Wharton success: thank you Angela Guido!

I'm an education consultant. Because of that it may seem odd that I would actually hire an education consultant to apply to business school - but it ended being a wonderful decision!

Through my own work with my students (I only work with applicants to boarding schools and universities), I have seen how important my guidance has been in their school selection, essay writing, and interview preparation. I have an objective, "outsider's" opinion and know the system.

Before my experience applying to MBA programs, I had never thought to use an education consultant. However, because I saw the value I provide to my own students, I knew just how useful having someone's outside perspective - and knowledge of MBA programs and want they are looking for in candidates - could be the make or break of my applications. I did not know how to tell my story, and I did not know the MBA market. I knew I needed an expert.

A friend recommended the team at mbaMission and I think I selected Angela at random because she had a free trial time slot available when I was free. Since then, I've heard excellent things about other mbaMission consultants as well, but from the first call I knew that Angela was the consultant for me - call it love at first Skype :)

From the beginning, Angela made it clear that she believed in me and in my story, and in the fact that, with the proper application, I had a chance at my dream school - Wharton. As a somewhat nontraditional applicant with a complicated story, having someone confident in my applications was very important to me.

Angela helped me clarify my story and think about my career progression and goals to date in a way that was meaningful, interesting, and effective. I could feel my story making more sense to myself during and after our calls. My resume was a complete mess and Angela patiently walked me through how to make the changes. She never directly told me to do, but rather provided the right guidance, asked the right questions, and helped me develop my own thought process so I could really develop a resume that reflected my strengths and past achievements.

I found her feedback equally helpful when we moved to the essay stage of applications. Angela helped me understand the perspective of each school, and how expectations for essays differed from program to program. As we worked through each essay, I felt increasingly confident about my story and my accomplishments, as well as how to show them. Angela’s feedback helped me re-direct my essays and provide stronger essays, as well as use the right details to suit different schools. While I am a strong writer, I never could have finished my essays as efficiently and confidently without Angela’s expert advice.

Angela also greatly helped with the interview preparation process. By that time, I felt like working with her on my resume and essays had already helped me solidify my stories and achievements so that preparing for interviews did not require much extra work. At this time, I really felt the benefit of working with her: having had the experience of talking through everything with her, having to explain my resume and essay ideas, then using her feedback to develop my ideas and tie everything together had really given me a strong sense of my own story, such that going into an interview seemed very straightforward. We did additional practice questions until I felt comfortable, and I ended up going into the interviews very confidently.

In the end, I received offers to my dream school, Wharton, as well as to MIT, which was also a top choice for me. Angela’s patience, confidence, and professional feedback throughout the process played a major role in my success story – would highly recommend her!