For someone who usually does not write reviews, I just must write this review for Jessica - not only because she has been so super helpful, but also because this review could really help others who are trying to get into the school of their dreams!

I first spoke with Jessica when I scheduled a free 30 minutes consultation with MBA mission. At that point, I was shopping for admissions consultants and had spoken to a couple before my conversation with Jessica. After the initial 30-minute initial conversation, I was completely sure that I wanted to sign up with her. She picked up nuances of my profile that other consultants hadn't and her insights during the 30-minute conversation added so much value to the way I thought about my applications.

During my applications, Jessica was the person who kept me organized, my harshest critic and most importantly my voice of sanity. She helped me brainstorm through experiences and stories in my life that I had underestimated the value of. She worked with me meticulously, going through approx 25 drafts of essays for a single B school application (and we were working simultaneously on 4 of these schools). She would answer my silliest questions and doubts with the utmost patience. There was never a time when she was late - in fact she almost always sent me back stuff much in advance of the 2 day turnaround period, even on weekends a couple of times.

I applied to only 4 of the top schools and got interviews from 3 of these. Even during my interviews, Jessica was constantly a source of support helping me be prepared but not scripted. I must also mention that although I ambitiously decided to apply only to the top schools, Jessica never once pressured me to consider other "safer" bets. She was supportive of my decision and always told me that I should apply only to those schools that I would be happy going to.

I guess what I value most is that throughout the entire applications, Jessica made sure that my application maintained my tone and genuineness while ensuring that my voice was heard. I remember during one of my earlier conversations with Jessica, she had promised me that she would make sure I was totally happy with how my application was positioned before I hit the submit button. And the end result was that not only was I totally happy with my application, but I came out feeling like I had really gained from the application process. I got into one of the top three schools with a good scholarship and was waitlisted at another! :)

To all those who wish to truly give their B school applications the best shot, I would definitely recommend signing up with Jessica. I would suggest signing up for the 30-minute free consultation and making the judgement for yourself.

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If your intent is to get an MBA, you will present a stronger candidacy if you reserve Dan’s services.

The first thing to know about him is that he has been there. He has an MBA from CBS so he has succeeded both at getting himself into a top program and at guiding others down the path (I am headed to Columbia next year thanks in large part to Dan).

From the beginning, he will analyze you from all sides: education, work experience, personal life, interests, etc. He is very detailed and has a marketing background and thus is quickly able to identify your unique characteristics that make you more attractive to a top program.

From resumes to essays to short answer questions, he will help you find and develop your most compelling narratives. Then, he will eviscerate your work repeatedly until it flows economically within the allotted word count.

When interview time comes (and it will come of course…because you engaged Dan), he will do wonders for your interview preparation. He knows each school’s unique interview style and drills you accordingly. By the time you are interviewing live with the school, it’s like you are watching an old movie you have seen a dozen times before.

Two more things that really impressed me: First, he always seemed intensely focused and invested in my candidacy. I never felt like my candidacy had anything but his undivided attention. Second, he was always ahead of schedule. MBAmission mandates that their consultants get any work back to you within two business days hours. In my experience, Dan never kept me waiting longer than 12 hours.

In short, being a potentially strong candidate does not guarantee that you will have a strong candidacy. Dan is like The Wolf from Pulp Fiction when it comes to the latter point.

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This was my second attempt with U of C (Booth). While I did a lot of work on my own in preparation of the admission process, I honestly believe that without Angela Guido's assistance, I would not have been admitted!

I didn't have a good idea of what to expect before working with Angela - there is a significant time and (more importantly) effort commitment (5 essays, 5-7 drafts per essay, re-tooling my resume, etc.) and, with Angela's guidance, I produced essays that I didn't think were possible. She motivated me to take my experiences to construct strong stories and a powerful resume. Her feedback throughout the application process was invaluable!

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I'm an education consultant. Because of that it may seem odd that I would actually hire an education consultant to apply to business school - but it ended being a wonderful decision!

Through my own work with my students (I only work with applicants to boarding schools and universities), I have seen how important my guidance has been in their school selection, essay writing, and interview preparation. I have an objective, "outsider's" opinion and know the system.

Before my experience applying to MBA programs, I had never thought to use an education consultant. However, because I saw the value I provide to my own students, I knew just how useful having someone's outside perspective - and knowledge of MBA programs and want they are looking for in candidates - could be the make or break of my applications. I did not know how to tell my story, and I did not know the MBA market. I knew I needed an expert.

