Stratus - Susan Cera

At the beginning of my MBA journey I reached out to 3-5 consultants for the free consultations. My GMAT/GPA are slightly lower than the averages at the programs that I was targeting so finding someone that understood my story was crucial for me. Within the first 5 minutes of talking to Susan I knew she was the person I wanted to use. She took the time to understand my background and asked thoughtful questions to learn more – this was vastly different than my experience with other consultants who were just trying to put me into a pre-defined framework to craft my story. Susan felt more like a mentor who genuinely wanted me to succeed rather than a consultant who was focused on getting my business.

I ended up purchasing the one school package and using the ad-hoc/hourly service for essays on the other programs that I was applying to.

We first started on the “introspection” exercise which ends up serving as the basis to answer the most common questions: Why MBA, Why Now and Post-MBA Goals. Based on this information Susan helped me craft a strategy specific to each program that I was applying to. This not only helped with my essays but also with my informational chats with students and alumni. I come from a non-business background (engineering) and I felt very polished during my phone calls with students.

In addition to the introspection exercise, Susan helped me rework my resume, gave me multiple rounds of feedback on my essays, and helped me prepare for my interview. I even got positive feedback from the admissions committee regarding my interview and overall application. I was waitlisted at my top choice due to my GMAT score, but Susan helped me with my updates to the admissions committee (about 5-6 in total).

I used Susan for help on my essays on an hourly basis for two other programs. She was incredibly generous and upfront about what can be accomplished in the hours I purchased. We managed to do 2-3 drafts of my essays for each program within the 2 hours that I purchased.

I could not be happier with my experience with Susan, I would highly recommend her to anyone looking at applying to MBA programs in the future. I am headed to a Top 15 program this fall with a sub 3.2 GPA and sub 700 GMAT.