School Package Reviews

I will say this without equivocation and for the world to hear: Melissa Blakeslee at MBAmission is the reason I got into a top 5 B-School. How can I say that with such certitude? Because it sure as stuff wasn't my 690 GMAT. And my inconsistent, all-over-the-map work experience didn't exactly help either.

Melissa knew how to bring out my story and how to frame, share and ultimately sell that story to an admissions counselor. Over the course of several months, Melissa skillfully guided me through the process. Melissa was patient and eager to bring out my best work. We brainstormed about my experience, my background and my upbringing working together to genuinely figure out what my contribution to an MBA program would be (that’s ultimately what you’re selling – what do you bring to their table.) Don’t get it wrong. I did the work. You will write, you will rewrite, you will roll your eyes and rewrite again… and by the end, the final product is undeniable.

And she was always available. When things got dicey, she quickly hopped on the phone and talked me off the ledge. Here's what happened - I was sloppy on my resume and botched a date pretty badly. Well, after I got accepted I started reading about background checks and realized the school would probably catch the mistake and potentially revoke my acceptance. Was I overreacting? Maybe. Doesn’t matter. Melissa totally talked me through it meeting my concerns with her admissions knowledge and experience.

Looking back, Melissa made it look so easy. During the course of our engagement, she effortlessly glided from consultant to advisor to mentor to counselor to friend depending on what I needed. Thanks, MB. Lucky to have you in my corner.

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Melissa Merchant at mbaMission made the MBA application process so doable. The schedules and resources that she provided me not only kept me on track, but also took away a lot of the stresses of the many moving parts that are needed for a strong MBA application. From the calls about essay prep, the essay outlines, the edits and feedback to the interview prep and general MBA questions that I had – she had a level of understanding of the process that I would have never been able to get if not for this service. mbaMission took me from an overwhelmed, nervous candidate to a highly organized, strong MBA applicant. Melissa was very objective in her feedback and kept me positive throughout the process. I feel so much more confident in myself because of it.

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After reading so many good reviews & testimonies about Angela as an admission consultant, I wanted Angela to be my consultant. With her advice and company along my MBA journey, I want to say Angela really lives up to her great reputation.

1. Angela helped me strengthen the overall quality of my application.

For those of you who comes from a non-traditional background like me and who don't have someone (or anyone, in my case) going through this MBA process, it's essential to hire a consultant to help you. That's the lesson I learned as a re-applicant.

I'm very lucky to be Angela's client. She put into thoughts every aspect of my application and made sure my entire application came together. She pushed me and my recommenders to produce writings and ideas of the best quality. It's also important to have a well-rounded application that consists so many aspect.

2. Angela has great ideas and un-paralleled story-telling skills.

If you come from a quantitative background as I do, having Angela as your writing and story-telling coach will be really helpful. She can make dull stories shine. More importantly, she will perceive a life experience from an unique angle, which will connect your characteristics to those of a future MBA. She will also help clients show emotions.

In one of our conversations, she pointed out the nature of my work and I had an 'ah-ha' moment. This truly helped me interpret my value more clearly.

3. She is very honest and strict.

As mentioned by many other reviewers, Angela is honest about which schools are reach, stretch and safe for you. She's honest from the beginning to the end.

After writing so many essays, I started to cut myself a little slack and she called me out on it. So trust her.

4. She cares about her clients and she's very reasonably generous

When I was interviewing in Chicago, I had the pleasure to meet her in person. She was very kind to meet me over the weekend and helped me practice in person! That was much more than I expected!

And when she knew I was also applying to other schools, she gave me a few pointers about those schools.

In addition, she's so experience that her insights about business schools in general helped me land a huge fellowship from a top 15 school, which I'm going.

Hope my review and testimony for Angela will help you in your MBA journey.

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Going in to the admissions process, I was a nervous wreck--unconfident about both my undergrad GPA and my work experience. Just a 30 minute informational call with Krista was enough for me to see how she could dispel my insecurities, highlight my strengths, and re-package my perceived negatives into positives.

