I met Angela at the Forte MBALaunch 2016 Kick-Off event in Houston (she was a panelist) and through a series of webinars hosted by the MBALaunch program, and from the very beginning I saw in her a genuine individual, with lots of energy, ready to rock and roll. I contacted her in early July 2016, a bit late for R1 applications, and immediately confirmed my interest to work with her for R1, regardless of the tight schedule. What I loved about her was how genuine and straight forward she was when it came to discussing my school choice and the depth in which she wanted to get to know me to gain a better sense of what was the best fit for my goals. She didn't just look at my stats (country of origin, GPA, GMAT score, among others) but went deeper within my experience (personal and professional) to understand my goals and dreams and always encouraged me to apply to my top choices. She helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses in such a way I ended up recognizing extremely important aspects of my life I had, for a long time, taken for granted. Angela became my life coach and led me to discover many attributes, opportunities and room for improvement in other aspects I had completely disregarded as part of the application process. Her good vibes, straight forward advice and awesome energy were key to push myself beyond my limits and deliver three complete applications in less than two months!!!! During the process (essays and brainstorming), she helped me to be 100% empowered with my story, my origins and my goals, regardless of how atypical they were, especially during the interview process, a time in which my nerves skyrocketed!

The results were unbelievable!!! I was accepted to all three (top 5) schools and I'm happy to say that I will be attending HBS in the fall!

As I look back on my application process, I couldn't feel more thankful for having Angela by my side in this self-discovery journey, not only because of the fact that she was key to make this dream come true but also because, thanks to her, I now feel empowered with who I am and ready to keep betting on myself!

I highly recommend reaching out to her. You'll see it for yourselves!

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I booked an hourly package with Dan Richards because I had a pretty good idea of essay topics but needed some help putting it all together and making the essays flow together. I was hesitant to use a consultant at first, but after talking to several friends who recently went through the MBA process, and after my 30 min consultation, I was convinced this would be well worth the investment -- and it was! Dan and mbaMission exceeded my expectations and helped make the application process feel much less stressful.

Dan is an extremely gifted writer; my responses would often be verbose and all over the map, but Dan has the unique ability to cut through the weeds and say "this is what I think you're trying to say, let's try to frame it in this way...". We went through 5-7 drafts on each essay, and each was significantly better than the last thanks to Dan's feedback and guidance. I am confident I would not have submitted such strong essays without his help.

What was even more valuable was that Dan really helped me map out my career path and think through what each job (and responsibilities) meant. This was key both to my essays as well as my own, personal growth. Dan is clearly very familiar with all types of career paths and can offer many details and insights to roles, responsibilities, etc.

Going into the process, I thought my resume would need minimal work - boy was I wrong! Dan helped make it MUCH stronger and cleaner. I learned that a business school resume is different than a professional one, but I also took away some tips to use in a professional context as well.

Lastly, Dan helped me decide when enough was enough, and to just submit and stop worrying :-) I think you can go on forever refining essays, resumes, etc., but at one point that becomes more detrimental than helpful! Dan helped me decide when that point was reached.

With Dan's help, I was able to get into my top choice school!!

I felt Dan was very respectful of our time together and I would not hesitate to recommend him, or mbaMission, to a friend. Well worth the investment!

A side note about mbaMission:
I originally spoke with Katy from mbaMission during my 30 min consultation. When it turned out she was booked for hourly work, she was quick to recommend Dan based on my background and choice of schools. I get the sense that mbaMission has a lot more camaraderie than some of their peers -- which I think is great! I had several 30 min consultations and was most impressed by mbaMission's professionalism, breadth of knowledge, and superior recommendations. I would certainly use them again.

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Angela is amazing at her job! She's been extremely helpful throughout my MBA application process. She's been great at addressing all the parts of my application I was really concerned about. The Success Inventory toolkit has been such a difference maker in deciding which aspects of my life I'm most proud of that I can share in my essays. Learning how to create an MBA specific resume, creating a personal statement that is a story and creating my career game plan are areas (amongst a few others) Angela helped me further develop. I would not have been able to do this on my own and highly recommend working with Angela!

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Angela helped at multiple stages in my application process. In particular the Success Inventory document gave me great tips to start off my journey in thinking about the different things I had achieved and how they all fit together in one narrative.

The workshop I did with Angela early about storytelling on also helped me build confidence and think about a distinct and more interesting way of telling stories without being too formulaic.

In general, listening to Angela has overall made me feel like the MBA is something achievable for me. Actually going through process she also gave tips that will help me in career for the rest of my life, I would definitely recommend her.

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Angela provided excellent insight and advice on my resume, application materials, and essay. Her knowledge and expertise pertaining to MBA applications is unparalleled. She is very generous with her time and made additional time available in her calendar to accommodate me. I would highly recommend working with Angela for all application needs! She provided the Success Inventory document for a deeper insight into my professional narrative, as well as the resume guidelines. She led webinars and workshops as part of the Forte Foundation and shared useful resources. I now realize all that there is to do and how much I don't know about each business school and how to make the strongest application possible! Angela provided tactical tips and inspiration to help make the road easier and solidify my professional profile, my story, and my approach to applications.

