Julie-Anne Heafey

As I learn more and more about the applicant pool of top MBA programs, I realize how many weak points I had in my application. No test score and a below average GPA are two data points that come to mind. Further, I started the whole process around Thanksgiving (with only about a month and a half until Round 2 deadlines), so to say I felt the odds were stacked against me is putting it lightly. My cousin (a 2nd year at UNC Kenan Flagler) had hired Julie-Anne Heafey from mbaMission and strongly recommended I do the same.

From our first conversation, I could tell Julie-Anne was passionate about her work and truly cared about her clients’ aspirations/success. Also impressive was her strong professional background and depth of experience with MBA application processes. In my UVA Darden application, she was instrumental in helping me strengthen the weak areas of my application while finding ways to emphasize and highlight the strong areas. She challenged me to dig deep to generate essay ideas through our Brainstorming session (an area I was totally lost in). Once we agreed on essay topics, Julie-Anne’s critiquing of several drafts was critical in forcing me to think deeply about the messages I wanted to convey. I believe my powerful essays were the strong points of my application, and a lot of that credit is owed to Julie-Anne. Additionally, Julie-Anne pointed out areas of the application that I would have totally overlooked (short answer questions & why Charlottesville). Although these are brief parts of the application, the admissions committee looks closely at them. Lastly, she helped me re-construct my Resume, something I would have never thought important without her valuable advice.

I will be attending Darden this fall and truly believe I wouldn’t be here without the help of Julie -Anne. I would highly recommend anyone applying to MBA programs to hire her!