Kate and I met through mbaMission as she was highly recommended, especially given she was an alumnus of a target school of mine. While my target schools were all ‘top ten’ programs, Kate knew my lower GPA and GMAT score would be a challenge and was incredibly constructive in putting together a competitive, cohesive story targeted at each school I applied to. She was also very helpful in strategizing mitigants to weaknesses in my application based on her admissions experience and worked on ways to even further highlight my strengths. From the very beginning, Kate was supportive of my school selection decisions and patiently walked through tweaks to my resume, essays, and emails on almost weekly calls. Ultimately, I was admitted to my top choice school and I attribute much of my success to Kate.

Of Kate’s many qualities, perhaps her strongest is that she is very experienced in the industry and shows it. This was particularly helpful in identifying my top strengths for the application process and tailoring them to each school I applied to. At the beginning of our partnership, I filled out a lengthy essay response to a set of her questions ranging from where I was from, to my future goals, to my biggest accomplishments, to my family; after carefully reviewing my responses, Kate was able to identify and target the top accolades, stories and achievements I could use to develop a successful application package for business school. Her genuine interest in my story was tangible throughout the process and by selecting key points to differentiate myself, I was able to craft a unique, competitive application package. Kate was also very dedicated throughout the process and it never felt like my time was getting cut off or I was not getting what I paid for. No matter how busy she was, Kate would take the time to hop on the phone, send an email, or word of encouragement when it was needed. This was greatly appreciated, especially during such a daunting and ambiguous application process.

Throughout my MBA application, Kate was not just a consultant, she was a partner. I can proudly say I was recently admitted to my top choice school and I couldn’t have done it without her.

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Susan Kaplan is an excellent Admissions Consultant. From our initial consultation and assessment, Susan did not sugarcoat anything or spoon-feed me. She asked the important questions that matter and guided me in the right direction if ever I ventured astray. If your experience turns out to be anything like mine, you will quickly realize that the uber-introspective MBA application process will require weeks of hard work, focus, and dedication. I wholeheartedly recommend signing up with Susan Kaplan and mbaMission if you’re serious about going to business school.
I signed up for the Two School Complete Package, despite applying to a total of four schools in Round 2. The two schools that I chose not to opt for mbaMission’s direct services for had essay prompts that followed the standard “Why MBA / Why Now / Why Here” structure. Don’t fret - once you nail down your story with Susan’s help, you can apply most of those principles across multiple schools. The extensive guidance that Susan offered in editing multiple resume drafts, essay outlines, rec letters, and (of course) main essays, were invaluable to my success in this process. Her feedback was always quick, candid, and constructive.
I’m proud (and still shocked) to say that I was accepted to three schools and waitlisted at the fourth! Thanks to Susan and mbaMission, I will be getting my MBA at my dream school (Top 3) this fall!

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It is long past due for me to do this review. First, I want to thank you, Angela, for the exceptional job that you did with me. I would not have been accepted at 3 top business schools if it weren’t for you. Also, I wish you the best of luck with Career Protocol!

BEFORE I START, SOME CONTEXT. I am 33 years old from South America with a solid career at small investment management companies. I started early (May), had a solid gmat score (740) but due to my age, I knew this would be my only and last shot at business schools. Career wise, I wanted to keep working in finance and stay in America after my MBA. I did the full package for 5 schools with Angela and applied to another 3 on my own (all on R1).

WHY ANGELA? She had great reviews, but I am a thorough person. I talked with about 5 consultants, all from top firms and with great reviews. Angela was the one that I felt most confident about. She really knew all the schools, had a great insight into the reality about employment of the programs and we had a great chemistry. I am sure all the other consultants were great, but I know Angela was the right choice and I don’t regret, not even for a second, choosing her.

THE FIRST GREAT FEATURE – She really knows the employability of each program. I think that most of the employment statistics provided by business schools are bogus. There is industry and region bias and people might be employed at second tier jobs or companies. Do you really believe that a top 20 BS is better than HBS because HBS has only 90% of its students employed upon graduation? Well, I don’t and neither does Angela. Our first task together was to narrow my 15 schools list to about half of that and also pick the 5 that made more sense working together. She really knew which programs were doing great and which were struggling to get jobs for their students. It was like I was working with someone from the inside! We also discussed a lot about the career path that made more sense given my goals. The MBA consulting came with a bonus of career counseling! She made me realize that PE was not a go way to go for an international to stay in the US. After putting all together, we decided on HBS, Booth, Kellogg, Tuck, Duke, Wharton, MIT and UCLA. The first five I worked with her.

