I started working with Susan in late October. Word of advice - start much much..much earlier! I knew I was cutting it very close so I wanted a consultant that was frank (in a nice way) and would keep me ticking away. I got this with Susan.

Susan was upfront about the amount of work that i'd have to put in to make sure I developed strong applications in a short space of time. We got started on exchanging information about myself and picking potential schools. More honest conversations ensued about my chances at each school and my fit with the schools. In the end I chose 3 - one in the top 2, another in the top 7 and and the other in the top 10-ish. The hard work started with the brainstorming session. The questionnaire, the long phonecall and Susan's probing questions really do make you dig deep. Once we had all my experiences pinned down, I begun outlining my essay responses, getting feedback from Susan and more back and forths. Susan's feedback was always clear and straight to the point and she was always happy to jump on a call if there were any sticky points.

In the end, there's no substitute to the upfront time spent fleshing out one's story and outlining your essay answers. In essay draft 5, 6 or more, you'll appreciate the effort you put in upfront and can always go back to the source. Another word of advice, applications aren't a walk in the park. A couple of times in the process, I felt myself losing momentum/motivation and Susan was very quick to pick up on this and keep me going. She was a great support in helping me get my applications in and in helping me prepare for all the 3 interviews. In the end, I got offers from all 3 schools.

I would definitely recommend Susan. She'll make you dig deep and work hard but it'll be worth it in the end.

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I used mbaMission for two schools. I thought my consultant was extremely helpful in guiding me towards constructing my career goals. I was able to clearly define how my past work experience connected with my future career goals, and how an MBA would get me there. I was pretty clueless when it came to this, and she made realize how specific you truly have to be and realistic. Almost every school asks a version of this question, so once you have this down, it is extremely helpful, not only for essays but for interviews. She kept me on track timeline wise, and was not afraid to send back essay draft after essay draft. She was clear in her instructions and I was able to craft some terrific essays. I wish we had spent some time thinking about school strategy, which schools and which rounds. mbaMission also provides some great school insight guides that are helpful when initially doing research on programs.

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After first approaching the application process on my own, I came to the realization that some good guidance could go a long way for me. With long hours at work, I knew that I would need to work efficiently to meet my MBA goals. Enter, Susan Kaplan.

Though I began working with Susan somewhat late in the process, her focus on the building blocks of my application was outstanding. In particular, she worked tirelessly with me to craft and re-craft my career goals to align with the rest of my story. Given my varied interests and aspirations, this was easier said than done.

Susan's essay feedback was also critical to my success. She was hard on me -- like that teacher that you resent at times but ultimately gets the most out of you -- but was also caring and invested in my success. Working on applications every night after long days at the office is a grind, but Susan kept pushing me to iterate, improve, and ultimately submit my best work.

Her response to my being accepted into my target school - a top-10 program - was fitting: "WOO-HOO!!!" We were in it together from the start.

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I had a great experience with mbaMission - as a non-traditional applicant I felt extremely intimidated by the process, but felt that my consultant, Susan, had my back every step of the way. She was particularly useful when I was in a bind to get my applications done on a quick timetable, and asked all the right questions to get me where I needed to be. She pushed me to really get my story straight as why I need my MBA to accomplish my goals, something I struggled to do on my own. She also was very accessible by email at all times. I highly recommend mbaMission for anyone - as I got into my first choice school.

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For me, the MBA process was often very stressful, especially for the essays part. I wasn't a good writer, and I had limited time to spend on applications, out of work. Like most applicants, I also wanted some kind of assurance that if I follow some path that an admission consultant suggests, I would get into the school I wanted.

I signed up for some free consultations, and mbaMission was an easy choice among them - Jeremy Shinewald was very helpful, informed and truly sincere. Soon, I signed up with mbaMission for the school packages, and later matched me with Susan.

To be honest, two months in, something felt "off". I felt like I wasn't getting the attention I wanted, and I had no confidence in that I would succeed. Coming to think of it now, it was just a misunderstanding, but anyone can be very stressed out during the process. I confronted this problem with Jeremy and Susan, and even asked to change consultants. If they just wanted to avoid the problem, they would have done so. But Susan reassured me that changing consultants is not going to help me get the result I wanted. I think this is when I realized Susan was a professional - it proved that she really cared, and she was focused on why this process was happening.

