Very solid experience with Brian from mbaMission

My stats: 740 GMAT/3.3 GPA/5 years WE in tech. I applied late in the game (took the GMAT end of Otc, applied for Round 2 to 5 schools starting in late Nov).

I took the Manhattan Prep course and they recommend mbaMission so I signed up for the 30 minute free consultation with Monica. She was absolutely on-point, pointing out weakness in my EC and providing feedback on my target schools. It was such a productive session I signed up for a package deal for hourly consulting. Given the price of business school, the price of consulting seems absolutely worth it, especially given the potential pain and price of having to apply again if you don't get in to a target school.

I worked with Brian Eng, who was really helpful in a number of key ways:

1. He listened to my story, helped me understand and reflect on what exactly I wanted, and how I could fine-tune my goals and express continuity from where I was to where I wanted to go. He didn't re-write my story or push me to change anything so much as say something to the effect of "it sounds like you want to be involved in X in the long term, why not spell that out as your long term goal?"

2. He provided very pointed feedback about line items in my essays as well as general thoughts on gaps I needed to fill or directional issues in my essays. This was always according to my asks however. I would generally request either high level review to start with, and then ask for more line item reviews when I got to a later draft.

3. He would match my quick pace during phone calls so we could get the most out of our time. I really appreciate that because there were some essays I would have a lot of questions about and others I would have just a few pointed questions about. Some of my questions were really broad e.g. of these 5 ideas, which one do you think best addresses this prompt and shows a new side of me? He was great at getting to the point and moving quickly from topic to topic as per my request.

4. He helped me figure out what each essay questions was really trying to "get at" in terms of what schools wanted to find out about me. Rather than telling me what kind of stories to use, he would point out that certain essays were better answered with personal rather than professional anecdotes, or constantly explain how much more school-sspecific and tailored I would need to make my essays. Ultimately the big questions are why b school, why now, why this one, short term goal, long term goal. And Brian helped me determine which essay or place in the application I would be best served putting each answer since it's not always possible or advisable to answer all those items in one prompt.

If I had any constructive feedback, it would be that I was expecting a touch more hands-on help in terms of help brainstorming essay ideas and responsiveness, but those were both mostly driven by the fact that I was in a time crunch and very stressed. That said, it was fairly minor and I appreciated that he encouraged me at every turn and mentioned he had been in a similar situation when he applied for schools. Ultimately, he helped me get accepted to 2 top 10 schools, both my top choices.

In terms of how "worth it" the service is, I definitely think from a price perspective it is worth it given how much you're already paying for business school and applications. The best way to optimize the service's worth is to brainstorm questions and ideas before calls/emails and hit all your concerns at once. From an application management perspective, it's absolutely worth it if you don't have a lot of people who have previously applied to help you out. I also really appreciated all the free school guides the website provides!