If you have the opportunity to work with Jessica, I would highly recommend it - it's truly worth every penny. I was on the fence about working with a consultant - it's an expensive investment and up to that point I had done everything on my own.

I knew I wanted to work with Jessica immediately following our consultation. Jessica managed to articulate my story better than I could after just a 30 minute phone call and was also able to point out strengths and weaknesses in my application that I hadn't thought about before. I felt confident that having Jessica's years of experience and insight would help me craft a more effective and authentic narrative - and that turned out to be absolutely true.

The three things that I enjoyed most about working with Jessica are:

1.) her ability to provide quick, candid and pointed feedback - there is no tip-toeing around feedback. She gets to the point quickly and that makes every minute you spend with her very effective and valuable.

2.) her ability to see trends in your experience/background and help you craft an authentic, powerful story.

3.) her ability to be your biggest chearleader when you need it most! Jessica always made herself available when I needed to talk to her and she believed in me every step of the way. As corny as it sounds, this is so important in the application process because there are so many ups and downs and sometimes you just need encouragement and positivity.

Ultimately, I was accepted to my two top choices. Jessica was a critical in that result!

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If you are applying to business school you need to work with Jessica. Jessica has intimate knowledge about the process of preparing and applying to b-schools. She is also an amazing story teller. As a non-traditional student, with a very unconventional academic and work background, I was concerned not only about the process but also finding and communicating my unique story in the best way possible to compete with other candidates and to highlight my strengths to the ADComs. After doing my research on several other firms, I decided to work with Jessica and I hired her for the complete start to finish package for each school. I knew that she was a perfect fit for me after the first phone call. She was able to help me navigate the various nuances of writing essays for multiple applications, preparing for interviews and most importantly, keeping me grounded and focused throughout a very intense process. With Jessica’s help and guidance I was admitted into a top 10 business school. I highly recommend her and mbaMission.

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When I was looking to work with an admissions consultant in the summer to put my best foot forward in the application process, a very good friend of mine, who’d gotten into B school, suggested I take John's and mbaMission's help. During my initial conversation, I found John to be refreshingly honest. I knew I was aggressive with my school selection, given my background. John, while mentioning some of the pitfalls with my strategy, told me "You've done half the job. Now, leave all the worrying about your odds of getting in to me!" After this, I was convinced to enlist John’s help with the ‘All-in’ package.
Because I was consulting on a project in John’s city, we decided to meet up at a local Starbucks to go over essay outlines for my top choice school. John’s storytelling skills shone through immediately. I could see that he had taken the time to go over my background and stories from the brainstorming document I’d sent to him earlier. I was very impressed with the way John provided structure and detail to my essays, all while introducing ‘hooks’ from my past to keep the reader engaged. At the end of the essay writing process, I was convinced I presented the best version of myself to the admissions committee.
John also helped refine my message and delivery during a 30 minute mock interview over the phone. When the day of the interview came, I was confident of facing any question my interviewer could potentially throw at me. I was eventually accepted into my top choice program. In hindsight, working with John proved to be a great decision. He truly cares about his client’s success. I’m confident, my investment in mbaMisson and John will prove to be a drop in the bucket over the long run.

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TL;DR – I applied to all of the M7 programs. I started working on my round 2 applications on Dec. 6th, less than a month before the first few deadlines. Dan was a massive help, keeping me motivated and focused, helping me complete all 7 applications in a very tight timeframe. I ended up getting interviews at 5 of the M7 and got into 3. Dan is highly competent, a great listener, and brutally honest. 5 Stars.