My greatest mistake throughout the process is that I wanted to feel "safe" and to save time. No consultant is going to assure their clients 100%, because it is not only risky, but also makes the client laid back and not work as hard. Again, the admission consulting service is not a ticket to the admissions - it is a service that helps your time and effort not go to waste, which happens so often when you're not good at something. I realized this mid-process, and I have Susan to thank for it. She motivated me to the right direction, and wasn't afraid to tell me the truth. She worked really hard - there wasn't a time she was late on her comments or anything that she promised, and we went to like 12 drafts for one essay. For another essay, at draft 7, she wasn't afraid to tell me that I should scratch the whole thing and start a new one.

Thanks to Susan, I got an acceptance letter to the school I wanted. Susan is definitely the professional consultant you want if you are serious about getting in the school you want.

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The GMATs for me were straightforward. Study + put in the hours + practice problems galore + take the test twice = awesome score.

But when it was time to start thinking about actually applying to schools, I had no idea what I was doing. I'm naturally more of a "flowery" writer, and I strongly believed in keeping true to myself and having my voice come through. So my writing meandered all over the place and couldn't be called "succinct" in any definition of the word.

Susan Kaplan whipped me into shape.

After getting a few free consulting calls from different companies, I connected with her the most because she showed genuine enthusiasm for helping me. Plus, her background and experience in Marketing meant a natural fit for me and my career goals.

From the outset of defining my background and career goals, Susan gently but firmly guided my writing to be more professional and concise. With each essay revision, she made detailed notes and probed with pointed questions to make me truly think about the "what" and "why" of every sentence. Even when I was on the 10th version, or when I expressed my frustration at how little progress I felt I was making, she remained positive and encouraging. In addition, it helped that I could create my own timeline and force myself to revise and finish essays because I knew Susan's time was valuable.

Most importantly, with each essay I wrote, my next one got easier because I was learning how to answer the questions well. My latter applications were definitely stronger than my first essays, because I knew what I was doing! I would not have been so knowledgeable if I muddled through by myself. I pushed myself the harder knowing Susan was with me every step of the way.

Of course, I can't forget the comprehensiveness of the packages mbaMission offers either. From in-depth calls, to mock videos and interviews (individual and group), to the Insider Guides and other resources, every element helped me make my application and interviews better.

After R1, I was able to get into one of my top schools, and have other schools in my back pocket.

I definitely would not have gotten as far as I did without mbaMission and Susan, and I would highly recommend both the company and the consultant to anyone!

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Upfront and honest: Hiring an admissions consulting service was the best decision I made during the MBA application process, and if I had to do it all over again (thankfully I don't!), I would work with Susan again in a heartbeat.

Small caveat: I worked in the undergraduate admissions office at a Top 25 school in undergrad, and learned that the most important part of an applicant's application is not necessarily the "stats." Most everyone applying has around the same GPA/test scores, so just numbers alone help an applicant achieve parity with the rest of the applicant pool - not necessarily differentiation. The story that supported the stats, i.e. essays/letters of rec, was really where applicants separated from each other and unique students stood out.

Therefore, I applied the same insights to the graduate school application process. Knowing my grad school stats (3.4 GPA/650 GMAT) were going to be "average," the essays were going to be an critical part of my application in order to breakthrough the applicant log jam.

However, I had no idea where to start, what to say and how to say it. When trying to fit years of work experience and undergrad accomplishments into 250 words or less, having a clear perspective on the key points you want to say is mission critical before ever putting finger-to-keyboard. That is when I started working with Susan, and she absolutely saved me!

Here is what Susan did that was tremendously valuable:
- Gave me a place to start. The initial brainstorming sessions were painful soul-searching endeavors, but she knew the right questions to ask and how to ask them in a way that got me to be honest with myself about who I am, who I wanted to be, where I wanted to be and what made me unique.
- Helped me understand the application game. With her background in marketing, Susan helped me to understand that applications are really just an exercise in building your personal "brand." She helped me to look through my background, and recognize the experiences that were worth building a brand around.
- School-specific optimization. Susan also provided unique insight into each school I was applying to, the elements they're looking for in an applicant and how I could tailor my brand story to align with what each school was looking for.
- Time efficiency. Susan also kept our time streamlined so as to maximize efficiencies, which I appreciated. This mentality extended to the essay writing process itself, where she was also able to help me self-edit down (some times brutally, but necessarily) to the most important parts of what needed to be said in order to maximize every word.

I applied to four schools, each with approximately 2-4 essays and several resume iterations (professional and activities.) Susan provided feedback on time in every instance, helping me to meet deadlines as needed.

