I worked with Heidi during 2018 Round 1 and 2 cycles and came away extremely disappointed with not only the result but also the process. Considering how much time and money I invested into the services, I was unhappy with the level of effort Heidi put into reviewing my materials especially after the first school was done, and also with the level of expertise in managing my expectations as a client. Both of these reasons led me to have to reapply this year and despite Heidi having the audacity to ask if I wanted to pay for more services, I of course declined and was fortunately able to gain acceptance on my own without using any of the materials that we worked on together. I now know that hiring Heidi and mbaMission was a big mistake and I would never recommend them to any future applicants.

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Before deciding which admission consultant company to choose, I conducted several free consultations to get a sense for the different approaches and also for the consultants I would be working with later on.

I found it very helpful that Jen, who conducted the initial consultation, was also the actual consultant who helped me create my applications later on - at some other firms the initial consultations were not conducted by the actual consultants. From the beginning I had the feeling that Jen was very knowledgeable and that she provided exactly the advise that I felt I needed. Therefore, I decided to work with her.

This decision turned out to be perfect, as she managed to help me demonstrate my strogest self in my applications. She took several hours in the beginning to understand my background thoroughly which allowed her to probe my application at later stages, as she always hat alternative situations in mind that I could possibly leverage.

I found the process extremely smooth and not stressful at all. Jen was approachable and always replied within the company's turnaround time. Quick questions were answered much faster.

Therefore, I can only recommend Jen to anyone applying to business school. Jen's knowledge, experience and communication style made her the perfect consultant to work with. Her support exceeded my expectations by far.

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From the get-go, working with Debbie was a fantastic and seamless experience (and I'm not just saying that because I got into my dream school, HBS, with her guidance). When I started the process early in the summer, I had an extremely vague idea of how to approach my application. I had a rough sense of what type of work I wanted to do post-MBA, but I wasn't sure how I'd draw a direct line between my professional, academic, and life experiences and the amorphous concept of my future career.

From the moment I began working with Debbie, that began to change. During our kick-off call and brainstorming sessions, I began to delve much deeper into the experiences that I've had. I think most people (or at least would like to imagine) aren't predisposed to constantly think about how great they are, or the great things they've done, but the application process requires you to do so. Debbie expertly coaxed these details out of me and helped me construct an application narrative that still felt deeply authentic; she never tried to impose anything on me or my application that felt uncomfortable.

As we continued through the process, Debbie was responsive and respectful, and ultimately guided me through an extremely introspective period of my life. Debbie also helped me prep for my interviews and set me up with her colleague on short notice for school-specific interviews (i.e. HBS). She always felt like a genuine partner who was most interested in my success and, if I had to go through the entire process again, I would do it the exact same way with the exact same counselor. I learned a lot about myself along the way and I'm certain that my experience would have been much different (see: worse) without Debbie's expertise.

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Background on me: White, male, finance, small school (GPA 3.9 / GMAT: 680 / 5 years of experience upon matriculation). Pre-MBA I worked at a relatively unknown firm.  So all in all, I felt like I had a somewhat weak profile compared to the whole of the applicant pool. 

I knew that I would need to use an admissions consultant to differentiate my self from a competitive applicant pool. I spoke to a few consultants and told them my background. However, Jen truly stood out because she generally understood my background and on a free consultation helped me start to craft my story. She seemed to be generally enthusiastic about the process too.  Ultimately I signed up for the complete package.

Working with Jen helped me tremendously throughout the entire challenging process.

Jen helped me tremendously when finding and developing my story - taking what I said/wrote and crafting it into a coherent story. Jen's main strength is her story telling ability. She has a unique talent of transforming somewhat incoherent details into a compelling narrative. She helped me uncover both personal and professional stories that I had forgotten/didn't think were relevant and helped me make them come to life. I believe that my applications were sent in with a clear cohesive story that helped me stand out as a unique candidate. Also, the mock interview prep was thorough and very helpful. And most importantly, I felt that she was truly invested in my success. We were a team and by the end of the process, I felt that we had built a strong professional relationship. She was one of the first people I notified when I got into my top choice and I could tell that she was genuinely thrilled for me. That meant a lot. I couldn’t have done it without you, Jen!
While certainly not a cheap investment, it has paid itself back tenfold.

