Heidi helped me really refine my MBA goals and put together a compelling vision of why I wanted to attend bschool. I was kind of all over the place and coming from a non traditional background before bschool so this was very important for me. I did the three school application package and it was great, I was also studying for the gmat at the same time and Heidi helped me stay on track. She touched base, had great ideas and helped me cut through the noise of the stress and anxiety of putting together a great application. I also did several interview prep sessions with Heidi which were extremely helpful.

Read More

I reached out to Veritas early on in my business school journey and it ended up being one of the best decisions I made last year.

I worked with Taniel on the school-specific consultation for HBS and ended up being admitted. Taniel constantly emphasized the importance of telling my story, being realistic with my goals, and making sure my narrative and the way I described my past experiences made sense. When we first started working together, he encouraged me to not just stick to my original writing because I had already written it - he pushed me to rethink the entire process and rewrite. That ended up being one of the best pieces of advice I received in the whole process.

Taniel was always accessible, very quickly gave feedback, and was motivating and direct throughout. When I received an interview for HBS, Taniel helped me thoroughly prep and answer interview questions through a practice run - this was fantastic!

Overall, I am very grateful that I was able to work with Taniel. I highly recommend working with him!

Read More

Taniel was my Head Consultant on a 4 school package (Wharton, MIT, Haas, Booth) and provided ancillary tips for me to apply to an additional 3 schools on my own (LBS, HBS, GSB).

Taniel was instrumental in helping me navigate and tackle this large task; writing seven Round 1 applications was never going to be an easy task, but Taniel helped me overcome it one sentence and paragraph at a time.

During the application writing phase, Taniel provided extensive support and guidance on how to optimise my written application. He certainly helped me put my best foot forward and I have no regrets about the final outcome (Offer for London Business School MBA 2020 class; still on MIT Sloan waitlist).

Overall, I feel Taniel did a fantastic job and I would highly recommend him as a Head Consultant and as a School Specialist, due to his in-depth, insider perspective at HBS & GSB.

Taniel is:
1) Very creative and strong at story telling - extremely helpful in crafting and structuring my application narrative arc by spending extensive time carefully listening to my stories and experiences. He picked out and highlighted the most pertinent points to include in my essays, which I would have struggled to do on my own. Through his suggestions and insights, my original draft essay evolved significantly throughout the process.

2) Eloquent and expressive - helped me bring my stories to life with great suggestions on vivid wording and phrasing of certain paragraphs. This allowed my personality to fully shine through in the right way.

3) Structured and supportive - created timeline and objectives “gant chart” to keep track of progress. Continuously encouraged me to stay focused on making progress, which enabled me to complete all 7 applications with time to spare. Helped me navigate this big task in a minimal stress manner.

4) Highly knowledgable about the HBS & GSB processes - was kind enough to give me tips and tricks on how to navigate these extremely specific processes. His experience and familiarity gave me confidence and comfort in my application; he helped demystify these blackbox processes.

5) Direct and candid with feedback - always had a substantiated/reasoned opinion on why he liked / disliked any sentences or paragraphs I had written. Gave thoughtful suggestions on how to improve the essays.

6) Always cheerful and positive - always a pleasure to interact with, was a big factor in why I chose to work with him over many other consultants I spoke with.

Read More

During my long GMAT process, I found Veritas Prep a few days before my exam and loved their Verbal content (I was hovering at like 38 and couldn't go higher. Went up 1 point with three days of their verbal content)

I wish I had prepared for the GMAT with them, but remembering that online content and that a coworker of mine had worked with their admissions consultants for her Wharton interview, I reached out to them for interview prep. I worked with Taniel for a 3 hour package as follows:

1st Hour: Crafting answers to tough questions/general career journey story telling.
2nd Hour: 30 minute mock interview + 30 minutes of feedback on answers and guidance on how to improve
3rd Hour: 30 minute mock interview + 30 minutes of feedback on answers and guidance on how to improve

Taniel was super helpful, supportive, and positive throughout. He spent time trying to understand what were core parts of my personality and my story to bring out and was honest about the process, what to expect, and especially in feedback. I don't really have "stage fright" and usually interview well, but my nerves and tendencies to ramble were tackled head on by Taniel. Additionally, the first two hours were over the phone, but since we were in the same city for the last hour, Taniel went out of his way to meet me and do an in-person mock interview which was particularly invaluable.