Additionally, Susan also provided encouragement when things were on the right track and honest feedback when an essay had gone awry. When words begin to swim in front of you, knowing I could trust her to give me real feedback made the process less stressful and more productive.

I also worked with Susan for interview prep, and highly recommend the experience as well. Susan knew me as an applicant and was able to identify my key strengths/weaknesses along with suggestions as to how to address them in an verbal format. The mock interview along with her real-time feedback was particularly beneficial.

In the end, I got into 3 of the 4 schools, including my top choice, and was wait-listed at the other school. I am very pleased with how everything went, and I have Susan to thank for the positive outcome.

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Hi all,

I wanted to share how happy I was with my hourly consulting services with mbaMission and my coach Susan Kaplan. With her help, I am going to one of my target schools (USC Marshall) and couldn't be happier.

In short, Susan knew how to make the most of the hours I was paying for. She provided specific feedback on my essays -- which was all I really felt I needed help with -- and didn't waste any time with fluff or vague notes. Everything was right to the point, and she really helped pinpoint my essays weaknesses, and offered some great food-for-thought suggestions on ways to improve. For anyone out there looking for that extra set of eyes to help truly craft "your story", Susan is the way to go!

Please feel free to reach out if you have anymore questions!

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Thought I'd give a quick review on my experience with mbaMission to the GC community and in particular, my admission consultant Susan Kaplan.

My background - Auditor, CPA, CFA Level III, 3.8GPA, 720GMAT, and 4 years of work experience. Strong profile from an academic perspective, but definitely lack extracurricular activities.

I would highly recommend Susan and an admission consultant for the following reason:

1) If you are like me and don't have the time to read every post online about how to write your essays, not to mention the difference approaches adopted by different people. With that said, an admission consultant cannot make you someone you are not. They are in the business of highlighting your qualifications and make your application strong and more eye catching. They don't write essays for you (at least not at mbaMission) and they shouldn't. What Susan did for me was that she opened my thought process and challenged me to think differently about myself and not be conservative in highlighting my qualifications and framing my stories.

2) She is very knowledgeable of the entire process and does not bs you or over-promise on anything. She understands where all the land mines are and often times, I would step on them without knowing. She is very honest in her feedback, something I really appreciated as I didn't want to pay for someone to tell me that my essays were great - that would be a huge waste of money.

3) She is very willing to accommodate your schedule and will push you when you are behind. I think that's something we all need given our busy work schedule. We started early in the process (at least I thought), which really helped to manage my time better and not scramble last minute.

I went through the process with a friend of mine and she chose to use Stacy Blackman instead. Since we discussed the process almost daily, I was able to contrast the process and note the differences:

1) Stacy Blackman has a flight test review - this is a neat feature and basically, the admission board at Stacy Blackman will review your application in whole to see how the puzzle pieces integrate with each other.

2) In terms of actual feedback on essays, the services were not nearly comparable. I would often go through 6 or 7 drafts with Susan and even start fresh mid-way through while my friend received minimal feedback. The level of expertise in editing and overall idea generation was clearly lacking when you contrast the two.

3) As mentioned above, Susan is not afraid to ask me to start from scratch even when we are short on time. This is very important to the application process as your initial ideas generally don't work out. On the other hand, my friend felt that she paid a lot of money to have someone tell her that her essays were well written and only made small changes in wording and grammar.

Overall, I would highly recommend Susan Kaplan to anyone who is serious about getting into one of the top schools. As long as you have the right expectations and willing to spend the time and efforts, she can definitely improve your application and help you get into the school you want.

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I feel confident stating that I would never have gotten into both schools I applied to with Susan's help.

A non-traditional background can be a real asset if you know which aspects of your background to highlight, and a hindrance if you focus on the wrong areas. I was completely hung up on trying to figure out how to present my story, and Susan was incredibly helpful in working with me to identify which particular skills and experiences to highlight in the various parts of my application. She also provided frank feedback when I was heading in the wrong direction.

I particularly valued her help on my essays - I was amazed at how quickly my jumbled first drafts turned into final products. It's because her comments were focused and direct. She suggested places to cut out lots of unnecessary details, pointed out areas where I should elaborate more, and left me to work on improving my next draft without getting stuck running in circles.

She also really pushed me to clarify my career goals. In addition to strengthening my application, that also made me feel much more confident that going to business school was the right decision for me.

Finally, it was great to have someone in my corner who was enthusiastic and supportive any time I had news to share about interviews or acceptances.

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