I started my search for an MBA advisor about two years before applying searching for someone who could truly understand my story and help me come across as the person I see myself. Katy has been spot on from day one and was key to my acceptance to HBS, Wharton & Lauder, Columbia and LBS.

Being an engineer who started my career as a consultant, I was afraid I would not be able to differentiate myself from the highly qualified applicants pool. Katy was very thorough in working to truly understand my story and help me choose the best stories to reflect my profile. She was a perfect mentor and friend helping me with my numerous questions and my insecurities, for example the fact that my GMAT score was not exceptional.

Katy believed in me from the start and is today someone I truly hold dear. Coming from Brazil, being able to relate to someone even never having met in person is incredibly helpful and provides comfort to really open yourself which is key to the success of the process of working with an advisor. I am very grateful to her and have no doubt that she will be able to have the same impact in your application.

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From the first time I spoke with Katy on the phone, the chemistry between us just worked! As a college senior looking into MBA programs, Katy and I identified two major schools, GSB and HBS. Thanks to Katy's experience in consulting and process-management, I put together strong applications despite the short lead time. She listened to my story patiently and was extremely validating to my experiences, positive and negative ones alike. From my storytelling, Katy was quick to distill the essence of my personality which was later carefully weaved into my essays. We spent a significant amount of time working on a common essay body that can be applied to both schools' applications. Katy and I spent hours on the phone trying to tease out the lessons from all my stories to construct a coherent and authentic story.

What really made Katy stand out was how supportive she had been. She never put a word in my mouth. She wanted me to tell my story. Because of her empowering my own voice, the authenticity of my application led to positive results. I was ultimately admitted to HBS' 2+2 program. Thank you Katy!!!

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I recently worked with Katy on my HBS 2+2 application. I approached Katy with a rough draft of my personal statement about a month and a half prior to the application deadline. Katy was extremely helpful in her ability to brainstorm the ideas I was trying to get across and suggest ways to better articulate the themes. I was especially impressed with how she did not work from a template, but rather devoted time to understand my story and express it on paper. With her guidance, my unorganized amalgamation of thoughts came together as a genuine and expressive essay.

As a college senior who did not have recommenders that were familiar with the business school process, I relied on Katy to help me optimize the impact of my recommendations. Katy advised me on how to provide my recommenders with insightful information about the message I was trying to get across. I am confident that my recommenders would not have been able to speak as well to who I am had I not worked with Katy.

In the end, I was thrilled to get into HBS. Katy went above and beyond to always respond quickly and thoughtfully to my many, many questions. This responsiveness, in addition to Katy's strong ability to understand the college experience and relate it to business school language, makes me wholeheartedly recommend her to students applying to 2+2.

I was very happy with my result and know that much of it is due to Katy!

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My goal going into the application process was to be accepted into a top business school (M7). I spoke with several advisors before Katharine. Each advisor prior to Katharine told me I should shoot for either a part time program, or a school that was ranked outside of the top 10.

I chose to work with Katharine because she listened to my entire story, and believed that someone with my profile could get into one of my top choices. She had confidence in her ability to shape both the positive aspects and negative aspects of my story in order to achieve my goals. I was also drawn to Katharine because of her positivity and deep knowledge of all of the top MBA programs.

After working with Katharine for several months, we were able to surface pieces of my work experience, volunteer experience, and extracurriculars that represented who I am in the best light. She then helped guide me through each step of the application process. We worked together to decide what I should write about in each of my essays, prepare my recommenders, and fill out my applications. She did an incredible job weaving pieces of my background throughout my applications, and making sure I had a well-balanced story when I applied. Her strong knowledge of what each school was looking for enabled me to curate my story to match each school’s desired student profile. In the end, I was admitted to the M7 program of my choice.

I learned a lot about myself through the application process. The process allows you to dig deep and think about who you are and what you want to do later in life. Katharine helps guide you through that journey, and I think that is something very special about her that sets her apart from other advisors. Ultimately, she and I put together a story that was very genuine and represented exactly who I am and what my future goals were. I believe admissions really “got” me, that that’s why they admitted me. I’m certain that Katharine can bring that out in you as well.

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I worked with Katy on my Round 2 applications starting in October 2017. At the time, I was weighing a couple of other options, but ultimately decided to go with Katy because of the rapport we immediately established during our 30-minute kick off call and I have been thrilled with that decision ever since!

Katy was incredibly helpful and methodical at every step in the process, and I can say without a doubt that I would not have been able to get into my top schools without her guidance. I was nervous at the beginning because I felt that I didn't have a good grasp of what the top programs were looking for and was somewhat concerned by my GMAT score (V44/Q45).

Katy gave me confidence throughout the process and helped me to refine my story so that I was able to effectively message my candidacy to a variety of programs. She quickly answered every question I had, and her feedback to my drafts was always thoughtful and productive. One thing that really made our partnership effective was how she often provided her feedback in the form a reaction rather than line-editing. That allowed me to retain my voice while at the same time sharpening the points I wanted to convey.

While several other reviewers focus on how valuable her feedback was on their essays--which are undoubtedly important--I found that she was incredibly helpful in interview prep and also served as a sounding board for one of my recommenders who was unfamiliar with the process. These attributes, in addition to her being a very kind and generous person, made Katy absolutely wonderful to work with.