Krista was highly professional and efficient during our meetings. Especially during mock interviews, if I ever lost focus, she was quick to bring me back on track. Krista's advice during mock interviews was especially invaluable, and she pointed out flaws that I've been prone to for almost 5-6 years. Not only was her feedback useful for admissions interviews, they will be helpful for future job interviews, as well.

Because Krista helped out in the admissions office at Booth, she brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience. Whenever I hit a roadblock, she can think of another incident or student and draw insights from that. Krista's turnaround for essay review was fast, and she addressed weaknesses that I wouldn't otherwise have noticed, because I haven't seen the sheer volume of essays she has.

Aside from her solid feedback, Krista was also a shrink to me. She was always patient in offering me emotional support and reassurance during a highly stressful time, when I was trying to balance applications and a full-time job.

You could say Krista was more than a consultant to me--she was a friend and mentor. She always tried to be available, and I looked forward to all my calls with her, where I could raise burning questions and count on her for emotional support. When I was accepted to my top choice school, her genuine excitement was palpable. I would recommend Krista to anyone in the market for an excellent admissions consultant.

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Getting into my top-choice program was like a dream come true for me, and I know that I wouldn’t have achieved it without Krista’s help and guidance. I worked with Krista on a two-school start-to-finish package.
She is an absolutely incredible consultant who helped me create my MBA applications in a relatively short time and get accepted at a top business school. Taking into account my non-traditional background and work experience, and despite my solid test scores and academic profile, I didn’t consider my chances high in the very competitive pool of applicants. I became much more confident after my first conversation with Krista. During the brainstorming sessions, she highlighted the aspects of my candidacy that helped my story stand out. Interestingly, one of my hobbies, which I hadn’t considered to include in my application, formed the basis of my optional essay. Throughout the whole admission process (brainstorming, essays, interview prep, etc) I received invaluable help from Krista. I always relied on her honest feedback and recommendations. Krista has all the qualities I was looking for in a consultant. She is very professional, punctual, helpful, creative, encouraging, and the list goes on… In addition to her high professionalism and competence, she has an amazing personality, and it was a pleasure to work with her.
If I had to go through the admissions process again, I would definitely do it with Krista. A thousand words can’t explain how grateful I am to Krista, and I would recommend her to anyone.
Thank you for playing a vital role in making my biggest dream come true.

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I’m convinced that I wouldn’t be matriculating at my dream M7 school this year without Angela’s support. I was on the fence about hiring a consultant, but after reading what so many happy people had to say, I really wanted to work with her. I’m part of very large and highly competitive demographic of applicants, and have an average GMAT score and weak GPA from a less known university. Although I’ve performed well in my professional life, due to some personal challenges I had a weak foundation and didn’t start achieving stronger results until my senior year in college. Angela was instrumental in helping me tell my story in a cohesive, compelling and impactful way. Some highlights are that she:

- Gives truly tailored advice: Angela helped me identify unique aspects about my profile and use them to effectively differentiate myself, considering my demographic, professional, and academic backgrounds to ensure that I had the best chance of standing out. I was blown away by her ability to digest information. I bombarded her with a MASSIVE brain dump in our brainstorming document, and she swiftly cut through and captured the essence of my story. Her evaluation and suggestions were spot on with the themes I wanted to emphasize to the adcom.

- Inspires you to aspire: When I started the application process, I wasn’t sure how my profile stacked up so I was aiming for schools in the top 20-30. Angela encouraged me to aim higher and gave me the confidence to apply for top 10 schools, and I got accepted to two (one from the M7)! This is the single most valuable thing she did for me, since I might not have applied to these schools otherwise. For applicants suffering from “imposter syndrome” or a lack of confidence, Angela can change your trajectory. I felt like she took it as a personal challenge to shoot for “stretch” schools, rather than convincing me to apply to a bunch of safety schools to pad her stats. Having said that, she was also very realistic about my chances, which leads me to my next point.

