Pursuing an MBA has been a life-long dream of mine, so I wanted to give it my 110% and work directly with an admissions consultant who could guide me through the process. I had multiple free 30-minute consultations across 6 different companies, but I felt an immediate connection with Krista from our first call. She was extremely kind, lively, and encouraging from the get-go, and I knew she would take the time to understand me on a deeper level.

Even before I paid for the school packages, she was quick to respond to emails and answer any high-level questions about the process/GMAT. To provide context, I had a below-avg GPA and GMAT score, but only wanted to apply to top 5 programs in round 2. While she was realistic in setting expectations with me, Krista was always SUPER encouraging and optimistic -- And she always made it a point to ensure I was putting the best possible application forward. In a process that could be quite stressful, you want to ensure that your consultant is always there for support...and I always felt this support and trust from Krista.

The first part of the process was filling out a brainstorming document about my life, work, projects, and aspirations. While it took me 10-15 hours (and ended up being 35 pages long...more than I knew I could write!), it served as an important element in the application process. Krista took the time to read through the whole document and help me build a well-rounded story. Rather than telling me what to write, Krista ensured that I was the author of my own essays, keeping the applications very authentic...And whenever I felt a roadblock, she would always refer back to the brainstorming doc and suggest stories that would fit well with the essays' themes/questions.

Krista was also great about keeping me on track in the Round 2 process -- She does an amazing job of sending friendly reminder emails and holding me accountable. When I felt stuck on one school's application, she reached out and asked that I send her whatever essays I've written. We then scheduled another brainstorming call to walk through some ideas and best ways to approach the essay topics, which made it much easier.

She set the right cadence for scheduling meetings, returning application drafts, and answering emails. And per the mbaMission policy, she stayed on top of the 2-day turnaround (most times, she was even faster). When I got to the interview stage, she was right there by my side to help me prep with mock interviews. Most questions she asked me during our mock interviews were eventually asked in my actual interviews...I would have been very underprepared if it wasn't for Krista, once again, holding me accountable!

Now, I'm fortunate enough to be fulfilling a childhood dream -- pursuing an MBA at a top program...And I'm thankful to Krista for supporting me along the way. Krista is extremely trustworthy and took a huge interest in learning about my family, life, personal goals and desires. She is truly an amazing friend, and I look forward to staying in touch with her in the future.

I highly recommend Krista as a consultant...she has really been a blessing for me!

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I’m not someone who likes to spend money, so choosing to hire an admissions consultant seemed outrageous to me. However, I told myself I would only go through the application cycle once and would give it my very best shot. By hiring Krista, I knew I was giving it my all. In hindsight, it’s hard to tell what actually got me into various schools (Berkeley Haas, Yale SOM, and Michigan Ross), but I knew by using an admissions consultant I was putting my very best foot forward. If I were to do the process all over again, I would not change a thing.

I decided to go with Krista because we shared a common interest of international travel and I felt that she would take the time to get to know me. I realized this after our initial free 30-minute consultation. I wasn’t wrong and am so happy with my decision to work with Krista for my MBA applications. I felt like Krista took the time to get to know me and cares about the people she works with. A great tool mbaMission provides is a brainstorming document to populate prior to beginning any applications. The document takes over 10 hours to complete and seems like a bit of a waste when you’re spending so much time on something that isn’t directly writing essays. However, this document helped Krista get to know me and really understand me from a personal and professional perspective.

I worked with Krista on three schools (two of which I was admitted to). The feedback Krista provided was always extremely helpful. Even when I received conflicting feedback from other reviewers, Krista was able and willing to reason through everything with me. Krista served as my source of truth with a helpful yes or no answer to all my questions. She placed more emphasis and care on me as a person, wanting me to submit applications I felt were my very best. Not once did I feel like her “client”. Krista made time for various discussions about my essays and future applications. One of the things I liked most about using an admissions consultant was the timeline they’re able to keep you on. I was able to start my applications at the beginning of July and take a two week break in September before submitting. This helped to spread out the work and ensure I was not doing everything last minute. Krista always kept to the two-day turn around promise.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Krista and feel like I’ve gained a fantastic mentor in the process. I can’t recommend working with her enough!

