I was a fringe candidate applying to a top business school. The bottom line is that I would not have been accepted without the help of mbaMission, and specifically John Sisk. He single-handedly improved my application by advising on my resume, essays, and anything else I needed. He also helped me develop my personal story, which is a must for admissions departments. Although expensive, I view it as a necessary investment for anyone pursuing an MBA at a top business school. I enthusiastically recommend John and his services. The service is unparalleled and the quality of his advice holds weight with top business schools.

Read More

I had the pleasure of working with Katy Lewis of mbaMission for my application to Columbia Business School and was ultimately admitted. As someone in my mid 30s who had always been working in academic biomedical research, I was initially unsure about how to put the best representation of myself through my essays. I spoke to a couple of different admission consultants from various companies but Katy was the main person who I felt a good chemistry. Moreover, she was able to give me a very balanced assessment of my situation in our first contact and I really appreciated that. In my 3 hours with Katy, the first 1-1.5hr was spent on brainstorming about my past experience and really got to the root of why I want to go to business school. This was an extremely important exercise between it gave Katy a chance to get to know me better while giving me the confidence that I could craft a strong story for my essay. During the actual essay writing phase, Katy was extremely efficient in turning around essay drafts that I submitted to her, typically less 24hr and with very helpful insights that were specific to me. Of course, I was absolutely happy with the final version of the essay. Even after the paid hours were up, Katy continued to check in on me and even gave me advice when I was waitlisted, which was a big surprise for me. Overall, my experience of working with Katy was extremely positive, not just because of her in depth expertise but her sincerity in rooting for my success. In conclusion, I have no hesitation in recommending Katy Lewis to anyone in search of a mentor/advisor for the MBA application process. In my humble opinion, it was money well spent!

Read More

Upfront and honest: Hiring an admissions consulting service was the best decision I made during the MBA application process, and if I had to do it all over again (thankfully I don't!), I would work with Susan again in a heartbeat.

Small caveat: I worked in the undergraduate admissions office at a Top 25 school in undergrad, and learned that the most important part of an applicant's application is not necessarily the "stats." Most everyone applying has around the same GPA/test scores, so just numbers alone help an applicant achieve parity with the rest of the applicant pool - not necessarily differentiation. The story that supported the stats, i.e. essays/letters of rec, was really where applicants separated from each other and unique students stood out.

Therefore, I applied the same insights to the graduate school application process. Knowing my grad school stats (3.4 GPA/650 GMAT) were going to be "average," the essays were going to be an critical part of my application in order to breakthrough the applicant log jam.

However, I had no idea where to start, what to say and how to say it. When trying to fit years of work experience and undergrad accomplishments into 250 words or less, having a clear perspective on the key points you want to say is mission critical before ever putting finger-to-keyboard. That is when I started working with Susan, and she absolutely saved me!

Here is what Susan did that was tremendously valuable:
- Gave me a place to start. The initial brainstorming sessions were painful soul-searching endeavors, but she knew the right questions to ask and how to ask them in a way that got me to be honest with myself about who I am, who I wanted to be, where I wanted to be and what made me unique.
- Helped me understand the application game. With her background in marketing, Susan helped me to understand that applications are really just an exercise in building your personal "brand." She helped me to look through my background, and recognize the experiences that were worth building a brand around.
- School-specific optimization. Susan also provided unique insight into each school I was applying to, the elements they're looking for in an applicant and how I could tailor my brand story to align with what each school was looking for.
- Time efficiency. Susan also kept our time streamlined so as to maximize efficiencies, which I appreciated. This mentality extended to the essay writing process itself, where she was also able to help me self-edit down (some times brutally, but necessarily) to the most important parts of what needed to be said in order to maximize every word.

I applied to four schools, each with approximately 2-4 essays and several resume iterations (professional and activities.) Susan provided feedback on time in every instance, helping me to meet deadlines as needed.

Additionally, Susan also provided encouragement when things were on the right track and honest feedback when an essay had gone awry. When words begin to swim in front of you, knowing I could trust her to give me real feedback made the process less stressful and more productive.

