I wouldn't have been accepted to business school without Katy's advice and perspective. I only applied to two schools (HBS and Stanford) in the 2nd round, as a re-applicant and was accepted by HBS (interview at GSB). Katy understood and explained how I ought to polish my application (no major career changes in the yr).

Katy's brainstorming pre-work and interview advice were particularly helpful. Her pre-work exercise formed the basis of my essays. Her interview practice (the guides along with her voice-over) were invaluable perspective for what to expect, how to frame the conversation and how to best position my experiences.

Big thanks to Katy - would highly recommend to any of my friends/ family.

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I found mbaMission through its affiliation with Manhattan Prep, the company I used for my GMAT preparation. Initially, I didn’t plan on hiring a consultant since I was applying to only one school, but after spending several stressful weeks drafting my essays I decided to change course. I selected John based on the very productive 30 minute free consult I had with him.

John's in-depth understanding of who our audience was, the AdCom, and what they were looking for, was a key component to the process that I would not have been able to figure out on my own. Through our discussions, I was able to create focused, well-rounded essays that told my story in a clear and concise way.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of working with John was one that I didn’t initially envision when I hired him - review of my resume. Going into the admissions process, I was pretty happy with it since I had used it on several interviews and assumed it didn’t need many modifications. John recommended I simplify the technical language so as to make it easier for a non-finance person (as the AdCom reviewers might be) to understand. Together we went about simplifying the layout and highlighting some of the more notable accomplishments of my career, which undoubtedly played a part in my acceptance to NYU Stern. I truly belive I wouldn't have gotten in without John's help.

I highly recommend mbaMission and John Sisk to anyone going through the admissions process. While the cost may seem high, I believe it’s worth every penny!

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As a part of Forte's 2015 MBALaunch class, for women preparing to apply to business school, Angela is ever-present. She's the main speaker on at least 6 webinars during the 10-month program, and covers some of the most important material: how to think about the whole MBA application process; how to determine which schools are a good fit; how to tell your story via your resume and your essays; how to communicate your career goals clearly. Angela is clearly having fun, all the while being very candid about her own experience and the mistakes she made. It's hard not to feel like she's definitely on your team and rooting for you, real solace during the long slog of applications. She provides a raft of free, awesome content on her Career Protocol blog, too!
But don't be deceived: she keeps it real, and will give it to you straight if you're being delusional or if your resume needs some serious work. I signed up for mbaMission's free 30-min consultation, and she is just the same one-on-one as she is on a webinar destined for 500 people: generous, enthusiastic, authentic, and unsparing in her constructive criticism.

The Forte program has been amazing for a number of reasons: the accountability, the support, the community of Launchers, the access to Admissions staff and insider knowledge about schools. Angela is a crucial part of the package.

*note that I have not yet applied or been admitted to any business schools, but gmatclub seems to require that I enter a school in order to post this review!*

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As most MBA applicants quickly realize, the application process requires a ton of soul searching. Angela’s greatest strength was her ability to guide me through that process. She was able to quickly understand all the twists and turns in my career and what each decision revealed about my underlying values (and how those values have evolved over time). Independent of the outcome of the application process, I found that the process of deep self-reflection was extremely helpful and rewarding.

Angela was also incredibly helpful with the tactical steps required to complete the application. From guiding me on how to write a business school resume to sharing how what I was writing might come across to an admissions officer, it was extremely comforting knowing that I had an expert on my side. Ultimately, I couldn’t be more pleased with the result, as I got into my top two choices that I applied to.

Thank you Angela!

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I’ve had the fortune of working with Angela through the Forté MBA Launch program. She led a number of webinars and workshops on resume, essays, interview prep, and storytelling for MBA applications. In these sessions, Angela shared her knowledge about each aspect of the MBA admissions process with honesty, energy, humor, and thoughtfulness. She has created a number of very useful tools and protocols to navigate each stage of the process, like the Explore Your Experiences Toolkit (http://careerprotocol.com/explore).

In her workshop on storytelling Angela asked participants to conduct mock interviews with partners, addressing professional successes and failures. We went through the exercise several times, incorporating new tactics into our responses after each run. Angela offered concrete methods for developing our answers into stories with a structured narrative arch. She helped me to transform the raw details of my professional experience into succinct, interesting responses for short essays and interviews.