A friend recommended the team at mbaMission and I think I selected Angela at random because she had a free trial time slot available when I was free. Since then, I've heard excellent things about other mbaMission consultants as well, but from the first call I knew that Angela was the consultant for me - call it love at first Skype :)

From the beginning, Angela made it clear that she believed in me and in my story, and in the fact that, with the proper application, I had a chance at my dream school - Wharton. As a somewhat nontraditional applicant with a complicated story, having someone confident in my applications was very important to me.

Angela helped me clarify my story and think about my career progression and goals to date in a way that was meaningful, interesting, and effective. I could feel my story making more sense to myself during and after our calls. My resume was a complete mess and Angela patiently walked me through how to make the changes. She never directly told me to do, but rather provided the right guidance, asked the right questions, and helped me develop my own thought process so I could really develop a resume that reflected my strengths and past achievements.

I found her feedback equally helpful when we moved to the essay stage of applications. Angela helped me understand the perspective of each school, and how expectations for essays differed from program to program. As we worked through each essay, I felt increasingly confident about my story and my accomplishments, as well as how to show them. Angela’s feedback helped me re-direct my essays and provide stronger essays, as well as use the right details to suit different schools. While I am a strong writer, I never could have finished my essays as efficiently and confidently without Angela’s expert advice.

Angela also greatly helped with the interview preparation process. By that time, I felt like working with her on my resume and essays had already helped me solidify my stories and achievements so that preparing for interviews did not require much extra work. At this time, I really felt the benefit of working with her: having had the experience of talking through everything with her, having to explain my resume and essay ideas, then using her feedback to develop my ideas and tie everything together had really given me a strong sense of my own story, such that going into an interview seemed very straightforward. We did additional practice questions until I felt comfortable, and I ended up going into the interviews very confidently.

In the end, I received offers to my dream school, Wharton, as well as to MIT, which was also a top choice for me. Angela’s patience, confidence, and professional feedback throughout the process played a major role in my success story – would highly recommend her!

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The consulting services of mbaMission helped me vastly in my application process. Lynn was very helpful but also rigorous, she pushed me in getting my ideas in order and pacing on track even while I had very limited time because of my job. She did a great job in understanding my profile and recommending essay approaches, even long after the first assessment she remembered my key strengths. She was always available and gave rapid answers to my emails. Even with a below average GMAT score (680) got into my top school choices (Haas, LBS). One of the best parts... she didn't try to convince me to apply to lower ranked schools to ensure admission, but helped me get in my top choices.

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MBAmission has an extremely solid process for start-to-finish MBA application completion. Beginning with their brainstorming document they helped me create an idea of what was and was not important to include in my essays. The fact they have been through the process provided them an amazing advantage and unprecedented insight into how I could best succeed with each school I applied to.

I did have some concerns however int that over time there were instances that I often had to wait extensively for revisions, and had to remind my consultant about these important deadlines that were due. Overall, however, my consultant was attentive and strongly concerned that I put forth my best application at the schools which would be right for me. Without my consultant I would not have been able to address the key points that needed to be addressed to convey my candidacy for each school. While this seems like a simple process, little things such as connecting dots from every 6 months of my career is something that MBAmission helped me achieve.

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Very simply, I'm not sure I would have gotten into Booth - my first choice school - without Helen at mbaMission. After sending in my brainstorming material, Helen helped me uncover the key themes in my personal story that I wanted to highlight in my application. She helped me frame the application and suggested an overall organizational structure. Helen's greatest strength was speaking directly. She provided blunt, honest, and constructive feedback. And, she was always right. Helen won't project manage you, and you'll need to own your deadlines and the pacing to get things done. But, if you're looking for straightforward and substantive input on your work, Helen might be the perfect fit. You'll never be confused about what she thinks is working and what isn't.

Ultimately, I produced an application I was really proud of and the outcome was as good as I could have possibly hoped for - thanks to Helen.

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Lynn was extremely helpful throughout my MBA application process. I came into it fairly unprepared and behind schedule for the deadlines I wanted to achieve but Lynn was instrumental in getting a schedule down and helping me through the process.

