Working with Krista and mbaMissions was a fantastic and productive experience. They supported me through every step of the application process and I was ultimately admitted to Sloan, Kellogg (MMM), Tuck, and Ross. Krista will push you to produce the best possible application materials, and she is kind, collaborative, and encouraging throughout the process.
I was referred to mbaMissions by a friend and had several intro calls with a few mbaMissions consultants. Right off the bat, I was impressed with the openness of the consultants – they truly want to match your working style and make sure the process works best for you, while offering you the advantage of their experience and knowledge of the different schools.
From my first conversation with Krista, she was realistic about the schools that I could apply to with my test scores, undergrad GPA, and background. She also encouraged me to switch from the GMAT to the GRE and gave me suggestions about tutoring services I could use – this push was vital to me successfully increasing my test scores. Additionally, Krista was incredibly encouraging as I was studying for the GRE, often reminding me that the studying was worth it and I just need to push a bit longer.
Once I had the test scores needed and we had talked through what schools I would be applying to, Krista helped me sift through my background and brainstorm possible essay topics. She continually provided constructive feedback and pushed me to put out my best work. Her expectations of me were clear and I appreciated the structured approach she put in place.
I received interviews at 5 of the 6 schools I applied to. Not only does mbaMissions provide free interview guides for each school, Krista was also vital to my interview prep. Each mock interview was treated as real interview, and she guided me on how to best present my answers. Ultimately I had a series of successful interviews and at each step felt extremely well prepared for the different interviews and interviewers.
All in all, working with Krista and mbaMissions was a one of the best investments I have made in my life and highly encourage anyone interested to reach out to their team.

Read More

I don’t think I would have made it to my dream MBA program, being admitted to a number of schools with over $300k scholarship without Krista.

I am an organized and honest person and was looking for a consultant of similar traits. I was hooked right at the free 30-min consultation when I walked away from the meeting with a comprehensive page-long summary and next steps from Krista. You could easily tell from a conversation if the other person is genuine and invested in your success. I opted for a start-to-finish package with 2 schools but I could almost always turn to Krista for high-level advice wrt schools even outside of the package. Krista often checked in and made sure I was on the right track, again, even for schools outside of the package. Her support didn’t end upon my admits, it was greatly expanded afterwards ie. scholarship negotiation, broadening my network and transitioning to b-school.

Krista is an amazing consultant and companion. I am not just talking about her breadth of admissions experience, but specifically of her emotional support during the process. MBA application is a soul-searching yet stressful process. Krista always provided a helping hand and encouragement but she could be as persistent and diligent whenever I was about to give up on my GMAT. Her diligence was a key factor in my higher standardized test score and I couldn’t thank her enough for that.

When I was searching for a consultant, I was looking for someone whom I can trust. You will probably tell your consultant your deepest secrets and stories that not many people know of. And Krista somehow, I don’t know how, managed to know my stories better that I do. It was really helpful when you were prepping for the interviews and confronted with difficult questions. Needless to say how useful that was in putting your essays together so as to set up your story theme and how they should be intertwined with one another. Her amazing editorial skills really helped without getting in your way of crafting your own essays.

I would definitely recommend Krista to anyone looking for a consultant to work with. She is quick at turnaround - she was even writing from the beach when it was extremely urgent, responsive and responsible for each of her advice. Krista would turn to her team of experienced consultants for you if needed. You’re not buying a package with just a consultant but with a team who is invested in your application. Good luck with your journey!

Read More

When I reached out to mbaMission, I thought of applying to Columbia, Yale, Booth, and HBS (did not really believe I can get into HBS). After a few calls with Krista, although still not sure about her arguments that GSB and HBS would love me, I decided to apply to HBS, Stanford GSB, Booth, Yale, and Wharton. We have worked hard for 5 months straight to prepare those applications. When it comes to Krista’s way of working:

