Comprehensive School Package Reviews

I worked with Heidi on my business school applications and she was extremely supportive, responsive, and knowledgeable throughout. She played a pivotal role in all aspects of the process, including recommender strategy, application form strategy, essay planning and revisions, and interview prep.

She paid attention to the various stories in my life and helped me uncover key themes that really highlighted who I am. Once I began drafting essays, she provided thoughtful feedback with very quick turnarounds. I felt supported throughout. Overall, it was an amazing working with her and I recommend her to anyone applying to competitive business schools!

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Fortuna was an amazing consulting experience. I went with them after Stacy Blackman told me I shouldn't even bother with my top two choices (UCLA & USC). After the initial consultation, I got to chat with a few consultants to see who aligned with my goals the best. I went with Jessica, and by extension Lisa, because they matched my goals closely. This was the best decision! Jessica was amazing, she helped me with the entire process from A to Z. Without her or Lisa I wouldn't have interviewed everywhere I applied. With her help I was admitted to USC and am waiting on decision to UCLA. She was wonderful to work with and very professional. She guided me through every step and eased by anxiety throughout the whole process. I couldn't recommend the both of them enough, and I am very grateful to them and all their help.

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Melissa is undoubtably the best admissions consultant out there and I have nothing but A+++ words to say about my experience working with Melissa and the entire Fortuna team. Hire her now!!

From the start, Melissa invested a lot of time to get to know me, to understand my grad school goals, and to learn about all of my past work/life experiences so that we could shape the best narrative possible for my application. Throughout the entire process (from initial calls to essay prep to mock interviews), Melissa was extremely thorough, always had my best interest in mind, was very responsive, and provided honest and direct feedback, all while making you feel confident, supported, and motivated. Melissa truly wants you to succeed as much as you do.

Melissa also has unwavering belief in her clients, and she will stick by your side to help you get to your top B school, no matter how long it takes. Trust me… it took me over a year to get an application worthy GMAT score and Melissa was providing guidance and cheering me on the entire time.

Working with Melissa was the best decision that I made, leading up to applying to grad school and she was the key in turning my dream school into a reality. Thank you, Melissa!

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It's difficult to put into words how incredible Karen is. There are so many things that I could say about her that come to mind - intelligent, strategic, thoughtful, organized, focused etc. But what stood out the most during the MBA application process was her unwavering belief in me. I came into the the process unsure of my chances - I had strange background with a number of career jumps that I thought would be my downfall. And I was very vocal about my doubts, often poking holes constantly in my story and background. But throughout my anxiety and despair, Karen was steadfast in her belief that my story was strong and that I was worthy of admission to the school of my dreams. Her unwavering confidence washed away my doubts and pushed me to put my best foot forward. I've come out of this process not only with an admission to my top school (Columbia) but also more confident in my own capabilities, all thanks to Karen.

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I was referred to Karen by a friend who is currently at CBS. I am the first in my family to go to business school. While I had many friends go through the application process, I didn't have one person who I could look to as a trusted guide throughout the process. Karen was so incredible in helping me navigate the school selection process, the application process throughout the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic and pushed me to attain a GRE score I could have never imagined attaining. She also was so fundamental in crafting an application that clearly put forward my story/ vision. With Karen's help I've been admitted to CBS.

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My journey is slightly different as it took over a year for me from the first day I contacted Fortuna. It was late into the admission process in 2019 (Round 2 deadline was approaching) and I had not taken my GMAT at the time. I reached out to Fortuna anyway and Matt scheduled an initial introductory call to learn about my background. I decided to go with Fortuna and was then paired with Karen as one of my choices was CBS. Nevertheless I did not get the GMAT score I wanted (it was December) and decided to delay my application until June this year (2020).

Right from day one Karen has been fantastic and very friendly. Karen was incredibly timely in her response and the whole process was very structured. First we had a call and Karen mapped out an action plan for me going forward; she suggested which aspect I should focus on first and the timeline for each aspect (brief for recommenders, resume editing, essays – and that I should focus on one school at a time). Karen helped fine tune my resume and tighten the story without changing my narrative. Her feedback and questions helped me organize the key points in my essays. She was very encouraging throughout the process and was always ready to answer any questions that I may have had. One thing I really like about Fortuna is that they have mid-point review: once my essays were in good shape, they were passed to one of the directors, in my case Judith, who gave the essays another review. It was comforting to know that a former adcom reviewed and approved my essays. Once I was invited to interview Karen had a mock interview session with me beforehand. She acted as an interviewer and gave me constructive feedback at the end of the session that boosted my confidence for the real interview.

Even though I am still waiting to hear results from one other school, I am extremely happy to have been admitted to CBS and I cannot thank Karen enough! Throughout the months of our interaction Karen was my pillar of support, who alleviated a lot of stress from this daunting process. Overall I really enjoyed working with Karen and I wholeheartedly recommend Karen to MBA aspirants!!!

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If you’ve come across Melissa through your due diligence, then you’ll have likely already read that she is one of the best admissions consultants in the market. If you haven’t done much due diligence yet, then let me tell you why I think Melissa IS the best admissions consultant in the market:

I was very thorough in my initial search of consultants, turning over every rock under the admissions consultant sun. I decided to move forward with Melissa for a few reasons. First, she offered the richest insights into the schools I was targeting, as they related to my profile and interests. Second, she provided me with a clear picture of what it would take for me to be in a good position to gain acceptance to my target schools. Third, her insights are based in her vast experience as a former admissions committee member of a top program and also from her experience of working with countless hopefuls like myself. Lastly, and most importantly, I decided to work with Melissa because of a referral from someone, who I really trust, who was confident that working with Melissa would see me get the school acceptance that I was working so hard towards.

