When I decided to apply to B-School, I debated whether or not to use an admissions consultant. A friend of mine recommended I give mbaMission a try for at least the free 30 minute consultation. After speaking with Melissa in that initial conversation and getting a very positive impression, I decided that I would purchase a couple of hours for a second, and professional opinion on some of my essays. This turned out to be the best decision I made during the application process. My coach/coachee relationship with Melissa snowballed from there and I continued working with her throughout the entire application process because I kept getting so much value out of her feedback.

More than anything, Melissa helped me understand my story on a deeper level and in a way that would resonate on my applications. Furthermore, she helped me discover my potential by forcing me to dig deeper on every essay, resume bullet point, interview prep call, etc. Because I could tell she cared about my dreams and aspirations for business school and beyond, I was able to trust her throughout the entire application process. The value of having a coach and loyal friend (who I knew had my best interest at heart) in my corner while navigating the challenging process of applying to business school was immeasurable.

In addition to the soft skills and intangibles she provided, Melissa is incredibly smart and energetic. Her insight, expertise, and passion provided a much needed boost to my applications. I totally (and have already) recommend working with Melissa to anyone considering applying to business school. She helped me get into my dream school and I couldn't be more excited about what she helped me accomplish. I look forward to sharing future successes with her for many years to come!

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I used hourly services with Jen and it was immensely helpful in my business school application process and a key contributor to my success in admissions! I was initially hesitant to use an admissions consultant, but set up a free 30 minute consultation at the recommendation of a friend. A few minutes into my consultation, I knew I wanted to work with Jen throughout the application process. Right away, she pulled stories out of me to brainstorm essay ideas and provided great advice on which stories I should use for which applications. She was incredibly knowledgeable about the schools I was applying to and helped me tailor my essays, short responses, and resumes accordingly. I am so glad I made the decision to use mbaMission and I would enthusiastically recommend Jen as an admissions consultant throughout the application process!

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I had the pleasure of working with Jen throughout the duration of my application process to NYU Stern. I was matched with Jen after my free 30min consultation where I explained what my goals were to one of the leaders of mbaMission. Jen proved to be just as good as advertised. She had amazing feedback on all aspects of the application which helped me tell one cohesive story. Her feedback was prompt, helpful, and gave me the boost that I needed to feel confident about my chances of getting admitted to school. As someone that did not have an elite GMAT score, I knew I would need some guidance to make the rest of my application really stand out, and Jen gave me all the tools that I needed. I am so grateful to have worked with her, and would recommend her services to any future MBA applicants looking to get a leg up on the competition.

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Summary: Rachel helped me gain admittance to my dream school, Wharton! If you are contemplating the benefits of using a consultant, I would tell you to stop thinking about it and begin working with Rachel. Without Rachel's guidance and encouragement - I would not have even applied to my first choice school.

My Story: As I began the application process for MBA programs, I had a few friends suggest that I look to leverage an admissions consultant. Skeptical at first, but figured I had nothing to lose by a conversation, I scheduled two free 30 minute sessions; one with a competitor company and another with Rachel. As I was pleased with my first conversation with a competitor, I had high expectations before I got on the phone with Rachel. From the first 5 minutes of my conversation with Rachel, I knew she was the person I wanted to work with. Not only was Rachel familiar with the information I supplied before my consult - she came with recommendations and suggestions - something I did not expect from a free session. I thought my GMAT score would limit me on gaining acceptance to a top-tier program, but with Rachel's encouragement, I immediately began working with Rachel on my application and essays to Wharton.

Throughout the process, Rachel was my cheerleader, mentor, and personal coach. Rachel was extremely timely on providing thoughtful, candid feedback (in a good way) and challenged me to present my "best self" in my application. Rachel has a brilliant approach to storytelling and creating a coherent narrative. Rachel took the stress out of the application process for me and helped me achieve my goal of gaining acceptance to a top-tier MBA program.

I cannot thank Rachel enough for encouraging me to apply to my dream school, guiding me throughout the entire process, and helping me gain acceptance. Rachel exceeded every expectation I had and I would highly recommend Rachel to anyone who is considering applying to business school.

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I will be attending the University of Michigan Ross this Fall on a fellowship, and Helen Summers was essential to this outcome and my entire business school application process. What I appreciated most was her quick turn around time for every essay draft I sent her. Seldom did I wait more than 2 days for her to turn around my essay drafts with comments. This was especially impressive given that we were working together through December/January holiday season. I also found her detailed commentary on every essay and resume draft I sent to her incredibly helpful. Helen did a fantastic job at dissecting “my story” and pointing out the flaws in my anecdotes. She challenged my writing every step of the way, and it made me better each time. Working with Helen ultimately made me more introspective about my life story and what I wanted to have come through in my application. In addition to essay reviews, I had several phone conversations with Helen throughout my process to discuss GMAT strategy and Recommendation letter strategy. It’s important to note that I signed up for MBA Mission’s Hourly Package. Because the package was based on time spent, I was extremely cognizant and aware of every minute that I used for these consulting services. That being said, I can comfortably say that I never once was concerned that any billable minutes weren’t maximized. Helen was incredibly efficient in combing through my essays and resume while giving back meaningful feedback. When it came time to purchase additional hours, more than I initially planned for, I had zero hesitation because I knew every minute spent to on my application by Helen was going to help. Although I never ended up getting my target GMAT score, Helen did a great job of keeping me focused and helping me bolster every other part of my application, including my optional essay! She will give you the “tough love” that you need, and I truly felt like she was one of my biggest cheerleaders; you can really tell that she is passionate about this stuff. If you want to get into the school of your dreams, she will best position you to do so. I also had three of my friends use Helen this past year and they all got into the schools of their dreams, schools including Wharton, HBS, and Stanford. - I would highly recommend her.

