Dan was super smart, knowledgable and helpful throughout the process. He helped me brainstorm essay topics, edited and proofread my essays, helped revamp my resume and provided general guidance along the way. He helped me better understand how the admissions committee thinks and how they would view the application. This was especially helpful because I was somewhat of a nontraditional applicant. He was super responsive to my emails. And he's just a cool guy. Very genuine and easy to connect with.

At the end of the day, I'm not sure I should have worked with an Admissions Consultant at all. Not because Dan wasn't great. He was! But I already knew a lot from reading books and blogs about the process, and talking to students, alumni, and others. So I was pretty well informed. I think I could have gone through the process without a consultant and received the same results.

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I applied to three reach schools for Round 1 and without Dan's assistance throughout the entire process from essay writing to mock interviews - I may not have been invited to interview at any of these schools, much less all three. Dan provided me with insightful feedback and insider information to ensure that I was telling a cohesive, interesting story that would differentiate me from other candidates. I never would have been able to glean specific insights about the school or develop such a successful approach to writing essays without working closely with Dan.

Not only did Dan provide me with extremely valuable information - but he also was very flexible in working with me on a less conventional timeline. I took off a week of work to write essays since my schedule had been less than ideal and I hadn't been able to devote sufficient time to essay writing. I wrote 2-3 essays per day and Dan worked with me to provide valuable, timely feedback on a large number of essays in this very short timeframe which was much appreciated!

The mock interview was also critical in the overall success of my application journey. I thought I was well prepared for an interview until Dan reviewed several potential questions with me and I was unable to respond with well thought out answers. Over the next two days, I focused on answering several of these questions and ultimately most of them were asked during my MIT Sloan interview.

Lastly, Dan was a pleasure to work with! He was extremely encouraging and positive and made the business school application process significantly less overwhelming and stressful. His services were absolutely critical in the success I experienced - I couldn't have done it without him! I've already highly recommended him to several of my colleagues and would do the same to anyone looking for a collaborative, flexible and insightful MBA consultant.

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I signed up with mbaMission because it was recommended by my GMAT course - Manhattan GMAT. Previously, I did not know anyone who had done an MBA so I was unsure of the entire process and Daniel's advice was very beneficial when it came to filling out my application. He made the process for me a lot less stressful.

Certainly, his advice for my resume and my application essays was extremely valuable. I was also writing my gmats at the same time as trying to manage resume revisions and essays - we developed a good work-back schedule to accommodate all so that I could apply for first round at my first choice school (which I did receive an offer of admission from).

Additionally, I could email him whenever I wanted and he always got back to me within 1 day for questions (e.g. interview support, open house etiquette, etc.)

I greatly appreciated his candid remarks and I would certainly recommend his services. In particular, the word count for my essays was very limited, so having Daniel read over my essays and ensure there was a concise storyline that exemplified my own skills/strengths was very good. It is difficult to find a family member or friend who will read through your MBA essays over and over with a critical eye.

Overall, I am really happy I chose mbaMission. I only gave 4 stars out of 5 because I would say that the prices are very expensive, though there is true value to mbaMission and their consultants. If I had to do it over again, I would still chose to move forward with mbaMission.

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I would highly recommend mbaMission, in particular Dan, for anyone who is looking for additional support to help craft and execute their business school applications. Although I was first reluctant to get a consultant because of the cost, I ultimately decided that I wanted to work with a consultant because I didn’t have the support at work or outside of work to help me develop and refine my story. After having a few consultation calls with other firms, I decided to go with mbaMission with a comprehensive package, and couldn’t be happier with my choice.

I had my mbaMission consultation call with Dan and immediately knew that I wanted to work with him. I was struck by Dan’s candidness as we talked about my background and where I could play within the top ten schools. I wanted a consultant that was going to be critical of my overall application so that I knew where my strengths and weaknesses were relative to my peers. Dan was spot on about what were my strengths and weaknesses and was able to use those characteristics to my advantage in my application. He was immensely helpful at all points of the process, including crafting my story/strategy, resume and essay writing, and recommenders and interview prep, and was extremely responsive (always ahead of timelines).

I recently received the good news that I got into a top ten program and know that the process wouldn’t have been as successful or as relatively stress-free if it wasn’t for Dan. I had also initiated additional applications with Dan after I had fully completed one package, which is a testament to how useful I thought the services were, but didn’t need to pursue them since I got into my top program! I would strongly recommend Dan – he was a great partner throughout my business school application process and truly instrumental to my success.