- Keeps it real: I really valued Angela’s brutal honestly and bluntness. She doesn’t beat around the bush and when time is of the essence, this is really crucial. I valued how open she was about the strengths and weaknesses in my profile, because it kept me focused. Make no mistake, she will help brainstorm ways to mitigate weaknesses in your application, but places much more emphasis on telling your story and highlighting strengths.

- Educates and develops: Angela will let you struggle to find your own “voice” to ensure that your personality comes through – she isn’t afraid to subject you to short-term pain for long-term gain. Instead of just telling me what to write, she would share her knowledge and experience with me so that I could become a more effective and informed writer myself. As a result, each application I worked on became easier with fewer revisions and edits.

- Maximizes efficiency: She helped brainstorm different ways to express key points to make the most of the word limits, while making sure I provided a balanced representation of myself. It’s easy to get tunnel vision while writing essays, and Angela saved me precious time and energy by providing feedback on what NOT to write about and what to cut in order to save space. She helps make every word count.

- Sticks with you: In addition to providing stellar feedback on all aspects of my application, Angela provided a level of emotional and moral support that got me through the toughest parts of the application process (i.e. waiting for interview invitations and decisions). Things came down to the wire for me. I was admitted by two schools with late R1 decision deadlines. When I hadn’t heard anything but bad news from other schools in the preceding weeks, I felt doomed. Angela kept the faith and cheered me on, sharing in the bad times. I never got the sense that she was ignoring me to devote more time to other clients with more promising outlooks. In the end the wait paid off.

Overall, I couldn’t be more thrilled. Angela went beyond what I expected from a consultant and helped me realize a dream that I once thought was impossible to achieve. Thank you so much, Angela. You’re amazing!

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I purchased the Start to Finish package with Debbie Choy at mbaMission. Debbie was very helpful in providing insight to make me stand out among other candidates. She did an excellent job delivering an unbiased opinion on which of my experiences were impressive, unique, and most appropriate for my selected school’s essay questions. While I didn’t get admitted to the school of my choice, I did receive an interview at one of my top four choices (still awaiting a response) and I don’t think this would have been possible without Debbie’s help. I do wish that Debbie encouraged me to reach out to students, professors, and admissions members more to truly understand the campus. I didn’t do this as much in my first round applications as I did in my second round applications because I underestimated the importance of this step. Consequently, I felt a notable difference in how well I understood campus life—as evidenced by my second round invitation to interview. I would absolutely recommend Debbie to a close friend, but with the caveat that the friend is driven enough to introspectively reflect and identify their short and long term career goals and ambitious enough to reach out to those on campus to truly understand the atmosphere.

There are a lot of negative reviews out there about graduate school consultants. This is understandable given how subjective the admissions processes are at top B schools, yet this is no excuse to blame the consultant for not providing you with the skill set necessary for admission. Your application is your responsibility and your consultant is there to help you answer questions that develop along the way; peer deeper into your life to help you highlight your unique attributes; offer admissions tips you may not have thought of; and in my case, enforce deadlines. Your consultant is not there to miraculously increase your GMAT score, turn your past into an exaggerated list of accomplishments, or write your essays for you. You must be honest about your previous achievements and future goals. Unless you communicate this information clearly and comprehensively, they cannot help you sculpt your ideal application.

The required brainstorming document provided by mbaMission is critical because it helps you deeply reflect on who you are and what matters to you most. It’s true; you can purchase this document from mbaMission for less than the thousands you will spend on a consultant. Yet the unbiased advice and subject matter expertise a consultant provides in helping you determine your essay content and structure; revising your resume, proofing your recommendations, and identifying the weak points of your personal or professional experiences is invaluable when you think of the benefits a strong MBA program will offer you. Additionally, having the piece of mind to send an essay that you poured your blood, sweat, and tears over, to a trained writer for multiple rounds of edits makes you confident that you’re submitting your best essay possible. I recommend mbaMission as a great resource to complete your applications—and I highly recommend Debbie Choy if you choose to work with a consultant. Her opinions are honest and holistic—and she’s a great teammate!

