Great Experience with mbaMission!

Over the past 6 months I took full advantage of mbaMission's start to finish package for three schools, Duke, Texas, and Michigan. I also applied to MIT, but did not buy a package for this one. I started out with 1 and ended up buying two more. Below is my background and overall experience working with mbaMission.

Background: I am a 29 year old male with an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering, which I received in 2010. I have spent 6 years in the IT consulting industry, 2 of which were for a smaller firm (400 people), and the past 4 working for one of the big 4 consulting firms. My undergraduate GPA was 3.7 and my GMAT score was 670. Note - I took the GMAT 5 times (660, 590, 660, 640, 670)

Consultation: I started to look into mbaMission in May 2016, the year I applied, when I participated in their free consultation, which I highly recommend. You are going to be spending a lot of time working with your respective consultant so it is very important that you gauge the working style and personality of the consultant on your call. Make sure you take full advantage of this call to fully understand what you are buying and the effort you will need to contribute in the coming months.

School Selection: One of the very first items you hit with your consultant is a school selection call, which is a 30-60 min discussion about what schools you should be applying to. Note - make sure you do your homework and you use the consultant as a sounding board versus expecting them to tell you where to apply. The great part about the consultant is that they work closely with schools during the off season, meeting with admissions teams, and getting to know the programs at a more detailed level. Although this feedback can be found online, it will be invaluable to have it applied directly to your situation. My consultant did an outstanding job providing candid feedback about how my profile aligned with the schools I had selected. In my situation, I spent the past 6 months cold calling students and visiting programs to truly determine where to apply. To truly find your perfect school you will need to do much more than the 30 min call mbaMission offers. I would consider this call a final sounding board.

Brainstorming Call: Early on in the process the consultant will have you complete a brainstorming document. MAKE SURE TO PUT IN THE TIME HERE. I think mine ended up being over 30 single line pages in MS Word. This is by far the most important part of the process and will help your consultant really get to know you. Don't leave out any detail and be as transparent as possible. I often found my consultant referring back to this document and pulling out the most minute details that I had forgotten about or didn't realize would add value to my applications. At the end of the day, your essays are all about showing (1) here are my goals (2) here is how far I've come thus far (3) here is why I fit into your school and (4) here is proof I'll achieve what I just told you. One of my FAVORITE concepts was "proof points." Everything you tell a school needs to be backed up with some proof that what you're telling them will actually come to fruition and that you aren't just applying on a whim.

Essay Writing: Most of the process you will be working on your essays with the consultant, which is the most critical component. I will say that what you put into the process is what you get out. Do not expect the consultant to provide you content for your essays. They also do NOT write your essays for you. That is entirely up to you. The more you can research the schools, cold call students, visit the school in person, and read student blogs, the better the consultant will be able to help you. I found it invaluable to have brainstorming discussions with my consultant about how to share my story in the most effective manner, while weaving in characteristics about the school. The biggest thing the consultant taught me was that I should NOT focus on trying to write what the school wants to hear, but rather focus on my story and how the school will impact my career journey. The schools know themselves better than everyone else so they don't need us to tell them again. Furthermore, I thought the consultant provided a great outside view on how my stories would be perceived to the admissions committee. Going into the essays I had a few stories that seemed obvious that I wanted to share, but further realized that another story I had was much stronger outcome. Last, the consultant did an outstanding job of keeping me motivated throughout the process. Their ability to provide feedback and constructive criticism was motivating. They always helped me see the positives in what had been written which kept me motivated through a very stressful application season.

Interviews: If you have ever participated in a behavioral interview before you realize that they require a lot of preparation. Having a consultant to do mock interviews with was a life saver. For one of my interviews I had more than 15 behavioral questions back to back. Questions such as: Explain a time when you dealt with diversity, Explain a time when you dealt with conflict, Walk me through a time you motivated a team, etc. etc. My consultant taught me how to be concise, hit the key points, and move on. Without having worked through a few practice rounds, I would not have been as prepared as I was.

Overall, if I had to go through the process again, I would 100% use mbaMission without a doubt. Sure, it can be costly, but it is the future of your career on the line. I had spent over a year studying and preparing for the GMAT and if I put 110% into my applications and didn't get in, I would have strongly regretted not using a consultant. Using a consultant gave me the confidence that I was giving it all I had. At the end of the day you are investing over $100K into a graduate program to further your career. Yes, $100K! It is worth a small portion of that to know that you gave it your best shot at the end of the day.