One of the best decisions I made in the application process was getting a consultant, and Jessica is by far the best and most knowledgeable consultant I spoke to. Starting off the MBA process and being a non-traditional candidate, I was unsure on how to sell myself to top MBA programs; however, Jessica guided me through the application process and gave me the confidence to excel. Ultimately, I was accepted into my dream school, which I highly contribute to Jessica’s thoughtfulness and patience throughout the process.

A few reasons I think Jessica is the best in the industry:
--She gives honest feedback, and pushes you to stay on-track. I really appreciated this quality, especially when writing each of my business school essays.
--She has a gift for story-telling. During each call and essay edit, Jessica helped me extract and build upon the most important ideas of each story, which was very helpful. When writing about ourselves, we often think every aspect of our story is vital to write down; however, Jessica is a master at helping you condense but still answer the essay questions thoughtfully.
--She is very timely, and turns around work quickly. I was so impressed with Jessica’s ability to turn very high-quality work around fast.

Jessica is amazing, and I highly recommend her to anyone applying to business school.

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I am so thankful that I made the decision to use Heidi and mbaMission when I started the business school application process.

As I began applying, I was feeling extremely overwhelmed. Looking at the long list of things I needed to do, and the statistics of how competitive it would be to get accepted to a top ten school, I had no idea where to start. Heidi structured the process in a way that I only had to think about one school/deliverable at a time. This made everything seem more manageable and achievable, and she guided me each step of the way.

Throughout the process, Heidi was my largest supporter and advocate. She provided the perfect balance between giving constructive criticism and helping me strengthen my thoughts, while still cheering me on and giving me the confidence to put my best foot forward. Throughout my application process, several of my friends and family members gave me their opinions, but Heidi’s was always the most valuable, as I knew that she was always thinking through the lens of an admissions officer.

After a lot of hard work and guidance from Heidi, I was accepted into 2 of my dream schools, and Heidi continued to be there for me as I made the tough decision over where to enroll. I could not have done all of this without her!

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I worked with John on a three school package where we selected a reach, target and "safety" school. Working with John was easily one of the best investments I made throughout the process. As someone whom comes from a field with very demanding hours, the application process seemed daunting - with few close friends whom have applied or attended business school I was lost and overwhelmed. John's ability to break down the process into manageable pieces, see the value in my background and experience, and "coach" me through the process was invaluable. Furthermore, the two day turn around policy, holiday calendar, and designated email chains streamlined the process, kept me organized and ultimately, helped limit stress in an already demanding process.

John's ability to understand what makes his clients "tick" (through brainstorming, drafting and numerous calls) and teach an applicant how to effectively communicate his/her story via essays, the resume and interviews made the difference in my applications and I was able to secure two M7 admits. The brainstorming process was pivotal in understanding my story, what drives my goals and aspirations, and where I should apply. While he went above and beyond in each aspect of the process, I distinctly remember him spending almost two hours on my initial brainstorming call at the equivalent of about 6 AM his time - I wasn't prepared for this level of personalized advice and effort but this is part of what sets John apart. This brainstorm laid the foundation for each of my essays where he worked tirelessly and enthusiastically through dozens of iterations and pushed me to create an end product that I was not only truly proud of but didn't know I was capable of creating. My voice and story was never lost in the process, rather strengthened, refined and targeted for each school.

Lastly, I hadn't even considered applying to Wharton as I didn't think I was competitive enough - John saw the value in my profile and suggested I apply. Almost a year later, I still can't believe that I was accepted and know that John was instrumental in each component of the process. I am grateful for his time, effort and honest guidance. I highly recommend John and have to many of my close friends.

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I interviewed 5 consulting companies, but the thing about Monica that caught my attention was that she genuinely cared about my story and saw my potential when others didn’t. With the other companies, they tried to steer my school selection to easier programs. I got the impression they wanted to ensure a high success admission rate. With my initial profile, they were probably right. My GPA and GMAT scores were below the averages of the schools I was applying to and my story was unstructured. Monica was different. She saw my passion, believed in me, and was 100% honest with what it would take to get there. If you want someone who will help you get into your dream school, then go with Monica.

Monica laid out a plan to address my GPA and GMAT. We deferred round 1 applications, and I focused on GMATs for a few extra months to boost my score from the 600s to the 700s. Then, she recommended that I sign up for a corporate finance class and obtain an A to demonstrate my academic capabilities. With those milestones complete, the brainstorming session with Monica launched the frame work for my story. As I told Monica various accounts from my life, she always had such great follow up questions that highlighted the heart of the story and how we could incorporate that into the essays. She was phenomenal at helping me write essays that flowed like a conversation telling the reader who I was. For some of my essays, I had 7 or 8 drafts and Monica would always promptly return her corrections with good clarifying questions.

When I got my interviews, I was a nervous wreck. I remember I bombed my first mock interview with Monica. However, she thoroughly walked me through my interview to help outline my responses and did it in such an uplifting manner. Through the entire application process, she was extremely encouraging. It gets daunting and stressful as you’re crafting these applications and prepping for interviews, but having Monica there to encourage and guide me made such a huge difference. When I finally had my real interviews, I aced them.

I am so glad I chose Monica as a consultant. She was pivotal in helping me get to know myself better and creating a strategy that would get me into the perfect school. I got into Haas, and I am absolutely thrilled. I can’t recommend her enough.