In each of her workshops and webinars, Angela emphasizes the importance of developing an authentic connection with the admissions committee through effective storytelling. Each of her workshops encourages productive and useful self-reflection. Her protocols helped me to source a number of ideas for my applications. At times the MBA application process can feel overwhelming, but Angela’s approach combines creativity and introspection with efficiency and structure. Her MBA Resume Protocol (http://careerprotocol.com/mba-resume) perfectly demonstrates this combination. I dare you to get through it without learning something new about yourself! An unexpected benefit of working with Angela is that I now have even greater conviction about my decision to pursue an MBA and my short- and long-term career goals.

tl;dr Work with Angela Guido at mbaMission and get empowered to tackle the MBA application process!

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I was lucky enough to work with Angela through my MBA application process through a series of webinars. Angela's webinars and toolkits are some of the most helpful pieces of advice of gotten throughout my MBA prep journey. In particular, her MBA Resume Protocol is one of the standouts from working with her. It helped me to focus in on both strengthens and weaknesses in my resume and figure out how to actually pull together a resume that reflects my accomplishments, the impact I've had but in a way that totally fits with my personality. I would highly recommend working with Angela on any piece of the admissions process. She is smart, funny and really thoughtful in the time she puts into working with you. She was a great balance of honesty to push you passed the hardest parts of this process as well as cheerleader in keeping you motivated and positive.

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Katharine (Katy) Lewis did a fantastic job advising on my application process, and I could not have been more pleased with our experience working together.

Applying in Round 3 this past spring (2016), I knew that I was going to have an uphill battle if I was going to be accepted to one of my target schools (top-10, mostly). I began working with Katy approximately six-weeks before my application deadlines after I had already taken the GMAT exam. Immediately, Katy and I set to work brainstorming, discussing my background and goals in-depth over approximately two hours of phone calls so that we better grasp and articulate my “story”.

When I began working on my essays, this investment in brainstorming really paid off. Going into my applications, I knew that my above-average amount of job movement was going to be an issue that I would need to address, and Katy did an exceptional job of helping me express a coherent career path that emphasized professional growth and a breadth of experience gathered along the way.

Additionally, an added benefit of this brainstorming work and Katy’s guidance was that I approached my applications with a more well-defined sense of my career goals after my MBA and was able to better explain why these goals appealed to me personally, as well as why they tied into my overall “story”. This concrete sense of direction was incredibly helpful, both in creating well-crafted applications, and in planning for my MBA experience going forward.

Ultimately, I was accepted to my top school after initially being waitlisted. Statistically, the odds of a successful outcome after applying in Round 3 are fairly slim, and while a fair amount of luck was certainly on my side, I can honestly say that I do not think I would have arrived at the same point without Katy’s help. I strongly recommend her service, particularly to applicants with a “story” that is unusual or not immediately straight forward.

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Jessica was incredibly fast, responsive, and detail oriented. She was patient to work me through more drafts than normal to get to clean and concise stories for my resume and essays. She was also dedicated to creating the best outcome, even if it meant starting an essay over with a new story.

The process was less stressful than it would have been alone, but unfortunately I was not accepted by any of the R1 schools we felt comfortable about, so I had to apply to more than I was planning to in R2. I don't hold Jessica responsible for selection, but perhaps we could have done better there or landed on better stories to include in those essays. The additional applications did add to the stress, but I was very happy about the acceptances I received in R2.

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I can honestly and wholeheartedly say that without the support of Jessica Shklar and mbaMission, my journey throughout the MBA application process, and perhaps even the outcome, would have been quite different. After an “aha” moment, I decided to go full force on a very tight timeline and apply for my Global MBA at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. After speaking with the admissions office regarding deadlines and what was realistic as I pushed forward, I had only two months to complete my application materials, most importantly the two required essays, and study for and take my GMAT.

