Rachel was an invaluable resource for me. When I first started the process, I was unfamiliar with it and concerned that my GMAT would hurt my chances at my top schools. Rachel made me aware that it’s not just test scores that matter, but it’s your whole package and how you tell your story—and that’s where Rachel was incredible.

Through several brainstorming sessions, Rachel took the time to get know me, my experiences and career goals so that she could work with me to craft stories in my own voice. Her willingness to listen combined with her journalism background made her a vital asset to me. She’s excellent at identifying your strengths and then leveraging them in creative ways to liven up your essays and really bring your candidacy to life.

When it came time to prepare for interviews, Rachel was again immensely helpful. We did mock interviews in which she asked me most of the questions that I received in my interviews. When I answered a question poorly or even average, she provided constructive feedback on how to better answer the question. Rachel is also great at explaining to you why they ask the questions they ask and what specifically they are looking for when they ask those questions. This enabled me to better prepare because I knew what points to touch on in my answers even for the unexpected questions that popped up in the interviews.

Over the course of the process, Rachel became someone whose advice I trusted completely and someone I could go to with any question or concern about my applications. Not only is she great when it comes to telling your story in the essays and in the interviews, but she’s also a great cheerleader. Her support and belief in my candidacy motivated me to work harder and push myself to put together the best possible applications. Thanks to her help, I got into my top three schools. I would recommend her a million times over to anyone who is looking to apply to business school.

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What more can I say? Does Angela go above and beyond to help her clients succeed in every way possible? Yes. Does she exhibit professionalism and candor? Undoubtedly. Is she a rock star? Definitely.

I worked with Angela on 3 schools, and selected her to be my MBA consultant without even meeting her- she came highly recommended by numerous outlets, and thus I felt confident in working together. She didn't fail to deliver, as immediately we worked through my profile. I came into the MBA admissions game with a sense of where I wanted to go, but no gauge on my chances as a candidate. Angela assessed my strengths and weaknesses, and we put together a brand that was distinctive and written for each school. In every interaction we had, she was frank without being abrupt, and thus I had an good understanding of how to appeal to admissions departments. I utilized her invaluable input on other schools, too, and the result: A full ride to one of the best schools in the country.

As a person, Angela is someone I aspire to be like. As an MBA consultant, she is, in every sense of the word, the BEST. Even after this process, I know she is someone I can reach out to for anything- and that fact alone clearly shows she truly cares about the people she works with. She started off as my consultant, but now I can call her my friend.

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I had a thoroughly wonderful experience with MBA Mission and received my admission notice to my first choice school (Columbia) two weeks ago. I had an average GPA (3.3) from NYU Stern, above average work experience, and a fairly good GMAT score of 740. I used mbaMission's service to apply to Columbia, my first choice school and a bit of a reach through Early Decision, together with Wharton (reach school) and Cornell. In my opinion, if you already have a fairly strong resume and a decent GMAT score, it is worth it to give MBA Mission a shot to help make the most of your chances for the top schools.

I first heard of MBA Mission through a strong recommendation from my GMAT study program and decided to give it a shot in May. Within two days of signing up for their 3 school program, I was paired by with Debbie Choy, a senior consultant with the company. Debbie quickly walked me through what the service would cover - resume preparation, essay editing, general recommendation letter advice, as well as interview prep.

Throughout the process, Debbie was very courteous and professional. Less than a week after signing up for the service, Debbie walked me through the common patterns of essay topics and helped me piece together my past accomplishments, achievements, and extracurricular / community services; we then brainstormed together and strategized my MBA "story" and recurring themes that we would use on the admissions essays. By the time we were ready to tackle the actual essays, I felt that we already had a game plan in place and that I was well prepared. As an extra measure, Debbie asked me to make outlines of each essay for each school to give the essay shape and focus. As a result, even from the very first draft I felt confident in what I was writing and that my essays conveyed the right message. However, the essays needed further refinement and polish, as well as to remain within the word limit and

All together, Debbie and I went through about 10 drafts for each essay for each school. Given that I applied to three schools with MBA Missiion's help and each school typically asks for 3 essays, plus one optional essay where I had to explain a dismal grade in Calculus, we went through no less than 40 drafts for my applications.

The turnaround time for the essay was within 2 business days of when I emailed them to Debbie, often much earlier. I worked on other essays while Debbie reviewed my current drafts to make my time more efficient. Upon receiving a draft back, Debbie would not only comment on the essay and suggest changes, but also clearly state her rationale for the changes on the email. If I was still unclear, I could always shoot her an email back for a prompt reply. With each consecutive draft the essays were refined and perfected. In the end, when I strongly felt that I had the best essay draft possible, I let Debbie know that it would become the final version for submission.

