I really enjoyed hearing and taking down Angela's insights on how to create your personal story for reflection in the MBA program admission essays! She is super energetic and clearly loves her job, plus she's great at it. What I gained the most was from her "Create Your Story" workshop and particularly questioned myself on what my greatest accomplishments were and why they were meaningful to me, as well as how I grew by overcoming challenges, both personally and professionally. I realized how key it was to show humility and make an emotional connection with the adcomms. The Experience Exploration toolkit was also a great way to get my thoughts and experiences down on paper.

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I worked with Angela Guido from mbaMission to have her advise me on next steps in preparing for an MBA. I was struck by Angela's honest and very candid advice. She clearly knows what schools are looking for and how to get any candidate prepared for applying to an MBA program.

Angela got to know my and my background and first advised that I take a math course of some sort given my low GMAT quant score and undergraduate curriculum.

Second, Angela reviewed my resume. I had taken a template she provided and massaged my work experience to align with the guidance on that template. I not only recieved great feedback from Angela, but have since gotten compliments from peers as well.

I would highly recommend working with Angela as she is professional, knowledgeable and very trustworthy.

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Angela's advice is invaluable. When I started my very own "MBA Mission," I knew I wanted to pursue my MBA, but wasn't sure if I could persuade the AdComs. I currently participate in Forte's MBALaunch, and as one of the younger applicants with significantly less work experience, I felt unsure of my candidacy. Angela walks you through the application process step-by-step and gives you great detail on how to work through potential obstacles in your application. I learned so much from Angela, but the most important thing I gained from her was the confidence to go forward with my applications. Furthermore, Angela's MBA Resume Template is GOLD. Her format is perfect for demonstrating growth, even if you haven't been working for long, like me. I got SO many compliments on my new resume, and I am proud of the work I put into it. Angela is a great resource - make sure you use her as you continue on with your MBA Mission.

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My Background:
- Born in Central Asia, but got my undergrad in the US.
- 3.9 GPA in college
- Worked in public accounting and finance
- 4+ years of work experience

Experience working with Angela:
My biggest concern with my school selection was my GMAT score as I scored in the 730-740 range in my GMATPrep practice exams, but only got a 690 on my first actual exam. Angela encouraged me to retake the exam for the 2nd time, and my score improved to 700, which was still nowhere near the range of my practice exams. Then again, Angela encouraged me to retake the exam for the 3rd time, and my score improved to 710. Due to my school selection, Angela encouraged me to retake the GMAT exam the 4th and 5th time since there was time before my deadlines. She wanted to help me make sure I put my best application forward. Furthermore, Angela believes that retaking the GMAT generally does not hurt, but instead shows perseverance.

My overall experience with Angela was great. Angela was always prepared and knew every single detail in my personal story. She also seemed to be very personally vested in my success – this by far was the most important aspect of our relationship! Angela sincerely believed in me and my story, and because of that she was able to help me frame the challenges I faced in my life in the most inspiring terms/ways in my essays. Furthermore, Angela not only encouraged me to do my best but also pushed me a little more yet again, resulting in a very polished final product with which I was extremely happy.

As a result, we put together my application in record time (you wouldn’t even believe how fast!!) Once I received an interview invite, I was again pressed for time with my schedule, and Angela was so nice as to accommodate to my schedule and carve out some of her time over the weekend to conduct my mock interview. In the end, thanks to Angela’s help and guidance, I was admitted to my dream school – Berkley Haas! It wouldn’t have been possible without Angela. I am forever indebted to her, and would HIGHLY RECOMMEND her to anyone applying to business schools!

Thank you, Angela!

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My overall experience with Kate was amazing. We worked together mostly on my essays and I can say she has such a creative out of the box way of thinking that really challenged me to make sure that I was giving it my best. I appreciated all of her feedback and felt as though she kept digging deeper to get to my bigger story and helped me unravel it all in my essays. She also is very prompt and will get back to you as soon as she can with even a small question.

I had my heart set on a specific program and was concerned that my quantitative score on my GMAT and my grades throughout my undergraduate program in the quantitative classes would make it difficult for me to get into an MBA program. She helped me figure out how to express my strengths and also touch on my quantitative weaknesses. I feel as though that really helped me to be able to explain these weaknesses rather than avoid them.

Kate and I also did some work on my resume and interview prep. My resume now is very clear and concise and anyone looking at it would be able to understand what I have accomplished without having to ask follow up questions. The interview prep was very helpful because it helped to calm my nerves and keep me on track.