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Krista Nannery helped me gain admission to a T10 MBA program by helping me truly understand my career goals; helping me write strong, impactful, and memorable essays; and helping me prepare effectively for behavioral interviews and group interview activities. Moreover, I feel like Krista really cares about helping me reach my career goals, and over the past 6 months, I feel like she has grown into a friend rather than a consultant.

If you read nothing further than this, please read this:
She will absolutely strengthen your candidacy for your MBA program of choice. I went from settling for a T35-T50 school with a median salary outcome of $100k to a school with a median salary outcome of $145k. Just considering this, my ROI IS OVER 300%. If you consider scholarships and intangibles like experiences and network, my ROI is significantly higher.

Before Krista: planning to apply to T35-T50 schools

After Krista: Applied to 7 schools
Admitted to 2 T10 (one with a small scholarship)
Admitted to 2 T15-T20 (both with half scholarships)
Dinged WITH interview from 1 M7 school
Waitlisted with interview from 2 T15

Here are some highlights on what Krista helped me with:

1. Brainstorm. She helped me brainstorm potential essay topics by thinking about my personal, undergraduate, and work experiences. This was SO important because ALL of us have valuable experiences to share with admissions committees, but we sometimes discount those memories. As an experienced admissions insider, Krista helped me understand my unique experiences and how I could showcase them on my applications.

2. School selection. After considering my career goals and family needs), she helped me select schools that would be a good fit for me. Again, there is SO MUCH MISINFORMATION and stereotypes on the internet about MBA programs, so I’m glad that I had someone as knowledgeable as Krista on which schools could help me achieve my goals. She helped me pick 7 schools to apply in Round 1 since I wanted to be finished by early 2020. Krista was REALISTIC with me about my chances at certain schools, something I really appreciate after this humbling process.

3. Essays. Krista’s help in this area likely helped me get a scholarship from a T10 school. Krista helped me plan and put together top-notch essays. I tend to ramble (can you tell?) and Krista helped me refine my essays to the most important topics. In some cases, she helped me restructure my essays to make a stronger, more impactful statement. To be clear, she did not write my essays, but she did make my essays 100% better. If you’re a regular person like me, I promise you, your essays will be so much better after working with Krista

4. Recommenders. Krista helped me manage my letters of recommendation very effectively. First of all, she gave strict timelines that I used in order to get my applications in on time. This was very important since one of my recommenders took FOREVER to get back to me. When one of my recommenders gave me bland feedback, Krista helped me put together conversation points that helped me speak with that recommender. He ended up writing a fantastic letter of recommendation that included specific examples. Krista really saved the day here.

5. Interview prep. This was HUGE. MBAmission provides free interview guides for top programs. These guides include actual questions and what to expect. Krista took this a step further and conducted mock interviews with me. This gave me a significant advantage over other applicants since I had an idea of the pressure that I would feel answering real interview questions. Krista asked actual behavioral questions that sometimes caught me off guard, but this helped me during the real interview. In one scenario, 100% of the questions during my T10 interview were asked either in our mock interview or in the Interview guide. HUGE ADVANTAGE!!!

6. Advice and Friendship. I feel like Krista really cared about me, my family, and my helping me reach my goals. At no point did I ever feel like we had a transactional relationship. During this entire process, I feel like Krista has grown into a family friend, someone that I can trust for real, honest career advice. I think we all need someone like that in our corner.

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When first contemplating an admissions consultant, I was very hesitant as many others probably are due to the cost. I took the jump after my initial consultation with Krista and think it was the best decision in gaining admission to a program that will change my life and well worth the investment.

Krista worked with me in essentially every step of the process except GMAT prep. The three things that benefited me the most were school selection, crafting my story, and her personal interest in my success.

School Selection: Krista and I talked in depth about school selection. She introduced me to a wide selection of schools that she thought would be a good fit for me that I had not considered. Through our conversations, she opened my eyes to how school fit could effect my future career and experience at a school and ultimately helped shape the list of schools I applied to.

Crafting My Story: Coming from a non traditional background, I was at a point in my life to transition to a new career but wasn't exactly sure how I would make the transition. It's important to have your own broad vision but not knowing what you don't know makes it hard to paint a complete picture. Krista's experience really helped fill the gaps in my story and allowed me to better communicate the "where I've been, where I'm at, and where I want to go" story. She also helped to translate the essays we worked on together to fit prompts for other schools that I worked on myself.

