Put your best foot forward

Based on my personality and my budget, I knew that I wanted to do most of my own research on the application process. I was initially resistant to hiring a consultant. However, I have a pretty standard background (banking then mid-market PE, white male, east coast city, mid-20s), and I wanted to make sure I put my best foot forward. MBAMission’s a la carte hourly services and Liza were a good fit for me. I choose the company after going to a seminar hosted by the company founder Jeremy, reading their free school guides (they’re so helpful – go download them), and doing my free consultation. I liked the company’s philosophy of trying to make your story come through as best as you can. The way I figure, that’s all an essay can really do. Other consultants were more pushy/salesy and tried to act like they were the magic snake oil to get into every school. Plus, the hourly structure allowed me to ask Liza to focus on areas I knew I needed help, for several schools, all while making it affordable (and hey, with my scholarship money to several schools, it was really a net positive for me).

Liza reviewed my resume and my top school essays over the course of a few hours. She offered helpful suggestions that resulted in me changing the whole narrative structure of one of my stories. By the time I submitted “v32”, it was a much more powerful essay and more clearly reflected who I am. However, by far the most helpful part of working with Liza was my mock interview (with her) and my mock team based discussion (with a colleague of hers). Admission interviews are very different from professional ones, and I frankly did much worse during my (practice) first iteration of each format than I did during the real things. I feel like working with Liza filled in the gaps in what I would’ve been able to learn on my own through the internet and cold emailing current students. She definitely helped make sure I feel like I gave my best effort in applying, and I have a result with which I’m very happy.