Hourly Services Reviews

Working with Harold was nothing short of humbling. His institutional knowledge guided me through the NYU Stern MBA application with a successful result.
He had a plan of action from the start and met with me to ensure we were aligned on execution. We worked through multiple iterations of my resume and essay where Harold provided guidance on how to improve my application. The best part of working with Harold is that he understood what the result should look like but would not give away the answers. He spent time coaching me to ensure I learned as the process progressed. Harold was prompt with his responses to my emails and always made sure I was clear on the task at hand.
Harold would be my top choice if you are planning to apply to any top tier MBA programs.

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Nisha was an amazing partner in my application process. She truly took my applications to the next level! Because of her I was accepted into every business school I applied to (and with scholarships!) Nisha is personable and really helps applicants develop their own personal brand. She ensured that my voice came through in a concise manner, but that my story was engaging enough to keep admissions reading. I credit her with my cross-the-board success. If you are struggling to craft your unique voice or just want a thorough reviewer, Nisha is the consultant for you! Thank you Nisha, for your unwavering support and advocacy for candidates!

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Used Gavriella Semaya hourly services for R2 applications to 6 schools. Overall, was admitted to my top two target choices plus my two "back ups". Rejected from one reach and waitlisted at a back-up. I opted for hourly services as I thought I knew my story and more wanted a third party's review of my essays (yet knows the application process). I also chose 1-2 people (suggest a parent or a close friend) to review my essays who knew me well and what I intended to say. Gavriella helped review essays for about 6 schools - often asking questions back to me to ensure I was communicating with intent, and not just rewriting my words, which I appreciated. After submitting the applications, she gave advice on how to handle letting schools know about a promotion. Later on when I was accepted, Gavriella also helped talk through my two choices. Generally would suggest using one of them (it worked out for me).

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Gavriella Semaya has helped me with my admission application for Fuqua school of business and the result is that I have been admitted at this school. I remember one time I needed urgent help on a piece of work from her. While it was during a 2-day national holiday, she agreed to work and submitted the work in slightly less than an hour with high quality. Gavriella was amazingly helpful in rephrasing my story so it becomes genuine and compelling, removing unnecessary words and sentences to answer the question directly, and redirecting me in the areas of focus during the mock interview. She was proactively engaging with me on every step and super-responsive.

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I decided to work with mbaMission after the free consultation and chose Gavi as my consultant because her background in digital business exactly matched my profile. As a late-round applicant for top Asian programs, I decided on the hourly package as I only had less than a month to submit my applications. As a result, I worked with Gavi for my top 3 schools and was admitted by all of them!!

It was difficult for me to keep track of everything when working parallelly on different applications under extremely tight deadlines. I needed help to create a structured timeline and come up with the best application strategy. In that regard, Gavi provided me with the exact guidance I was looking for! She prepared a customized application plan with a timesheet for me, which was very well-thought-out. She also told me what to highlight on my CV and which aspects are the best to integrate into my essays. I especially appreciate her essay outlines (extremely helpful!) and writing style. The interview prep tips were really useful and covered over 80% of my interview questions.

As a consultant, Gavi is very responsive, kind and patient. She always delivered on the promised deadline (sometimes even earlier) and replied quickly to my emails. Whenever I had an urgent case to discuss with her, she did her best to accommodate her schedule despite the time difference. I am really grateful to have worked with Gavi, her coaching and expertise are certainly the key success factors of my application. Thank you, Gavi! :)

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I would not be going to business school this fall if it were not for Gavriella Semaya. To say she was instrumental does not come close to capturing how impactful she was in my process. Gavriella is a talented listener, remarkable editor, and incredibly thoughtful advisor. I was extremely impressed with how quickly Gavriella understood my story and helped me craft a strong and succinct narrative. She did not let me off easy; Gavriella pushed me to think about my goals and articulate how I got to where I am – she guided me down a path of meaningful self-discovery that will serve me well for years to come. In addition to her ability to help me articulate my story and goals, Gavriella has a gift with editing which significantly increased the quality of my applications. Lastly, Gavriella went above and beyond to check in after each interview, she helped me manage the waitlist process and was a valuable sounding board when I made my final decision. I am so grateful to have worked with Gavriella, I cannot recommend her enough. While I am thrilled to be going to school, I am sad that my time with her as an advisor is over!

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I needed guidance to narrow down my options and identify the best programs for my profile, before I could consider whether or not to purchase admissions consulting services to apply to those programs. Essentially, to understand if the programs I was aiming for were a stretch for my profile (important to invest in support), or if I could reasonably aim for admission with a strong, solid application (i.e. I was a desirable candidate). Jessica was simply excellent. She was direct, informative, astute and patient with my evaluation process. We had 3-4 email exchanges where we bounced around ideas and weighed pro and cons of various programs. I genuinely expected to engage the services of mbaMission by the 2nd email exchange, as I was so impressed with Jessica, versus the 2 other brief phone consults I'd had with other services. But in the end, after I dove back into my program selection with a bit more guiding light, I decided to forge into the application process solo - without paid consult - and was admitted to UCLA FEMBA and HAAS EWMBA. Haas later offered me a place in EMBA, with a scholarship to support switch, and I took the opportunity.

I wrote Jessica to thank her after, because our exchange stayed with me. She was excellent. If I'd had any hesitation about the strength of my application or competitive candidacy, I would absolutely have engaged her services to boost my chances of admission.

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If you are looking to engage an advisor for your applications, Gavriella is the perfect choice. Gavriella helped shape my applications and worked with me to define the strategy, choices and essays that went along with them. Gavriella guided my applications from start to end by brainstorming the topics and inputs to final edits. She is endlessly patient and answered my many many questions with thoughtful, personalized and useful answers and provided the right advice all along the way. Without Gavriella's writing skills and editing, my essays would not have been nearly the same (nor as concise and within the word limit) and without her coaching and guidance I would not be starting my full-time MBA in the fall. Gavriella is a great choice for hourly and school packages.

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I worked with Kate based on a recommendation from a friend who was admitted to Wharton with Kate's help.
I knew I wanted to apply to a mix of US and international MBA programs and was surprised to learn that Kate had more experience with business schools abroad than I initially expected.
I signed up for the hourly rate and found Kate to be efficient with her time. She provided very helpful feedback throughout the process and was well versed on the differentiators that each school looked for. This helped me tailor my essays in the most impactful way.
She knew my essays almost better than I did myself recalling parts of essays that I can leverage for others. This was particularly impressive because in some cases, she did not review them thoroughly (based on my requests). I would not have been able to submit the quality of applications that I did without Kate's help and am beyond thrilled to be attending my dream school, INSEAD!

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Cat Ho is a phenomenal thought partner, dedicated collaborator, and gifted editor. I highly recommend working with her when it comes to tackling the business school application. As the first person in my family to pursue an MBA, I knew that it would benefit me to work with someone that could provide tailored guidance around my narrative. Cat did that and more. She pushed me to articulate what I was hoping to achieve with an MBA. This helped my narrative cohere in a compelling way while staying true to my authentic voice, and it allowed me to clearly highlight what my future goals were to the admissions committee and to myself. Through the hourly service and thanks to her explicit and clear feedback style, I saw a noticeably positive impact to my application. I will be attending Berkeley Haas in the fall, and I couldn’t have done it without her support.

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