Personal Interest: I think the most important part of my relationship with Krista was her personal interest in my success, her professionalism, and dedication to what she does. Krista is deeply passionate about what she does and it shows. She has always returned my documents with corrections early, sometimes same day depending on her workload. She is extremely responsive to email for quick questions and easy to schedule skype calls with to talk about progress throughout the application process.

Having Krista and the resources of mbaMission by your side through your application process is probably the best decision you can make. With Krista's help, I have acceptance letters from two top 10 programs with scholarships. It was truly a pleasure working with Krista this past year and cannot recommend her enough.

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Krista at mbaMission is a true delight. She was highly responsive, organized, and resourceful regarding each school's admissions process, key programs, and application components.

Krista was able to highlight each school's thematic areas while helping me seriously shape my application narrative. She did this efficiently (I was an hourly client) and with exceptionally high standards.

I was considering working with another well-regarded admissions consulting firm, but after my 30 minute introductory call with Krista, I could not imagine working with anyone else. I could always count on Krista to provide thoughtful, detailed feedback on my essays and applications while maintaining good humor, perspective, charisma, and enthusiasm.

During the process, we discovered that both Krista and I are big readers, and I really enjoyed getting to know Krista on a more personal level, sharing our book lists, and chatting about our favorites. I highly recommend Krista for your application needs and consider myself lucky to have found her services. I was ultimately admitted to my first choice program in R1!

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I’ve worked with Krista Nannery for the second round of my MBA application. Words cannot describe how much Krista has helped me along the way, but I shall try. And I hope you read through this long review to understand how awesome Krista is.

Without Krista’s help, in the first round, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I have a decent profile, a good GMAT score, and I thought I didn’t need the help of an admission consultant. After all, years ago when I applied to engineering grad school, I did it myself and received admissions to all schools that I'd applied to, including household names such as Stanford/MIT/Berkeley, and some even provided me full ride. I thought applying to business school would be no different, that I would apply to a couple top schools, and some will accept me for sure.

The outcome of my first round application was disastrous to say the least. I was getting dinged left and right by top schools, and the ones that didn’t reject me outright put me on waitlist.

I knew I needed help. Applying to business school is hard. It’s more than just a good profile and good GMAT score. It’s about how you present yourself, it’s about what to put in front of the admission office with the limited amount of space, it’s about your own brand. I was lucky that I didn’t apply to one of my dream schools – Chicago Booth in the 1st round, and I started my application in the 2nd round with Krista’s help.

My essays changed drastically with Krista’s guidance. We had discussion back and forth about my experience and what to present/how to present with the limited space. Whenever I sent Krista my essay, she almost always replied in about 24 hours, even though the contractual requirement is 48 hours. Her comments are thoughtful and direct, starting from the structure and content selection of the essays, to the detail wording that would make me shine the most. You’ll be surprised by how knowledgeable Krista is about what makes the best case for the candidate, and how she helps you put your profile in the best light possible.

Indeed, the two Booth essays are the best ones I was able to put together in the entire application process. Additionally, Krista also advised me on how to better communicate with my recommenders about what might be helpful to include.

And so I received the interview invite from Booth, the first and only M7 invite I got in the entire process. Krista then helped me prepare for the interview, from my content, to my demeanor, from the traditional Why MBA/Why now/Why Booth questions, to the more specific ones for Booth from her knowledge and mbaMission’s data base. I’m confident to say that I did well in my interview.

Remember I was waitlisted in the 1st round? Krista also helped me strategized about what to do and additional material to be submitted for these waitlisted schools. But what made Krista an amazing consultant wasn’t just all the material/strategy help she provided. What set Krista apart was the fact that she truly cares about me. She cares about what I was going through, and encouraged me through the hard parts. For me, this is the most important part, because when I receive bad news in the process, I don’t want to share with my family as I don’t want them to worry. But I had no problem sharing my news with Krista, be it good news or bad news, because I knew she is my friend. I knew Krista would be ecstatic if it was good, and I knew she would give me as much support as possible if it was bad. I always felt that she was equally invested in my case, and we were in this together.

When the time came, I got into Booth! Moreover, I got off the waitlist for Haas and Yale SOM as well! Like I said, Krista has much to do with all these acceptances.