Full Review
Story
I spent most of this fall trying to decide between lateralling to a bigger firm and pursuing an M7 MBA. After several interviews and no hits, I decided to go for the MBA. By that time, it was already early December, and I was intent on applying round 2 (all signs pointed to round 3 being really tough).
I interviewed 3 MBA consultants that were recommended to me by friends, and Dan was my favorite by far: He is an expert on the whole process at each school, but above all, he is a great listener. Above all, I felt that his journalism background would be really helpful for the area that was most crucial – essay editing. However, he told me that he was already booked for this season and recommended a colleague of his at MBAmission. I was not enthused with the colleague that he recommended, and asked Dan to reconsider. He agreed and promised that once he took my case he would make sure that I got over the finish line.
I booked my first 5-hour package on December 6th and got to work. After a week he sounded the alarm: My pace was too slow and we wouldn’t make it – he urged me to redouble my efforts. With his prodding, we got all of the applications done in time, and I got interviews at 5 of the top 7 schools and was admitted to 3.
Competence
Dan really knows MBA admissions. He told me where I was likely to get in, and that has largely borne out. For essay writing, his sentences have a certain polish and readability. My writing tends to be boring and pedantic (shocking, reading this review 😊!) and he made my paragraphs much more interesting!
If I have a complaint, it’s that Dan didn’t understand (or take the time to understand) some of my more insider-ey essays, and as such, some of his suggestions did not make any sense. This was easy to rectify though, as I could take his sentence structure suggestions and rework the content.
Speed
Here is where Dan really shines. He promised to get me across the finish line – and he did. We had some same day turnarounds, quick comments and replies to emails – Dan always made sure to meet the necessary timelines.
Integrity
Dan will always tell you when he doesn’t know something. We had some difficult questions that were specific to my process, and Dan conferred with colleagues and got back to me. Dan never oversold his expertise.
Dan never tried to upsell me on other services. He did not seem to think that I needed the Wharton TBD package (which turned out to be correct) and he did not think that I needed to pay him by school (which is much more expensive). With Dan you will get absolute honestly.
Value
$300/hr is a lot of money to pay, but I would note that Dan is QUICK – he can turn around a first draft in half hour (if what you are giving him is decent) and a second draft in 15 min. It can even be shorter if you are reusing material from a previously polished essay. There were a couple of times that I sent Dan a really good essay and he made very few changes, yet the time check was still significant, which can be a frustrating experience. I would note that this only happened twice (and only once was significant), so it didn’t move the needle much.
MBA consulting is expensive. I spent about $3300 on Dan’s services and feel that that was money well spent. A bit of advice: If you know what direction your essays should take, go for the hourly package and use the time for editing etc. If not, and you are totally lost on the process, it’s probably better to pay for each school.
Overall, I am really happy with the process and results, and I definitely recommend Dan to anyone considering hiring an MBA consultant!

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The MBA application process is grueling and I was incredibly lucky to have Melissa in my corner through it all. Vetting admissions consultancies is a long process and I walked away from my free consultation with Melissa knowing that she'd be an asset during my application process. She wasn't afraid to give me detailed and honest advice from the get go, and her experience as a director of admissions and a marketer showed.

I had a general idea of the professional and personal experiences that I'd draw from, but Melissa was able to key in on the most important aspects and tailor different stories that would work for the schools that I was applying to. Melissa was always positive and knew how to showcase my strengths in ways that that would appeal to the admissions committee. Beyond her help with my essays and stories, Melissa always kept me on schedule - she was quick with her responses and she always made it a priority to keep me on track for my round 1 applications. Even Hurricane Harvey couldn't slow her down.

The bottom line is this: it's a significant investment to hire an admissions consultant, but the returns can far outweigh the costs. MBA students are foregoing two years of income and spending ungodly amounts of money, so it's important that you maximize your chances of going to a top program. Melissa helped me with this and ultimately got me into the program of my choice. I couldn't have done it without her.

