I got into my two top schools and could not have done it without Melisa's guidance. I was very confused at the start of the process but she was super organised and guided me meticulously through every step of the process right from choosing your recommenders to interview prep. The brainstorming exercises she gave me really made me think and present a well rounded and genuine story. Also the fact that stratus have a team based approach was another big plus! She was also very efficient with time and got back to me the next day in most cases. Highly recommend!

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Working with Melisa was the best decision I made. I had chatted with a few other consultants, but felt the most at ease with Melisa after our intro call. She seemed genuinely excited about working with me, and I really appreciated her energy and encouragement. Since I was only planning to apply to two programs, Melisa was very flexible with pricing and we worked on an hourly basis for my top school's application. I was able to leverage the same essays and resume for my backup program. Her detailed feedback and thoughtful suggestions helped me to highlight the most important parts of my story in the essays. Melisa is extremely knowledgeable about the process and working with her made me feel very confident about my applications when the time came to hit submit. We also worked together on interview prep, which was huge because I had not been thinking about that part of the process at all. I was admitted to both programs I applied to with significant scholarship money. After our allotted hours were used, Melisa was more than willing to respond to my calls and emails as I worked to make my final decision. She is an absolute rockstar, and it was a pleasure working with her.

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As a first-generation college graduate, the MBA admissions process was daunting, and I was skeptical about working with a consultant. I talked to several consultants who tried to push me to apply to “safety” schools that I wasn’t interested in or tried to push me to pay for their all-inclusive packages. Melisa was the only person who not only gave me critical feedback and opinions, but also, trusted my vision.

I worked with Melisa on an hourly basis on essay reviews and interview prep. She was efficient and always provided clear and thoughtful feedback. My application included many personal experiences, and I always felt that she cared for the story I was trying to tell. The MBA admissions process requires deep reflection, and it was important to me that the people reading my stories honored them.

Now, I’m so excited to attend a top, full time MBA program with a scholarship (especially after a highly competitive application cycle) and can’t thank Melisa enough for her support. I highly recommend her, especially if you come from a similar background.

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TLDR version: Donna and Stratus are just incredible to work with and I could not be happier with my outcome of being admitted to Yale SOM.

Now the longer version: I have to admit, mostly due to the high price of a typical multi-school package, I was seriously considering not using a consultant at all (in hindsight, that would have been devastating!!). Once I talked myself into hiring a consultant, I spent more time than I would like to admit reading these very reviews and obsessing over ’top consultant lists.’ I finally came up with a short list of ~5 consultants to have intro meetings with and quite frankly was underwhelmed with most as they were much less personal and much more transactional than I had anticipated. It took no more than 5 minutes of speaking with Donna for me to decide that she is the one I would enjoy/benefit working with the most. Not only is she extremely well-versed in the admissions world, but also it is extremely clear that she genuinely cares about each of her clients – and that is what mattered most to me. Donna made what is a very daunting process a breeze. Add on top of that me having to take the GMAT THREE times and finally hitting a score beyond what I thought was possible for me only a week or so before R1 applications were due. She was able to connect me with the right folks in order to get my GMAT score up and, most importantly, stay sane throughout the process! I could not imagine having to go through the application process with anyone but Donna and would 1,000% recommend her to anyone that is deciding on who to work with!

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Donna and the rest of the Stratus team were a joy to work with and I can not imagine going through the MBA application process without them. Donna's assistance was crucial in making sure that I submitted the best possible application and helped me find tutors to increase my quantitative GMAT score. Her honesty, organizational prowess, and experience within the field were what helped me get into my target schools and set clear goals for myself. I will not hesitate to recommend their services to anybody that is going through the MBA application process as I know she is the best available consultant on the market.

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I would highly recommend working with Melisa and Stratus. Melisa helped me get into four of my top-choice schools, with substantial fellowships at three of them. She supported me from the beginning of my application process to the end. Melisa was always very responsive, and was available to answer any questions I had about schools and applications, no matter how trivial they seemed. She helped me shape my story and goals so well that I had a clear idea of how to approach each essay question. Her detailed advice and feedback on my resume and essays was instrumental in my admissions.

Melisa also helped me prep for interviews. I really benefited from Melisa’s experience in this area, and she helped me present my story in a way that was well-defined, but still genuine. I was admitted to every school I interviewed with, which I could not have done without Melisa’s help.

Something I really liked about Melisa was her positivity throughout the process, as it can be daunting at times. I had a non-traditional professional background, and Melisa helped me present it in the best possible way. Her encouragement, positivity, and support is what set her (and Stratus) apart from other MBA admissions consultants I’d considered, and I’m so glad I was able to work with her. Highly recommend!

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Soterios is an expert consultant. He provided hands-on guidance and feedback throughout every step of process and got me into HBS. While working with Soterios, I always felt supported and that he was 100% dedicated to getting me into my dream school.

