I reached out to MBA mission for a free consultation in the latter part of my GMAT process. I had studied for a few months and just taken my first official GMAT. My score was mediocre, it was not what I was expecting, and I wanted to talk through my options with someone who had experience with the process.

I had my free consultation with Krista and to my surprise we discussed much more than the GMAT. She did stress the importance of a great score but assured me that it was within reach and many of her clients had faced a similar battle. We quickly moved on to many more fruitful topics. In particular, our discussion surrounding community service is worth mentioning.

I was under the assumption that my application would be subpar as I had little community service activity. I had worked in investment banking and private equity for the past several years and did not volunteer much given the workload. Through my consultation with Krista, I learned that community service is a much broader term than I had initially thought and that I had loads of community service experience. By the end of the phone call I knew that I wanted to work with Krista and ended up buying a three school package with her. What a great decision that was.

I had my sights set on a top MBA program (H/W/S) and the first step was devising a plan to get me over the 700 GMAT mark. A month later, above a 700 was in the bag. I wanted to point this out because she is much more than an application guru. She was extremely helpful before I even started writing and her ability to encourage and motivate is incomparable.
Once the GMAT was in the rearview, we focused on essays. The brainstorming session, like the free 30-minute consultation, brought out quality stories and aspects of my character that otherwise may not have surfaced. Krista would review initial essay outlines and help me tailor the structure and story to the respective school. She was not, however, overly opinionated – my applications remained authentic. Where Krista shines through is on structure and delivery. Her commentary would often be along the lines of “can you rearrange these thoughts”, “can you make this more concise”, or “you had mentioned x in your brainstorming doc, could that fit in here”.

I started working on applications and essays in June. This gave me more than enough time for Round 1 deadlines. I was pretty much able to hop on the phone with Krista as many times as needed. We probably discussed and reviewed each essay 5-10 times. That is the kind of attention you will get with Krista.

In short, she will help you craft your story effectively and push you to submit the best application you can. You do not hire her to get you in, you hire her to push yourself to get yourself in. If you are willing to put in the effort, Krista guidance is a tremendous resource. What I most enjoyed about working with Krista was throughout the whole process the application always felt authentic and in the end you know that you got yourself in.

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After speaking with admissions consultants at a few companies, I ultimately selected Susan because of her amazing reviews on GMAT Club. I knew that she had a reputation for being tough, but that’s what I wanted, and that’s what I got. Susan helped me get into Stanford, my dream school, and I can’t thank her enough.

I’m embarrassed to think about how bad my applications would have been without Susan’s help. As a non-traditional applicant with an engineering background, I needed assistance with all aspects of my application – post-MBA career goals, school selection, resume, essays, recommendations, and interviews. Susan guided me through all of it flawlessly.

“This just isn’t working.” Susan never hesitated to tell me when something wasn’t working. When I was ready to give up, Susan pressed onward. We went through ten revisions of some essays, and Susan never missed the two-day turnaround.

Even if I hadn’t gotten into any business schools, going through the application process with Susan would have been worth it. She encouraged me think critically about my motivations, strengths, and accomplishments, and got me into the habit of asking why to drive down to the deepest levels of a decision or goal.

I have no doubt that the applications I submitted were the best I could possibly submit. At times, I thought it was overkill, that there was no way one more revision could make a difference. But Susan always found room for improvement. And it’s hard to argue with success.

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Applying to business school had always been at the back of my mind. I had been in touch with mbaMission’s founder, Jeremy Shinewald for a few years before deciding that I was ready to apply. Given my story and the schools I was targeting (HBS and Stanford), Jeremy recommended I work with Monica. I will never be able to thank him enough for this.

Working with Monica was a delightful experience. She is detail-oriented, attentive, creative, reliable, professional, and clearly knows her way around the application process.

What made this collaboration so seamless is that I truly felt that Monica’s approach was highly tailored to my personality, my strengths, and my weaknesses. She was able to achieve this by taking the time to know me in order to bring the best out of me.

I knew that my biggest issue would be essay writing. Through our numerous brainstorming and drafting sessions, Monica appropriately helped me dissect my story and turn it into compelling essays. She helped me identify the correct structure, tone, and anecdotes to convey my ideas in the best way possible. I am still amazed by the contrast between the first and final drafts of each of my essays.

Monica also helped me prepare for my interviews in the most thoughtful way possible. For HBS, she shared detailed notes with one of her colleagues who conducted a mock interview with me. In hindsight, it really felt like the real thing. For Stanford, she prepared questions that helped me better communicate my passions, my accomplishments, but also my setbacks. This was all incredibly helpful.

