With the help of Stratus, I applied to 3 M7 schools, one top 15 school, and was accepted to all with scholarship (one with a full-ride). My consultant, Sophie, helped me build my application from the bottom up. I had an 7-hour package with Stratus, yet I felt as if I had one of the top-tier comprehensive packages that go for thousands of dollars more. I think the reason for this is the reflective exercises and activities that helped illuminate how I was going to stand out via my essays. With Sophie, I also built a rock-solid resume that became the backbone to my applications.

During our calls, I felt heard and respected. I was seen as an individual, and not a profile. Other consultants may lead you to feel insecure or uncertain about a part of a profile, but I never felt that with Sophie and Stratus.

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Transitioning from solider to civilian and returning from the east Africa region, where I was deployed with the Army, to NYC, posed unique challenges, especially as an MBA hopeful.

My path led me to pursue an MBA at Georgetown University, my dream school, with a focus on social impact, particularly in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). Throughout this transformative journey, the support and guidance I received from Stratus Admissions Counseling, especially from Sophie Hilaire, were unparalleled.

Sophie’s approach was not only professional but also incredibly empathetic. She understood the nuances of my Army background and helped tailor my application to highlight my strengths and unique experiences. Her insights were invaluable, especially in articulating my transition and future aspirations in the social impact space.

Thanks to their dedicated assistance, I am now set to begin my MBA at Georgetown University.

I highly recommend Stratus Admissions Counseling and Sophie Hilaire to any prospective student seeking a partner who offers more than just admissions strategy but a truly personalized plan towards achieving their educational/career goals.

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I would highly recommend Stratus Admissions counseling to anyone looking to have a calm and collected helping hand through the process. They took me in last minute (2 months before deadline) and helped me create an accelerated plan to get my scores and essays and questions together and I don't think I could have gotten into my M7s without their help. I was paired with Sophie Hilaire and she was amazing! As a veteran, I felt so much at peace having another veteran help me through the process. She took so much time out of her day to go above and beyond to give me quick feedback and random video conferences here and there to keep me on track. I really couldn't have done this without her.

I don't think everyone needs an admissions consultant, but if you are unsure and you need some extra help, its a great investment into your future. I am very happy with my choice to go with Stratus and would recommend them to anyone!

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Making the decision to work with Susan at Stratus Admissions was by far the best decision I made in my MBA application journey. From our first conversation, I could tell Susan was deeply invested in my success and that she would be my biggest cheerleader - all of which proved to be true. Her expert guidance, tailored advice, and unwavering support were instrumental throughout the process. Susan's personalized approach instilled confidence in me, ensuring that my application authentically represented my story & aspirations while aligning with the values of my target schools. Susan is honest and helped me to address any potential red flags with my application head on. She was by my side for every step of the process from learning about me and my story on a deep level to essays, resume updates, interviews, and even in my decision making process & scholarship negotiation. I am immensely grateful for Susan's expertise and genuine investment in my success. With Susan's help, I was able to gain admission into multiple schools with generous scholarship packages and will be attending my dream school in the fall - a school that was a major stretch and was more of a dream before I met Susan who helped to make it a reality. If you're applying for MBA programs, Susan is without a doubt THE one to work with!

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After doing the initial 30-minute chat, I knew Melisa would be an incredible thought partner to help with my MBA journey. From the early stages of crafting school lists to the final stages, including navigating the waitlists, Melisa was so helpful! During the process, she served as a great sounding board, pushing me to improve my application and providing invaluable insight into the MBA application process and minds of admissions committees. Always responsive to my many, many questions/emails and always willing to provide feedback in a supportive but critical way. Truly, nothing but great things to say about the experience!!

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Sophie is the MBA counselor you need if you’re driven, ambitious and want to give your best shot to colleges you consider beyond your dreams

Results: Going to Stanford - Admitted to 3 M7s, waitlisted at 2 other M7s.

Background: I’m an Indian applicant from the most ‘overrepresented’ demographic there could be.

I had exploratory calls with 14 different counselors, both locally and beyond. Within the first 15 minutes, Sophie helped me identify strengths in my application that everyone else (including me) had overlooked. From the outset, I knew working with her was going to be one of my best decisions.