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Jess was wonderful to work with! I had the pleasure of working with her for two years, and throughout the entire process, Jess was incredibly supportive, knowledgeable and thorough.

Jess really worked with me to identify key differentiating points of my skills and experience and then clearly communicate my story in the admissions essays and interview. She is a fantastic writer and helped me articulate ideas in a very succinct way.

I ended up getting into my dream school and I thank Jess over and over for all of her insight and hard work to help me achieve my goals! I would definitely recommend Jess for your MBA application experience! Simply the best!

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My MBA application process was very stressful and having Angela's guidance and support made it a lot easier. I always enjoyed our conversations, which promoted introspection, guided my brainstorming process and always made me feel better. Our conversations were useful not only for my application, but also to think about what I want to do after my MBA and for my summer internship.

Having been an MBA candidate herself, it is easy for her to identify with us and understand the stress that this process entails and is thus very empathetic.

The advisory was very useful in defining the story I was going to tell through my essays and I really appreciated that she took the time to get to know me in order for the essays to truly transmit my essence.

I would certainly reccommend her to my friends!!!

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I worked on 3 schools with John - a safety, a target and a reach school. I'm happy to say I got into both the target and reach schools (despite having many scores/numbers below the target metrics), and turned down the interview invite to the safety school. John helped take the various ingredients that make up who I am (as he was able to pull together via the lengthy brainstorming doc), and help me create an application that the adcom would find compelling and interesting. I don't think I would have been able to do this alone. He was prompt on returning materials and a good sounding board when I was nervous about interviews etc. Ultimately any experience with a consultant is contingent on the effort and engagement you put into it, and I'm happy to say John met my expectations in that regard.

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If you are thinking about applying to business school, and have the means to hire an MBA consultant, I would highly recommend not only choosing mbaMission, but going with Helen Summers.

As I begin my MBA application journey, I quickly realized how incredibly competitive the admissions process has become in today’s world, and I decided to hire a consultant in order to gain every possible edge. When choosing a consultant, I was looking for a few things: (1) excellent reputation, (2) full-service treatment (i.e. not only would look at essays but would review resume, recommendation letters, short answers, etc.), and (3) someone who had an MBA so they could prove that they went through the process themselves and could speak from experience. I landed on mbamission as they satisfied my first two specifications with the most highly rated reviews, and ended up working with Helen due to her familiarity with my top choice (Kellogg) as well as her excellent pedigree and the connection we quickly formed over the phone during our initial phone conversation.

Helen and I worked closely together for over 2 months on my Kellogg application. Using the “full consulting package”, we created a schedule for my application, including self-imposed due dates and regular check-ins. We did a thorough examination of my brainstorming document (a differentiator of mbamission and an extremely useful tool) and worked together on every part of my application. She was very timely and thorough with her feedback (always within the 2 day turnaround outside of holidays), and was always suggesting things that could make my application more competitive. She challenged me when she believed my writing could be improved, and her advice was very trustworthy. Above all, she was honest with me throughout the entire process. She did not sugarcoat anything, and that’s what made our relationship so sincere and cohesive.

The beauty of working with a consultant is the air cover that they provide you as well as the constant set of “well trained” eyes on your materials. Helen did this in spades and helped me achieve my goal of being admitted to my dream program. I would recommend her to anyone looking to get a thorough experience out of a MBA consulting partnership. Don’t be afraid of the sticker price…it will be worth the reward if you are willing to commit the time, energy, and enthusiasm.

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I took my time choosing an admissions consultant- first, because there are so many options out there! Second, honestly, I wasn’t sure if I bought into the idea. Couldn’t I do as good of a job passing my essays around to a few friends and getting their feedback? (Short answer: no.) When I spoke with Susan, I appreciated her straightforward approach. In our initial consultation, I never felt like she was pushing anything on me, but rather giving candid feedback and giving me options to consider. In that 30 minute conversation alone, the ‘food for thought’ she provided made me realize how much I stood to gain from working with Susan, and it was easy to pull the trigger after that.

Throughout the application process- brainstorming, writing essays, preparing the resume- Susan helped me sharpen my focus. She called me out when I was trying to skirt an issue or avoid adding extra details, and pushed me to spend more time thinking through each of the components of my application (Why does this matter? Do less telling and more showing!) so that the final product was true to my best work. She NEVER gave me the answer, or rewrote things for me, which I also appreciated.

Susan helped me get into Kellogg, my top choice, and I can’t thank her enough. You have everything to gain from working with Susan, and nothing to lose!

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If you are considering a top school I highly recommend that you sign up for Jessica Shklar’s free 30-minute consultation and you’ll quickly understand why I decided to hire her on the spot for the complete start to finish package. She is exactly what you need her to be when you need it – a strong critic when your work/writing isn’t your best (trust me she’ll know), a strategist providing advice on how to create rapport with admissions officers (a key differentiator for candidates when you’re applying to M7 or T10 schools), and a mock interviewer prepping you for yours at the top school you apply to. She won’t do the job for you, but will give you the guidance, suggestions, hand-on work, and be a sounding board so that you may succeed throughout every step of the MBA application process. I was not a perfect applicant but Jessica helped me maximize my strengths and address my weaknesses and the results exceeded my wildest expectations landing a spot at a top school! Simply put, she’s a true partner in your corner helping you out!

After a year and a half of working with Jessica, I am more focused in how I approach everything and a much better writer than before, both of which have me better prepared for B-school this fall at my dream school. Thank you Jessica!!!

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