I decided very late in the game to apply for business school. I was hoping to apply in round 1, but after struggling to get the GMAT score I desired, I suddenly found myself with only 6 weeks to complete my round 2 applications. I knew I was a competent candidate with a strong professional background, but I was worried about overcoming my below average undergraduate GPA and GMAT score for the schools I was targeting (M7). I had some reservations about working with a consultant due to the cost, but when I considered the value of getting into a top school, I decided it was worth my while. I am so thankful I decided to move forward with Helen at mbaMission, because I was able to overcome the obstacles in my application and get into my dream school!!!

Helen is someone who tells it like it is. She can be your toughest critic, but your greatest cheerleader. I really appreciated this quality because it meant I was always putting my absolute best foot forward with the schools I applied to. I worked with Helen on my resume, essays, interviews, and even my scholarship reconsideration letters. She helped me decide which schools to apply to, and ultimately which one to attend. With her help, I got into 5/7 schools I applied to (one of which was my dream school). I owe it all to Helen, and can't speak more highly of the experience. If you want to put your best foot forward, I strongly recommend working with Helen!

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I truly enjoyed my time working with Heidi. Applying for business school was a truly daunting and complicated task.

I come from a very non-traditional background with a mediocre GPA. Heidi helped me craft my stories as well as my identity in my essays and personal statements. She took the extra time to truly help me identify what was important to me and better defined my goals and direction. I was able to tailor my strengths, experiences into one solid story for every program I applied to. Additionally she would provide insight on what each program was looking for to not only figure out which one was a better fit, but also better create a convincing story that I would be a great fit for their programs as well.

Heidi was very patient throughout the whole process and provided much advice outside of just the MBA applications. She gave great insight into the Consulting world, and even went above and beyond to understand the unique industry that I came from to better help me tailor my application to make sense in the business world. She was always early or on time in terms of responses or deliverables, and generously found time outside of her schedule for ad hoc calls.

Ultimately she kept me grounded throughout the whole process and I honestly look at my application materials and be proud of them. I was admitted to my two top pick Universities that eventually became quite difficult to figure out which one to attend!

Working with Heidi was a wonderful experience. If you're hesitant or am unsure about undertaking the process of applying to business school without help I would highly recommend Heidi!

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From start-to-finish, Heidi Granner has always been the most fantastic partner in navigating through the MBA application process. When I embarked on my journey, I knew I needed an Admissions Consultant to guide me along the way, and Heidi was recommended to me based on my work experience, perceived strengths and weaknesses, and style. Looking back, I would not have it any other way.

Heidi is an incredibly bright, optimistic, and caring person, personality traits that I cherished in working with her. While my background and credentials would seemingly check off general requirements at top schools, I thought it would be difficult to differentiate myself from the rather sizable pool of Asian male management consultants. Heidi helped me realize that I should focus on finding the experiences that shaped who I am as a person and not worry so much about the “uniqueness” of those stories. Starting with our first phone call, Heidi has been instrumental in pulling out the most significant aspects of my life and constructing those moments into stories that Admissions Committees found attractive.

Writing admissions essays requires a slightly nuanced perspective than traditional every day writing for work. Heidi brought in her invaluable experiences and helped me craft narratives that worked. Through every essay and iteration, Heidi provided invaluable feedback on improvements, both big and small. She truly left no stones unturned. Heidi patiently ran through practice interviews with me when we reached that stage of the process and helped me gain confidence to do well. And she was right there when decisions came out to discuss options and celebrate at the end.

It would not be the slightest exaggeration to say that I could not have navigated through the process successfully without Heidi’s guidance and support. She is also a phenomenal person whom I am privileged to now have a relationship with. I cannot recommend Heidi enough – you will be in the best of hands.

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Krista is a fantastic consultant, friend, and mentor. The whole MBA process was intimidating for me. I wasn’t around a lot of MBAs where I grew up professionally, so I wasn’t quite sure how I would fare or even where the whole process was leading me. But with Krista’s help and mentorship, I could see the entire picture-not only in what schools were right for me but also what career options were in line with my values. After our 30-minute free consultation, I knew Krista would be the perfect consultant to help me. Krista was the consummate professional during the application process-always prepared for our meetings, quick to return products (and to gently remind me to get back on track when I fell off task), and insightful in her feedback. By the time I hit submit, I was 100% confident that I had the best application possible. I had complete trust in Krista’s judgment and would recommend her to anyone who wants to chase their MBA dreams.

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A year ago, I was really not sure if I could get any offer from S16 MBA programs, especially considering my low undergrad GPA and work experiences in non-traditional industries. Jessica trusted in me and helped me discover, articulate and fully utilize my unique strengths. As a result, I got full scholarship from NYU Stern, partial scholarship from Michigan Ross and an offer from Berkeley Haas.

Jessica fully captured who I really am right at our first call. This builds a very strong foundation for our collaboration afterwards. She helped me put my best steps forward by letting my most authentic self shine through while keeping in mind what the Admissions are looking for, a balance not so easy to find. The brainstorming sessions with her before I drafted my essays were very helpful—it gave me that initial momentum to get started and a clear direction which saved lots of time and efforts. What's more, her timely feedback and response was such a great gift, especially when I was under very tight schedules.

I also learnt a lot from Jessica throughout this process—her amazing writing skills, her efficiency and effectiveness, her direct communication with empathy. I am so grateful to have her as my consultant.

As far as I know, Jessica got fully scheduled by applicants quite early. So, if you are lucky and still have a chance to invite her to be your consultant, do it now!

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I worked with Dan Richards on three schools and he was extremely helpful and professional. He made the process a lot less stressful and helped me get into my goal school and then some. I highly recommend using him. He keeps you on track and focused to make sure you are ready to submit for the deadlines but is not overbearing. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, he really prepared me for the interview stage with his mock interviews. This is a crucial step and practicing with him gave me a lot of confidence. We went through a whole list of questions and because of the mock with him, the actual interview that day was a breeze.

