mbaMission Admissions Consulting Reviews

Unsure and overwhelmed over the application process, as well as not feeling confident in my story or candidacy strength - Melissa provided the ideal balance of support, advice, and push that I needed to be successful. I was admitted to all 3 of my R1 schools in what was a competitive application year.
She assessed my candidacy and encouraged me to try out the GRE (after getting a semi-below-average GMAT score), which I am convinced was the push I needed that put me over the edge at my target schools (getting just above an average GRE score).

She is a natural storyteller, taking the time to understand aspects of my background outside of just work and academics to help craft my story as a compelling candidate. With her experience as an MBA Admissions officer, she helped to identify strengths and personal anecdotes that I would not have recognized to be useful in my application. Her editing tips were invaluable, helping to cut essays down to meet nearly-impossible word limits, without changing my writing. She provides advice on tricky topics too - like the appropriate amount of detail to provide re. a job gap, etc. She always turned around edits very quickly! Which helped me to plan ahead and stick to a schedule. And lastly, she was very helpful for interview prep as well!

Overall she is great to work with - personable, friendly, casual - as well as quick and efficient in her delivery of advice in our working sessions. She also genuinely cares about her clients. She was able to handle my wavering emotions with a comforting strength and grace - providing encouragement and advice on how to handle bumps in the road. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with Melissa and highly recommend her as a consultant. WELL worth the investment!

Read More

Working with mbaMission and Melissa was a great experience. It allowed me to succeed and move my application process along during COVID to achieve success which was getting into a top 15 program. Melissa's greatest strength was providing thoughtful and expert guidance and nuance to my MBA story, my resume, and my essays. It was not hand holding but it was pushing me to challenge myself, giving me confidence in my applications, and making my applications all the better.

Melissa is a true professional who is fun to work with. She is timely and friendly in all her communications both via email and the phone. I would completely recommend her and mbaMission for those seeking to add a level of polish to their applications.

Read More

Melissa was a great coach throughout the entire MBA application process! I did introductory calls with 4 different admissions consulting companies, but thought Melissa was far and away the best consultant I talked to. I'm so glad I chose to work with her. She is very friendly and has a really positive attitude, but will still help identify areas of weakness in the application and help you craft a great story that emphasizes your strengths in order to receive admission into your dream school. Her feedback was provided in a timely manner and she was always available to answer a quick email question as well.

I was an hourly client and in 5 hours she helped with a brainstorming session, a resume review, at least one or two revisions on the different essays and short answers for Haas and Anderson, and a mock interview where we covered both schools. While I had competitive statistics (GPA and GMAT), I had little to no extra-curriculars since starting my professional career 4 years ago and come from an over-represented applicant pool so Melissa's help with the applications was instrumental in my success. I was even able to leverage what Melissa and I had discussed to apply to Marshall on my own, although I do think the applications I submitted with her direct help were stronger. When it was all said and done, I was accepted to Anderson and Marshall and waitlisted at Hass, receiving roughly two-thirds and one-half merit-based scholarships with my acceptances. This outcome greatly surpassed my expectations and I could not have done it without Melissa.

I highly recommend working with Melissa if you are at all uncertain in the MBA application process, as I know my applications were many times better than they would have been had I gone at it alone.

Read More

At first, I was hesitant to use an admissions consulting service, but after my first chat with Harold, I knew it was going to be worth it. Harold was genuinely invested in me, and wanted to give me the tools to succeed. He gave incredibly helpful insights into what admissions committees might be looking for - for instance, he provided me with lists of clubs and offerings that set certain programs apart so that I could incorporate them into my essays. Harold's guidance on my essays made me feel all the more comfortable before I pressed "Submit" on my applications.

I would highly recommend Harold to anyone who is looking to bring their application from "good" to "great". I was admitted to HBS, Stanford GSB, Booth, and Kellogg, and I know that I could not have gotten to this point without Harold's expertise.

Read More

I was overwhelmed coming into the business school admission process and I didn't think I'd have a chance based on my nontraditional professional background -- even after studying for the GMAT for over a year. Melissa eased my anxiety and was positive throughout the entire process. Her coaching, editing, and advice helped me go 6/6 in a very competitive R1 with T25 schools. Melissa takes the time to really get to know you and your story and then helps craft everything in a way that's easily understood by admissions committees. I think this skill, along with her experience as a Director of Admissions at a T25 school, is what sets her apart from the other many adcom out there. She's amazing!

Read More

I worked with Melissa for Round 1 of the 2021 intake cycle. Coming from an over-represented pool, with a median GMAT and big four Technology Consulting background, I knew I needed to stand out. But more so, I needed to remain confident in the strengths of my application.

Melissa was the pillar I relied on to stay positive and confident. Most importantly, she was "chill" and kept conversations easy and informal. This personality trait/demeanor was different from experiences some of my friends had with their consultants who were more focused on their personal admit results and coaxed my friends to shoot lower. On the other hand, Melissa encouraged me to take my shots at the reach schools while balancing with couple of safeties. Lastly, she was open to re-working and re-editing essays that we had long seen as final, until I was perfectly happy with the submitted product - as v12 and v9 of my two Kellogg essays can attest.

