Krista Nannery - a great resource

I reached out to MBA mission for a free consultation in the latter part of my GMAT process. I had studied for a few months and just taken my first official GMAT. My score was mediocre, it was not what I was expecting, and I wanted to talk through my options with someone who had experience with the process.

I had my free consultation with Krista and to my surprise we discussed much more than the GMAT. She did stress the importance of a great score but assured me that it was within reach and many of her clients had faced a similar battle. We quickly moved on to many more fruitful topics. In particular, our discussion surrounding community service is worth mentioning.

I was under the assumption that my application would be subpar as I had little community service activity. I had worked in investment banking and private equity for the past several years and did not volunteer much given the workload. Through my consultation with Krista, I learned that community service is a much broader term than I had initially thought and that I had loads of community service experience. By the end of the phone call I knew that I wanted to work with Krista and ended up buying a three school package with her. What a great decision that was.

I had my sights set on a top MBA program (H/W/S) and the first step was devising a plan to get me over the 700 GMAT mark. A month later, above a 700 was in the bag. I wanted to point this out because she is much more than an application guru. She was extremely helpful before I even started writing and her ability to encourage and motivate is incomparable.
Once the GMAT was in the rearview, we focused on essays. The brainstorming session, like the free 30-minute consultation, brought out quality stories and aspects of my character that otherwise may not have surfaced. Krista would review initial essay outlines and help me tailor the structure and story to the respective school. She was not, however, overly opinionated – my applications remained authentic. Where Krista shines through is on structure and delivery. Her commentary would often be along the lines of “can you rearrange these thoughts”, “can you make this more concise”, or “you had mentioned x in your brainstorming doc, could that fit in here”.

I started working on applications and essays in June. This gave me more than enough time for Round 1 deadlines. I was pretty much able to hop on the phone with Krista as many times as needed. We probably discussed and reviewed each essay 5-10 times. That is the kind of attention you will get with Krista.

In short, she will help you craft your story effectively and push you to submit the best application you can. You do not hire her to get you in, you hire her to push yourself to get yourself in. If you are willing to put in the effort, Krista guidance is a tremendous resource. What I most enjoyed about working with Krista was throughout the whole process the application always felt authentic and in the end you know that you got yourself in.