- She was very precise and diligent when it comes to clearing up confusion or misunderstandings in my essays. For example, for one sentence in one my essays she kept asking me ‘But explain to me what it really means, imagine you are explaining it to someone from outside of your industry’ in 3 or 4 drafts and she would not give up until she was sure admission committee would understand it! It was so helpful!
- Her turnaround time was shorter than promised almost every single time
- She would meet up with me whenever I had doubts about any piece of my application
- Krista really wanted to get to know me to help me ‘sell’ my story and she helped me believe that my story is powerful enough to get to top schools
- Her suggestions to change something in my applications were always based on solid arguments and Krista’s previous experience
- Krista will connect you with her previous clients studying at schools of your choice – it was helpful when it comes to my decision making

I was admitted to 3 out 5 schools (including HBS and GSB) I applied to and I am sure it was thanks to Krista’s help. If you really want to get the most out of this service, open up to Krista and share your story in the most transparent way it is possible. Krista will help you structure and polish your story in a way you would never do by yourself!
Bonus: Her sense of humor will always make you laugh :)

Read More

Working with Krista Nannery was the single best decision I made in my MBA application journey. I am thrilled to have gotten into my dream school and I am convinced that if it wasn't for her constant guidance, support, and expertise I would not be in this position.



Essays: Her biggest strength is the environment of trust she creates. This helped me open up to her on my life-experiences during the essay brainstorming discussions - the foundation for the essay content. She always offered targeted advice and has an ability to story tell in an engaging but efficient way. This was especially important for someone like me who had lots to share but struggled to be within the word counts. She constantly went above and beyond on the number of essay drafts and never once missed her 2 day response rule - often responded within a day.



Strategy: Krista's knowledge of the overall admissions process and the specific schools was helpful throughout the process. She helped put together a target school list based on my profile and interests. When it came to strengthening my improvement areas, she had invaluable suggestions.



Mock interviews: Her questions and feedback during the mock interviews were extremely valuable. Krista recreated an interview environment in those mock interview sessions and her choice of questions depending on the school were spot on. I walked into every interview confident.



Krista was more than a consultant to me - she was a patient guide and caring friend. The application process is exhausting with lots of ups and downs. It's impossible to put a price on having someone by your side who truly cares about you and your dreams. I strongly recommend working with Krista - it’s the best investment you will make!

Read More

Going into the application process, I was a bit intimidated that I didn’t fit the ‘traditional’ applicant profile, but from the first time I met with Krista, she helped to dismiss these doubts and I was confident she was the perfect partner to help me navigate this process. I connected with Krista’s warmth and kind demeanor, but also appreciated her firmness at times to push me towards optimal success. She specifically encouraged me to stay diligent in my efforts to raise my GRE score until I was able to achieve a score I needed and we felt confident in, which I believe ultimately played a role in my success.

Krista has a productive partnership style – she is very responsive and instructive over e-mail and uses video meetings when necessary. I left each meeting with Krista clear on my next steps and she made it easy to follow a timeline that felt realistic, but ensured we were going to hit our key deadlines. Her feedback style was constructive, yet encouraging and she always explained her thoughts and was open to talking them through so that I felt comfortable with the direction we were proceeding in.

I greatly appreciated Krista’s breadth of knowledge on each of the schools I was applying to and that she was able to guide me on how to best tailor my story for each school specifically. With my resume, she greatly helped me re-shape it to highlight my industry expertise and encouraged me to weaponize anything that made me unique. She made me feel confident in my story and candidacy and was diligent in going through drafts of essays to ensure they were where they needed to be at submission time.

In Krista you get so much more than a consultant – you get a mentor who is genuinely invested in this process with you. More than anything, I am grateful for Krista’s patience, encouragement, the confidence she instilled in me, and the areas she pushed me to improve. Krista commitment to her clients is further expressed in the excitement and happiness she feels when they succeed. Having achieved great results with acceptances to three schools, including my top choice in Wharton, I would strongly recommend Krista to anyone who is embarking on this admissions journey.

Read More

I have been thinking about getting an MBA for a while because as a project manager, I thought my projects would be more successful if my company had strong organizational support, but I do not know how to build a strong and effective organization. After talking with an alumnus from my Master’s program, he strongly recommended Krista to help me with my applications.