But Krista doesn’t stop here! As I said, she was truly invested in my case, and when I had trouble deciding among Booth/Haas/SOM, she even connected me with her personal connections that went to these schools so I can discuss with them! Additionally, Krista has quite an international background and a great understanding of China/Southeast Asia, and thus she was able to provide me with tremendous amount of knowledge about different schools’ resources in the international stage. If this is not caring, I don’t know what is!

Everybody says that an MBA is a life-changing experience. I haven’t gone through it yet, but I can honestly say that the application process for me has already been a perspective-changing journey. It challenges me to reflect on what I’ve done so far in my life, and what I want to do in the next phase. In retrospect, to go through this process successfully, you need hard work, you need strategy, you need preparation, and most importantly, you need supports from a friend that is equally invested in you. I can vouch that Krista has provided me with all these at the highest level and then some, and I’m lucky to have her helping me along the way!

Thank you Krista! I wholeheartedly recommend her service for future applicants!

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Krista was tremendous to work with throughout the MBA process. She was patient and took the time to understand both my educational and career goals. She was helpful in identifying programs that would be a strong fit for me, and provided me with the tools to be successful. More specifically, she responded rapidly to any questions I had and gave me the confidence to succeed. Furthermore, she has gone through the MBA application process herself, which sets her apart. I would highly recommend Krista for anyone who is pursuing an MBA. He breaks the process down into steps that are digestible and easy to follow.

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Krista is a fantastic consultant, friend, and mentor. The whole MBA process was intimidating for me. I wasn’t around a lot of MBAs where I grew up professionally, so I wasn’t quite sure how I would fare or even where the whole process was leading me. But with Krista’s help and mentorship, I could see the entire picture-not only in what schools were right for me but also what career options were in line with my values. After our 30-minute free consultation, I knew Krista would be the perfect consultant to help me. Krista was the consummate professional during the application process-always prepared for our meetings, quick to return products (and to gently remind me to get back on track when I fell off task), and insightful in her feedback. By the time I hit submit, I was 100% confident that I had the best application possible. I had complete trust in Krista’s judgment and would recommend her to anyone who wants to chase their MBA dreams.

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From my first conversation with Krista, it was clear that she was incredibly smart, encouraging, kind, and fun. While I was apprehensive to spend $6k on a consultant at the beginning of the process (two school package), the return I received on my investment far exceeded my expectations. Deciding to work with Krista was likely the most important decision I made in the MBA admissions process.
Krista helped me with school selection, identifying great programs that I had originally overlooked. She recommended schools that not only have strong brands, but also have great resources and recruiting opportunities specific to my post-MBA goals.
Krista provided me with great advice on how to use the essays and my resume to communicate compelling aspects of my candidacy outside of professional experience. By including a more personal element in my essays, I was able to show that I am a more well-rounded candidate. Additionally, Krista helped me identify aspects of my candidacy that should be explained further in the optional essay. This advice was very helpful because it allowed me to control the narrative on aspects of my story that I otherwise would not have known to explain in more detail.
After I submitted my applications, Krista helped me prepare for interviews by conducting mock interviews. This preparation helped me to relax and present well when it came time for real MBA interviews.
Krista is incredibly reliable and always turns feedback around quickly! This was especially important to me because I was working on the applications on a tight timeline and needed a consultant who was very responsive.
In the end, I received admission to a top school, where I am incredibly excited to start this fall. I owe a debt of gratitude to Krista for going above and beyond my expectations and helping me achieve my goal. She was a true pleasure to work with and her guidance and encouragement made a huge difference in navigating the difficult MBA application process.
If I could do it all over, as one of the first steps in my preparation for business school, I would have set up a preliminary call with Krista and retained her.

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I worked with Krista from mbaMisssion on an hourly basis. She really took the time to get to know me as a person, which gave her a full understanding of my profile. Her feedback led to stronger essays and a more powerful resume. She responded timely and was available for scheduled skype calls. She also had knowledge of the process and good tips for the application and interview. The service is expensive, but it really helps put your best foot forward and is worth the cost is worth to get you into a strong MBA program. Sign up for your free 30 minute consultation before starting any applications to talk to Krista, she can provide guidance and direction.

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