I’ve identified some dimensions one can evaluate MBA counselors on, and shared my experience with Sophie on each below:

1. Empathy - Producing great essays for top colleges needs you to be honest with yourself and dive deep into your personal story. This will often mean revisiting parts of your life that make you uncomfortable. It is thus important to have a counselor who you trust discussing your vulnerabilities with. In this regard, Sophie has a unique talent for instantly creating a safe space when she senses what you’re discussing means a lot to you. At the same time, she knows how to deliver constructive criticism, and you’ll get the hint when it feels like you’re trauma dumping an essay for no good reason. Because of these open conversations with her, I felt confident in sharing these stories in my applications. It was because of her that I was able to discuss many aspects of my life in essays and interviews that I’d have simply swept under the rug working on my own.

2. Approachability - Sophie exudes warmth and energy when you talk to her; she’s super easy to work with. There were several times I struggled to explain problems I faced in expressing some ideas. Even when I was unable to put my finger on what was bugging me about an essay I wrote, she seemed to understand exactly what I was struggling with and gave perfect advice on how I could approach it differently. Such intuitive insights from her were responsible for several step shifts in the quality of my essays.

3. Mindset - Sophie has a winner’s mindset. She isn’t there to just do a job, she is committed to your success. There was not a single moment in the entire process where she didn’t match or exceed my pace. The bottleneck was always how much effort I was willing to put in. Turnaround times were great and she was always available for calls when I needed. Not once did I find myself sitting idle because I was waiting to hear back from her. Further, she isn’t someone who’ll leave you with ‘passable’ work. She was willing to iterate with me until I fine-tuned each essay to perfection, until it got to a point I looked at the essay and was sincerely amazed at what I’d created.

4. Influence - Applying to top MBA colleges will always be an exercise in mental fortitude and grit. While you are the only person responsible for managing your motivation, an indifferent counselor can certainly make things difficult. Someone who doesn’t believe in you will make you fight uphill in a battle where odds are already stacked against you. Sophie, on the other hand, is a natural leader who engages with you on a personal level. I needed to write 17 distinct essays in 2 months working full time, applying only to ‘stretch’ colleges. Naturally, there was a moment or two filled with self doubt, but it usually took just one casual conversation with Sophie before my motivation meter was back to full. When taking on a challenge as monumental as this, she’s the kind of partner you need in your foxhole.

6. The myth, the legend - I could go on for hours about how great she is at MBA counseling. But that’s not even a tenth of how awesome Sophie is. Her visible stats are already impressive (Army, Wharton, McK). But the more you learn about her, the more reasons you’ll keep finding to fanboy over. Through the bulk of your applications, you’ll probably be interacting with your counselor more than your colleagues, maybe even your family. Why not work with someone who’s not only a great counselor but an endlessly inspiring, interesting person as well?

7. Process and logistics:
Sophie’s process is extremely well curated and, in my opinion, nearly perfect. It’s efficient, and minimizes yield loss to make sure you’re always working on something that’s setting you up for success on the next thing. I’ve detailed the steps below:

Introspection - The introspection phase made me dive deep into my life story, with two crucial outputs:
- Defining my personal brand: by understanding myself better, I was able to define who I am in a way that was easy for others to understand - with enough examples to back it up.
- Identifying skill gaps: I already had a good idea of why I was doing an MBA. But through the introspection phase with Sophie, I was able to dive several layers deeper. By the end, I had nuanced answers for each skill gap in neatly defined bullets highlighting why it was a gap, why I needed to fill it and how the MBA would help me.

School research -
Same as before, I already had a good idea of why I was picking the schools I was applying to. But Sophie helped me dive many levels deeper. For every school, I was able to 1 - find exact resources to fill my gaps across several dimensions (curriculum, culture, resources, etc.) and 2 - speak at length about how I would make the school a better place given the skills I had. And because of the work we did earlier, this was a lean process with zero waste. Whether it be a conversation with an alumni or scouring the website, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to understand.

Essay feedback -
Each essay went through multiple iterations of feedback and modification until both of us felt it was the best it could be. The process was fairly efficient with minimal yield loss. For each essay, I drafted an outline and discussed it with Sophie. Based on her feedback, I’d go back to the drawing board and redraft / modify my essay. We would iterate on this step by step, gradually condensing down to word limit.