Krista helped me position myself and picked the best school combination for me. Before talking with her, MIT was the only school on my list. After reviewing my profile (international female with 10 years of experience in manufacturing and an engineering background), Krista suggested adding Fuqua and Tepper. Because of my undergraduate GPA (3.0), Krista suggested I take a class, Math for Management through UC Berkley online, to strength my profile. I got an A, a great improvement for my understanding of math and also good for my applications.

Krista helped me improve my resume tremendously. The final version is the 7th revision. After sending Krista my brainstorming document, we started the back-and-forth exercise to keep modifying and improving my resume. Her smart questions made me dig deeper. For example, for my project manager role, I only mentioned “led project team”, but Krista asked me things like “How many people did you manage and what did they do?”, “Do you know the male/female ratio in the company? How many project managers are there? “, “How many people did you manage?”, and “What about international work?” Because I am working in a male-dominated industry, I am the only female project manager in the company. But before Krista asked me these questions, I did not notice how unique I was and how impressive my job was!

My hobbies? First time, I simply put running. Then Krista replied ‘I think you probably have more hobbies than what you listed! Think about this and add more! Ok, I sat back and told myself, “Yes, I like watercolor painting, practicing piano, doing home crafts.”

There were times I hoped Krista would take a nap and not reply to my email so quickly, so I can get a little bit of time to relax. She was the one on top of everything and I knew as long as I followed her pace and suggestions, she would guide me to my dream school.

Krista also helped me pick the best people to write recommendations for me. At the beginning, I planned to get recommendation letters from my previous boss and a staff member from my Master’s program as I was hoping to keep my application quiet, so my job will not be jeopardized. After talking with Krista, she pointed me to the right direction: I should pick up someone from my current employer because I am applying for an MBA – Admissions is looking for candidates with strong business skills and potential, not volunteer experience. I took Krista’s suggestion and had a very candid conversation with one of my employer’s vice presidents. Surprisingly, he did not hesitate to support me and was excited to write me the recommendation letter. The resulting letter was really strong. Krista mentioned she loved the letter as the VP provided detailed information about his working experience with me and the strength of my candidacy.
Krista also stuck with me through all the ups and downs. It has been a long time since Krista and I we worked together, from September 2020 until May 2021. For sure, Krista went far beyond her responsibility. Krista was always at my side. When I got the MIT interview invitation, I shared the great news with her immediately. When I got the offer from Duke, Krista was the first one I messaged as I knew she would be as happy I as was. At a few points during my application process, I worried I could not get enrolled this year, Krista showed her empathy to me and at the same time, pushed me to improve my candidacy, take another Executive Assessment test and look for more leadership roles.
Krista set a great example to me to never give up. When I took my 2nd EA exam, I only improved 3 points and was disappointed, Krista told me every point counts and business schools like to see people keep trying. Krista is right. When the Fuqua admissions office called me, the woman told me that I did exactly what they expect a candidate to do - keep trying.
Krista and I we had a lot of fun work together and she helped me to know myself much better. One of Fuqua’s essays is ‘25 random things about yourself”. I scratched my head and was not sure where to start. Krista told me she wanted to see at least 35 random things! That is so demanding! But that was the right thing to do, because we can have a bigger pool to pick the best 25 things. Krista suggested that I search for suggestions and feedback from my friends and coworkers. It was a fun and surprising experience; I got so much feedback from the people around me. their points of views really surprised me. After the 1st draft, Krista and I started to go through each single item on my list and picked and chose the best ones to show the unique side of me.
By looking back the whole application process, the word I heard from Krista the most is “impressive”. Krista made me realize the accomplishments and feel more confident in myself. I highly recommend her as your consultant!

Read More

I had the opportunity to work with Krista after I got rejected for all my target schools using other consulting services. After I started working with her I immediately saw the difference and felt way more confident than a year before.

Krista focused on every detail of my application, even those that I had never considered important. She also kept me track of the timeline which sometimes flybys but more importantly she also gave me a lot of feedback that sometimes other consultants try to sugarcoat but as an applicant is important to be aware of, especially in my case since I come from a usually overrepresented pool (finance). She also made a lot of suggestions that I am sure played a pivotal role in my application.

Now I can happily say that I´ll be attending my dream school (Wharton) and received two other offers from great schools. But I am sure that I would not have done it without Krista´s help. She genuinely cared about my application process and all the high and lows that it represented. I am always going to be grateful to Krista for helping me achive one of my dreams.

