Melissa Blakeslee & mbaMission for the win!

I chose to go with the hourly services so that I could spread the consulting time out over a number of different schools. I had very little traditional business experience so I really needed someone to help me frame my story and experience in a way that would speak to the admissions committee. Today I'm happy to report that I got into my TOP school, and I really could not have done it without Melissa.

From day one she was very professional. She never wasted any of my time on our phone calls and was completely transparent about the amount of time spent on assignments and emails. Not only did I appreciate this level of transparency, it helped keep the costs down by allowing me to only buy as much time as necessary. I used every minute that I paid for.

Melissa initially helped me with school selection, which wasn't easy because I was aiming for Columbia with a GMAT of 640. But when I decided to forge ahead anyway, she was nothing but supportive.

We then spent a considerable amount of time on my resume. Like other people have stated, they do not write the documents for you. But that wouldn't be authentic anyway. Melissa's guidance on my bullet points, style, and structure transformed my resume.

When we worked on the essays every draft I got back from her had lots of helpful edits. Additionally, Melissa was particularly good at turnaround - I got most of my documents back in 36 hours or less, and everything definitely before 48. Again, the level of professionalism here was top notch.

After a lot of back and forth I ended up with a very strong application. I feel that mbaMission helped me communicate my story in the most relevant and convincing way possible. I would have ended up with a totally different set of documents had it not been for their guidance. When the time came, I felt very confident hitting "submit".

Then when I got an interview request, Melissa made time for me even though it was last minute. We spent an hour on the phone to prepare and the next day I interviewed extremely well.

Overall, I felt that Melissa was genuinely interested in my progress. It was especially great to get encouraging emails when I was struggling with the GMAT! I would definitely recommend hiring mbaMission. Even if you are someone who has been through graduate school admissions before, MBA admissions is a totally different game. You need someone who "gets it" to look over your documents and steer you in the right direction.

Finally, yes they are very expensive. But so is business school. A little investment upfront might make all the difference in how your tuition dollars are spent. It most definitely did for me.