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I highly recommend Harshad to anyone looking for an admissions consultant. His support and guidance was critical to my success, and ultimately contributed to me getting accepted at both Wharton and Kellogg.

Before I was connected to Harshad, I’d spent several months narrowing my list of schools, visiting, thinking about why I wanted to go to school, what matters to me, and what I wanted to do when I grew up. In December, I found myself planning to apply R2 having done a lot of thinking, but with no essays or concrete application progress made. After a 30 min “real talk” consultation with Harshad, I was off. With his support, I turned the many thoughts into compelling coherent applications.

Highlights of the experience:
– Harshad doesn’t mince words, but he explains himself clearly and logically. His first set of comments on my first essay attempt were tough to swallow (but accurate) – this approach let me quickly kick it into gear and start making progress!
– He maintains the integrity and truth of everything his clients write. He helped me edit words out and make suggestions about which approach to take of multiple things I’d try, but he never inserted his own voice into my essays (and would explain when he couldn’t edit something until I worked on it further because it would require him to make decisions about the message)
– When I was holding back and my responses were suffering as a result, Harshad would always kindly but directly call me out. This is how I work best.
– He works like a madman in application crunch time to be there when his clients need him (all hours of the day/night, all days).
– Always provided actionable feedback (both on essays and when we did a mock Kellogg interview). I will carry his interview advice forward for all future job interviews

Because we started working together 4 weeks before my app deadlines, we agreed that it would make the most sense for me to purchase hourly consulting services. Harshad worked very efficiently, leading to cost savings over what I expected. As a consultant myself who bills by the hour, I really appreciated Harshad’s diligence in managing and communicating time he’d spent with me or reviewing my essays.

Harshad cares deeply about his clients and manages to work efficiently while also getting to know people and forming supportive personal connections. He is funny and optimistic and a pleasure to work with.

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Jessica talked me through a 30-minute free consultation, and it completely changed the way I viewed the process. She helped me with school selection, ensuring that my angle and approach were appropriate and compelling, and structuring my essays. Again — all of this was in a FREE 30-minute consultation. I decided to apply quite late in the process, otherwise I would have signed up for additional hourly services. I've since been admitted to 4 of 5 programs (Michigan Ross, Berkeley Haas, Yale SOM, and UVA Darden) and waitlisted at 1 (MIT Sloan). I'm really impressed by the way Jessica helped me tailor my application, and I'm very grateful for this consultation. I highly recommend her services!

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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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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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When I made the decision to apply to business school nearly 2 years ago, I picked up a copy of the book "How To Get Into the Top MBA Programs". It was an incredibly long book and didn't provide me much help in setting a framework around the application process. I felt lost and overwhelmed. I knew I needed help but wasn't entirely sure where to turn.

I found mbaMission and was paired with Kate. After completing the free consultation, she made me feel far more at ease about tackling the applications. Most of all, she was 100% honest with me about my program choices and what I needed to do to position myself better. It was roughly 6 months later that we touched base again and decided to move forward with a partnership. After analyzing where I was in the process, we came to the decision that the Hourly Services would be most efficient with my timeline.

Over the course of the last year, Kate has been my guide through the application process. Everything they say about it is true: it's remarkably introspective, requires a great deal of time, forces you to put your best foot forward, and is incredibly detailed and tedious. I can say with confidence that I could not have done it without Kate. At each step of the process, she provided sound advice and direct, honest feedback. This is rare. Most people will hesitate to say anything outside of praise. Kate constantly helped me evaluate everything from large items such as essay drafts to minor details such as how many GPA decimal places to include. With her help, I was able to craft the best possible applications and was invited to interview at all 4 of my program choices, was admitted to 2, and have been waitlisted at 2.

I can’t say enough about Kate. She has an intimate knowledge of the top programs, she puts in time to thoughtfully review every aspect of your candidacy, she’s efficient with her time and has a quick turnaround when you need it. But most of all, she genuinely cares about her clients. I never felt as though I was just another name on a list. Kate took the time to understand who I am, what I’m looking for, and how I can get there. By focusing on that, my voice wasn’t lost in the process – rather, it was enhanced. She provided me with a different perspective that refined my applications in a unique way.

I spent roughly $3,500 on mbaMission’s services. While I was given access to a number of guides and inside information, the real value came from my interactions with Kate. It was worth every penny! I would recommend this service to anyone looking to apply to business school.

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