Highly Recommend Jessica Shklar at MBA Mission

I decided to reach out to an admissions consultant, after having already taken the GMAT 3 times and having put off applying to business school for a year. I knew I was a competitive candidate in all other aspects - I worked at a top management consultant firm and was being sponsored for my MBA, had a 3.75 GPA, and plenty of community involvement - so I decided I was going to accept my 630 score and hope for the best. My targeted schools were Kellogg and Booth, since I was hoping to be in the Chicago area.

I received Jessica Shklar's name from a friend who had only used her for a few hours, but said those few hours made all the difference in her application (she is now at Wharton). When I first had my 30 minute free consultation with Jessica in August 2013, I immediately expressed my concerns regarding my GMAT score. I explained my test taking history and that I was scoring significantly higher on my practice tests, and Jessica recommended I take the test again. The best part was her directness - in her follow-up email after our call she outlined my 3 options: 1. accept your score, 2. give the GMAT another try, 3. apply to a few schools round 1 and take the test again depending on the results. She strongly recommended option #2, which was certainly not what I wanted to hear, but it ended up being the right choice. Even more impressive, was that Jessica went as far as to recommend specific tutors at Manhattan GMAT (since I had already taken their course) that I could do a few sessions with to get back on track.

I decided to take her advice to take the GMAT again, and Jessica promised to save a spot in her Round 2 line-up for me. She even followed-up into the fall to make sure the tutor was working out. I ended up taking the GMAT for the 4th time at the end of November, and scored a 690 - exactly what I needed to get into my targeted schools. Thanks to Jessica's advice, I felt confident in my application and decided to apply to 4 schools during Round 2 - Wharton, Kellogg, Booth and Ross. I went with a 2 school package from MBAMission and after comparing essay questions and discussing it with Jessica, I decided to have her help me with Wharton and Kellogg.

During our initial brainstorming sessions, I already felt that working with Jessica was helpful. She quickly narrowed down my stories that would work for the essays and those that didn't. She talked through the narrative of how exactly to communicate the story to make it appealing from an admissions perspective. By the end of the call I knew exactly what story or narrative I was going to use for each essay and had a good outlines already going in my head. I took very detailed notes during that sessions (literally typed every word) and ended up using a good portion of that original content in the essays I submitted.

During the editing process, Jessica was timely with her feedback and I almost always accepted her changes. I also really appreciated that she knew not all of her changes would be accepted, as some things are just personal style. Overall, her feedback and edits were on-point. At one point in the real heat of the application filling-out process, she sent me a note saying something to the affect of, "I just want you to know you're doing a great job" - it was just the boost I needed and was just so nice to hear.

In the end I was admitted to Kellogg, Booth, and Ross. While Jessica only helped me with Kellogg and Wharton, I was able to leverage a good portion of the materials I developed with her for the other schools. The only one negative I will mention, is that she's hard to get! My boyfriend reached out to her in March 2014 (with my recommendation) and she was already full for Round 1. Jessica is helpful, responsive and really knows her stuff - I highly recommend her to anyone looking for MBA application support.