Read More

I am the only one of my friends who applied to business school, so working and talking with a consultant was very comforting during an extremely stressful year. From the beginning, Krista helped me break down every piece of the admissions cycle into digestible pieces, so I did not feel overwhelmed at the daunting application year that I had in front of me. I was in a less than ideal situation, still taking the GMAT during the applications process. But throughout the year, Krista helped me understand every single option to consider, including school selection and testing options. Lastly, Krista helped immensely with learning how to tell my story concisely. There is extra work at the beginning to lay out every detail of education of professional background. But the extra work was 100% worth it, when I realized how little 200 words really is.
It felt great to work with Krista because I could not have expected to replicate her experience and knowledge through google researching. At the end of the interviews and before decisions were released, I had a weird sense of content because I felt like I gave everything I had to the applications. Thankfully, that was not the case, and I could not be happier with Krista’s help.

Read More

I had a wonderful experience with Krista Nannery – who helped me navigate every step of the MBA admissions process – and get me into my #1 choice. The experience Krista brought the table was clear: she has a successful corporate background and years of MBA admissions consulting. She was a value add at every step of the process.

My undergrad was from a non-target school and I currently working in a ‘niche’ industry – so I wanted to partner with an experienced consultant who could help me put my best foot forward. I spoke with several other firms – but felt like I was solely in a sales pitch. In contrast, in my first meeting with Krista Nannery we were down to business! We did a resume review, goal discussion, and began our game plan. After our intro, I partnered with Krista on a 3-school start to finish package.

In our first few meetings, Krista spent time to really get to know me and my goals. Through our brainstorming exercise, she worked closely with me to review prior experience, undergrad background, and involvement to help form a cohesive story and find areas worth highlighting in MBA applications. Krista also gave tangible, near-term recommendations for ways to bolster my ‘outside of work’ involvement. As part of the package, Krista shared the full library of mbaMission materials (i.e., detailed school overviews, interview guides, etc.).

A less glamorous, but important part of the MBA process was the GMAT. Krista worked with me by reviewing my practice scores for each section, and ultimately recommending a switch to the GRE (the right choice for me!). She gave specific advice on a study plan / where to spend my prep time to get the scores into the ‘sweet spot’ for my target schools (hint – worth taking the real test more than once).

Coming into the process, I was most nervous about the essays. Fortunately, this was one of Krista’s strongest areas. For each school, we had a full hour discussion to talk through the prompt and form initial views on the essay / stories to highlight (each school looks for different elements and need to be tailored). Krista approached this exercise in a highly structured manner – which helped me think about what was most important and how could I convey my strongest areas (without missing any critical elements). In every draft / iteration, it was clear Krista puts significant thought into her feedback – and she consistently challenged me in areas where I could add more detail or enhance elements of my essays. There is limited ‘real estate’ in the MBA applications (essays & short answers) so every word matters – Krista truly challenged me to use the space wisely and her input was critical in forming the final product.

After receiving interview invitations, Krista was hands on in the preparation and we had mock interviews for each school. She prepped me with details from her prior applicants, predicted specific questions I might get based on my application (correctly!), and gave personalized feedback on interview style. She focused on how I could communicate my story in a concise and effective manner.

The MBA admissions process can be long and complicated (and can be stressful while working a busy job). Having Krista as a partner through the process helped keep me on track and reduce a lot of stress. At every step of the chain, Krista was highly responsive and always adding value. Krista was kind and genuinely wanted to see me succeed – and I have been thrilled to directly recommend Krista to my close friends who are applying for MBA programs this year.

Read More

If someone is looking to apply to an MBA program, the FIRST thing they should do is contact MBAmission and specifically Krista Nannery.
In the beginning I felt overwhelmed by The MBA application process, but from my first meeting I was given a roadmap to my end goal. Krista helped me be confident throughout the process, from opening my applications to interview and acceptance. She is prompt, clear, committed to each client, and above all extremely knowledgeable about the admissions process. Working with Krista, I felt genuinely supported, valued and also pushed to achieve my full potential as a candidate.

Read More