When I started my MBA journey, I knew that I wanted to work with an admissions consultant company. Coming from an education/non-profit background, I wanted more guidance on the business school process and most importantly, crafting the importance of an MBA degree into my life story.

I did my research when I was looking into different consultant companies. I took the 30 minute initial phone call from many different companies (ex: Stacy Blackman) and ultimately decided that mbaMission was the best fit. They understood my background and had the best grasp on the intersection of business and education. This was key to me because I knew that a well written essay and narrative was my shot to getting into a top 15 program.

The best part about working with Kate was her incredible ability to truly listen and and connect with her clients. During the brainstorming session, she really got to know me and my life story. Her depth and understanding allowed her to guide me in creating a clear and compelling narrative for my business school essays. When I was accepted into my top choice, they specifically referenced the powerful story in my essay. Without Kate, I wouldn't have been able to create a concise but moving story that explains how an MBA fits into my "non-traditional" background.

As someone that does not have traditional business experience, it was also great to have Kate as a resource for every other part of the application process. The MBA application process is pretty much like having another job, so having someone else to call or talk to was definitely a stress reliever. She was always available to chat over email or video chat about big or small questions. Sometimes we would go over important interview questions and other times she would just listen to me vent about the GRE and give me study resources. No matter what, she always responded quickly and gave out truthful advice.

If you are looking for someone that will help you realize exactly why you want an MBA degree and support you every step of the way, I would recommend working with Kate. She is a great person and an amazing consultant.

Read More

When I decided that attaining an MBA was going to be the next step in my life, I knew that I was going to need help in the application process (especially given the fact, I only planned to apply to one program). I knew that I was going to seek help from an MBA admissions consulting firm – but did not know which one I was going to choose. After having multiple 30 minute (free) consultations with a few firms (e.g. Stacy Blackman, Veritas Prep, and mbaMission), I decided that I liked mbaMission best.

However, I am not writing a review to compare mbaMission to other firms. I am writing a review of the work Kate Richardson (my mbaMission admissions consultant) performed that allowed me to get into the Johns Hopkins/MICA’s Design Leadership program with a merit-based scholarship.

Kate is truly a great consultant. She catered to my needs and made the admissions process smooth and even quite fun. I would say the top three things that Kate helped me with were: 1) essay writing/editing, 2) strategy and detail, 3) staying true to myself.

As it pertains to essay writing/editing, Kate helped me recognize what stories in my life were going to make the strongest impact on the admissions committee and helped me outline what specific parts of those stories were going to be most pertinent to illustrate. Furthermore, once I started writing the essays, Kate provided insightful notes on my drafts that allowed me to fine tune the tone, clarity, and vividness of the messages I was trying to get across.

Regarding strategy and detail, Kate helped me ensure that the content of my essays, recommendation (only one is required for the program I applied to), and Linkedin profile all dovetailed one another. This is extremely important given the fact that the essays I had to write had 500-word limits. It is not efficient or effective to say the same things in multiple essays or have your recommender share the same story you wrote about in an essay (unless he/she has significantly different things to say than you do). With Kate’s help, I felt confident that my materials never overlapped, but complemented one another.

Thirdly, Kate never pushed me to write or do anything as it pertains to my admissions portfolio that I felt wasn’t me – which I think is most important. I felt that the application I submitted was the best representation of myself that I could have provided the admissions committee (while staying true to what I believed needed to be said).

In closing, if anyone is thinking about get an MBA and has the capital to hire an MBA admissions consultant during the admissions process, I highly recommend Kate without reservation. She is knowledgeable, intelligent, and easy to talk with. More importantly, she gets the job done.

Read More

I am an international applicant, a non-native English speaker with non-traditional background (Physical Therapy). Working in the healthcare industry for 4+ years I decided to go back to school for exploring management roles in my industry. It was a big and a bold step for me to consider applying to a top 5 part-time MBA program as I have no business background in school and in my professional career. I was looking for an admissions consulting firm with a strong industry reputation and MBA mission stood out in the all the online forums (GMAT Club, Beat the GMAT) .

I narrowed down to Kate as she graduated from one of my target school (Chicago Booth) and I was confident she would be able to assess my profile and my fit for the school as a Booth alumni. She also helped me to decide between applying to full-time vs. part-time programs and my chances of getting accepted into them.

