Thank You, Krista!

For starters, a bit about myself - I was a re-applicant this year. Last year, I worked on my MBA applications for two weeks (yes, I was clearly not very serious) and only applied to two schools - Yale and Ross - eventually getting interviews from both but not getting through at either school. This year, I was more prepared and I worked on Round 1 applications with Krista Nannery for two schools (CBS, Wharton) and was admitted to CBS. I wanted to share some thoughts on my experience with Krista.
 
In short, Krista was absolutely amazing but I would be remiss if I didn't tell you what really made her stand out for me:
 
1. Krista was extremely structured and clearly knew what she was doing:
• Resume structure: Being an Indian male consultant at a Big 4, I felt my resume was strong but also very generic. That was before it received Krista's Midas touch. Krista had a very structured format that separated my client work from my internal projects and helped each of them shine in their own light. It was brilliant to see how easily she understood exactly what I was trying to communicate through my bullets, and enhanced them to significantly heighten their impact. I've genuinely never felt better about my resume than I did after working with Krista through it. We did three drafts of it in 5 days and it was the first "deliverable" we knocked out.
• Essay Structure: After reading my introductory document, Krista knew exactly which stories we should convey in the essays and came prepared to our brainstorming call. She not only had a clear view of the overall essay flow but she had even planned out the first and last sentence of each paragraph! She was always very clear in her instructions and laid out exactly what she needed from me well in advance so we never had to rush to meet our timelines. Krista really helped me bring out my personality and character in my essays, especially in two essays I found very challenging and could've easily gone south (CBS #2, 3). Her best practices for brainstorming and moving on to the actual essay writing made it clear to me that she knew what she was doing and made me not only feel, but also realize that I'm in very good hands.
 
2. Krista always maintained a very prompt turnaround time:
• Even though her mandatory turnaround time for anything I sent was two business days, more often than not, Krista returned the essays to me in less than 24 hours. It almost became a game at one point for me to see who could turn the essays around faster (while maintaining high quality of course). It was great to see how efficiently she was able to pinpoint areas I needed to work on and provide constructive and actionable feedback so that I could implement those changes. Having Krista based in London was a huge blessing for me (living on the East Coast in the US) as anything I sent to her at night was reviewed by her and ready for my edits again in the morning.
• I also want to add that Krista made herself available for a phone chat on each and every occasion that I requested. There were times when I wanted to speak about some resume/essay edits over the phone rather than over e-mail and Krista made sure we were able to grab 30 minutes to an hour each time. Even though she was swamped with other clients, she never made me feel like I was not her only client.
 
3. Most Importantly - Krista was genuinely interested in my success:
• Scholarship Essay: Being an international student with a management consulting background, I never thought I would be given need-based financial aid. Hence, I never kept up with the timelines. However, just a week before the deadline, I received an email from the school and I finally opened the application 3 days before the deadline to see what was required. Despite my extreme tardiness and irresponsible behavior, Krista showed up for me when I desperately needed her. She was about to leave for her vacation and was running to catch her flight when I finally managed to get a first draft of my essay to her. Even though she didn't have a chance to prop open her laptop and type up a long email to me, she read my essay on her phone, took down hand written notes, and sent me a photo of what she had written down. As always, her feedback was constructive and actionable - I knew exactly what to change and how to change it too. Once she landed at her vacation spot, she scoped out a wi-fi spot and immediately responded to my second draft, while being on vacation! Her turnaround was so quick that despite all my tardiness, I was able to submit my application more than 24 hours before the deadline. This "above and beyond" attitude of Krista's just reinforced how genuinely interested in my success she was. To top it off, I recently found out I received a $24,000 annual scholarship from CBS! I cannot describe how grateful I am to her for all her help.
• Interview Tips: Krista was so invested in my success that as I was preparing for my interview, she made every effort to help me cross the finish line with flying colors - even going to the extent of jumping on the phone with me a second time to do another mock interview. Our first mock interview went well but I was still nervous and knew I could answer a few questions better. Krista gave me some crisp and concise feedback on how to tackle those questions and when I expressed that I wanted to jump on the phone a second time with her, she did not hesitate even once before scheduling the call. Her fine tuning here was absolutely phenomenal. After our second chat, Krista helped me feel so confident that despite a crazy interview (probably the most difficult interview of my life), I got into CBS within 5 business days of my interview being completed.
 
Overall, I'm so thankful that I was paired with Krista for this process. Working with her was an absolute pleasure - she was always very professional and had great tips to share. Everyone I speak to in the future about the application process will hear about mbaMission and Krista from me in the best possible light. Thank you for all your help, Krista!