When I received an invitation to interview at my dream school (HBS), I was in shock. On the one hand, I was proud for surviving the toughest filter in the application process. On the other hand, I felt very anxious figuring out how to nail this interview (especially since I had already failed the interview at other three top-tier business schools).

Today, I am happy to report that I was admitted into Harvard Business School. I owe this accomplishment in great part to Katy Lewis, who became my mentor throughout the interview process, and prepared me to crush it. More specifically, Katy helped me in three ways:

1. We did 2 mock interviews before my real interview at HBS. As a Latin American candidate, who speaks English as a second language, these mock interviews helped me to relax and get comfortable telling my story in English.
2. Katy knows very well how HBS admission officers conduct their interviews, and what kind of questions they like to ask. Therefore, practicing with her helped to reflect on the answer to several questions that were actually asked in the real interview.
3. Finally, Katy provided me with very detailed feedback at the end of each mock interview, pinpointing the answers in which I had an opportunity for improvement. I really appreciate how honest and direct she was. In some cases, she helped me to strengthen my wording in order to communicate my story in a more crisp and clear manner. In other cases, we restructured my entire answer because the message I was conveying was not helping me to build up my case.

Overall, I am thankful for finding Katy and being able to work with her. Before our sessions, I was tired of reading over and over again about the importance of “being myself” and “enjoying” the interview process without actually understanding what these clichés meant. I regret not having Katy’s guidance throughout my first three interviews with other schools. I am glad that I met her just in time to get into my dream school.

I highly recommend her!

Read More

I worked with Katy to prepare for my R1 HBS interview and I can't say enough about the experience. She's extremely knowledgeable about the application/interview/admissions process and knew exactly where to push me in my prep. We did two mock interviews where she drilled me on my professional experience, extracurricular activities and post-MBA goals. The mock interviews closely resembled what my actual HBS interview experience was like, with several questions / themes resurfacing during the real thing. She gave detailed advise as to how I should position myself given my background and professional experience (white male, private equity, etc.). I especially appreciated the fact that I never felt like I was "on the clock" with her - she genuinely wanted me to succeed and was willing to do whatever it took to help me prepare. Overall, Katy was extremely helpful in my MBA application process and I would highly recommend working with her.

Read More

Katy not only read through my whole application to prepare for the mock sessions but also provided me with a great number of extremely helpful tips about selecting schools and reapplication. Katy also generously gave me a 20min call after I received my offers to help me make my decision.

Katy sincerely cares about me as a person and she is always there for me. I will definitely come back to katy if i decide to reapply to HBS and Stanford in the future! Honestly my biggest regret for my past application season is to not meet Katy early enough to have her as my admissions consultant.

Read More

Profile:
Male, Caucasian, 730 GMAT, Top-40 Undergrad College
Accepted: Stanford
I worked with another mbaMission consultant for most of the application process (Liza Weale—she was absolutely amazing!), but in order to get an additional perspective going into my Stanford interview, she connected me with Jeremy. Jeremy went above and beyond the call of duty helping me prep for this interview. Not only did he make time to do a mock with me while he was on a family vacation, but he also offered to talk with me a second time the night before the interview to make sure I felt fully prepped going into it. He was straight up with me, offering both encouragement/praise and opportunities to get better (with suggestions of little tweaks to come off stronger). He gave me the confidence that I belong at the table of somewhere like Stanford (something I had a bit of self-doubt about) and helped me feel ready and excited going into the interview. I came out of the interview feeling as though it went as well as it could have and I can’t thank Jeremy enough for his help making this happen.

Read More

I had trial consultations with three other firms and wasn’t satisfied with their processes or their overt salesmanship. Katy was the first admissions consultant who took the time to fully read and digest my resume and story of why I wanted an MBA without trying to push a package. She understood me and my non-traditional story immediately and had first-hand experience with the schools to which I was applying. So, after I was invited to interview at Berkeley Haas, I purchased a mock interview specifically with her. One of the greatest things about her is that she remembered speaking to me 3 months prior during our trial consultation and was genuinely excited that I got an interview.

She sent me prep work before our mock interview to help me understand the intricacies of the Haas interview as well as general b-school interviewing tips from her own experiences. During our mock interview, she took the time to ask me many more questions than my real interviewer would, ensuring no stone was left unturned. She actively took notes and gave suggestions on how to improve answers and what to stay away from. After the mock interview, she sent me several pages of extremely detailed notes on my own responses and all of the critical talking points we spoke about that I needed to hit. My real interview with Berkeley Haas went fantastic thanks to her prep and I was accepted to the program (as well as UCLA Anderson). I strongly recommend Katharine Lewis to anyone who needs help figuring things out or someone to practice interviewing with. She’s a true professional who actually cares about your success. I will be attending Berkeley Haas in the fall thanks to her!