She often had to play the role of a coach and a cheerleader and helped quell the feelings of self-doubt that inevitably arise reading opinions on online forums.

It goes without saying that she was always punctual sending back edits and operated well within mbaMission's the 48 business hours turnaround policy (usually much sooner).

At the end of the day, it's the results that matter and I was admitted to all 3 schools I worked on with Melissa - Ross, Kellogg and Sloan (dream school) - with a sizable scholarship at Ross and a modest scholarship at Kellogg. Moreover, I used similar stories/language on other applications as well and was admitted to 2 out of 3 of those as well.

Read More

I worked with Helen for ~3.5 months on three different b-school applications. Over this time period I also became a first-time dad, and broke my hand and had a large surgery on it. While these types of life occurrences happen to everyone and often derail plans and processes, Helen kept me on top of my applications and deadlines and enabled me to submit all three applications for R1. Helen was incredibly straightforward to work with, and did not beat around the bush when she thought my essays / short answer questions needed work and were not up to par. Helen was excellent at providing insightful advice on how to make my application better, and was super helpful for the interview processes as well. I ended up getting into 2/3 schools, including my #1 school!

Read More

My relationship with Jessica and mbaMission goes back. I first had the intention of applying to a top school MBA over 7 years ago and then life got in the way. We reconnected as I started to explore Stanford’s MSX (M.S. in Management for mid-career professionals). I was admitted to the program thanks to Jessica.

In both processes Jessica was outstanding, she understood and helped me understand that it made sense for me not to pursue the MBA program back then and helped me double down on my decision to apply for Stanford’s MSX this time around. Applying to a top program can be overly stressful but with the support of Jessica it didn’t seem all that hard. Mainly because she breaks it down is multiple milestones. Her process of doing exhaustive guided brainstorm, combined with 1:1 sessions to reflect before drafting anything is a key differentiator that sets her and mbaMission apart. Jessica is also a top storyteller and will help you tell the story in a way that is engaging and authentic. Also expect no delays in her turnaround, at times it’s hard to keep up, but that’s what you want when applying to a top program: a pace keeper that guarantees that the process keeps on moving.

I would strongly recommend the end-to-end school packages, it certainly worked for me.

The level of deep connection that one develops in this process with her is unique, Jessica has become a mentor, a friend and someone I will continue to go back to as life goes on.

Read More

When i started looking for an MBA admissions consultant, i did the free 30 minute sessions with a few different companies. Most of them were good, but i felt like they were just saying what i wanted to hear. They were very much like cheerleaders. When i got to the free 30 minute session with Jessica (after one of my best friends from college recommend her to me), it was a completely different experience. The 30 minutes were super productive and she was very objective with my candidacy - she highlighted what I had going for me, but most importantly, she identified my areas of weakness and proposed how she would work with me to address them. It was definitely a tough session, but that's when i realized that's exactly what i needed for the process - Someone that would be critical of my application as that would allow me to put my best foot forward. After signing up with her for the 4-school package, i was very satisfied with the service i received. She was very responsive (48 hour turnaround system) and always answered my questions thoroughly (I had lots of questions throughout the process so i really appreciated this). When i submitted my applications, i felt satisfied that regardless of the outcome i had put my best foot forward. If you want a real coach (vs. just a cheerleader), i highly recommend Jessica. Worth every dollar.

Read More

I hate writing reviews but this felt like such a scam that I feel like I have to help future MBA applicants feel informed by what they are signing up for. I want to be fair by giving the good and the bad, but ultimately you're going to be paying $5,000 not for "consulting" or "expertise" but for some broad-brush edits that would be indistinguishable from (or inferior to) the help you would get from a colleague or friend.

I worked with Debbie Choy on the introduction and brainstorming session. Style-wise, it felt like I was on the clock all the time and she is quite good at ending discussions. The content of the brainstorming session was perplexing as we focused a lot on high school things that weren't really relevant to the MBA application or the essays. Lastly, I was hoping to get a lot of candid feedback from an admissions perspective but it felt like pulling teeth to get answers to basic questions like what schools would be competitive. On the plus side, some of the materials she shared were relevant and helpful.

I ended up working with John Sisk for the essay portion. The positives were that the revisions were very timely and the first round of feedback was fantastic to get in the right direction. After that, however, each subsequent revision felt pretty low-effort, with unanswered questions, grammar mistakes, and generic template-like feedback. At the end the essay had all the soul written out of it and felt more like a "list" than any individual behind the story. Schools stress the important of being authentic but the result read more like a husk of a product.

At the end I'm not really sure what I paid for. My guess is that these guys are too busy or too successful and don't really put the time into your individual application. The timeliness and initial direction were nice (maybe consider their hourly) but I wouldn't recommend against anything beyond that.

Best of luck in your applications!

Read More