The brainstorming was great and helped me to define the experiences I have had personally and professionally that would be applicable for business school. This really helped me get ideas for essay writing and Lynn again gave great tips to think about how to improve my essays. Lynn also helped to think about the application holistically, and what parts of my career would best be suited to be in the application and which should come out through the essays.

Finally, the mock interview was perfect. Most of the questions I received in my actual Columbia interview were asked by Lynn in our mock interview and I felt calm and relaxed because I had already answered these questions two days prior.

I was accepted by Columbia Business School which was where I really wanted to go. I would highly recommend Lynn if you are applying to business school.

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I first heard about mbaMission through MGMAT and given that i had a very positive experience with MGMAT i felt comfortable in choosing them. I did, however, talk to consultants from at least 3 other consulting firms since i knew that getting help on 4 schools was going to be a significant short term investment. Of all the consultants i had researched, i felt that no one other than Angela had such positive reviews and client feedback history on various online forums, including GMATClub, spanning several years.

Once i signed up and had Angela as my consultant, she sent over a very thorough brainstorming document which took me more than one entire day to fill out. It forced me to think about EVERYTHING that has happened in my life so far, which was great because it helped me build a clear and concise picture of why i want to really pursue an MBA and several schools' essay questions themselves were answered through stories narrated within the document. We scheduled our first call and discussed the strategy for which 4 schools i would work with her on. We chose Stanford, MIT, Wharton & Booth.

Before we started on a school, i tried restructuring my resume from a coding/technical-jargon filled page to a more business school resume and sent it to her for review. She came back with several important highlights and indicators as to where i need to put more content or expand on a bullet more to show impact/result. In the meantime, we also discussed our strategy for the first school and i got to work on the essays as well so that i wasn't idle while she was reviewing the resume. I really liked this tandem work ethic because we were both then working on a document without wasting any time in between and it carried on till we were done with all the schools.

Six reviews of the resume later, after we couldn't identify any bullet/heading/formatting to improve on, my resume looked completely different than what it was to start off with. It presented my achievements and the results/impact that i've had in a very succinct and meaningful manner and in which i definitely could see how it was much better for business schools than what i had been able to do on my own. We went through a similar number of reviews for each essay and also reviewed the short answer questions within the schools' online application forms.

For each of the schools that we worked on we would schedule a call to discuss what the general strategy should be for me to answer the question properly and what stories about me i should definitely mention in the essay. Angela also answered any questions i had regarding any parts of the application from the schools we were not working together on. There was no doubt that she was definitely concerned about my outcome; apart from answering all my questions she highly recommended applying to a safety school myself as a back up several times since i was applying to only M7 schools. When the deadlines got closer she would even reply to any questions and even send back essays over the weekend even though she didn't have to as per the contract.

When i got an interview invite from MIT she coached me through the interview process, conducting a mock interview, giving me suggestions on structuring my thoughts and what to ask at the end. She also shared with me a list of questions other mbaMission clients had been asked so far in the interview process this season.

When i finally got an admit to MIT i couldn't have been more thankful and relieved. All of a sudden my initial hesitation to spend so much money on a consultant seemed totally worth it. Without Angela's expert opinions, suggestions and coaching i don't think i would have had as good a chance to get into my dream school. Even though i didn't make it to the other 3 schools i worked with Angela on, looking back i now realize the importance of 'fit'. While i was researching the application process, i had heard of how important 'fit' is and how each school had a distinct culture but i didn't think much of it until i actually interviewed at MIT and met people there and saw how much i can relate to them. I feel i got into MIT because of my personal story and how much more it identifies with MIT's culture as compared to other schools and Angela was instrumental in bringing that out in me.

I would highly recommend Angela Guido if you're looking to apply to business school and hire a consultant. Its great to have someone with several years of experience reviewing your work and guiding you during such a crucial stage of your career.

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Lynn provided exactly the support I needed to select and communicate my most powerful stories in an engaging, authentic way. She helped me preserve my voice and personality throughout the process, but truly brought out the best version of me as she pointed out what she was learning about me from each my stories. It was so helpful to have someone who didn't know me at all give me a cold reaction to my initial drafts, and then help me refine them as she got to know my values, passions, goals, and experiences in detail.

When I was filling out the short answers in the application, Lynn helped me get the most value out of every character / word I was allowed. I don't think I ever would have been able to communicate so much about myself with such little space, and it really gave me confidence that my full application was as strong as it could possibly be.

In the end, with Lynn's help, I got into both schools to which I applied.

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