I am grateful for the experience because I think it made me more focused, relaxed, and confident. All important interview things! Fingers crossed it came through.

I recommend Veritas Prep for their consulting, but particularly Taniel, as he was so knowledgeable and supportive.

Read More

I worked with Malvina to prep for the Harvard Business School interview. She was great! Malvina was honest about the challenges that I would face, but she was also very encouraging. Ultimately, Malvina made me feel confident in bringing my authentic self to the table. Her feedback after our mock interview was very detailed. The mock interview and debrief helped me work through the natural nerves that came up throughout the process. I would recommend working with Malvina to anyone who can afford the investment and just wants more opportunities for practice and constructive feedback. It is definitely a privilege!

Read More

Contacting Fortuna Admissions is easily one of the best decisions I have made in my business school journey. I had been skeptical of the value from consultants in the past. However, after facing four rejections, I decided to contact several consultants as a means of revamping my strategy and tactics.

Caroline differentiated Fortuna Admissions by being an active listener, empathetic, and neutral in offering comprehensive advice from the beginning, which set a tone of trust and comfort that continued throughout the entirety of my engagement. She was genuinely vested in my success and accessible in all stages, from pre-application school consideration, profile fit, to admissions committee communication and negotiations.

On a working-level, Karen (expert coach) proved candid, clear, and exacting on the areas that needed my attention. We discussed my profile at length during our first session, wherein she took detailed notes to help translate my objectives, strengths, and weaknesses in a coherent and concise manner for my applications. She offered strong insights into the thinking of admissions officers and how to present a unified front as an applicant. We jointly addressed problems and revised my essays to paint a focused and aligned picture that articulated my vision, reasons for an MBA, and specific rationale for individual schools in a compelling fashion. We were able to jointly leverage content matter and tailor sections unique to each university, which altogether amounted to an enormous amount of value and impact in a relatively short amount of time. Karen demanded excellence (i.e. dozens of interactions and iterations for each school) and grasped both the granular details and holistic big picture to help me deliver my best in final drafts and interview preparation.

The duality of Caroline and Karen was potent indeed. Together they not only drastically enhanced my applications, but also instructed me on how to leverage offers to maximize my position and secure scholarships. And the results speak for themselves: I was offered two scholarships and a waitlist from top-ranked European schools, a turnaround from four rejections! Fortuna was invaluable in my process and I would wholly endorse their services to others to radically improve their chances of success!

Read More

I worked with Judith Hodora right before my group interview. From my first touch point with Judith, she was compassionate and encouraged me to focus on my strengths which definitely helped me calm my nerves. We also discussed specific ideas I could undertake on the interview day to tackle aspects I had missed. She was definitely invested in my success and even volunteered to go out of her way to give me extra coaching on the Sunday afternoon right before my interview !! This was quite heart warming and really made me feel like I was ready to ace D-day. Her experience having seen numerous candidate profiles really comes through. I would 100% recommend working with her throughout the process. Great mentor to have !

Read More

I worked with Heidi Hillis through the Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package, and I am extremely excited to say that I was accepted to my top choice program, HBS!! I highly recommend Heidi and the Fortuna team as their insights, advice, and encouragement helped me highlight leadership examples and craft a thoughtful application despite my non-traditional and very technical background. She helped me reflect deeply on my past experiences and pushed me through numerous drafts to compose an application that I was extremely proud of. She also made the intense and overwhelming application process very manageable -- providing a clear roadmap for approaching recommenders, completing essays, and surviving the interview process. Ultimately, I was able to develop a story that expressed clear short and long-term post-MBA goals and I couldn't have successfully completed this process without Heidi's invaluable support. Thank you, Heidi and the Fortuna team!!

Read More

After extensively looking for a consulting firm with the necessary experience to help me apply to the Top Canadian MBA programs, I finally decided to work with Fortuna Admissions.

I worked with Melissa Jones, a consultant with solid experience helping students apply to the top business schools in Canada, and who demonstrated the necessary professionalism and attention to detail to submit the best possible applications.