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When I took the decision to apply to a Harvard Kennedy School, a year before the application deadline, I contacted a friend of mine, alumni from this school, to get insights from him on the application process. Among the precious advice he gave me, was the fact that I should work with a consultant. American people use consultants despite the fact that they know the system and that they can get lot of information from people around them. So, to him, as a foreign student, working with a consultant was really helpful in his application process but above all, because this consultant was Jessica Shklar. He specifically explained to me that choosing to work with Jessica was also a main factor of success. I immediately requested a 30 minute call with her.
It took me 10 minutes to understand that she was the person I wanted to work with. I am very difficult client (and I told her since the beginning!) because I like to challenge people and make sure that they add value to my work when collaborating with them. I am also very motivated when I have an objective in mind and I can spend entire days and nights thinking about it… hence, bothering people about it and asking endless questions.
I started to work with Jessica around <6 months before the deadline. At that time I had not taken my GMAT test yet and was starting to study it. Working with her in advance was helpful because she provided me with an assessment of my profile and gave me advice on how to improve my weaknesses and strengthen my profile. I remember that she raised two concerns that we would work on to improve my application: quantitative abilities (because of some low grades in finance classes), unprecise professional project (I knew I wanted to have a social impact but I was unable to define a path). For each of them, she gave me guidelines and advice on how to improve the gaps for the coming months. Because I had this assessment well in advance, I was able to prepare an action plan. She looked at my resume and gave me ideas of organizations and positions I might be interested in in the future, given my previous experience and my areas of interest. She even managed to introduce me to people working in some of these organizations to get their feedback.
Thanks to a very loooooonnnng brainstorming document that she asked me to fill in, she got to know me very well. It took me many hours per day during more than a month to complete it. But It helped her a lot to understand my whole story and to provide meaningful and relevant advice during the brainstorming sessions we had.
She also gave me advice to prepare for the TOEFL and GMAT/GRE. I had taken the TOEFL once, a month before contacting Jessica and was 12 points below the required grade, 22 below the preferred one. I had also difficulties to obtain a decent GMAT score. I was scoring in the 500s! She encouraged me to keep going and told me about success stories she witnessed. That positive mind is also key to succeed. She always encourage me when I needed it. This helped me reach my target TOEFL score at the second trial. And she also helped me change my strategy from GMAT to GRE. I obtained a medium score at the latest but my performance was far above that mediocre GMAT score.
Then, we started to work on the essays. At the beginning, I applied to one school, my dream school but after discussions with Jessica, I realized that studying in a school which is not my dream school would be better than staying on my current job. I would not take risks. I decided to add two other schools to my package and we worked on the three of them together. What I like is that she provided me advice without never telling me “you should do this or this”. She will always advise me based on her experience but I will always have the last word. And whatever the solution I chose, she would always support me.
To strengthen my chances of admission, I decided to visit HKS. That time again, she provided me with advice so that I would take more benefit from this visit. She pointed out a few things she knew were important for me and ensured that I would not forget to seek information about them.
For each of the three schools, we designed different essays, with the same basis but she always ensured that we would tailor them to the schools’ specificities. She insisted every time during the reviews to make sure that we’d answer the right questions instead of telling what I wanted them to know (which is something we all tend to do).
She also reviewed my recommenders’ letters, ensuring that they’d be specifically tailored to my specific profile and that my recommenders do not write “one-fit-all” letters.
I appreciated many different things during our collaboration:
- What I like the most is the passion she has for people. Doing her job requires a lot of empathy and she always showed enthusiasm with my story. At some point, I felt like I was not working anymore with a service provider but someone who is really committed to help me succeed;
- How responsive she is: she would always react quickly to quick questions and even, in many instances, send back the essays before the contractual deadline or during her days off;
- She knows the schools: thanks to her long-time experience, she is aware of what the schools are waiting for. Hence you don’t lose time explaining to her the different specificities and requirements- the only thing I did not want was to pay a consultant and have to explain him/her things that are available online; with Jessica, you rather spend your time demonstrating how you are a good fit for the school because she has done her own research;
- She really cares about every part of the application: we worked on about 12 versions of my resume to make it fit the application requirement and strengthen the best parts of my profile and as many versions of the +15 essays I wrote;
- She knows how to set limits: she’ll always tell you when you are going too far and which things are important or not; in my case, I had a tendency to look at every little nitpicky detail of my application and she made me realize that some imperfections are also a sign of authenticity; in the same way, she will never write for you, ensuring that your essays are written in your own voice. But she would write a ton of comments for you to address;
- She wants you to show the best part of yourself but always with honesty. I had some many interesting things to include in the different parts of my application and discovered that some elements I thought to be “normal” where things that could be valued if I take the time to analyze them from different angles; she has the capacity to present your accomplishments in a way that highlights different skills;
- Additionally, she would always put herself in the perspective of an admission committee member and take a fresh look and distance on the application, which is something I appreciated; It sometimes revealed things both of us knew but that were not clear in the application.

Finally, I got admitted to the three schools I applied to, with a scholarship for one of them… and this, despite a medium GRE score and some low grades in Quant classes.
I chose to attend Harvard Kennedy School as it is my first choice.
I am sure this would never had happened without her input and I am very grateful for it. I would not hesitate to recommend her to my friends in the future. And I definitely recommend her to anyone who is interested in working with someone qualified, dynamic and able to provide meaningful and actionable advice.