Long story short: If you are considering working with Katy, you should do so. I consider her a friend and will always be grateful for her assistance in this intense process!

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I used Katharine Lewis for a 2-school package (all-inclusive). It seems like a lot of money upfront and I didn't know if I 'needed' a consultant at first - some mentors and friends said that my profile is so good, why would I want one? but I am SO happy with my decision, and Katy definitely made it worth it.

From helping me navigate the MBA admissions process, to reading multiple drafts of my essays until they were perfect, to doing mock interviews, to coaching me through the waitlist process for HBS, Katy was absolutely phenomenal and she has truly become a great friend.

Katy has such extensive experience that she knows how to guide the essays, recommendations, application (like what extracurriculars to highlight there vs. other places in essays, etc.). Also, the mock interviews she gave me truly helped me prepare for the real interviews, and she was able to provide significant additional reading for me.

I got into Wharton (with a large fellowship), into Stanford GSB, and waitlisted after interviewing with HBS.

I am pleased with the results and a lot of it is due to Katy!

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The best thing that I could have done about my MBA application process it to find Katy. I knew I wanted to apply only to Stanford and Harvard so I was looking at someone that has been in touch with both schools. I found Katy and reached out to her, had my 30 min call and was very pleased. Unfortunately I didn't apply that year to MBA, but I still had Katy in my mind and told her that I still want to work only with her but I need to move this to next year and please save me a spot because she is the only person I want to work with. I touched based again with her when the next year came and I was struggling a lot with GMAT. She suggested that I take GRE and gave me the pros and cons for each, and that was a great choice for me.
I had the brainstorming session with her and it felt that she understood my story so well. She has gone through this so many times that she knows exactly what these 2 schools are looking for. Long story short: Katy made the application for me a breeze. Everything was very well structured, step by step and Katy's comments are to the point and very easy to grasp.
The essays looked so easy to get around. When I first read the essays titles 2 years before my application I was so lost, and when I worked with Katy, it was so easy to put my thoughts in paper immediately.
In the end I got accepted to both schools and I couldn't have done without Katy.

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Getting into Harvard has been my dream for the last six years. I was worried, however, that I didn’t have that unique story you typically associate with people that get into these universities. Then came Katy, who helped me take a step back and weave the many seemingly unrelated elements of my life into one cohesive story that both provided me with the standout story I never thought I had and quite honestly helped me understand myself better. What I quickly began to appreciate is that Katy doesn’t take a one-size-fits all approach to MBA consulting, she really took the time to know me and then tailored how we tackled the essays based on my background and goals.

Beyond that, she was also very knowledgeable about the process answering my many questions with valuable insights from the view of someone who has been an admissions committee member herself. Even though I read virtually ever piece of MBA advice I could get my hands on over the past six years, everything I thought I knew paled in comparison to the insights Katy provided me.

Lastly, I can’t overstate how much Katy truly cares about the people she works with. The MBA process can get really stressful at times, but with Katy’s sound advice and kind words, I never felt overwhelmed by the process. I genuinely can’t recommend Katy enough and after comparing my first and final essay drafts, I honestly don’t know what I would have done without her!

(Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School Admit)

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I would not have been admitted to HBS without Katy’s help. She was phenomenal to work with, start to finish, and it was so fun to work with her because it’s clear that she loves her job as a consultant and mentor.

A year before I applied, I hired Katy for a two-school prep package and worked with her closely throughout the entire application process. Katy helped me to position my candidacy; structure, review and edit my essays; provided guidance, edits and thoughts on all my short answers; and prepare for interviews. It was a long and intense process but she worked very hard to provide timely feedback and she always made herself available to answer questions.

Perhaps what I appreciated the most about Katy is her ability to listen and ask sincere questions to really get to know me. A good consultant cannot help you if they do not know you, and Katy showed a remarkable ability to understand my story quickly. Her ability was most evident at the beginning of the application process when I was trying to identify how to position my candidacy and articulate what really motivates me. Katy was extremely effective at helping me uncover the real ‘why’ behind many of my experiences and life decisions, which was crucial for how I positioned by application and structured my essays.

Katy is also very candid and honest. After several weeks of working on my essays, she reviewed them one day and told me they were really boring. It was true, and I’m really glad she let me know. I then completely revamped them with her help and the end product was far superior to what I had initially.

All in all, I found Katy to be knowledgeable, experienced, caring, genuine, and a highly effective 'thought partner'. I recommend her to everyone I know applying and am so glad I used her in my process.

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Right from the initial free consultation, I wanted to work with Katy. She was more thorough, professional and insightful than the other consultants I spoke with. I was impressed with the level of detail in her follow-up email analysis where she assuaged some of my fears about my candidacy. After signing up for a 2 school start to finish package, she clearly laid out the road map, with information about key checkpoints such as when to start working on the resume, recommendations, short answers, etc. This helped me focus on the right aspects of my application at the right stages.

During our brainstorming, Katy helped me to take an introspective view which enabled me to craft compelling essays. She has a great ability to see how various parts of one’s application come together to deliver the best possible impact. I did not have great stats, but I was able to build a strong application around my unique story and solid work experience, thanks to Katy. Her feedback during the mock interview proved vital, and in the end, I was accepted to Booth – a school which I initially thought was out of my league. I can't thank Katy enough!

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