Kate was very thoughtful in her approach and told me from Day 1 that getting into my target school is a realistic goal if I work hard. She was able to understand and market my story in a way I could not have done it myself. I was able to highlight my leadership potential which I always thought as my weak area and career accomplishments from a quant perspective. Working on my resume inorder to make it b-school specific was the most valuable service from the package. As an international student, my profile had many challenging and unique experiences (some of which seemed irrelevant to me in the beginning) and Kate was able to highlight them in my essays.

Kate was prompt on providing her feedback on my essays and was very open to change some of her suggestions if I did not agree on them.I was fortunate to get accepted in both Kellogg and Booth weekend MBA programs and ultimately chose Booth. Kate went over my career goals and my fit with both programs and helped me to decide on my final pick. I would highly recommend Kate to prospective MBA applicants students especially working professionals.

Thanks,
Ameya

Read More

Kate and I met through the mbaMission free profile evaluation process. From the very beginning, Kate was incredibly supportive and encouraging of my MBA goals to gain admission at a top ten school (despite my concerns about a lower GPA and GMAT/GRE scores) and I knew she would be a fantastic resource throughout the process. Conversations with MBA consultants from other companies had left me feeling a bit discouraged about my chances for admission, but Kate restored the confidence I needed to push forward and achieve my goals.

Throughout the process, Kate motivated me to write essays that were unique and consistent with my story to highlight my strengths as an applicant. She challenged me to push further and convey examples from my professional experiences in a more thoughtful and cohesive way. Given I used the hourly service package, she was also incredibly mindful of what feedback I was looking for from her and maximized the time we had so she could review all the materials and essays for each school I was applying to.
Kate was also extremely helpful as I prepared for an interview with one of my top choice schools (CBS). Given her experience across several schools and her strong attention to detail to my overall story and background, I knew her help in the interview prep process would be invaluable. We spent a full hour doing a mock interview and Kate provided advice on how I could tweak my answers based on her knowledge of the program and past interview experiences. After spending this hour with her, I felt much more prepared and relaxed going into the interview and ultimately got in to the program!

Lastly, Kate went above and beyond to talk me through the decision-making process after I gained admission into a few part-time and full time options based on her understanding of my career aspirations and long-term goals. Ultimately, I chose to attend Columbia’s full-time MBA program and could not be more excited! Overall, my experience was very strong and Kate played a very important role in helping me get in to my top choice. I would highly recommend her to anyone beginning the MBA application process!

Read More

My experience with Kate was great. She did an amazing job of helping to bring out all of my key attributes through the different areas of my application. She was able to recognize key qualities in my story that I otherwise would not have deemed important to include. Furthermore, she identified pieces of my application that could be replaced with an accomplishment not yet stated when they were already mentioned elsewhere. This really helped me to maximize the limited space.

When it comes to my resume, she has made an impact well beyond that of a grad school application. The majority of my listed accomplishments did not initially show the level of success or the impact that they made. She really challenged me to rework the content in way that made my resume much more meaningful. My biggest struggle was having the ability to communicate in a succinct way to stay within the word or character limits. Kate was able to take long, detailed paragraphs and help me turn them into clear and concise points that showed action to outcome. This will be a lasting benefit on both my resume and my ability to communicate more effectively.

Lastly, she convinced me to add a personal touch to my resume. I now realize this is an important aspect, especially for schools that place a high value on community involvement and collaboration.

I couldn’t have done it without her!

Read More

My overall experience with Kate was amazing. We worked together mostly on my essays and I can say she has such a creative out of the box way of thinking that really challenged me to make sure that I was giving it my best. I appreciated all of her feedback and felt as though she kept digging deeper to get to my bigger story and helped me unravel it all in my essays. She also is very prompt and will get back to you as soon as she can with even a small question.

I had my heart set on a specific program and was concerned that my quantitative score on my GMAT and my grades throughout my undergraduate program in the quantitative classes would make it difficult for me to get into an MBA program. She helped me figure out how to express my strengths and also touch on my quantitative weaknesses. I feel as though that really helped me to be able to explain these weaknesses rather than avoid them.

Kate and I also did some work on my resume and interview prep. My resume now is very clear and concise and anyone looking at it would be able to understand what I have accomplished without having to ask follow up questions. The interview prep was very helpful because it helped to calm my nerves and keep me on track.