My profile: a lofty goal of getting accepted to a top MBA program, a low GMAT score (50 points less than average score for program), several career changes within 10 years that included a five month backpacking trip, a non-target undergrad with a low GPA, a few years older than the class’ age average, and I was on a tight timeline. Oh yeah, my partner was also applying to the same MBA, so I had to somehow weave that into my story, too.

As you can tell, I didn’t need a consultant - I needed a miracle. Luckily, Melissa was just that.

Without Melissa, I would have surely struggled to weave my winding career choices into a strong and cohesive story. She went the extra mile(s) to see it through. Melissa’s support was unwavering and vital in helping me accomplish my goal: acceptance to a top MBA school.

Melissa’s approach is equal parts science and art. First, she uses a tried and true process that will get your full story on paper. Next, she provides a touch of genius that helps you highlight your traits/strengths/weaknesses that will help you stand out. The end result is a concise, unique, and noticeable narrative that the admissions committee NEEDS to see from your profile in order for you to overcome the very low odds of getting an interview. Simply, she is dialed into a frequency for preparing admissions applications that is remarkable – hard stop.

Above all, Melissa wants to see you succeed as much as you want to see yourself succeed.

In sum, Melissa has earned her stellar reputation from helping prospective students reach the highest of MBA heights; you’ll be very fortunate and grateful to have the opportunity to work with her.

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I initially reached out to Fortuna Admissions via their website early on in my admissions process, before I'd even decided exactly which schools I should apply to. Fortuna's intake process begins with setting up a few "fit" calls between you and some of their consultants based on your target schools. You'll then decide who is the best fit for you. For me it happened to be the second person I had a "fit" call with, Cassandra Pittman.

Cassandra was amazing throughout the entire process. On our first call she made me feel confident about my chances, while being realistic as well. My profile was very unique, and after speaking with her I knew she would be able to help me craft a compelling narrative for my target schools.

Additionally, once we began the process and started getting deeper into my motivations and goals, she also helped me re-shape my list of target schools. Franky speaking, both the schools I ended up gaining admission to were not on my initial target list! So I am grateful for Cassandra having the breadth of knowledge on all the programs out there and suggesting those which she thought would be the right fit for me.

Now onto the actual process.. You'll submit your first draft of each application essay to Cassandra and she will work with you to help bring things within the word count and ensure your narrative is coming through in the strongest way possible. Additionally, she has a nuanced knowledge of the characteristics that each school is looking for and will help ensure that is coming through as well. You can go through as many of these revision cycles as you like until you feel the essays are ready. At this point, you will send the entire application draft to one of the Fortuna Directors (former ad-comm members from your target schools), and they will weigh in with any feedback on the overall application. I should also add that Cassandra has an extremely quick turnaround time, which comes in handy if you're working against a tight deadline.

Fortuna also has an in house MBA-CV expert who is ex-Wharton ad-comm, and will help you get your MBA CV perfect. It's worth noting that an MBA-CV is completely different to your traditional CV. Furthermore, they also provide you with excellent frameworks on how to approach your referee's and provide them all the information they'll need to write your LOR's with ease.

Last but not least, Fortuna went above and beyond what I'd paid for when I got to the interview stage at one of my target schools by setting up a 1:1 meeting for me with one of their Director's who used to be part of that school's ad-comm. It was extremely helpful for me to speak with them before my interview, and gave me a sense for how I should prepare and put my best foot forward. Of course, Fortuna also provides you with a wealth of school specific interview preparation materials, and you can book 1:1 interview prep sessions with Cassandra as well.

In the end, I got into 2 out of the 3 schools I worked with Fortuna for so I'd highly recommend them!! There's no way I'd have ended up at LBS without their help!

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It was an amazing experience working with Nonie on my application. She is extremely committed and if you are ready to put in the hard work, Nonie's guidance can turn your application into gold. She was extremely flexible and accommodating. Her encouraging words helped me stay motivated throughout the process and she helped me prioritise the many activities on my profile. Nonie's turnaround was always quick and her detailed comments were instrumental in helping me structure my experiences most effectively. She has an eye for detail and her INSEAD background helped me understand the school and my fit much better. The mock interviews prepared me for all sorts of questions. Nonie was available and supportive during the entire journey and her enthusiasm about my candidature always filled me with positivity. Working with her was effortless and fun and it was an absolute pleasure to have her as my coach.

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I fully recommend the comprehensive package from Fortuna Admissions; from the first sessions to get to know me and my goals, to the final mock interviews, Cassandra was the best! I truly felt she was invested in my application and wanted me to get accepted into my dream school.

Cassandra helped me identify the strong points of my profile, and bring them out in the best possible way to show how I could succeed in the INSEAD classroom. She also challenged my short and long term goals, resulting in me thinking them over and over. I still have the same goals as before I started the application process, but now I am more convinced than ever of the path I want to take. I would not have this conviction and determination without all the sessions I had with Cassandra.

The application process is truly a self-discovery period, and I am glad I navigated through it with the help of Fortuna Admissions.

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