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The business school application process, which is rightfully assumed to be a very stressful experience, was made not only seamless but extremely enjoyable by working with Katharine. I absolutely LOVED working with her, for a myriad of reasons…

Most importantly, Katharine helped me to dive deep and discover aspects of my personality and details of my work history that took my application essays and interview responses to the next level. Before writing essays, I would chat with Katharine to discuss the essay prompt. She would help me to decipher what exactly the schools were asking for, and when I was stumped in being able to answer the prompt, she would ask me varying questions in different forms until we could come up with a story that worked. Katharine was always amazing at helping me to brain storm and was extremely thought provoking – she would never give me an answer to write about, but would help me to gain the necessary insight to move forward. Without Katharine, there is no way I could have written the essays I did. And the result – an acceptance to both Booth and Kellogg, my top two schools!

On a more personal note, Katharine is simply a lovely, enjoyable and positive person. I often joked with her that she was acting as a psychiatrist in addition to a consultant for me, given her ability to help me gain insight and to coax me through the entire process, stress free.

Katharine was beyond generous with her time. I was an extremely demanding client – constantly emailing, calling, and asking questions – and never once did she disappoint. Katharine was always prompt and responsive – I truly felt like I was her only client.

I have already recommended Katharine to five of my closest friends – so you can trust me when I say working with Katharine was a true joy, and that she made the greatest difference in my application results. I hope you are lucky enough to work with her in the future!

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Katharine was a boon to my application process, she really helped to make me a much stronger candidate with a crisp story that was attractive to my target schools. Katharine really provided value in three ways:

1) School Choice: Katharine really knows the top schools, how they are different, what they are looking for, and after spending a lot of time getting to know you, where you would best fit. She helped steer me within my top choice schools to the applications where I should spend the most amount of time based on my fit with the school. She even introduced me to programs that weren't on my radar, but should have been. She helped to take school selection beyond the ranking and dug much deeper to help me narrow my school selection and know which aspects of my profile they would most interest them.

2) Flexibility: Katharine always holds up her end of the deal, she will work around the clock (if she has to) to meet deadlines and never got a draft back to me later than promised. She also made sure that I was comfortable hitting send, even if we needed an extra phone call or skype chat rather than email in the process. Working with her was very easy and I was always comfortable when I submit my apps.

3) Story: Katharine knows storytelling and knows how to help a candidate capture their story in a way that is sincere, most compelling to target schools, and highlights the right things. She helped to identify experiences and stories to capture for AdComs that I would have otherwise glossed over or left out entirely. Her deep knowledge of the top schools helped here as well. In the process of setting an application strategy, iterating essays, and interview preparation she constantly pushed me to capture my story in the best way possible, taking me to task whenever I would drift or miss the mark. All without letting me lost my own voice and personality in my writing.

Katharine is a great consultant, if you are looking for someone to do tell you everything you should do or do the work for you she isn't for you. Working with her, you will truly get out what you put in. She is willing to do as many iterations as necessary, but it is always you doing the work.

Overall my experience was fantastic, I felt a good fit from our first discussion when she clearly outlined what I was missing and what I was trying to say in our first conversation, something that no other service/consultant was able to do in that first meeting.

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I booked a three school package with mbaMission and got a headstart on getting ready for the application drops by having started half a year before deadlines.

We began with a free half hour counseling and after running Daniel through my resume and telling him what I was planning to do with my MBA, he directly told me which of the schools I planned applying to were reasonable and which were most likely not going to work due to a missing fit.
I signed up with mbaMission almost right after that as he was straight forward and didn't hard sell that anything were possible. I also appreciated that he didn't attempt to sell me any safety schools for his company's admit statistics.

Booked a three school package with mbaMission. Daniel did a great job pushing me and asking the right questions for me to dig deeper and come up with my best stories that I was able to use for the essays and interviews.

2/3 schools we applied to invited me to interview but put me on the waitlist afterwards. With the stories and essays ready, I was able to put together two more applications to top 20 schools, at which I got accepted, including one accept with a full tuition scholarship.

In retrospect, I wouldn't have gotten these two accepts had I not received help making these stories shine and the interview prep we did via Skype.

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