When i started looking for an MBA admissions consultant, i did the free 30 minute sessions with a few different companies. Most of them were good, but i felt like they were just saying what i wanted to hear. They were very much like cheerleaders. When i got to the free 30 minute session with Jessica (after one of my best friends from college recommend her to me), it was a completely different experience. The 30 minutes were super productive and she was very objective with my candidacy - she highlighted what I had going for me, but most importantly, she identified my areas of weakness and proposed how she would work with me to address them. It was definitely a tough session, but that's when i realized that's exactly what i needed for the process - Someone that would be critical of my application as that would allow me to put my best foot forward. After signing up with her for the 4-school package, i was very satisfied with the service i received. She was very responsive (48 hour turnaround system) and always answered my questions thoroughly (I had lots of questions throughout the process so i really appreciated this). When i submitted my applications, i felt satisfied that regardless of the outcome i had put my best foot forward. If you want a real coach (vs. just a cheerleader), i highly recommend Jessica. Worth every dollar.

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Revisiting this review because apparently I'm not the only one that feels this way. Be very skeptical when you see all the 5 start marketing.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MBA/comments/1eumo7u/debbie_choy_from_mbamission_for_hsw/

I hate writing reviews but this felt like such a scam that I feel like I have to help future MBA applicants feel informed by what they are signing up for. I want to be fair by giving the good and the bad, but ultimately you're going to be paying $5,000 not for "consulting" or "expertise" but for some broad-brush edits that would be indistinguishable from (or inferior to) the help you would get from a colleague or friend.

I worked with Debbie Choy on the introduction and brainstorming session. Style-wise, it felt like I was on the clock all the time and she is quite good at ending discussions. The content of the brainstorming session was perplexing as we focused a lot on high school things that weren't really relevant to the MBA application or the essays. Lastly, I was hoping to get a lot of candid feedback from an admissions perspective but it felt like pulling teeth to get answers to basic questions like what schools would be competitive. On the plus side, some of the materials she shared were relevant and helpful.

I ended up working with John Sisk for the essay portion. The positives were that the revisions were very timely and the first round of feedback was fantastic to get in the right direction. After that, however, each subsequent revision felt pretty low-effort, with unanswered questions, grammar mistakes, and generic template-like feedback. At the end the essay had all the soul written out of it and felt more like a "list" than any individual behind the story. Schools stress the important of being authentic but the result read more like a husk of a product.

At the end I'm not really sure what I paid for. My guess is that these guys are too busy or too successful and don't really put the time into your individual application. The timeliness and initial direction were nice (maybe consider their hourly) but I wouldn't recommend against anything beyond that.

Best of luck in your applications!

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Jessica and I hit it off instantaneously in my consultation. I could tell within five minutes of speaking with her that she is deeply invested in not only her clients' success but getting to know them personally.

Working with Jessica on all of my applications only further solidified my expectations. She went above and beyond to get to know me and what matters to me so that we could craft a unique and personal story for my applications. As someone who had no experience or idea how much work the application process was going to be, she was the best partner ensuring everything was done in a timely and organized manner. During such a nerve wracking time, it was so great to know I had such an experienced and thoughtful person in my corner. It also doesn't hurt that she got me into one of my dream schools!!

I had friends that applied to business school at the same time as myself that used different consulting companies, and the amount of time and effort Jessica put into helping me was above and beyond what my friends experienced. This along with all of the amazing reasons I stated above confirmed that Jessica is the best person for the job. If I had to go through this process again I would 100% utilize Jessica's help, and thus I would recommend her to anyone and everyone!

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Kate is an INCREDIBLE consultant and did a tremendous job throughout my application cycle. I first contacted her back in May and she had very few Round 1 spots left. I was lucky to have her!

I come from a Big 4 consulting background and technical undergrad. I applied to 5 M7 schools, received interviews at 3 of them, and was ultimately admitted to 1 school and waitlisted at 2.

Kate was there every step of the way. She was kind, thoughtful, and thorough. She brought out the best in my story, helped me find a logical structure to the (sometimes scattered) experiences that make up my life, and pushed me through to the end.

Kate is an incredible editor and is suuuuper patient throughout the process, even when we would go through 5-6 iterations on a single essay. She's outstanding at both the high-level storyboarding and the granular edits that are required to get an essay to the finish line. She also is great with interview prep, helping me to hone in on the story lines that would speak best to each school.

Kate was AWESOME and I couldn't recommend her more!

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Jessica was an amazing coach helping me get accepted to Wharton. She had amazing insights into how to tell my story and position myself despite my weaknesses. Jessica is not only extremely caring and understanding but also effective and efficient. Her insights were golden and her turn-around was extremely fast without compromising on quality. She has her own system which I've never seen before that helps you really craft the best application possible through a guided and iterative process. She asks the right questions and her incisive mind always has you thinking long after a conversation. Jessica is able to swiftly extract your strengths and weaknesses and help craft your story in a way that will make you stand out. As an unusual candidate with a non-linear background the approach I was going to take before consulting Jessica was completely different and probably the wrong approach. With her wisdom and advice I was able to use my different background as strengths and craft a much more compelling narrative that I am sure made a big difference in me getting into the school I dreamed of.