THE HARSH TRUTH. It was early June and we were excited to start working on the essays. We were already done with the Brainstorming, which turned out great and full of stories, and were very advanced on my resume. My original Resume really stunk. It was very bad! LOL. Angela had a tough job there, but it became a masterpiece. I am so proud of it that I am thinking of framing it! Back then, only very few schools had they essay out. We started working on HBS (the dream and reach school). The first essay was terrible! The second, worst! Angela kept returning my essays with honest comments about them. After five bad essays, we decided to take a break and go back to the drawing board. She taught me the concept of a narrative. Tell the story, show the facts, be specific, but not so much that you can be concise, which I am not being here, and not turn boring. Also, she demanded me to take another look at the material she had sent to me. Advice: read everything carefully and pay attention to the structure of the examples. Angela does what a great consultant should do. She will tell will the truth, teach you how to overcome the problem and will not let you deliver anything short of a great work.

THE GREAT TALENT. Angela is the best writer I have ever seen. She could really spin any fact that I told her in a perfectly told story. It is amazing how she does it on the spot and had I had that talent, my life would have been so much easier. Well I don’t have the talent, but I was fortunate to have Angela as my consultant. She guided me on the right direction in a way that I was able to tell my stories and at the same time the essay were compelling and resonated with the AdCom. After the HBS fiasco and of a round of advising, we decided to move on to Tuck. I nailed it on the very first draft! Her counseling really stuck and that essay was so compelling that became the base for at least another 3 different business school. Angela really taught me how to write a perfect essay.

THE ESSAYS (in order of writing). HBS – Took me 13 drafts. I only started getting right on the 11th. The final draft made my wife literally cry. TUCK – Nailed both on the 1st draft but after minor reviews they were ready in 3 drafts. DUKE – About 5 drafts each. KELLOGG – 3 drafts each. BOOTH – 5 drafts to what, I am quoting here, became the best essay Angela had seen for Chicago that year. MIT – 2 drafts. WHARTON – 5 drafts. UCLA – 5 drafts.

SOME OTHER QUALITIES. Besides the career and essay insights that were fantastic, I really enjoyed working with Angela. Not only me. In fact, my wife participated all the way in the business school applications. She was with us from the first to the last call. She read every single essay and short answer. Angela embraced her all the way in the process, as if she was the one applying. Even though she was in Europe and we in South America, we had little trouble in arranging calls to discuss essays and strategies. I sent her a huge amount of work every week (I must have been her most frenetic client) and she handled it beautifully. The interview prep material and the mock interviews were extremely helpful. She was even a shoulder to “cry” on, when everything seemed to be falling apart. The first five schools to release their decision dinged me, including Duke that I was certain to get in. She asked some friend to review my stuff to check for inconsistencies and problems, which they didn’t, and she gave me advices on how to proceed for R2.

THE FINAL RESULT. I got invited to 5 interviews (Booth, Kellogg, Tuck, Duke and UCLA). Booth suggested me to pursue their executive MBA. I got accepted to Kellogg, Tuck and UCLA. I also got 70K in scholarship from UCLA and an additional 30K from an UCLA Alumni Society.

GRATITUTE. I want to one more time thank Angela for her work. I had 2 weaknesses on my profile. I had always worked at smaller non mainstream firms and I was on the verge of being too old to be an MBA applicant. I would not have passed to any of these schools if it weren’t for her. Instead, I got much more than I was hoping for.

If anyone has any questions, just PM me.
Sincerely,
Guilherme Kobylko

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Helen was a tremendous resource through the MBA application process. Throughout our time together, I always got the feeling that she was an eager friend that truly wanted to help. I always got prompt and unflinchingly honest feedback, all the while keeping the utmost standards of professionalism.

This service is not for everyone due to the high cost. In addition, I don't believe this is a service for people who want to use the consultant as a crutch to stay on task. However, if you are like me and want to "de-risk" the process as much as possible by being prepared, one can't do better than building a partnership with Helen.

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I went into the MBA admission process relatively blind and on an extremely tight schedule. I had little insight into how the process worked or what to expect. I also had only taken the GMAT on October 31 and wanted to apply round 2, really only giving me a month and a half to get my applications in order. Once I engaged Angela, I knew I had made a good decision.

She immediately put me at ease. She gave me great insight into the process, what to expect, what to and not to worry about, and how it would all work. This put a lot of my unease to rest, as I felt like I had a great grasp on the process. She then instilled much needed confidence in me. As an atypical candidate, I was unsure if I should highlight or hide that background. My instincts told me to shine a light on it, which Angela agreed with. And, we ran with it.

In the end, it all paid off. I am attending HBS in the fall. I owe Angela a great deal of credit for that.