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I definitely would recommend Dan as a consultant in the MBA application process. I applied to two schools in Round 1 and wanted the advice of a consultant because I had no idea where to start on my essays or how to differentiate myself. After just an initial conversation, I felt that Dan really understood my story and was on my side to help craft a standout application. We went over my life story in our brainstorming session and he helped crystalize the highlights of my experiences into meaningful and interesting essays. He was always prompt with replies and thoughtful in his responses regardless of the triviality of my questions. Working with Dan has been a pleasurable and calming experience in this otherwise hectic process. I'm still waiting on the verdict from Round 1 schools.

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I started working with mbaMission after I had a free 30 minute consultation in their NYC offices where we discussed my career goals, resume, target schools, etc. I recommend doing this (especially since its free) to get a bearings of where you are at in the MBA application process.

After the consultation I signed up and worked with one of their admissions consultants, Dan Richards, on my Columbia Business School application. Dan was extremely helpful throughout the entire application process, from start to finish.

For me, the biggest benefit was for the essays - the brainstorming and ideas discussions were very beneficial in terms of conveying the core themes of my application and how I wanted to portray myself to the admissions committee. Dan was very easy to get in touch with and responded with essay comments well earlier than the agreed upon time frames.

Overall, it was great to have someone with a lot of experience with putting together successful top-tier business school applications. His help was invaluable and I highly recommend their services to anyone looking to put together an excellent b-school application.

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Dan was thoughtful, diligent, an expert word-smither, a great sounding board, and overall a great resource to have throughout my application process.

Dan truly made my essays better. I initially engaged Dan for only 2 hours, but by the end of the application process I had spent around 10 hours total working with him. As the weeks went on, I just kept adding hours because I knew Dan was helping my application and essays immeasurably.

I brought Dan in towards the end of the application period, but without fail he turned things around very quickly as well as was completely transparent about his process. Without a doubt, he improved the quality of my essays as well as alleviated a lot of the stress I was putting on myself. If nothing else, simply having someone say "yes" or "no" was invaluable. Though, obviously, he did a lot more!

I highly recommend Dan!

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My review is specifically for Daniel Richards.

I've worked with Daniel on strategy, consulting and editing serves for admittance to an MBA program this year. Daniel is extremely experienced (he's worked with hundreds of applicants) and is professional and helpful.

What you can expect from the service:
1 - strategy of personal essays (by school, by essay type) - he clearly identified what my strengths and weaknesses were (from my resume and phone conversation), how to play up my strengths and what is most important to emphasize for the Admissions Committee.
2 - consulting and coaching - Daniel coached me on how to structure my essay and clearly tie in my experience with my reasons for enrolling in an MBA program and with my short and long term goals. His knowledge allowed me to see and think from the Admissions Committee perspective and helped me strengthen my essays in a ways I could not have done alone.
3 - editing - Daniel is an incredible writer and editor - he is concise and knows where to "trim the fat". My essays really went from zero to hero!

I know that mbamission services are expensive but the ROI on using them pay off. I strongly recommend Daniel's services.

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To frame this discussion, I will say this: I applied to the two hardest programs to get into with some less than savory topics to address in my essays. I did this at at roughly the last second... in the middle of cross-country move.

mbaMission sold me on BootCamp, which I did to prep and get oriented. When it came down to it though, I really wanted more in-depth help with the app I felt was harder and more important. Daniel not only pulled through, he was a windfall of help in the eleventh hour. He was informative, completely transparent as to the process and what he could and couldn't do, and above all the quality of his guidance was stellar - I felt infinitely more confident about my difficult situation and I know I handled it in the application 10x better than I would have otherwise. Daniel made a huge impact, without question.

Testament to this is the fact that I've gotten interviews at both schools. No decisions yet, but at the interview level I once again went to Daniel for help and he once again shepherded me through the process with really practical, credible advice - specific to me and the programs to which I applied. And once again, the end result made it worthwhile.

I'm typically very wary of services like this insofar as they can provide expensive, generic, "one-size-fits-all" advice. To the contrary, Daniel and the other folks at mbaMission know their stuff inside and out and - importantly - make it personal to YOU. And since these applications are made or broken on how well you convey yourself as an individual, that's pretty invaluable.

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