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Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Susanne Peltz
It was a pleasure working with Susanne (and the Fortuna team) on my application, a genuinely good experience. She helped me look back at everything I had done to this point and helped me convey that to the admissions committee in a comprehensive and coherent manner. Susanne excelled at finding the balance between being a professional and someone whom you can connect with - she was critical of my work when it needed improvement and instilled confidence in me when I needed the boost. I trusted her with my application and was not disappointed. I was happy even before I got the news from the MBA programs I had applied to because I learned a lot about myself through the process with Susanne. I would definitely recommend working with Susanne and the Fortuna team to anyone considering doing an MBA.
Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Caroline Diarte Edwards
I come from an overrepresented pool of applicants: Indian, Male, IT Engineer = 3 strikes right off the bat.
Given my handicaps, I realized to succeed in admissions I needed to work with the best consultants.
Seeing as Fortuna has a strong record I set up a call with Matt Symonds. Matt was so welcoming and helpful I decided to pursue working with Fortuna further.
Next, I got paired up with Natasha De Masi and Caroline Edwards. They setup a call to understand me and my profile better. Right from the get-go it was evident that they understood the challenges I had to overcome in my profile and how to bring out my advantages. Also they were really helpful in shaping my essays to make me stand out amongst the crowd.
I was incredibly impressed by their dedication to help me succeed. Natasha kept me honest and motivated to get things done. She has an incredible eye for detail and is a magician with words. At times I felt she was more invested in my application and success than I was!!
When I clicked submit for my application I felt that regardless of the outcome I had done my best and that working with Fortuna was the correct decision.
Ultimately I got admitted to INSEAD and given the odds in my profile this was nothing short of a miracle. However, this wouldnt have been possible without working with Natasha, Caroline and the rest of the Fortuna team!! Thanks Fortuna!!
Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Susanne Peltz
I decided to go ahead with Fortuna after having a 30 minute consultation with Matt Symonds. I was very impressed that he had taken the time to thoroughly research my background and it was evident that Fortuna has expert insight into INSEAD admissions, having many consultants who have previously worked in the admissions team (e.g. Caroline and Susanne). INSEAD has a notoriously long application with many essay questions and a video component, but Susanne immediately put me at ease. She knew which aspects of my background to highlight and how to best position my story. She also gave me an action plan with deadlines for the various milestones, which helped to break down the daunting application process. She thoroughly reviewed my drafts and gave me detailed and straightforward comments, and was always responsive on email. The entire process was stress-free as I felt I was working with someone very experienced. I can’t imagine getting through it without her!
Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Taniel Chan
Having unexpectedly received an interview for HBS, I decided to seek some professional advice for the interview itself, and contacted Veritas Prep, who put me in touch with Taniel.
Despite being in the middle of his exam week, Taniel was extremely helpful and responsive to my messages at short notice.
Taniel's extensive experience and advice were invaluable in helping to situate the mentality of the interviewer, and bringing out the best mentality for the interviewee. We went through a series of mock interviews, and I was given feedback on improving the logical flow of each answer, as well as general advice about Harvard and the MBA program.
I would definitely recommend Taniel's help for anyone interested in advice and help for their MBA applications.
Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant
Katherine helped me craft my successful MBA story. Brainstorming together, we developed my MBA story that focused uniquely on my background, personality, and goals. Specifically, she saw that my experience as an athlete, self-taught engineer, and co-founder were the experiences best to focus on in my applications. She helped me see that I needed to show schools that I was an expert who would provide a unique perspective in the MBA classroom. With her guidance, I improved my essays and become a better interviewee. Thanks to Katherine's help and support, I was admitted at MIT Sloan which perfectly aligns with my interests in entrepreneurship and computer science.
Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Julie Ferguson
I am so excited to write a review for Julie, who diligently worked towards strengthening my applications and preparing me for interviews. I particularly appreciated her candid approach to helping me understand the strengths and weaknesses of my profile, from the perspective of the admissions committee. Through multiple reviews and feedback, she encouraged me to go deep within myself and come up with the most impactful work/life experiences I have had, thus making my application stand out. Her mock interviews and subsequent feedback, ensured that I took my best and authentic self to the actual interviews and converted both my interview calls into admits - Kellogg and Cornell. I highly recommend Julie and Fortuna Admissions to serious aspirants for top Business schools.
Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Michel Belden
White male from a non-target undergrad, with an average GPA, great GMAT. I first reached out to Fortuna to check if it was feasible for me to apply after only 2 years of work experience. They were encouraging and I decided to apply this year rather than next.
