I was first introduced to Stratus Prep through the MBA Tour in 2012. It wasn't until nearly three years later that I decided I wanted to apply to business school. Although I was applying in Fall 2016, I began working with Stratus Prep in early 2015 which I highly recommend. As a female living in NYC with 4+ years of work experience and a decent GRE score (I did not use GMAT scores) I felt as though I was a good business school applicant but definitely wanted help in shaping my story and putting together the best possible application - this is where Stratus Prep came in!
From the very beginning, even before I came up with a list of schools or even looked at the application, I was given work to help me fully understand why I wanted to go to business school and what my goals were. At Stratus Prep you work most closely with one advisor but every piece of work you put together - introspection, outlines, application - goes through multiple views and proofreads. From a comprehensive timeline of when each piece was due to my advisor to interview prep and every little question in between, having a team there to answer my questions and give me peace of mind was invaluable.
Although I do not yet know where exactly I will be attending school next fall, I have already been accepted to a top ranked program and I know I could not have done it without the entire Stratus Prep team, particularly my advisor Susan Cera.
The business school application process is draining and a lot of work but working with Susan and all of Stratus prep made the experience much more enjoyable and ultimately successful!

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I had an amazing experience with Stratus Prep. Although I experienced serious sticker shock at how much admissions consultants cost, I ended up with a full ride to my perfect school so that investment paid off 20 fold!

I worked with Susan Cera who I cannot say enough good things about. I was initially matched with her because she understood my athletic background and I was considering programs like Fuqua (where she went and worked as an AdCom). She responded to emails almost always within 24 hours, even when I gave her a ton of items to review. I got emails back on nights and weekends very regularly and she worked with my schedule as needed.

I knew vaguely what I wanted to do with my career but was so lost about how to craft my story. We jumped through dozen of possible career paths and she helped me not only write my story, but also discover what I am really passionate about and how I can apply that to my career. By walking through it SO MANY times with Susan, I had my elevator speech down to a science when asked why am MBA and why now!

The introspective period is very intense and at times I ended up writing some stories for Susan to review that I thought were dumb but she ended up showing me how we could show my personality traits with little tidbits from my past woven through my essays and application. Probably the most value came from various Stratus coaches telling me when my essays were off the mark, rambling, or just nonsensical. I wrote several essays that I thought were good but Stratus pushed me to go deeper. I can say without a doubt that I would not have turned in essays that were anywhere close to as good without Stratus.

Overall, I had an amazing experience and would hire them again in a heartbeat. You only get one chance to go to business school, give yourself all the tools to go to the absolutely best program for you.

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I thoroughly enjoyed working with Stratus Prep. I'll admit that I did not know that using an admissions counseling service was so popular when I first decided to pursue my MBA. After attending fairs and doing some online research, it became clear to me that I only had one shot at this and I should be sure I'm putting the strongest application forward. I currently work in media/advertising, and not many of my colleagues have their MBA or were considering pursuing one. It was clear to me that I needed the advice and expertise of a seasoned counselor to help me make my application shine.

Beyond being professional, responsive, and pleasant to work with, the most valuable part about working with Stratus Prep was that they encouraged me to broaden my target school list, and made me think critically about what was most important to me in an MBA program. I was initially set on staying in my home state of California, and did not want to move. My counselor told me that I should seriously consider a program on the east coast, and recommended why I would be such a great fit given my strong interest in the culture and community of a school. She ended up being right in the end, and I am so glad I followed her advice as I will be attending a top ranked program next fall.

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