I also worked with Susan for interview prep, and highly recommend the experience as well. Susan knew me as an applicant and was able to identify my key strengths/weaknesses along with suggestions as to how to address them in an verbal format. The mock interview along with her real-time feedback was particularly beneficial.

In the end, I got into 3 of the 4 schools, including my top choice, and was wait-listed at the other school. I am very pleased with how everything went, and I have Susan to thank for the positive outcome.

Read More

Hi all,

I wanted to share how happy I was with my hourly consulting services with mbaMission and my coach Susan Kaplan. With her help, I am going to one of my target schools (USC Marshall) and couldn't be happier.

In short, Susan knew how to make the most of the hours I was paying for. She provided specific feedback on my essays -- which was all I really felt I needed help with -- and didn't waste any time with fluff or vague notes. Everything was right to the point, and she really helped pinpoint my essays weaknesses, and offered some great food-for-thought suggestions on ways to improve. For anyone out there looking for that extra set of eyes to help truly craft "your story", Susan is the way to go!

Please feel free to reach out if you have anymore questions!

Read More

John Sisk was my admission consultant. I was impressed in our very first meeting - His questions came across as precise and well prepared. Post our first meeting, I was able to finish my application work in literally 2 weeks and I could not have done this without his expert advice. He does not just review your essays in isolation but intelligently thinks about the entire application. For example we finished 2 essays and while writing the third one, we realized that it was not adding anything new to my application given the first 2 essays. John brilliantly came up with a plan to re-focus the essays such that the overall application brought out my experience, education as well as personality. He is easy to work with, a good listener and very articulate in his communication. He also will go the extra mile to ensure that you meet your deadlines - staying up late in order to ensure that his reviews of my essay were done and I could update as needed. Overall I had a great experience working with him and he is simply the best!

Read More

I worked with Katy Lewis from mbaMission for my Round 3 2+2 application the Harvard Business School and was ultimately admitted. As a non-STEM student, I knew it would be an uphill battle to convince the Admissions Committee that they should accept me to the program. Right away, Katy made me feel comfortable going forward. No matter how many questions or concerns I brought to her attention, she was always enthusiastically helpful, aiding me in portraying my best self to the Admissions Committee, from the application portion all the way through the interview. Katy was crucial in helping me craft my story. Before we spoke, I was unsure and unclear with my vision for what I wanted to put in my application and how best to present myself. Through our essential brainstorming session, Katy got to know me better than I knew myself, helped me refine and carefully choose which parts of my experiences were appropriate, and ultimately made me feel more than confident in my ability to put together a stellar application. Any time, any place – Katy was there to read through a draft (or several!) and suggest creative and unique ways to answer those tough application questions. In fact, after looking at my profile, Katy understood the career path that was best suited for me at this time, and that would shed my past experiences in the best light. She is more than an admissions consultant; she is like a career and life coach! And, I am glad to call her not only my trusted advisor, but also my friend! If you want to ensure the best chances of acceptance at your dream school, do not miss out on working with Katy!

Read More

My experience with Jessica was amazing! She has done much more than I ever thought was possible. All I can say is – if you are looking for someone who really cares about how things turn out for you and has nothing but your best interest in mind – go with Jessica. I requested her help to review my essays on an hourly basis. She was extremely efficient and without knowing me she figured out how to use my time in the best possible way – combination of phone and essay proofreading. She gave me detailed comments/suggestions. At the end of this exercise I was amazed at how much I felt she knew about me already. Most of her assumptions were correct and she even made me think about an event I had not given much thought to earlier. She was quick in responding to emails and made things work according to my time (whether she had a babysitter for part of that time or not) and remained focused on helping me finalize the essay until I was content with it. Since then she has emailed me to check up on me and given me advice when I’ve asked – and mind you I am not paying at this point. It just shows you how much she cares. She is 100% genuine and a warm, wonderful person. Thank you Jessica for your help and support!