I dedicated the first month to writing my essays. Having a communications background and six years of professional, full-time working experience, I had in mind the story that I wanted to tell and knew that I could formulate my ideas well enough to get a decent outline. What I knew I would need help with wasn’t grammar or content so much as – am I really giving them what they are asking for? I enlisted the help of a friend of mine who also had success with mbaMission and is starting her MBA program in the fall 2016 at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. My friend recommended Jessica Shklar, saying “she’s the best, but you might not be able to get her because she’s in really high demand.” In a panic for this last minute help, I reached out to mbaMission, and Aimee replied back almost immediately that she would personally check with Jessica regarding availability. As luck should have it, since I only required mbaMission’s a la carte services and because I was catching Jessica slightly prior to peak season, she was kind enough to accept me as a client. During my Manhattan GMAT course, I had the pleasure of meeting mbaMission’s President and Founder, Jeremy Shinewald, when he came to speak to our class. I introduced myself and spoke very highly of my experience with Jessica, which did not at all come as a surprise to him – what did surprise him was that Jessica was able to take me on with her demanding schedule!

Jessica was attentive to my goals and sensitive to my time constraints. With only two hours of her time via electronic communication, she quickly demonstrated an understanding of my writing and my intention, and did not want to alter my story at all. She gave positive reinforcement with useful and enlightened responses that triggered my creativity throughout the writing process, enabling me to reposition significant points and highlight important areas that should have been at the forefront of my essays but were void in my initial drafts, and that were essential to truly answer what was being asked of me. Every edit that I received from Jessica included thoughtful responses, and even questions so that she could understand the story that I was trying to tell, or my thought process on a particular topic. When I would steer off in one direction, Jessica would give me objective feedback that got me back on track. All of this feedback was crucial as I continued to write and edit, and because of Jessica, I am incredibly proud of my final essays. In fact, I am making an effort to continue to embrace the valuable tools that I learned from Jessica today in my writing and communications.

I highly recommend mbaMission’s services, and if you are able to get on Jessica Shklar’s roster, consider yourself one of the lucky and privileged! If I had to do this again – and I’m glad that I don’t – I would have used Jessica’s services for the entire application process. A true professional that means business and cares!

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I was a non-traditional applicant with a liberal arts major from an Ivy and work experience in startups. I'm a female Asian-American. The weaknesses I knew I had to overcome were a sub-3.5 GPA, lack of quantitative background, and scattered work history due to the nature of the startup world.

As I searched for a consultant, the first mistake I made in the application process was seeking a consultant with a high "success rate." After all, my ultimate goal wasn't to write a bunch of essays; it was to be admitted to my dream school! When I spoke to Jessica, she made me realize that the firms that boast about their numbers push applicants towards safety schools in the interest of keeping their numbers high. She politely explained that her own success rate included having countless clients who felt as though they were her only client, glowing testimonials, and half of her business from referrals. The fact that her own incentives were in line with mine, not against them, was a refreshing break from other consultants - many of which told me straight up that I had no chance at my dream schools, so I shouldn't even try.

When I asked Jessica about my weaknesses, she was nothing but positive. Unlike other consultants, who continued to harp on the fact that it would be difficult to overcome the GPA and work history, Jessica instead focused on my upward trend in grades and how fascinating the work I did in each of my jobs was. She encouraged me to apply to my dream schools. I could feel her genuine excitement upon hearing my story. This is what sold me.

Our first brainstorming session was unforgettable. I'd prepared a 22-page document full of answers to questions about my upbringing, work history, and personal values - not just my numbers and resume points. Jessica read every single page in order to touch upon the most poignant details about my life in our conversation. She eventually drew so much "content" out of me (that I didn't even know I had!) that we were able to come up with an outline for a very personal story.

This story ended up forming the foundation of our relationship. For three months, I'd lock myself in my room to finish a draft, send them to Jessica, anxiously wait for her response, open her document full of thoughtful and honest edits that matched my own effort, and repeat. I was shocked by how far every draft progressed. In just 6 drafts, my essay went from scattered to polished. I'm confident I couldn't find another person that puts as much care into her review as Jessica does, especially considering how personal the story was to me.

In the end, I used the final essay as my main introduction for 5 out of 6 applications to Top 10 schools. I secured 3 interviews, was accepted to all 3 with Jessica's help (2 with scholarship), and I'm now at Wharton - a dream!

Before I had secured any interviews, I told Jessica that no matter the outcome, she had helped me be more introspective about myself than ever before. The story she helped me write helped me come to terms with something I hadn't had the courage to face. If you work with Jessica, you'll be getting so much more than an acceptance letter to business school.

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