Besides the essays and interviews, Monica also helped with the short answers on the actual applications. She helped me transpose my resume into a more business school friendly format. She even helped my recommenders with the letters that they ultimately submitted for me!

I really did get the full package with Monica. Along the way, she would check in, encourage me, or follow up after an interview. She showed that she was invested in my success, and that she cared. I would not have achieved my dream of attending HBS without her. Aside from the incredible mentorship I received throughout this process, I really feel like I have made a friend.

Thank you, Monica!

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After a free 30 min consulting, I was referred to consultant, Jen Kedrowski, who was recommended after the initial point of contact decided that my style, story, and direction would be best matched with Jen. I purchased 3 hours, which I thought to be quite pricey for the amount of time, but I was willing to pay that price because I was in a place where I just needed someone I could trust to verify that my thoughts and ideas made cohesive sense. There's only so much that your friends can do, and they can only be so invested in YOUR future. So I sought a consultant because it's their fulltime job to be invested in you. So what I was actually paying for was peace of mind and another set of eyes that would help me formulate a plan for each school that I was applying to. Upon introducing my story to Jen, she listened, and gave very helpful feed back in terms of what ideas were good and what ideas weren't so great. I told her in the beginning that I want feedback to be straight up, and to not worry about hurting my feelings, because what I want from all this is the best possible application and essays I can make, and that is exactly what she delivered. I had applied to McCombs (WL), Foster (Admitted with scholarship), and Wisconsin (admitted with scholarship) with a GMAT score of 680 and a GPA of 3.1. As you can see, my scores aren't particularly exceptional, and what I believe gave my applications the edge were my essays that Jen helped me formulate. She doesn't play any gimmicks with making things up with what you should say. What she does is gather all your information, tell you what about your past stands out the most, and help you tie those important pieces together in a way that you are able to articulate your strengths while making cohesive sense to your overall past, present, and future. Even though I had gone over my time limit that I purchased, she always responded with answers to any questions I had beyond what she was paid to do, and even helped me decide which school I should attend. Long story short, she's genuine, smart as hell, and trustworthy. I would highly recommend her to anyone seeking help on essays and which schools would best suit your needs.

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Heidi provided an excellent service on my essay ideas and editing. She helped me generate my most convincing strength on my essay, which made me successful in my application. Heidi always turned her editing back to me in a timely manner, never later than her promise date. I signed up total 3 hours of her time in my essay edition and I think they were more valuable than my investment. I highly recommend Heidi to everyone who wants to apply for top MBA programs. Without her help, I don't think my application process will be such smooth and efficient (I did not waste one minute in my essay).

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I was connected to Harshad by Angela Guido, another mbaMission consultant and generally amazing human being whom I'd met through the Forté Foundation MBALaunch program. I'd had my sights set on attending Chicago Booth from the time I opened my first Manhattan prep book, and I knew it would be a challenging process. I come from a social impact background, and I knew I could really only afford a couple of hours of admissions support. Although I was applying to a number of schools, I decided to devote my time with Harshad to structuring and editing my Booth essay. A Booth alum himself, Harshad was incredibly thoughtful and easy to talk to, and before I knew it I was sharing my life story with him. He helped me to choose an essay topic that felt authentic and meaningful. Notably, Harshad has a depth of expertise about the school and its philosophy, and he helped me to connect the dots between my own values and those of UofC's "Chicago Approach." Harshad is an expert storyteller and with his guidance I was able to shape my thoughts into a cohesive and compelling piece of writing. He is strategic and logical, and asks thought-provoking questions. Working with Harshad felt like participating in a writing workshop, and at the end of the process I was proud to submit my application.

After I was accepted to Booth in Round 2(!) with some scholarship funding, Harshad helped me to draft a respectful inquiry about possible additional funding, and the school was able to increase my scholarship package. This fall, I'll be attending Chicago Booth with a very generous scholarship award, and I owe a great debt of gratitude to Harshad for this outcome. I would absolutely recommend working with Harshad for your MBA admissions process.

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I had the extreme pleasure of working with Helen on my Round 2 applications for 4 business schools. I chose to purchase the start to finish package for all schools, as I knew I needed tremendous support. I would highly recommend Helen to those considering hiring a consultant for the application process.