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Kate's guidance and support throughout the admissions process was second to none. I was offered admission to Booth, Kellogg, and Tuck, each with scholarships, and I couldn't have done it without Kate!

Kate led me in developing and communicating my personal brand by guiding me through a process of self-discovery (many phone calls and Skype sessions of brainstorming and questions). She helped me see patterns within my interests and education and work experience that enabled me to tie together my story, why I needed an MBA, and why now. By being straightforward about the weaknesses in my application (a shorter work history and somewhat jumpy resume), Kate helped me address these weaknesses within my written application and prepared me to answer questions around them in interviews.

As I built my resume, short answers, and essays to tell a cohesive story, Kate's feedback was exceptional. Always timely and professional, Kate understood what I was trying to convey and made suggestions that helped me best articulate it. She was so thoughtful, remembering (and reminding me!) of small details from our prior conversations that, once incorporated, brought my essays to the next level. Another big value-add was Kate's in-depth knowledge of each program and its students/culture. While sometimes I used similar anecdotes for essay questions and/or short answers, no two answers were the exact same, as each was adjusted to fit the school's values. Kate was key in helping me show how I was a good fit at each particular school. The same held true when it came down to interview preparation: Kate helped me prepare for each school's interview, quizzing me on questions she typically sees asked at specific schools and giving me tips on how to make my responses less cookie-cutter and more unique to the values of each school. I attribute my interview-to-admit success rate to Kate's help in preparation.

After receiving the calls with good news, Kate was one of the first people I told because I was so appreciative of her help. She saw me at my best and my worst, and she was a great sounding board for all things MBA-related (and some things less-MBA-related like a potential company switch pre-MBA). I highly recommend working with Kate to anyone applying – she is the absolute best and will help you find success in the application process!

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Background:
I knew I wanted an admissions consultant to help: (1) synthesize my story and goals succinctly to stand out from the crowd, (2) provide insight into which schools were targets/reaches based on my ambitions and risk-tolerance, and (3) answer one-off/random questions + ease my nerves throughout this marathon of a process.

Kate's Approach:
I had an intro call with Kate to determine 'fit' and in that call, I walked her through the main reasons I wanted an admissions consultant. I felt confident Kate would meet those goals, and after a few weeks into working with her, she surpassed all of them! We started working together in May 2019 with my resume and brainstorming my story/goals. Her turnaround time was always within the 2-business day policy of mbaMission, and at times, even sooner. What I loved about her approach was that she: (1) is flexible (including setting up last-minute calls or answering emails quickly) (2) genuinely listens to my comments/questions/concerns and (3) is happy to review any/all materials related to schools' applications that we were working on together (I got the end-to-end package for multiple schools).

Overall Review of Kate:
I highly recommend Kate to anyone seeking an admissions consultant. In addition to the reasons I listed above, I also believe she has patience, detail-orientation and dedication to see her clients succeed. She's genuinely interested in her client's success and I definitely felt that way while working with her. For anyone considering an admissions consultant, I recommend understanding why you feel that you need one and set those expectations upfront with your consultant as I did with Kate -- It helped us form an easy, trustworthy relationship that, I believe, ultimately aided in securing admission at two T15 schools! Thanks, Kate, for your incredible guidance!!

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When I started the MBA application journey, I didn't know how necessary or valuable a consultant would be. I chose to work with Katy after reading her reviews online and chose her because she had worked in Stanford admissions, which at the time was my top choice. When we did our initial consultation, I told Katy that I was applying to Stanford, Haas, and Wharton. I didn't think I was "good enough" for HBS and didn't give it fair consideration because of this lack of confidence. Katy immediately told me that after looking at my profile she thought I should apply to HBS and having went there herself, told me about how great her experience was. I was shocked and flattered that an alumna thought I was worthy and so I decided to apply and Katy worked with me on my HBS application. We worked on about sixteen drafts of my essay, sending it back and forth to each other and it slowly came to life. Katy's help was priceless. I wouldn't have initiated a lot of the essay changes if I was working alone on it. I probably would have stuck with some of the original content that was not as strong, but when you have Katy reading it with you, she suggests ideas more objectively and challenges you to keep taking the essay to the next level. The second item that was helpful to me was organizing the information for my recommenders. Katy had an excellent template that made me a lot more confident in what I was asking my recommenders to write. She also read their letters and gave them feedback and both my recommenders said Katy was extremely helpful and appreciated the feedback as neither one of them had ever written MBA recommendation letters. I got interviews at all four programs I applied to and Katy offered to do mock interviews for all of them. Her mock interviews were very similar to my actual interviews and she had so many resources to help me prepare and feel most confident about them. In the end, I was accepted to HBS and I know for a fact that I would not have even applied if it were not for Katy saying she saw potential in me. For me, she was a true mentor. She gave me confidence and encouragement in every single email and conversation and helped keep me accountable and motivated through what can be a very long and stressful journey. I think a common struggle applicants have is always doubting if they are doing the right things in their applications and actually presenting the bet version of themselves. Having Katy there to give me that assurance and remove that doubt was invaluable. I am so thankful for Katy's help and encourage everyone to choose her as their mentor.