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Helen really pushed me to think outside the box in identifying my story. She was very encouraging about ideas that had legs, and was honest about those that weren't really going anywhere. She was very quick to respond to questions and provided fantastic feedback on all my essays that kept the big picture in mind. This is a process of self discovery, and Helen was a wonderful guide throughout. The application and testing process is definitely tough, but Helen's structured approach kept me ahead of deadlines and helped me feel very confident in my applications and interviews. I would absolutely recommend Helen and MBAmission to anyone applying to schools!

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If you are fortunate enough to get to work with Jessica, you would be making a huge mistake to do anything else. She is highly sought after by the world's top candidates and is absolutely best in class. I applied to six of the M7 and was accepted to all six schools including one with a full tuition scholarship. From the start of working together, Jessica took the time to really get to know me. She studied my intake materials and my story in detail, spending hours on the phone to learn more, ask questions, and genuinely understand who I am as a person. This is a critical and distinctive part of the process as she sees all her clients as unique and will never encourage you to put your story into a preexisting mold. She went further to help prompt my own reflective process so that I could personally explore better what it was I want to do with my life and career, something that was critical to communicating who I was effectively in my applications. (Many consultants I spoke to seemed ready to gloss over these more intangible components of the self-discovery process and leave you telling an uncompelling, half-baked story of who you are. Jessica, on the other hand, always had time for me.) She was a great encouragement in the process, but most importantly she would provide tough love when my stories didn't communicate who I really was and left a part of me out of what I was communicating. The last thing you want is a consultant who is not encouraging you to find and communicate the truest, most compelling version of who you are.

It is an incredibly big decision to trust someone to serve as a guide in applying to business school, a process that can have life changing outcomes. You can trust 100% trust Jessica in this role, and you will find yourself with someone who is a true partner in the process and who is genuinely invested in your success - something you won't find from many other consultants focused on churning through a higher volume of clients. I spoke to nine consultants before deciding who to work with, including some of Jessica's highly rated peers, and Jessica stood out meaningfully relative to the others. As someone who was in your shoes very recently, I can't recommend enough that you work with Jessica!

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I am the only one of my friends who applied to business school, so working and talking with a consultant was very comforting during an extremely stressful year. From the beginning, Krista helped me break down every piece of the admissions cycle into digestible pieces, so I did not feel overwhelmed at the daunting application year that I had in front of me. I was in a less than ideal situation, still taking the GMAT during the applications process. But throughout the year, Krista helped me understand every single option to consider, including school selection and testing options. Lastly, Krista helped immensely with learning how to tell my story concisely. There is extra work at the beginning to lay out every detail of education of professional background. But the extra work was 100% worth it, when I realized how little 200 words really is.
It felt great to work with Krista because I could not have expected to replicate her experience and knowledge through google researching. At the end of the interviews and before decisions were released, I had a weird sense of content because I felt like I gave everything I had to the applications. Thankfully, that was not the case, and I could not be happier with Krista’s help.

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From the beginning of my application process I had been hesitant about hiring a consultant for a variety of reasons, but now as I prepare to attend Columbia Business School next year, I can very confidently say that working with Gavriella was the best decision I made during the process. I interviewed five consultants and from the get-go I was confident that Gavriella was the right choice. She showed up to our meeting prepped on my background, was very candid about my strengths and weaknesses and proposed a concrete plan to move forward. The minute I knew for absolute sure that I had made the right decision occurred several weeks after we started working together. We were several turns into the all-important goals essay when Gavriella made the (at the time) very unpopular suggestion that we weren’t hitting the mark and that we should go back to the drawing board to make sure that we craft not just a good story but a great one. Most people would have said it’s good enough and forgone the extra work, but Gavriella was committed to our process and committed to my goal of getting into Columbia. She was always there for me to bounce ideas off, provided truly honest feedback, and at times just to listen to me complain about the whole process. No stone was left unturned from beginning to end and Gavriella pushed me day after day to make sure that I wasn’t just submitting a good application but a truly exemplary one. Gavriella guided me and helped create a narrative that showcased to the admissions board a full picture of who I am and what I am capable of.

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When I first started the MBA application process, I doubted whether my profile was competitive enough to get in to a top school. Melissa helped me identify and capitalize on the unique stories and experiences from my background, helping me craft applications where I could highlight my strengths and mitigate my weaknesses. I thought I knew what I wanted to write in my essays, but Melissa helped fine tune my ideas and pointed out experiences that she felt were unique which I wasn’t considering before. She’s also a skilled editor - I tend to be a verbose writer, and Melissa easily cut 200+ words from my essays while still maintaining the content and emotions of my story. Additionally, she is an incredible mentor and cheerleader, answering my questions candidly but compassionately and reassuring me when I was overwhelmed or anxious about the process.

Ultimately, with Melissa’s help, I landed interviews at 4 M7 schools, and was admitted into 2 of them - Chicago Booth ($70k merit scholarship) and Columbia ($50k merit scholarship)! Melissa even went out of her way to review my scholarship negotiation essays and a waitlist update essay for another program. I'm extremely happy with these results and am confident that Melissa’s support and guidance was instrumental in helping me land them. If you’re in the market for an admissions consultant, look no further!

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