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Although this review is based on my personal interaction with Jessica, my goal is to keep it as objective as possible to better serve its purpose.
Before going with Jessica as my admissions advisor, I had conducted several 30-minute consultations with other consultants/companies. What made Jessica standout was twofold: (1) her ability to establish a connection with me straight away and make me feel comfortable sharing my life stories and (2) her determination to add significant value to my application process within the initial consultation even though she wasn’t sure if I was going to commit. This showed me that she genuinely loves her job and excels at it, and that she cared about the applicants she takes on.
We all know how stressful the application process can be with deadlines looming right and left, recommenders to follow-up with, essays to write, resumes to fix, etc. Jessica’s organization, guidance, and help in prioritizing tasks tremendously reduced stress and anxiety levels. I felt more and more comfortable the closer deadlines approached.
In my opinion, the best way to qualify Jessica’s work is effective and efficient, in hindsight those are the best qualities for a consultant to have in an MBA application process. By effective, I’m referring to Jessica’s keen ability to link all the right dots out of ALL your life stories to sculpt the best possible story to get you into business school. By efficient, I’m referring to Jessica’s ability to come up with the best story for you in record time, saving invaluable hours to focus more on the development and refinement of the essay and on the multitude of tedious tasks involved in the process. I developed my best story with Jessica, that got me 50% acceptance into the business schools I applied to, within the first 30-min consultation!
You can’t go wrong with Jessica, thanks again for your invaluable help in achieving my goal!

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I worked with John using a 3 school package and I believe I would not have had the same outcomes, particularly with scholarship money, that I received if I had not worked with him. I had no idea how to frame my "story" and he came in with great ideas and excellent editing/writing abilities to help me pull my application together into a very compelling application that adcoms loved! I got into 5/6 schools I applied to, all with major scholarship money. I'll be heading to Wharton in the Fall. I think I might have gotten into some of these schools on my own, but John helped push me out of the pack and gave me an edge that led me to substantial scholarship money. He spent hours on the phone with me brainstorming ideas for essays, heavily edited essays for the 3 schools for which I was working with him (and then I rather easily transferred many of these essays to the schools I did on my own), and really helped me prep for interviews. My biggest issues with John were that he was late to almost all of our phone meetings, sometimes forgot to respond to my emails and would return essay drafts to me way after his promised deadlines. Also, there were times where I felt John lacked emotional support and was biased i.e. not congratulating me when I received scholarships to schools he didn't help me with, and when I got dinged from my top school he focused on defending himself instead of supporting me. Overall I would highly recommend John! He was not without his faults, but he definitely helped me achieve my goals and in the end that's all that really matters.

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I was referred to Heidi Granner by a colleague I worked with, who managed to get accepted to his dream program. I wanted someone who knew how to work with someone who has a highly over-represented background (i.e. Asian male in finance) to be able to stand out amongst other excellent applicants.

I would say that it took a lot of consideration before I decided to work alongside an MBA consultant, but I can say for sure that I am glad I did. I will go as far to say that without Heidi, I do not think that I could have succeeded in getting into my top MBA school - HBS.

The thing is, there are many qualified and over-qualified candidates to get into these top schools. They all have amazing backgrounds and experiences that can definitely make them prime candidates for what these top schools are looking for. The most difficult part about all this however, is grabbing all these moving parts and shaping them into a limited amount of information you can convey to an MBA admissions committee. You can have also these unique things that have happened to you in your life, but trying to show everything in a jumbled manner is not the way to go. That's where I think Heidi really played a key role in constructing my story, pulling out key highlights, and showing admissions committee who I am without completely losing them in the details.

Heidi herself has experience as an admissions member for Chicago Booth, so she definitely knows what these top programs like to see vs. what they don't like to see. And it's not that they are looking for a specific form of individual, but rather someone who can CLEARLY show who they are and be proud of what they've contributed rather than someone who wants to impress with everything he / she has.

Heidi was instrumental in providing guidance and feedback in how I should think about my own profile and positioning, essay content, and interview practice. She is incredibly responsive (and very fast), and it makes it extremely easy to work with her. She will never leave you hanging amidst this incredibly stressful process, and it definitely gives you a sense of comfort that you are working as a team and that you are not alone.

All in all, Heidi has been a sheer pleasure and more importantly, a real help that has translated to concrete success for me. Thank you Heidi for working with me through many months of my MBA application journey!

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I struggle to emphasize just how impactful working with Harold was on my MBA application process. Starting from the first meeting, to helping me choose between acceptances, Harold’s help and advice was invaluable.

I started working with Harold the June before Fall Round 1 deadlines. From the beginning he was great about taking the intimidating MBA application process and breaking it down into simple steps with an achievable timeline. Harold’s assistance in crafting my story and really honing in on my strengths and weaknesses and how they matched to my target schools set me up for success from the get go.

Harold’s impact on my application essays was extraordinary. Both in helping me with the big picture of the story I was trying to tell, and the final edits and tweaks to make the essay as specific to my target school as possible, his work was critical to my success.

Harold’s knowledge of top schools and what they are looking for in candidates in unparalleled, and this is most evident in his help with interview prep. I was invited to interview at three of the schools I applied to, and Harold was instrumental in my preparation, including offering mock interview practice.

Finally, I want to highlight the ease of working with Harold. He is always very prompt to respond to any question or request, and quick to review and provide feedback on essays. He takes great pride in his work, and truly gives person attention to all his clients.

I can confidently say that Harold’s services are worth every penny. I will be starting at my top choice MBA program this fall, and could not have done it without Harold.

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