Interview prep -
After the introspection, school research, and essays, I felt positively thrilled going into the interviews. Most of my groundwork was already done. The only remaining bit was to structure my behavioral stories, which was fairly straightforward. Sophie helped me do mocks for the interviews and gave actionable feedback to improve each time. By my second interview I felt ready as a tank - I was prepared for everything that could be prepared for, leaving my mind free to genuinely enjoy the conversation with my interviewers and be ready for any curveballs. A lot of how your interview goes ultimately depends on how confident you’re feeling with yourself. As a result of all the work we’d done in the preceding months, I was as confident in my interviews as I should have been.

Summary:
Sophie was the difference between my success and failure in this process. Thanks to her, I was able to create applications that I know were the best I could do - which is what really matters. If you work with her, I am confident this is the feeling you’ll walk away with as well.

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Even if you die Stratus Consulting will still not give you refund.

I had an incredibly disappointing experience with Stratus Consulting. Despite their promising advertisements and commitments, their service was far below what was expected. I encountered numerous issues during my consultation, which not only wasted my time but also cost me financially.

The most frustrating part of my experience was their rigid refund policy. They refused to offer any form of refund. This inflexibility shows a lack of consideration for customer satisfaction and service quality. I tried multiple times to resolve the issue amicably, explaining my situation and seeking a fair resolution, but the company was unresponsive and dismissive. Their customer service is severely lacking; they do not value client relationships or the basic principles of customer service.

It’s appalling that a company operates with such disregard for client feedback and post-service support.

I strongly advise potential customers to look elsewhere.

There are many other firms that not only provide superior service but also respect their clients enough to offer protections like refunds when services do not meet reasonable standards. Save your money and your time!

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At the start of the process, I reached out to 3 different consultants at different companies. Lisa and Stratus stood out as clear winners; I felt confident in the Stratus offering / backing, which included help developing my story, essay iteration with a second reader, and interview prep. More importantly, I found Lisa to be genuine and easy to work with.

The time spent working with Lisa on shaping my story before starting essays was invaluable. I would not have had as strong of an application without her guidance at this stage in particular. When it came to essays, she always returned drafts quickly and with thoughtful suggestions. Just as important was interview prep. I valued Lisa's candor and experience as a prior interviewer. I also appreciated Stratus' Wharton TBD simulation, and know that it helped me nail the actual Wharton TBD.

With Lisa's help, I gained admission to 7 top MBA programs, with scholarships / fellowships at 3. I will be attending Wharton with a partial scholarship as part of the class of 2026

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I could not have been as successful as I was in my application process without Lisa's help! From the very beginning of my journey, Lisa provided me with helpful and much needed guidance.

What most impressed me was that she took the time to get to know me as a person and fully understand my future goals before ever putting pen to paper on any of my essays. This helped me polish my overall story, and built trust that enabled Lisa to provide very direct feedback whenever my work was not hitting the mark.

With Lisa's help throughout the busy application season, I ultimately gained admission to 7 MBA programs, many of them with scholarship offers! I am certain I would not have been as successful without her advice along the way.

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Choosing Stratus, and specifically Susan Cera, has proven to be a life-changing decision. Initially torn between two options, resounding recommendations from Susan's previous clients gave me the confidence to move forward with her - a decision that exceeded all expectations.

We started off by delving into the intricacies of my past experiences, meticulously exploring every detail relevant to my business school application. What initially felt like a chaotic stream of stories and reflections was expertly curated by Susan, weaving together pertinent details to create a narrative that not only showcased my breadth as an applicant but also articulated a coherent story of my journey and distinctive qualities that set me apart from the crowd.

Her guidance was instrumental in forming a cohesive strategy, pinpointing areas of development to address through an MBA and identifying key themes that authentically portrayed my character and career trajectory. Throughout numerous iterations and feedback sessions, Susan remained steadfast in her commitment to refining and polishing each aspect, steering me back on course even when I veered off track.

We also completely remade my resume, with each word meticulously selected under her guidance, drawing from her extensive experience as an admissions committee member at Duke Fuqua. Further, once I got to the interview stage at my first choice school, Wharton, Susan arranged for a mock interview with a colleague—a Wharton graduate—who provided invaluable insights and tailored guidance specific to Wharton's interview process. Each step of this journey, from brainstorming sessions to interview preparations, was marked by Susan's dedication to excellence, ensuring that the final product was nothing short of exceptional, which in turn led to my being accepted to Wharton. I cannot overstate the impact of her guidance, and I am immensely grateful for her role in helping me achieve my aspirations.

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