Read More

I was initially not going to use an admissions consultant but after buying GMAT books from Manhattan GMAT I was offered a free 30 minute consultation and figured I would try it out. I was very impressed by Katy on our first call. She had really done her homework before the call and knew my resume and had creative thoughts about my application and how I could tell my story. She was thoughtful, methodical, and very clear. I decided to work with her and am very happy I made that decision. While she helped me in countless ways, I think there are three areas where she was truly invaluable.

First, she really helped me tell my story in the most coherent way possible. I had to explain certain non-traditional parts of my application and she helped me come up with elegant ways to do so. She didnt change my story or goals, just helped me display them in a coherent way. After coming up with the story and crafting the essay, I sent them to her to have her poke holes in them. She analyzed my 'why MBA' argument the way a lawyer analyzes a case (not surprising she went to Harvard Law School). While the application is certainly not a legal case, this was really helpful in a number of ways. First, it forced me to make the strongest and most logical case possible for why I needed one of the seats at GSB and HBS. Second, it prepared me for the interview. I knew what to expect.

Second, Katy was really helpful in advising me how to manage my referees. She suggested that I prepare a memo outlining some examples that I thought illustrated the qualities that the b-schools were after. Since I was no longer working for those recommenders, they said they really appreciated the memo as it helped jar their memories.

Third, Katy really made me feel prepared for my interviews. The analysis of my argument showed me what to expect and we did a few mock interviews wherein she critiqued my answers. She also gave me a list of questions to expect given my background. Nothing surprised me about the interviews.

I can't recommend Katy highly enough. She is a pleasure to work with (friendly, responsive to emails, excellent listener) and I intend to stay in touch with her. Her advice and help played a big role in my admission to Harvard and Stanford.

Read More

My application was far from ordinary. I was applying to two business schools (CBS, LBS) and three real estate programs (Harvard, Columbia, MIT). My undergrad GPA was under a 3.0 and I had started my own development company instead of having bulge bracket experience. Initially Katherine helped demystify the process and gave me a non-sugar coated analysis of my application, which I very much appreciated.
In dealing with my low GPA, she suggested an unapologetic approach that ended up turning a weakness into an opportunity. I don't know how many clients Katherine was helping at the time but she certainly made me feel at ease by being consistently available to address questions and concerns. She got to know me quickly, understood my strengths and weaknesses, and helped my leverage the former over the latter in both the big picture and small details of my essays. Katy helped me see the application as a holistic process and crafted it accordingly with essays, recommendations, and a resume that worked together to really bring out my story to the admission committee. I feel like this was especially helpful given my background. Katy helped me tell a great story about myself, sometimes in under 500 words. She was great at showing me what was important, what was not, and what I shouldn't say at all.
There wasn't much information on the real estate programs available, but Katy researched what others within mbaMission had done and provided greater insight than what I could have found on my own.
At first I was hesitant to hire an admission consultant after already paying for Manhattan GMAT prep. Those hours were well worth it, not only for the results but also because I felt less stressed throughout the process. I was admitted to all of the programs except London and will be attending Harvard in the fall. I would absolutely recommend Katy for anyone pursuing a graduate degree at a top tier school.

Read More

Yes, hiring a personal MBA admissions consultant is expensive. However, in the grand scheme of things and what the MBA will ultimately cost, it's money well spent and I'm glad I did it.

Dan was very helpful in the essay writing process. He helped me brainstorm essay topics before writing - and, perhaps most importantly, he pushed me to take a risk in writing about something personal.

His feedback was always very prompt, which was helpful given that I was on a huge crunch due to a late start. His feedback was honest and direct - he highlighted the good parts as well as the parts that needed work. He was also ver helpful in helping cut words to meet the word count limits.

I also did a mock interview that was very helpful. He gave me good feedback and suggestions for improvement. It was also a good dry run. I was surprisingly nervous and it was good to get through those nerves when it "didn't count".

Lastly, the admissions process can be very overwhelming. It was helpful to have someone that knows the process and to help me navigate it.

I've applied to 2 schools. I've gotten into one and am waiting to hear back from the 2nd.

Read More