I was a non-traditional applicant with little understanding of the differences in MBA programs and the amount of work required during the application process. I hired Helen in mid-November to help me through this process. Despite having an accelerated schedule with only about 6-8 weeks to complete my applications, she really took the time to understand my background and experiences. Helen provided great advice on which schools I should be targeting given my background, stats, and interests. She was very realistic with me during my school selection phase by explaining that M7 schools would be reach schools for me, but other top 15 programs would be more reasonable (she was absolutely right).

Helen was always friendly, honest, and genuine in our interaction, especially on essay reviews. She provided great ideas during our brainstorming sessions on topics I could use in my essays and didn’t hesitate to tell me if I needed to shift the direction of an essay after I had completed a draft. She really pushed me to dig deeper and provide specific examples in my essays in order to more clearly define and convey my ideas.

I interviewed at 3 of the 4 schools I applied to and Helen helped me prepare for all 3 through mock interviews. The questions and style of mock interviews were very similar to my actual interviews. Helen was very authentic with me and provided specific feedback on how I could improve my answers during my interviews.

My experience in working with Helen was fantastic and I would recommend her to those looking to get into a top business school. I would not have been accepted to any of the programs I applied to without Helen’s help.

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If an MBA is a personal discovery journey, working with Monica is the perfect way to prepare :)

I got to know Monica through a friend, currently HBS student.
When I had my 30-min call with Monica, I already knew what my biggest struggle would be - essay writing. I was under some time pressure, didn't have much experience in essay writing and had an unconventional career path I was struggling to take advantage of.

After our initial call, I knew I had found the right person to help me. Through her targeted questions and comments, I knew Monica would push me stay true to myself and would help me bring the best (and even leverage the worst) of my personal and professional paths.

On essay writing, Monica was a life-saver.

She helped me brainstorm the structure of my essay, what my stories and decisions meant to me, and which anecdotes would best convene my personality and would be more authentic. She would criticize, praise, help me think through my experiences and have a magical way to helping me communicate what I was really trying to say, even if I didn't know it at first (it's borderline scary sometimes). Plus, as a non-native speaker having Monica helping me was essential - she would turn convoluted sentences into incredibly powerful messages.

Monica also helped me prepare for my interview - and here again she was an amazing help.

Monica helped me understand the mindset of the interviewers, the best pace, depth, breath, and also what were the must-have questions/answers that I would need to prepare to. Thanks to Monica I was able to feel confident and relaxed, and follow her advice of being as genuine and authentic as possible during the interview :)

In the end I got an admitted to my target school - HBS - and I could not be more happy I got to work with Monica on this journey!!

Thank you Monica!! :)

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I found the whole process to be fantastic. From the initial free consultation through to the interview prep, Jen was always prepared and knew my application inside out. The initial brainstorming session was great and very thorough as it got me to remember things that I had forgotten. When reviewing my essays, Jen looked for more than just grammar and format. A lot of care was taken with each draft and the response was very timely. When prepping for interviews, Jen had a lot of clear and concise guidance on how to improve.
Jen helped a lot to answer all my many silly questions and she exceeded my expectations.

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Working with Jeremy Shinewald from mbaMission was a gift and a pleasure. I signed up with him a mere 3 weeks before my Round 2 deadlines. I figured “the leverage” of using a somewhat pricey consultant made sense for a couple reasons – (1) If I get into my dream school, it leads to huge dividends for my future and (2) If I get awarded financial scholarships, on an immediate monetary level, the consulting services pay for themselves…I am fortunate to say that both outcomes happened to me. I got into my dream school and with a $25k+ scholarship.

I chose mbaMission because they were referred to me by ManhattanGMAT which I had an amazing experience with. I chose Jeremy because he is the founder of mbaMission and happened to be the only consultant available for my very short 3-week timeline.

Jeremy in particular, added a phenomenal amount of value to me personally and my applications. On a personal level, he helped me do some soul-searching and gain clarity on what I wanted, my past experiences and my strengths. As a “Type A” type of person, I can often be hard on myself and Jeremy helped me see a bigger and wider picture. On application materials, Jeremy truly went above and beyond, turning around tons of work back to me on tight deadlines (i.e., hours) without charging me an extra penny and despite the “two-business-day response” in our contract. The quality of Jeremy’s writing skills are tremendous and he understood the schools I was applying to on a much better level than I could from my own research.

In short, I highly recommend mbaMission and Jeremy. Whether you choose to go with them, I highly suggest taking advantage of the free 30-minute session as that short call on its own added a lot of value to me plus gave me a feel of their services without having to pay anything.

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