Overall, it was a great experience and I am so excited that I was admitted into my top school! I would recommend Kate to anyone interested in an admissions consultant!

Read More

Anyone that has embarked on the B-School admissions process knows it can affect you in MANY different ways. When I finally found Kate Richardson, I had just finished an unsuccessful and incredibly frustrating year of applications. B-school acceptance was still my goal but the prior season had made me feel completely debilitated and I had no idea how to jump back in the saddle of a horse that had just finished throwing me off.

One of the first things that made me realize I’d found the right consultant was that Kate’s first priority was providing services in a way that worked specifically for me. I’m someone that can fall into laziness and passivity VERY easily and needed a consultant primarily to check-in, keep me on track, help me set and keep deadlines, as well as brainstorm how to approach each step in the process from essays to communicating with admissions departments.

Kate helped me identify realistic goals for my target schools not only in terms of which schools to apply to, but also the specific order to complete the many tasks for each program to ensure I not only worked efficiently, but had the best quality for each submission – because you do lose energy after each step.

Hourly services worked best for me because we were able to set goals at the start and check-in periodically when needed. I reached out to Kate not only for essay edits and strategizing timelines, but also when my brain would explode as it does during this process and I just needed a sounding board/cheerleader to get back on track.

I was ultimately accepted to one of my top 3 programs with a scholarship for half of my tuition based on the essays and personal statements in my application. Even better than that, with Kate’s support and feedback I realized this program was an even BETTER fit for me than the other programs I had been considering prior to our working together. I would definitely recommend that any B-school applicant sign-up for services with Kate, whether it’s your first try or you’re coming back to tackle this beast again she will absolutely help you stay on track and reach your goals.

Read More

At the start of the MBA application process I was really worried about my low GPA. I knew I had a story to explain it, but I felt overwhelmed by how I'd present it and how not to have it sound defensive.

I contacted a few admissions consulting services for free consults and found mbamission to be one of the most thorough. For that reason, I decided to work with mbaMission.
I realised that I was not going to apply for MBA schools again, and so went 'all out' and decided to purchase a 4-school package. Retrospectively, it wasnt absolutely necessary, but I wasn't going to leave anything up to chance.

I was paired with Kate, and from the beginning she was detailed in the strategic approach to my story. And that's really the crux of it -- her ability to help you convey your story in the most enthralling, yet accurate way. I do not believe I could have done this without her help! Kate was responsive and provided great commentary to my story and tailored it well for the different essays and schools.

Of the 4-schools, I was admitted into 2 (one with scholarship). These are two top 15 schools for someone with an equivalent US GPA of approx 2.8 -- not bad!

Read More

I am what an Admissions Committee might call an "unconventional" MBA candidate - I took no math classes in college, and my career experience was entirely creative. As a result, I decided that having some sort of professional assistance during the application process to help me construct my narrative was going to be a good decision.

After speaking with a few different consulting companies, I came across mbaMission, and more specifically, Kate Richardson's profile. The reviews for both Kate and the company were overwhelmingly positive, and I was pleased to discover that an "Hourly Services" option was offered at a competitive rate ; I basically knew what I wanted to say in my applications and where I wanted to apply, so I didn't need a "package" deal with tons of additional services. I really just needed an additional form of guidance, and more importantly, a voice of reason.

Once I began working with Kate, I found her to be direct, a clear communicator, realistic about my school prospects, and very fast in responding to my questions (of which I had many!). She didn't try to sell me anything unnecessary, and overall, we created a winning application essay that represented me in my best light.

Ultimately, I earned admission to a Top 25 program, and even received scholarship $$$. There is no question that I couldn't have done it without Kate's professional expertise and moral support through such a grueling application process.

If you'd like to find someone to help you with your MBA applications who is extremely knowledgeable about many different programs and will respond directly to your needs with no time wasted, look no further than Kate Richardson at mbaMission.

Read More

I used the hourly service because I mainly need help with proof-reading my essays and finding the right "story" to tell. My consultant has been very responsive to all my questions, and gave many useful comments on where I could provide more context and how I can make the essays clear and powerful. I also used mock group interview service, although it's a bit expensive, it helped to give me an idea of what kind of group dynamic and interaction I expect to experience in the real setting. I appreciate their nice and encouraging style, but I think sometimes they could've been a bit sharper on pointing out where I needed to improve. Overall it's been a positive experience working with mbaMission.

Read More