Overall, it was a great experience and I am so excited that I was admitted into my top school! I would recommend Kate to anyone interested in an admissions consultant!

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I began the MBA admissions process in April, when I conducted a bunch of 30 minute free consultation calls with several consultants. I instantly connected with Dan - he had carefully reviewed my resume and within 30 minutes, was able to articulate what he thought were the key strengths in my profile and where he thought I would have to work harder.

I did not regret choosing Dan and mbaMission, even for a second, as my advisors through the admissions process. I initially signed up for a three-school package, but decided to add two additional schools given how happy I was with Dan's mentorship.

Applying to five schools in R1 is a daunting task, and I would never have been able to finish it without Dan's adept guidance. We formally began our engagement with a rather long brainstorming call that dug deep into the annals of my life, and helped Dan understand the most interesting aspects of my story. From there on, we methodically worked through resumes, letters of recommendations, essay drafts, applications and subsequently interview prep. I admired Dan's timeliness, professionalism, steadfastness and his constant desire to push me towards excellence.

Over and above everything, what I appreciated most about Dan was his honesty. Dan would never hold back his feedback or mince words to placate me - black was black and white was white. There were several instances where I would be extremely proud of an outline or a first draft, only to be respectfully told by Dan that I required a total re-write. It was hard to question his sagacity and listening to him turned out to be in my best interests. What was even more amazing was Dan's mastery of taking my simple, often verbose language and turning it into something crisp and sophisticated - definitely a place where his editing background proves to be immensely useful.

Long story short - I would recommend Dan Richards and mbaMission to anyone without a hint of hesitation. Go for him - you will most likely end up at your dream school, just like I did!

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As an individual applying without anyone in my network to have gone through the MBA application process, I would highly recommend this service.

Each webinar easily broke down one section of the process to keep it from being overwhelming. Angela Guido's sense of humor made the process a little fun at the same time.

I think the greatest strength of the service was the deliverables that were recommended after each section. It was helpful to learn what a good MBA resume looked like and then go off to create one.

Overall I anticipate this will save me tons of time by investing in this service early.

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This review is specifically for the Exploring Your Experiences document provided by mbaMission. Applying to business school is ALLLL about knowing yourself, your strengths, your experiences and your goals. The document is long and requires a lot of time but after finishing it, it has been instrumental in both resume, essay writing, and even chats with alumni and adcoms. DO IT! You will thank yourself later. Lastly, Angela from mbaMission is AWESOME. She has a very warm and welcoming personally which makes it easy to share your experience. She will also be very candid and let you know what you should and should not do when applying. Her advice has really changed the way I approach the application for each school.

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Angela was by far the highlight of my Forte MBA Launch experience. She led several of the Forte webinars, and also led the Forte kick-off launch session in Houston, TX. I really enjoyed her personal branding session, where we engaged in practice around how to present ourselves in interviews. We practiced discussing successes and failures we had experienced. She pushed us to craft attention-grabbing, detailed, and nuanced descriptions of ourselves and let us know that now was the time to own our successes and failures. Beyond the Forte webinars and sessions, I also had a 30-minute phone consultation with her. At that point, I was unsure if an MBA was the right path for me, and she gave me individualized advice pertaining to my specific situation. After this conversation, I left with a better sense of what the right path for me was. Thank you for your advice, Angela!

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I was late to the application process and was applying to only one school 3rd round, shooting for the moon knowing the odds were against me. And I honestly don't think I would have gotten in without Melissa's help on my essays.

I had the "stories" of both of my essays down, but what Melissa helped me with was to consolidate and focus/expand on what I viewed as details in the story, but actually were distinguishing factors for who I am as a person and applicant, rather than the overall "story". Her point view coming directly from the seat of the AdCom is invaluable to be able to highlight these character qualities I would have glossed over, instead focusing on the overall story. For example, my original essay said: I tried new things. Melissa helped me to turn that into: swimming across shark infested beaches, traveled to several third world countries, and signed up for new running clubs. By reframing what I was trying to say and extracting these descriptive details she was able to highlight my passion for adventure, exploration, and fearlessness and show more of who I am and what I would bring to campus. She was able to extract at least three adjectives to describe me when my original sentence gave zero.

I know my essays would not have fully shown who I am as a person and what sets me apart from the rest of the application pool without Melissa's guidance and ability to more effectively demonstrate what I was trying to convey. I would recommend her to ANYONE for any part of the process and was actually excited to work with her the following year had I not gotten accepted!

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