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I had the opportunity to learn from Angela during a handful of webinars for the Forte MBALaunch program. Of all the webinars I been through with the MBA Launch, hers were the ones I looked forward to the most. Of the few webinars that she presented her resume protocol and success inventory were the highlights for me.

The success inventory is a valuable tool to strategically build a greatest hits list for applications, and is a helpful tool to arrange thoughts for application essays, etc. I am looking at application essay topics now and I have few where I don't already have a story/experience that I can integrate into the essay from this greatest hits list.

The resume protocol helped me to revamp my resume to a b-school friendly application format. I found it very easy to convert my current professional resume into the format, it was just a matter of rethinking about what I had done in my current/previous roles and really getting at the highlights vice the day to day tasks. The protocol has clear guidelines on how to think about approaching the resume, and how to make sure it stands out.

Beyond the tools, I really appreciated Angela's presentations. I found them to be chock full of good nuggets and were interesting throughout. I HIGHLY recommend Angela!

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During my admissions process, i spoke to many different consultants to see which was the best fit for me. One of my favorite things about MBA mission was that i was able to get my free 30 minute session directly with Katy. I quickly got a sense of what she was about and realized that she was the best person to help me on this journey.

She quickly understood my story and helped me find the best way to express it. I come from an nontraditional background so for me it was very important to get the right story on paper to show my best qualities. Katy was extremely helpful in the planning and brainstorming sessions and was able to ask all the right questions. She was truly interested in my story and made me feel like I was her most important client every time we spoke.

During the application process she was also outstanding, she did a fantastic job of reading and editing the essays without being invasive and making them sound as if they didn't come from me. She was very timely in her responses and was available during weekends and even during Christmas break.

Overall, I was very pleased with Katy's guidance and I am sure that she is a big reason as to why I will be attending Columbia Business School this fall!

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Idea generation for the essays was the hardest part of the entire application process. Rachel made it a breeze. She read through my brainstorm document in detail, and really listened to me before distilling my life stories down to a single theme. When I didn’t think I had anything special, Rachel saw the best in me and helped me pick out episodes in my life that really highlighted my strength. Thanks to her heavy lifting at the beginning, I did not feel stressed despite only starting to write the essays one month before the deadlines.

Throughout the process, Rachel was upfront but respectful, persistent but not pushy. During my moments of panic (e.g. after I thought I screwed up my interview) and self doubt, she was the one that stayed focused and helped me get back on track. She was instrumental in helping me get into HBS.

I also liked mbaMission’s systematic approach. After hearing from other friends about the services that they used, I feel like mbaMission’s framework really helped me save a lot of time throughout the process.

I highly recommend Rachel and mbaMission to anyone who considers business school!

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If you are looking to get into your target schools, but feel overwhelmed by the process and you need to get organized and motivated, I recommend working with Helen. She helped me get into 4 MBA programs including a full-ride scholarship to NYU Stern and a 3/4 of a scholarship at MIT Sloan.

A year ago I connected with different consultants (within mbaMission and with other firms) about my target schools and Helen proved to be the most qualified and most motivated willing to help me achieve my goals. I was struggling with a low GPA and an average Gmat, but Helen helped me make my application that much stronger by showing me how to effectively highlight the points I was trying to get across to admissions. Furthermore, Helen was very patient throughout the entire process, she genuinely cared about my success. She also polished my resume and interviewing skills. In the end I thought she was very responsive to any questions and/or concerns, extremely thorough in her feedback, and very experienced in the application process.

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When I first started the process of applying to business school I was really unsure if I wanted to use a consultant. Between GMAT prep class fees and travel expenses to visit schools, the cost of applying to business school adds up quickly and I wasn't sure if a consultant would be worth the cost. Since I knew people that had gone through the process of applying to business school, I had a solid understanding of the work needed to complete an application but I really needed a top consultant to help me craft my story and write strong essays...at least I thought that was all I needed.

Helen was recommended to me and after our first conversation, I knew I made the right choice. She helped me pull out the elements of my story that embodied who I was the most and pushed me to dig deeper whenever I got lazy in my writing. At times, I was so frustrated with the process I was ready to stop and Helen always lovingly brought me back on track and helped me create a plan to make the process less stressful. She provided edits and ideas very quickly and was always responsive whenever I got stuck. She also did a mock interview with me (with specific questions about my background) and coached me on how to give strong and thoughtful answers. Needless to say, many of the questions she asked me were exactly the questions I was asked in my real interview. Her mock interview was excellent preparation for the real thing.

In general, I saw Helen as more than just my admissions consultant, she was also my cheerleader and part time life coach. LOL I truly felt like she was invested in my success and because of her guidance and extreme talent in bringing out the best in people, I was admitted to several schools and will start at Stanford this fall. I couldn't be more excited! :)

I definitely recommend Helen as a top business school consultant. Thank you to her and the entire mbaMission team for helping me to achieve this dream!

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