The best part about Fortuna is DEPTH. They have specialists in each area and school. I targeted Wharton and was able to work with a former Wharton alumn / Associate Director (Michel Belden) and Wharton Admissions Director (Judith Silverman Hodara). They ran a mock Team Based Discussion with other applicants which was extremely helpful. When I was waitlisted at Stanford I was able to work with a specialist on the GSB as well.
Michel was stellar: responsive, thorough, and insightful. She let me write my own application but steered me away from danger (she made sure I used two professional recs rather than one profession and one academic.) Working with her added structure to the process and fostered confidence in my decisions.
In the end, I was admitted to Wharton and could not be more excited. I applied a year early and got into one of the three best MBA programs in the world thanks in part to Fortuna. My only regret: that I didn't get the full package and use Fortuna for every school.
Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Heidi Hillis
Heidi help throughout this process has been invaluable. She has a very strong 'coach' mind set: she does not push her ideas on you but provides a sounding board. Her dogged insistence on quality really pushed my application to a higher standard. At the time I might have preferred to hear that my first essay draft was fantastic, but I’m glad she wasn’t happy until 20 rounds later!
Particular challenges with which Heidi helped out:
- Building my story: particularly as an international applicant, I found it tricky to assess which attributes of your profile could really set me apart; Heidi was able to provide strong perspectives here
- Setting a schedule & priorities: I started my application relatively late & without having completed the GMAT; without her guidance on where to focus first, my application would have been dead in the water
- Pacing of the work: Heidi helped me assess when to push an essay draft to a higher level, and when to let it rest for a while; she was also helpful in understanding what GMAT scores someone with my GPA needed
Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Malvina Miller Complainville
I started searching for a company to work with several months prior accepting an offer from Fortuna Admissions. What amazed me about Fortuna Admissions was their expertise and excellent team of coaches with incredible background and expertise.
After initial calls with the company’s head Matt Symonds, I was assigned to work with Malvina. And I must say that that was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life working with someone. Malvina was an incredible person, coach and mentor who pushed me towards my goal of entering the best MBA program.
Malvina was always there, whenever I needed help and guidance. From the first call we started brainstorming my story and narrative. She helped me to open my eyes on many things, including what makes me special among other qualified peers applying to business schools. We were able to build a unique story highlighting my strengths and adequately addressing my weaknesses. Throughout the span of 8 months, Malvina was my mentor that not only helped me to build a story for business schools but also helped me to discover myself. With what she helped me – helping discover myself and what truly makes me who I am – was and will be an invaluable experience that I will carry from now on. I am extremely grateful and lucky that I had this incredible opportunity of working with Malvina. At the end, I was admitted to GSB and Yale where I hope to accomplish my life goals… thanks to Malvina. I have no idea what would have happened without Malvina. I am so thankful to her and cannot fully express my appreciation for what Malvina helped me to accomplish.
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Product Fortuna Admissions Comprehensive School Package
Consultant Taniel Chan
About Taniel:
I had an absolutely amazing time working with Taniel, and he is the most responsible and caring advisor that I have ever worked with. It's amazing how much time he devotes to my application given all his other commitments. He always provides very high-quality and timely feedback, and he is highly responsive even when he is traveling on a different continent! I cannot remember a single time when he doesn't respond within 24 hours. And when I am confused about his feedback, he is always willing to hop on the phone to make clarifications.
He is clearly very experienced with the b-school process and has unique insights into the program I was applying to. I think the best thing about Taniel is that he doesn't just say something is not right, but he discusses with me and helps me figure out what is right and how I can improve. During this process, I always feel like I am in good hands and it's amazing to see how my application has evolved!
B-school application can be stressful, but Taniel always checks in to see how I feel about this process and gives me a lot of encouragement. He respects my schedule and never rushes me, and I can always work in a pace that I feel comfortable with.
Although I didn't end up getting into the program I was applying to, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Taniel. I can't imagine working with a better school consultant and I would recommend him to my friends without any reservation!
Veritas Prep Team:
Veritas Prep has a very professional client service team. They always reply to my inquiries in a very timely and professional manner. Once I had some technical difficulties accessing some of the gmat prep materials online, and they gave me all the practice tests for free!
School Specialist:
I am very sorry to say that my interaction with my school specialist was below my expectations. I did my first strategy call with her only two weeks before the application deadline, and that was after I reached out to Veritas Prep team myself. She offered some very good advice on campus visits and recommendation strategies , but unfortunately they were no longer helpful at such a late stage of the application process. From the school package description online, I thought school specialist would be pretty involved in my application, but our interaction was limited to a 45 minute strategy call and one essay edit. I was turned down when I asked for additional essay feedback because she said it would be unfair to other clients. Apparently school specialists are only expected to make a 1 hour strategy call, one essay edit and one mock interview for each client. Maybe this was my bad, but from reading the package descriptions online, I had no idea that the help from school specialist would be so tangential.