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I had an amazing time working with Katy for my business school application process. She goes above and beyond at every step, ensuring that my application reflected the best of who I am, and that the overall experience was as seamless and stress-free as possible. Aside from responding to clients at a rapid-fire pace (even if it means she has to stay up very late on many occasions), Katy made sure that I fully understood what business schools looked for and surfaced key actionable insights (e.g., helping schools understand the myriad transitions in my life, addressing my weaknesses) that I had no previous knowledge of, even after doing copious individual research and talking to other consultants / mentors. Furthermore, Katy’s vested interest in my development was clear from the get-go -- she wholeheartedly believed in what I was doing, and helped me believe in myself; ultimately, I would say I was a lot less stressed and much happier about the way my application / interview processes were going versus many of my friends undergoing the same routine, and I can confidently attribute this to Katy.

With her unique background (e.g., HBS alumni, ex-admission officer at GSB), her tenacity to help students succeed at the highest level, and her impeccable communication skills, Katy is absolutely THE business school admission consultant to work with.

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I had heard good things about mbaMission from online reviews but, unfortunately, my experience feel drastically short of expectations.

1) There were one or two instances of my essay reviews coming back with obvious errors. For example, I got feedback from my consultant and their draft had a repeated sentence. For the cost of this service I expect consultants to avoid such basic mistakes.

2) As round 1 deadlines approached I noticed that the feedback I was getting was increasingly minimal (accounting for the fact that essay quality increases with time). There was a couple instances when I only got a one sentence response

3) I also noticed that there was a lot of back and forth with the consultant's own advice. I would write A and they would ask me to write B; a little while later they would ask me to scrap B and write A again

Overall I was better off than I would have been had I not gone with a consultant but I definitely don't feel like I got my money's worth. The ideas I got from my consultant were okay at best. Additionally, I noticed a drastic drop in quality as application deadlines approached. I'm assuming the consultants here are overstaffed and couldn't keep up with the workload.

I recommend using a different service; I've heard great things about Expartus from my peers.

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I could not have asked for a better experience working with Rachel. She came highly recommended from a family friend, and early into my 30 minute consultation call I could see why. She knew exactly what questions to ask to get the ideas flowing, and her brainstorming activity was an integral tool to the entire application process. She helped me tell MY story and I truly feel like my applications showed the most genuine, honest version of myself and highlighted what made me a strong applicant. I feel like the entire process not only helped me tell my story, but made me reflect on why I want to go to business school, setting me up for success once I actually begin. Her thoughtful approach made the process fulfilling and exciting.
Rachel gave excellent feedback throughout the process, and was prompt in responses. While mbaMission promises a 48 hour turnaround, Rachel often got back to me sooner than that. We communicated via email almost daily, but whenever I wanted to chat on the phone she was super quick to get something on the calendar, even that same day. We worked on three schools together and with each school I could feel myself becoming more confident in my story and a stronger advocate for myself. After the applications were submitted, Rachel was a huge help in my interview prep. mbaMission's insight into interviews made what can often be an intimidating process quite pleasant. I genuinely looked forward to showing off my interview skills at each school, and was saved from being stumped on some really tough questions through the firm's guides.
I would recommend Rachel to anyone. As hard as I worked, I could feel her effort mirroring mine. I only applied to three schools, and used Rachel's services for all three. I could not be more thrilled that I got accepted to all three of those schools, and now Rachel is helping with the hardest part-- choosing the best one for me! Thank you mbaMission for matching me with an awesome consultant, and a great supporter and friend (by this time, she knows me better than most!), in Rachel Beck.

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