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I am a non-traditional candidate by most measures (mid-30, minority, advanced degree, untraditional career goal and non-straight-line experience prior to application). I disclose this much information to underscore this point: your essay and interview prep will be greatly enhanced beyond your expectation once Jessica put her touch on them. She is straightforward, passionate, empathetic, experienced and effective. She guides you through all processes; you should follow her advice because she knows the difference between overpreparation and underpreparation and will definitely draw the line between the two to tailor your need/ability to deliver the results My experience working with her came after an extensive search for consultants. To illustrate my detour before I got to Jessica, I had this one consultant not respond to my email and my (desperate I supposed) willingness to work with her/him after s/he reviewed my resume I initially sent to her/him. I remember I said to myself: I must be a hot potato with a complicated life history that even the professionals are dropping me like one. Do yourself a favor and work with Jessica. -Stanford GSB admit

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I could go on and on about why I would recommend Jessica to a close friend or anyone seeking a great admissions consultant.

I could tell them about Jessica's rapid and methodical brainstorming techniques to help you get great stories out in essays, her speed at getting work returned back to you, her expert editing to get your essay down from a long winded and unpolished essay into a sleek and powerful piece, her passion and dedicated commitment to make you succeed, and her ability to actually make the process FUN.

But really the true reason I would recommend her boils down to one reason and one reason only. She gets the job done. I had a less than stellar GPA and a less than stellar GMAT/GRE and Jessica helped me get into two schools and waitlisted at a third. One being my #1 pick where I will be going this Fall. Enough said!

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Last year, I decided to apply for MBA programs in the US. However, as a French engineer, I didn’t know much about the application process. I had no friends or family with an MBA, so I was getting into complete unknown territory here. After reviewing all the requirements (GMAT, TOEFL, essays, extracurricular, recommendations, transcripts,…), I knew that I definitely needed help to succeed.

I found out about admission consultants on the Internet and scheduled free consultations with the biggest admissions consultant businesses. After few calls, I wasn’t very enthusiast as they only focused on my GMAT/TOEFL score (700/102) and my target schools. I finally scheduled a free consultation with Helen Summers from mbamission. It was completely different as she was genuinely interested in me and my story. I immediately knew I wanted to work with her. I chose to go with the 4-schools « Start to Finish » package. I ended up getting admission offers from 3 schools from the top 15, one with a scholarship.

Here’s few adjectives to describe the amazing experience of working with Helen :

- Demanding : The first few weeks, we brainstormed and discussed for hours about my background and my work experience to identify inspirational stories that could be used in my essays. I think this initial brainstorming was essential as it provided solid grounds for the my applications. She really pushed me to clarify my goals and deepen my story. (Why an MBA? Why now ? Why these schools ?) Helen didn’t want to settle for generic answers and I had to devote a lot of time to introspection in order to have a compelling story to tell.

- Responsive : Helen was very responsive in reading my drafts, adding comments, and sending them back always within 48 hours, sometimes on Sunday !! When I needed to schedule a call or ask specific questions, she always reached back very quickly. When we had to schedule mock interviews in January/February, she was available and always very punctual.

- Honest : All along, she offered me very honest and but constructive feedbacks. As a non-native English speaker, I definitely needed help to produce high quality essays and she didn’t miss to point out things that she didn’t like or understand (words, ideas, or a turns of phrase,…) I wrote between 5 to 8 drafts for each essay and I’m really proud of what we delivered. Helen also did a great job in preparing me for the interviews. The questions she asked me during mock interviews were spot on and the real interviews went very smoothly with no big surprise thanks to her.

- Kind and warm : Helen has been very supportive during the few months we worked together. I really enjoyed the time we spent on Skype during brainstorming sessions, essay reviews, or mock interviews. She is not only a great professional but also a very kind person that makes you feel supported in this long and stressful process.

In a nutshell, I definitely recommend Helen to anyone considering applying for an MBA, especially international applicants like me. I wouldn’t have done it without her !!

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I signed up for an hourly package with Dan and was incredibly pleased with the experience. He is very professional and knowledgeable about the b-school process and I had a lot more piece of mind working with him. It was incredibly helpful to have someone I could email my random questions to (and trust me - there are a lot more of them than you will expect!).

Dan's excellent writing skills make him a wonderful editor - especially as you're trying to meet the essay word counts. He is also acutely aware of the stresses around meeting deadlines and often got edits back to me before the "technical" due date we had agreed on in our contract. I can't emphasize enough how much I appreciated this.

Dan stayed super communicative during the entire process, checking in on interview invitations and following up on open items. I highly recommend you add him as an adviser as you go through the MBA application process.

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