Read More

Katy went above and beyond helping me prepare for the interview process! As someone who previously did not have a great deal of interviewing experience, I sought out Katy before my interviews - it was the best decision I made in 2018! She systematically went through question after question with me, helping me frame my answers. She helped me understand the interview process from the admissions committee’s point-of-view, and she gave me confidence in my answers. I cannot express how much her help meant to me. When you work with Katy, she treats you like family. She cares tremendously for the success of her students! Katy is outstanding in every way!

Read More

I was recently admitted to one of my top choice MBA programs, and I credit Michael for helping me with that.

Michael and I performed a mock interview and he provided feedback during / after the session that pointed out key areas of improvement to help with my story. He and I covered the most frequently asked questions, and for each question he was able to help me expand on my prepared answers, as well as identify specific points that I should / should not mention. This approach allowed me to better understand the perspective of the interviewer, which enabled me to also properly prepare for a list of extra (less common) questions that he provided at the end of our mock interview.

While going into this mock interview I felt that I had a good grasp on my story, Michael helped me develop my answers to a new depth. I highly recommend working with Michael for your MBA application pursuits!

Read More

Being a second year applicant, I had already laid down my strategy and noted down my weak parts on the application. So, knowing that I needed work on my interview skills, I went on searching for an admission consultant. The search ended very quickly as just after I spoke with Katharine on the free 30-minute, I knew that she is the one I needed. And indeed I was right as she helped me a great deal and I had an amazing learning experience.

To start, Katharine consulted me for about 1 hour for free in the free 30 minute consultation. She, didn't just provide me the best consultation ever over that hour, but she also helped me out connect with people that can help me strengthen the application. This worked quite well for me as I got to connect with people from my country who have gone to schools that I was aiming at going at. And all this was even before I hired her. :)

Two months later, right after I got my first interview invite, I purchased Mock Interview Service with Katharine. The day I purchased it, she sent me a lot of materials to read about the interview, studied my application in detail and provided with ideas on how to construct my interview. She was great at identifying what might be considered as weak on my application and at what I should emphasize in the interview. After that I went on to sit on that and then did a introductory mock up interview that lasted well over 1 hour. Besides consulting me over the phone, she also took notes with feedback on improvement and sent them to me. The notes and feedback was just amazing. I studied them and prepared a schokingly great second mock up interview. I was amazed at how well I answered the many questions we practiced together. I became very confident on the things I was saying and loved the way I answered them. This turned out just great as she did not just help me out rock in one interview, but in all the others I received an invite on.

Aside from the mock up interview, Katharine also connected me with an amazing current student of the school I had to interview on. The current student met with me and gave me very valuable insight and information that were useful in the interview. He was a previous client of her.

Katharine, while not obliged to do it, she helped me out with the pre interview essay, the thank you note and finally with results and decisions well after the interview.

I highly recommend Katharine for the services she offers especially the mock up interview service as she indeed helped me truly get very confident on the interviews and got out of her way to help me out in all the steps. The best experience ever.

Read More

Dan did a great job of setting up the interview by laying down the basics and sharing some behavioural tips for the final interview, personalized to my situation.

Dan asked me a comprehensive set of questions, including a few tricky ones. Each answer was followed by feedback on how I could improve my content, as well as my answer structure and sequence. All of this was personalized to my profile. Dan's tone was friendly and conversational.

MBAMission's pricing is a lot steeper than the consultants in my home country, but the value-add was higher. The only constructive feedback I can add is to incorporate video in the interview.

Read More

I highly recommend Monica!

For the vast majority of the application process, I worked with another (amazing) mbaMission consultant, but Monica conducted my mock interview for HBS.

Monica thoroughly reviewed my application materials and presented challenging questions that, at the time, I was not fully prepared to answer. She adeptly drilled down into the parts of my application that the admissions department was likely to have questions about. This served as a tremendous wake up call!

Following our conversation, Monica promptly circled back with an incredibly helpful document outlining each of the questions she'd asked/wanted to ask, and which I should focus on in the weeks leading up to game day.

Having this guidance channeled my prep and significantly boosted my confidence heading into the real interview.

From start to finish, Monica was a pleasure to work with. She was diligent, engaging, and incredibly insightful!

Read More