Krista Nannery took me from T50 to T10

Krista Nannery helped me gain admission to a T10 MBA program by helping me truly understand my career goals; helping me write strong, impactful, and memorable essays; and helping me prepare effectively for behavioral interviews and group interview activities. Moreover, I feel like Krista really cares about helping me reach my career goals, and over the past 6 months, I feel like she has grown into a friend rather than a consultant.

If you read nothing further than this, please read this:
She will absolutely strengthen your candidacy for your MBA program of choice. I went from settling for a T35-T50 school with a median salary outcome of $100k to a school with a median salary outcome of $145k. Just considering this, my ROI IS OVER 300%. If you consider scholarships and intangibles like experiences and network, my ROI is significantly higher.

Before Krista: planning to apply to T35-T50 schools

After Krista: Applied to 7 schools
Admitted to 2 T10 (one with a small scholarship)
Admitted to 2 T15-T20 (both with half scholarships)
Dinged WITH interview from 1 M7 school
Waitlisted with interview from 2 T15

Here are some highlights on what Krista helped me with:

1. Brainstorm. She helped me brainstorm potential essay topics by thinking about my personal, undergraduate, and work experiences. This was SO important because ALL of us have valuable experiences to share with admissions committees, but we sometimes discount those memories. As an experienced admissions insider, Krista helped me understand my unique experiences and how I could showcase them on my applications.

2. School selection. After considering my career goals and family needs), she helped me select schools that would be a good fit for me. Again, there is SO MUCH MISINFORMATION and stereotypes on the internet about MBA programs, so I’m glad that I had someone as knowledgeable as Krista on which schools could help me achieve my goals. She helped me pick 7 schools to apply in Round 1 since I wanted to be finished by early 2020. Krista was REALISTIC with me about my chances at certain schools, something I really appreciate after this humbling process.

3. Essays. Krista’s help in this area likely helped me get a scholarship from a T10 school. Krista helped me plan and put together top-notch essays. I tend to ramble (can you tell?) and Krista helped me refine my essays to the most important topics. In some cases, she helped me restructure my essays to make a stronger, more impactful statement. To be clear, she did not write my essays, but she did make my essays 100% better. If you’re a regular person like me, I promise you, your essays will be so much better after working with Krista

4. Recommenders. Krista helped me manage my letters of recommendation very effectively. First of all, she gave strict timelines that I used in order to get my applications in on time. This was very important since one of my recommenders took FOREVER to get back to me. When one of my recommenders gave me bland feedback, Krista helped me put together conversation points that helped me speak with that recommender. He ended up writing a fantastic letter of recommendation that included specific examples. Krista really saved the day here.

5. Interview prep. This was HUGE. MBAmission provides free interview guides for top programs. These guides include actual questions and what to expect. Krista took this a step further and conducted mock interviews with me. This gave me a significant advantage over other applicants since I had an idea of the pressure that I would feel answering real interview questions. Krista asked actual behavioral questions that sometimes caught me off guard, but this helped me during the real interview. In one scenario, 100% of the questions during my T10 interview were asked either in our mock interview or in the Interview guide. HUGE ADVANTAGE!!!

6. Advice and Friendship. I feel like Krista really cared about me, my family, and my helping me reach my goals. At no point did I ever feel like we had a transactional relationship. During this entire process, I feel like Krista has grown into a family friend, someone that I can trust for real, honest career advice. I think we all need someone like that in our corner.