Key Strengths:
Crafting My Story - Provided a framework for identifying my top selling points as an applicant and advised on how to build those into a compelling story (that helped me overcome weaker parts of my application).

Maximizing My Essays - Offered detailed, iterative feedback on my essays to maximize every sentence.

School-Specific Tailoring - Leveraged his expertise and Status’s community to recommend alterations to essays that fit what each Admissions Office is looking for.

Rigorous Interview Preparation - Soterios prepared me for the stress of the interview process by pressure testing me in mock interview sessions. Without this I would not have succeeded in the real thing.

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When applying for business school, I was most anxious about writing essays that had the power to tell admissions exactly who I was in the matter of a few hundred words. Working with Stratus, and Lisa in particular, gave me confidence knowing I put my absolute best forward in a clear and coherent way for admissions. Lisa was an easy choice given her extensive experience working in admissions herself. Her feedback not only gave me a second set of eyes on my essays but more importantly, comments and questions an admissions rep at my target school would also have. Lisa was instrumental in keeping me on track in terms of deadlines and really lessened my anxiety around the process, knowing I had someone to provide unbiased, holistic feedback on my application. Lisa took me through every step of uncovering my whole story for “why business school” so by the time I interviewed I could recite my true “why” like the back of my hand with confidence. Outside of essay and story strategy, Lisa also helped me finetune my resume and interview skills – both things I already felt really strong in. She added value where I did not think I needed any help and was there as my support cheering me on through the daunting process. I worked with Lisa on 3 schools and was accepted at all 3 (Tuck, Booth, Kellogg). Finally, I would say Lisa is flexible in her working style and will tailor her approach to your needs (i.e. working independently, following strict deadlines etc.) which really helped to be able to personalize the process. I would highly recommend Lisa and the full Stratus team.

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Meeting Melisa via Stratus to help me with my admissions process to a top part time MBA program was hands down one of the most memorable experiences. Having worked with Melisa for over 6 months on my application, simply saying I found one of the best admissions counselor is an understatement. Melisa took genuine interest in not my application - making the entire process a self exploratory process about oneself. She places emphasis on the initial process which eventually makes the other parts of the application much easier to put together.

I was focussed on applying to only a single program MBA program. Coming from a technology background, I was not sure how I would convert my deep technical experience understandable to an admissions reviewer. Melisa was super insightful, taking interest into understanding my background and making me answer my own question about how my experiences might be translated to something more understandable by everyone.

Melisa was super responsive with helping me with reviews on my essays and my resume and would usually get back to me within a day or two and not only communicated with my via emails but was available to chat via phone at a time suitable to both of us. Melisa went above and beyond in getting my essays to the best version of themselves even if it meant 4-5 extra edits. Melisa spent so much time and energy into my application, make me feel confident at every step in the process and really brings out the best version of myself throughout not only the essays and the resume but the interviews as well.

Having managed to get into a top EWMBA program, I attribute an equal portion of this stepping stone to success to Melisa. I will miss is working with Melisa. I am very blessed to have gotten the opportunity to work with Melisa and the Stratus team. Melisa was not only super helpful in helping me with admissions but her wealth of knowledge and experience having gone to a top MBA school herself helped me with providing for a mentor who ensured that I made the right choices even after admissions. I highly recommend Melisa to anyone looking for an awesome person to work with, a super friendly, genuinely caring and super informative admissions counsellor.

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First, I worked with Donna for two schools and got 1 admitted (Darden) and 1 invited to the interview (Wharton) all thanks to her help (given my low test score, you could tell how she was great to make my application shine)

When it comes to my decision making, I wasn't sure whether I really need to get some helps from a consultant (specifically when it has a high price tag per hour). But now I can 100% assure that working with Donna is absolutely worth investment.

She's super responsive all the time during the process and you will see how this is important given a tight timeline of MBA application process. Also she made herself available whenever I need her help so having no pressure on how many hours I can take with her was a big plus. Speaking of this availability, please don't simply look at the hourly price tag because she put extra efforts and hours with you. This was most critical part for me. I needed a real partner who can be with me when I needed.

Also, I got a huge help to develop my story from her. Please take a look at her experience and she was leading the admission process, which was a huge plus as I was able to gain the perspectives of adcom and decide what topic I need to put or approach on any questions. Donna was really helpful for me to connect dots among many topics and themes in my life so that I can develop my best story fit to the school I applied.

One more great thing with Donna was that I heard from multiple consultants not only her. She has great team members who can share their thoughts and review on your application. I really enjoyed this team-based approach because I felt I got much more services than I actually paid for, and was able to take multiple perspectives on my essays. In fact, the admission process and review is done by a committee not by an individual, I think this team approach would make much more sense to me.

Optional comment for international applicants. As I am an international applicant, it was important for me to work with someone who has experience with international candidates so that my characteristics and stories with cultural context can be fully discovered. Donna has ample experience with candidates from multiple countries - both on reading their applications as a committee and consultant - which allowed me to evaluate how strong my stance and applications.

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