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I worked with Helen Summers at mbaMission on 5 school essays, all for the round 1 cycle of applications. Her guidance and input on putting my "best foot forward" with my essays was invaluable and I would highly recommend her to anyone who is considering an admissions consultant.

I was one of those MBA applicants with a unique background. I had a non-business undergrad degree and worked abroad in a non-corporate setting. However, business schools ( I have learned) are most interested in one's leadership capabilities ( still crush your GMAT though :) ), and Helen helped me showcase my own leadership skills with captivating stories. Also, the structure that Helen recommended I use for my essays made my story much more logical in terms of relating my past experiences to my post-MBA career goals.

I was admitted to my #1 choice. Without Helen I know that I would have had 5 dings to reminisce about this year. Instead, I'm on to the next chapter!

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When I started my application, there was quite limited time allowed me to catch up with the first round submission deadline. Angela has a lot of good reviews from GMATClub, therefore I decided to asked her for help. Although occupied with other applicants, she was very kind to offer the help for me. There are two schools in my package and one of them required 3 essays which was a huge amount of work given I only have no more than 2 months.
Starting in mid Jul, Angela helped me from the very beginning including understanding my own strengths and weaknesses, packaging my story that could fit into the essays. She really knew how to dig out my personality and incorporate it into the essays. There are several times I was quite surprised that Angela seemed to know myself better than I did. The turnaround time for Angela was very short so that I could easily manage my submission timeline.
If you think she is just catching some grammar error or rephrasing the wordings, you are wrong. There was one essay Angela felt I was not doing well, which I felt the same way while writing it. She was very 'harsh' to ask me to 're-write' it for several times until she thought it really represented me in the essay.
During the mock interview stage, I was also struggling with some general questions such as why MBA, why this school. I tended to answer it in a general way at the beginning, but Angela also helped me to rephrase the answer to be consistent with my career goal.
It turned out to be a pretty good result for me I n the end. I got admitted to my first priority school and got the merit based scholarship. Really need to give Angela a big thanks here!

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I was referred to Angela through my manager who happened to be a classmate of hers at Booth. I was confident in the content of my story (at the time), yet I had absolutely no idea how to tell it and that’s why I turned to mbaMission. Angela conducted my initial mbaMission review and I knew from the moment I met her she wasn’t going to tell me what I wanted to hear, but rather what I needed to hear. I signed up shortly thereafter and the journey began. Ultimately, I received interviews at two schools, Sloan and Booth, and was admitted to both. Angela turned a daunting and stressful process into a manageable one and as a result I’ll be attending my dream school at Booth next fall! A few points on what I feel made my relationship with Angela successful and more importantly enjoyable:

Direct, honest feedback
When I spoke to Angela during my free 30 minute consultation with mbaMission there was never a sales pitch. Angela gave honest feedback on my application and a fair assessment of my chances at target schools. With that said she wasn’t afraid of a challenge when I decided to apply to some of the most competitive schools without considering a safety. This remained consistent throughout the application process and I always trusted Angela’s feedback because I knew she had my best interests at heart.

Easy to get to know
I still haven’t met Angela in person, yet she knows more about me than some of my closest friends. Angela is an open book and as a result it doesn’t take long to get to know her and get comfortable working with her. In addition, I believe she does everything she can to get to know her consultants as best as she possibly can. She took a genuine interest in my career and personal life while pointing out strengths and unique attributes that I had never taken the time to consider!

She won’t let you settle for less than your best
Angela took my application to a level I never knew was possible. This wasn’t without its frustrations, but that is because Angela was pushing my application to a place that I would not have been able to take it. I remember wanting to scream through my computer after several revisions of my resume thinking there is no way I can do better than this, but Angela’s feedback was always constructive and I can’t help but laugh at my definition of quality compared to what Angela helped me to produce. This high standard never wavered throughout the process and I truly feel that each application I put forward was the absolute best it could have been.

Interview prep was top notch
When I initially signed up for mbaMission I didn’t even realize that interview prep was included for schools where you received an interview invite, however I found this to be one of the most valuable aspects of our relationship. As I mentioned, I had interviews at two schools and was admitted to both. I owe a great deal of that success to Angela who gave incredible advice on storytelling and preparation while also ensuring I was confident heading into each interview.

Filled in the holes in my application
I can still remember Angela asking me some basic questions on our first call and I quickly realized how incomplete my story was. I knew I wanted to go to B-School, but I couldn’t articulate why! Angela was quick to offer advice and resources to help nail down a compelling story while at the same time helping me take a long and hard look at why I was going to B-School. This proved extremely beneficial and by the time I got to the interview process I was telling my story like I had been planning it since childhood. It boosted my confidence, but also reaffirmed my decision to attend B-School. This isn’t limited to the application process as I feel more prepared to start B-School thanks to the advice Angela provided on career prospects.