She used her expertise to guide me throughout the application process, from developing a compelling story that truly showcased my strengths, to helping me prepare for Skype interviews, asking relevant questions and providing feedback. Her responses were always very timely, which is a must-have in my opinion, especially when trying to meet school deadlines.

There are many consultants that claim having experience with Canadian schools, but in reallity not many do. I am fully satisfied with Fortuna's services, and I would highly recommend them.

Read More

I mostly worked with Nonie on my INSEAD application. I also briefly worked with Caroline, who helped me polish my final drafts.

Nonie has been the real superstar in my successful journey to INSEAD. Everything about her is Gold! Her honesty and open-mindedness are the biggest hallmarks of her coaching attributes. She has been pleasantly honest about her opinions and feedback throughout the application process, even if that meant more re-work, drafts and revisions. She has a tremendous eye for detail and helped me rectify things that are sometimes easy to overlook. Nonie is also extremely open-minded, flexible and accommodating. She never restricted my chain of thoughts; she always encouraged me to write different narratives and her insightful critique eventually helped me select the narratives that best showcased my winning attributes and presented me in the best light possible. Although, I started working on my application quite late into Round 1, and hence was always racing against time to submit my application by the Round 1 Deadline, Nonie never allowed me to settle for less or compromise on the quality of any aspect of my application for the sake of meeting deadlines. In fact, Nonie powered me throughout the journey, especially at times when I felt that I might not meet the Round 1 deadline. Despite the zonal time difference between UAE and Singapore, Nonie was very flexible, responsive and her turnaround time was exceptional. Her feedbacks were succinct, crystal clear, and extremely constructive. Nonie leveraged her tremendous knowledge of INSEAD to help me create a bullet proof strategy for my INSEAD application.

However it was not all tough love from Nonie all the time. She displayed abundant sensibility when I shared a few of my personal stories with her. She helped me allay my anxieties and overcome my inhibitions. The mock interviews with Nonie were a lot of fun. I feel, this is where the student-coach relationship really came to life and started thriving on an entirely different level of comfort and camaraderie. Nonie's care and coaching was extremely personal. I could feel that she was really invested, almost like a stakeholder, in my INSEAD dream, and when time came, she seamlessly switched gears from being my essay critic to becoming my biggest supporter. She championed me and positively reinforced my thoughts right until the decision day. Her confidence in my candidacy eventually became the cornerstone of my own belief, faith and confidence. With, Nonie beside me, I never felt alone in the journey - She not only kept me in the race all the time, but also helped me get over the line. I am absolutely indebted to her.

While Nonie was the Superstar of my INSEAD application journey, I would like to remember Caroline as the real Rockstar of my application. Having been the MBA gatekeeper at INSEAD admissions for several years, and having shaped the application procedure herself, Caroline sprinkled the much desired magic dust on my application that quite literally transformed my solid application to a sparkling one. Caroline stressed on brevity, simplified complexities and helped me make my application a breezy read. Her comment's were razor sharp and succinct. Caroline's initial assessment and feedback about my goal was also a massive help as it genuinely made me rethink about my career goals, propelled me towards a more realistic goal and definitely helped me avoid any potential red flags in the minds of the AdCom regarding my post MBA employability. In the end when Caroline, who herself made the final decision for more than 34000 applicants during her time at INSEAD, told me "I enjoyed reading your essays", I did feel a lot more positive and optimistic about clicking that "SUBMIT" button, than I would have felt if I did not have Caroline's blessings.

Succeeding in my INSEAD application, while being a part of the most overly represented demographic (Indian Male Engineer), on the wrong end of the 20's, with a modest GMAT score, a young family, a very demanding work schedule, and no plan B (INSEAD was the only school I applied to) could not have been possible had it not been for Nonie and Caroline, and Matt (who posited a reservoir of optimism, faith, belief and encouragement in me right at the beginning, in the initial free consultation). As Gordon Gekko said “The most valuable commodity I know of is information”, leveraging the collective insider knowledge of INSEAD was my biggest advantage of working with the Fortuna Dream Team. The recipe for success at Fortuna pivots on a fine balance between the various stakeholders at play - the coach, the mentor and the applicant - In my honest opinion the balance, as it is, is perfect.

Therefore, Fortuna's Dream Team receives my highest and strongest recommendation.

Read More