Once I finalized the essays, our attentions quickly turned to the next critical piece of my application, the recommendation letters. Most schools generally ask for two letters, one from a current / immediately prior supervisor and one more of a student's choice. Debbie started by asked me to compile a list of esteemed professionals that I had extensive contact with and knew my professional development and growth over the past few years. Once we established whom should write the letters, Debbie and I identified a list of attributes that would enhance my application. For instance, since I had received a rather dismal grade in calculus, Debbie suggested that my supervisor should bring up my quantitative skills on the recommendation letter in order to mitigate any fears that the admissions committees would have on my ability to handle the course load. In the end, I was able to reach out to my two recommendation letter writers with a concise but essential outline of what should ideally be included in their recommendation letters in order to maximize their effectiveness. Once the letters came back, Debbie was able to look them over and provide a very high level review on what worked and what didn't. I was able to convey these changes to my recommenders before they submitted their final copies.

At the very end, Debbie did a high level review of my entire application with me before I sent it away to the schools. Approximately two weeks after submitting the application, I was contacted by both Cornell and Columbia for an interview. Debbie immediately scheduled a review session with me going over the concepts, themes, and patterns on the interviews. MBA Mission compiled lists of frequently asked questions of each school from previous clients so I had a chance to look over those questions in advance and prepare and plan for my responses. When I felt confident enough, I scheduled a 30 minute mock interview session with Debbie and received much needed feedback on what I did well and what I needed to improve on. When the actual interview date came I walked in confident and well prepared. The interview turned out much easier than what we prepared for.

No more than two weeks later, I received a phone call from Columbia Business School notifying me of my admissions!

In short, with your own hard work and MBA Mission's help, you will be able to put your best foot forward to those "reach" schools that you've always wanted.

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I applied to 3 schools in 2012 and was promptly rejected. These schools were, Yale, Booth and Columbia. Luckily for me I decided to avail the services of an admissions consultant and chose Angela Guido from mbaMission. Important thing was that nothing much changed between my applications (my work experience and GMAT scores were pretty much the same). Angela was quick to point out the weaknesses in my applications. Right from the one hour free session with her I knew what was wrong. I applied to 5 schools in the next cycle. This time around I got into Duke and got waitlisted at Johnson and Kellogg. I was also invited to interview at Wharton but could not make it. Booth was the only school where I did not get an interview. I did at least 4 versions of each essay for each school and Angela was very patient with me. Angela's greatest strength is to understand a candidate's background even better then the candidate. This enables her to link a candidate with the target school and provide context to the applications. I will recommend Angela anyday. Thank you Angela.

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I worked with MBA Mission consultant Angela with a one school package deal. From the start, beginning with my 30 minute in-person consultation with Jeremy, the founder, I had a great experience, and throughout the nine month process of working directly with Angela, I learned so much and was able to create an application that really reflected what I could bring to the table. Angela really pushed me to unearth my own voice, pushing me to tell my story in a way that felt both genuine to myself but also compelling to a reader. She was really good at giving high-level directions but then leaving it up to me on exactly how I should execute and improve.

She's obviously very passionate about this work, and helping her clients to grow through the process via discovering their own voice. She also graciously offered all her clients an invaluable interview workshop, which really trained us on effective interviewing, and how to verbally make my story more compelling.

As an atraditional applicant, I came in unclear on how to best way highlight my unique attributes while also emphasizing the contributions I could bring to each school - despite her unfamiliarity with my industry, Angela had a unique ability to really synthesize and identify patterns across my work experiences, and use that understanding in pushing me to articulate my unique value proposition.

I grew and learned so much in the process of working with Angela - although I ultimately wasn't accepted to the school that we worked on together, the materials we created drove the content of my other applications and overall really made me a much stronger candidate. And even post-applications, Angela has been invaluable resource in connecting me with students at the schools I'm considering and even in planning pre-MBA plans. I would highly recommend working with her!

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Before committing to mbaMission, I explored some other high-priced consultants through the 30-minute free consultations that many of them offer. I was disappointed with how the other consultants used the time to provide vague and generic advice. Because of this, I doubted that I would use a consultant, but Katharine Lewis at mbaMission really wowed me in our first meeting with her specific suggestions about what I should highlight in my essays. She was realistically honest, but confident in my abilities saying, "If you can convince Berkeley-Haas that you really want to go there, I think you have a great shot."

Katy ultimately helped me craft my personal story by probing me with insightful questions and challenging me to think about why I do the things I do. She helped me identify my strengths and experiences that would specifically resonate with my top choice, Berkeley-Haas, and was very knowledgeable about what they were looking for.

With Katy's guidance, I was able to convince Berkeley-Haas that I really wanted to go there and was recently accepted. I am so excited and grateful to Katy.

Sign up for a free consultation today! There really is no risk at all and I am confident you'll be impressed.