Without reservation I would recommend Angela to anyone looking to get the absolute best out of themselves. Words do not do justice for what Angela helped me to achieve and without a doubt in my mind she can do the same for you. If you are serious about B-School and ready for someone to take you to a whole new level while sharing some great laughs and amazing stories along the way then Angela is the consultant for you!!!

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First, I will start by saying that I was a humanities major and definitely a nontraditional candidate. I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to hire a consultant, and I'm SO glad I did, and I'm SO glad I went with Angela, in particular. She really lives up to all of the amazing testimonials, and I'm positive I wouldn't have gotten into my first choice school (M7) without her help.

Angela was outstanding at both helping me figure out who I was and what was important to me. While I had a sense of these things, Angela really helped me hone my sense of myself, then craft a compelling narrative that conveyed that information. She had a unique skill for simultaneously understanding what made me different, as a nontraditional student, as well as what aspects of my job and extracurriculars would be applicable to a business career. She also helped me hyperfocus on my goals, and what I wanted. Especially as a career switcher, I wasn't sure exactly what area of marketing I'd like to explore in school, but she forced me to really think about what I wanted for my future and to convey that quickly and effectively.

I was so impressed by how deeply knowledgeable Angela was about the admissions process, and about each school's wants/needs. She had an incredibly nuanced understanding of what each school was looking for, and helped me shape targeted essays. We worked on essays for three different schools, and each of those collection of essays highlighted different strengths and facets of my personality. She never pushed me to be someone else, or to say what the schools wanted to hear--rather, she helped me understand how I would fit into each school's culture, and how to express that clearly and concisely to each school. My essays would never have been as targeted, focused, or relevant without Angela's guidance.

Throughout the process, she was very honest about my strengths and weaknesses. For example, I had a free consultation with a different consultant, who said my GMAT score wouldn't be a problem and I wouldn't need to retake the test. However, Angela took a closer look at my score (which skewed heavily in favor of verbal), and told me that it was in my best interest to get my quant score up, as it would be a stumbling block at the top schools. This sort of honesty and critical analysis of my application was ESSENTIAL in my understanding where I was strong, where I was weak, and where I needed to devote my energies to present the best application possible.

I also have to say that Angela was just a joy to work with, as a person. She was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, clear-headed, friendly, and extremely responsive. It was so easy to get a hold of her, even when it was for a brief question, or when I needed someone to talk me down from a minor panic.

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About 15 months ago, I was a regular high school teacher who hardly knew what an MBA was -- it was certainly never a part of my long-term plans. I had seen those three letters strung together, but I had no familiarity with the extent to which admissions was highly competitive, the opportunities this degree offered to radically transform my career, and the amount of labor that the application process would require.

After a couple of months of initial research, I knew that the MBA would be a good option for me, so I was considering whether to hire an admissions consulting service. I was at first skeptical of the value proposition and the extent to which they could ultimately improve my chances of gaining admission to my target schools. However, after an initial consultation with MBA Mission, I became certain that I wanted their help in order to maximize my chances of being admitted. Helen's background and experience speaks for itself, and the support she would give me over the following months was indispensable.

First and foremost, Helen is enthusiastic and authentic in her desire to help. During our initial brainstorming session she was warm and affable, and she really pushed me to think deeply and express myself clearly about the most subtle nuances of my personal history and experience. This primed me for success during the application process, and she would repeat these behaviors as we prepared to tackle each successive application (we worked on 4 total together).

However, do not take her kindness for weakness. Helen was a warm and enthusiastic supporter, but she never showed satisfaction when I did not deserve it. While there were some initial essay drafts for which she showed enthusiasm, there were quite a few where she frankly told me that my concept was off or my writing was inadequate. Further, she was a stickler for details -- I recall one essay for which she pushed me to write nine total drafts, several times demonstrating dissatisfaction over word choice in one mere phrase or sentence.

The process was labor intensive -- just as it should be. In applying to top MBA programs, I wanted to present myself as clearly and positively as possible so that the admissions officers could see the benefits of adding me to their program. I decided to hire an admissions consultant because I wanted the best possible chance of accomplishing that task. If there is someone better than Helen for the job, I'd be truly surprised. I thought that her advice and support throughout the process was top-notch and worth every penny.

As a result of her support, I gained admission to three top-10 programs (one being an M7), all of which offered generous scholarships. I am incredibly grateful for the support I received, and I would strongly encourage anyone who reads this review to consider her.

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