she has been helping me a lot to prepare to start the program.
In addition to the amazing experience I had working with her and the perfect results, I really enjoyed sharing this process with her. She knows how to listen and motivate you and if she agrees to work with you it is because she truly believes in your dreams and does everything possible to help you achieve them.

#1 Investment I have made in my 30 years, resulting in #1 choice achieved for Graduate School with successful admission to Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Optimization: Susan helped me uncover and project my application narrative to reach my absolute potential. This was CRUCIAL for the numerous essays required for each school.

Peace of Mind: Working with Susan, I had minimal stress during the application thanks to the incredible results she enabled me to achieve day by day, week by week. From the beginning, her thorough process and dedication, coupled with my own hard work gave me the peace of mind to know that I was going to achieve success in graduate school admissions. This peace of mind is priceless.

Personal Approach: Susan tailored her proven framework to suit my schedule and needs. Again, this brings incredible value and quality to the experience.

I’m truly fortunate to have discovered Susan’s professional work from my friend Jack (see his review below). This was truly a life-fulfilling investment.

Having Susan by my side proved valuable throughout my application process. She helped me overcome an absolutely terrible GPA (<2.7) to gain admittance at my dream M7 school.

When I initially reached out to several MBA consultants, Susan was one of the very few who was willing to work with me despite my glaring academic weakness. During our first conversation, she took the time to closely evaluate my profile and was honest about both my strengths and weaknesses. From the start, I already had a feeling I would be comfortable working with Susan. She gave me very thoughtful advice even before I officially signed up for her service.

Once I signed up, Susan made me go through a very comprehensive self-reflection process. I learned so much about myself – my personal journey, motivations, achievements. This set the foundation for crafting extremely deep and personal stories that would later pique the interest of 3 top MBA programs.

Susan constantly challenged me throughout the essay drafting process. I would usually write what I would assume were very compelling initial drafts, but Susan would leave comments such as “Why does this matter?” or “Explain what you mean” on certain sections. I would sometimes get frustrated, but I knew why she would do it – these are the same questions adcoms would ask while reading my work, so I have to make sure my essays are as clear as possible for them to understand. The final versions were all clearly stronger and more compelling than the initial versions, and I attribute that to Susan’s guidance.

Susan also helped me practice my interviews by making sure I’d be ready with responses that were true to myself and at the same time, speak to the school’s culture. I felt I gave a strong interview with my top school, and again, this is because of multiple practice sessions with Susan.

Overall, I had an amazing experience with Susan. I couldn’t have done it without her support.

Coming from a non-business background, I was looking for a consultant to help me with all aspects of my MBA applications. I spoke with four companies before choosing Sia Admissions. Susan’s personalized approach sold me.

On our first call, Susan promised to be there every step of the way, and she meant it! From the initial stages of getting to know me and crafting my school list in the early summer to celebrating my acceptance in December, she was always on my side.

As a consultant, Susan is very meticulous. She goes through several drafts of all of your documents until they are perfect. She will constantly push you to do your best work and make sure you are telling your unique story. For example, we did eight drafts of my resume alone. I definitely got frustrated at times with how much she pushed me (re-writing the same paragraph over and over is not fun!), but I knew she was just doing it to make my applications as strong as possible. For interviews, she offers multiple mock practice sessions for each school to ensure you are fully prepared. Her all-inclusive package is truly all-inclusive.

Long story short, I am very glad I worked with Susan. An MBA consultant is an enormous investment, but with Susan’s help, I gained acceptance to my top-choice program with a partial scholarship.

Helping applicants showcase their strengths and tell their story is Susan’s genuine passion. If you are looking for both a coach and cheerleader on this crazy journey, I highly recommend her!

I’ve contacted Susan very last minute to help me prepare for my admission MBA interview at Imperial College London.
Susan is very flexible, approachable, authentic, professional and dedicated.
We started off very quickly and she headlined key points and made my story speak out.
I would highly recommend Susan.

My experience with Susan has been very positive. I was amazed by her insight into my personality and motivations because she connected experiences in my past that I didn’t fully appreciate. This shows her investment with the candidates and the depth with which she understands them, which is quite commendable. Her detail-oriented approach helped me bring out my personality in my writing and convey it right to the school. MBA application is a lot
about figuring out our best story and for that, it’s very important to build a strong relationship with the consultant with whom we work. Since Susan is extremely easy to talk to, I was able to build that relationship easily. If you’re looking for a person who is invested in you and your story and with whom you can build a positive relationship then she truly fulfills that criteria.

I highly recommend Susan from Sia Admissions. She helped me overcome mediocre academic stats to get into my #1 school. It has been a fantastic experience.

As a result: I have received offers of admission to Wharton, Stern, Darden, McCombs.

I could not imagine going through this process without Susan’s help.

I decided to work with her because I knew I was taking a significant risk in changing careers. I wanted to maximize my opportunity and limit my risk of failure.

I interviewed a couple of other larger MBA consulting companies and found that they were competent, but they had more on an assembly line approach. I would go from station to station (each with a different person) depending on what part of the process I was conducting.

I wanted someone that I could connect with and would understand my situation. I am transitioning careers and didn’t know what I wanted to do after business school. I didn’t have a clear narrative of who I was and why I would be an asset to a business school.

I went with Susan because I got the impression she was going to be with me through the whole process and help me develop who I would be after leaving the military.

Susan did just that and then some. She has been available every step of the way.

School Selection: We spoke for hours on the phone. She got to know me and what my goals were. She recommended a variety of schools: reach, target, and safety schools. With these schools, she gave the reasons why, why not, and how it would fit my personality.

Application Development: She spent time helping me put together a narrative on how I would contribute to the school, what I wanted to do short term, and what my long-term goals were. As I would write the essays and resumes, she would take the time to help me get it right. It was important to me to make sure that I was representing myself honestly while communicating in a manner that would connect with the admissions committee. I think every document I submitted was the result of 8 or more drafts. She took the time to make sure I was submitting the best application possible.

Interview Prep: Every time I would get selected to interview, she would send me a series of interview questions that I could expect for each interview. We would then do a call where she would explain to me what was unique about that school’s interview process and how I should prepare. Afterward, we would do an unlimited number of mock interviews. For each actual interview, we spent several hours on skype running through mock interviews.

Decision: She has been available through this whole process, always giving me advice on the advantages and disadvantages of each school and things to consider before making my final decision. Additionally, she is helping me apply for other scholarships and preparing myself to enter business school this fall.

I chose to have her help me with all my applications. It was expensive, but it made sense to me because I didn’t have any other resources that I trusted, guiding me through this process. My career change is one of the most significant risks I’ve taken. As a result, I saw any avoidable mistake as unacceptable, so I wanted someone to help me ensure I was doing each little thing right.