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As a prospective MBA student 10 years removed from writing essays for applications, I knew applying to Wharton's Executive and Berkeley's EW program would be a challenge. What I didn't realize was that the application process was so much more than simply writing essays. Thankfully I met Katy, and she helped lay out a plan for tackling the applications.

Specifically, these are reasons why I would recommend Katy and MBA consultants in general.

- She facilitated a discussion to help draw out themes that would be highlighted in my application. Spend the $ on the brainstorming session, it's worth it.
- She explained the differences between MBA programs from a perspective I hadn't thought of.
- She introduced me to current students in the program.
- She was very good at helping create a clean narrative from my own prospective and with my own style.
- She could answer the one-off odd questions that invariably arise during the application process (the ones you can't really ask the adCom).
- A word to the wise, if you plan to use hourly service do some research first and have an idea of what you are looking for as far as assistance goes, otherwise the per school cost makes more sense.

Thank KL!

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I worked with mbaMission, in particular Angela Guido, from the beginning of my MBA application process to the end. Angela turned out to be a great resource for me, even before I began writing my essays. She really helped me to think through the major events and stories in my life, and, through her probing, allowed me to see them from various angles that could add to my application. As for the essays, Angela’s biggest value-add was helping me dig into my past to arrive at the real root of the answers to the questions the schools were asking. From there, she helped me frame the big picture response to ensure that the themes I wanted to highlight came through.
Almost as useful as Angela’s feedback was being on a strict timeline with deadlines. Dual-tracking multiple applications with a full time job meant I needed to continuously work on my essays. Because mbaMission has a two-day-turnaround policy, I was forced to work on my essays as soon as they were returned to me in order to get them back to Angela quickly. This allowed me to get through many iterations of my essays, in a short timeframe, until I was confident in the final product. One area where I thought Angela could have been more helpful was in her specific comments in my essays. Sometimes she would highlight a piece of an essay she wanted changed, but she didn’t always give concrete guidance on how to best accomplish what she wanted to see.
Aside from Angela, I found mbaMission’s materials to be very useful. Their guides for the various schools helped me to develop my “Why [School]” essays, while giving me insight into the differences between MBA programs. Furthermore, their interview materials were great and left me feeling very prepared.

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Admission consultants are expensive. Probably too expensive. But I got to the point where I had read so many books, blogs and school website that I wasn't sure which way was up anymore and needed a little bit of help. I used the hourly service because I wanted someone to confirm that I was going in the correct direction and to help refine my essays to make them as clear and articulate as possible. Rachel did just that (mostly because I told her that's what I wanted). I would recommend getting a very good handle on the process before shelling out the cash for a consultant. Figure out where your weakness are in the apps and then ask someone for help with that. Be careful that they don't take away from your voice though (Rachel was good but many consultants walk the line). She tells you everything in a very honest way. If you like that kind of talk, Rachel is the lady for you.

Good luck!

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I highly recommend working with an admissions consultant at mbaMission. I have been admitted to a top five MBA program, the school of my dreams. I have applied twice to this school however, once on my own (and got dinged), and the second time with the help of an admissions consultant. Therefore, I feel like I can speak from experience on what a world of difference it makes to work with a professional admissions consultant and, ultimately, what is the decision maker on whether you get in or get dinged. The first time I applied, I was dinged without an interview. I was absolutely devastated and a friend recommended contacting mbaMission. I was set up with consultant Rachel Beck. Rachel was amazing, right from the start. After examining my application, Rachel pointed out the mistakes I made during my first application, and brought to my attention some aspects of my profile which I did not even know were interesting from an admissions point of view. Rachel worked with me on my re-applicant strategy and on repositioning my application in a way that I still presented the same facts about my candidacy during my second application, however this time around by following Rachel's advice I was highlighting the aspects of my candidacy which the admissions committee finds truly interesting. The results spoke for themselves, within three weeks of my application I was invited to interview. Rachel then worked with me on prepping for the interview, and we even did a mock interview session with Rachel which was extremely helpful. During the mock interview session Rachel asked me all the interview questions which I ended up getting at the actual interview. She also helped me rehearse my responses and, again, the advice that Rachel gave me was brilliant. I felt like my actual interview was extremely easy-going and I felt very confident about my responses to the interviewer. Shortly after, I received news that I got into the school of my dreams. I know for a fact that I couldn't have gotten in without Rachel. Rachel knew exactly what a top business school is looking for in applicants, she helped me find the strong points in my candidacy, and she really helped me believe in myself and in my chances of getting in. I also really enjoyed the actual work process with Rachel, she was always so helpful and responsive, and all our sessions were very productive and fun at the same time. I am extremely grateful to Rachel for helping me make my dream of attending a top MBA program come true. I highly recommend mbaMission and working with Rachel Beck, trust me their advice can make a world of difference for the success of your application.

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