Cassandra Pittman Reviews

I am extremely thankful to Cassandra for going through the rigorous process of submitting an MBA application and making it a smooth journey. It is extremely stressful and intimidating navigating the application process, trying to condense your entire life in 300words while working full time. Cassandra has been been my rock helping me through each step.She was candid, supportive, and extremely understanding. Her feedback to my essays and video interviews was extremely helpful. I loved how she pushed me to try dig in deeper when I was trying to build my story.

I have been impressed with Fortuna throughout, starting from determining which coach I’d like to work with, to reviewing my resumes, to building my story, to resources provided for the interviews and the application. The detailed and structured questionnaire which Fortuna requires applicants to submit allowed me to introspect about my life - personally and professionally and really helped bring out my authentic self in the application.

I’ll be starting my MBA journey with INSEAD next year and it wouldn’t have been possible without Cassandra and the Fortuna team.

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Cassandra was brilliant throughout the application process. I applied successfully to INSEAD and I know that Cassandra’s guidance had a strong impact in helping me to present myself in the best way. She was able to understand my motivations for applying and played a key role in helping me to create a compelling narrative in the essays.

I was working to tight timescales which Cassandra was able to adapt to, and I really felt she was invested in my success throughout. I always came away from our calls feeling better set up to tackle the challenge of applying to highly competitive MBA programmes.

I strongly recommend Fortuna and Cassandra in particular!

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Cassandra is the best admission consultant if you are interested in getting into the London Business School FT MBA programme. I come from a very non-typical country as an MBA applicant and had my fair share of weaknesses in my application. Cassandra was extremely empathetic and showed tremendous understanding as to how I can highlight my strengths and unique experiences that would overpower the relatively weaker areas of my application.

Cassandra also has a great understanding as to what LBS actually seeks in applicants. That said, she also kept the perfect balance of keeping my application authentic by at the same time framing my authenticity and my profile in a way to be my best presentable self for LBS adcoms.

In the end, with her help, I got into one of my dream schools.

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I had an initial call with Matt Symonds, during which we discussed my background, goals, and school choices. Given my focus on Europe, Cassandra’s experience with top European schools really stood out and made me interested in having her as my coach. I therefore asked to be connected with her and ended up working together as part of a CSP for LBS and during a few additional hours for some other schools.

The greatest benefit that I derived from working with Cassandra was belief. I was nervous at the start of this process and didn’t completely acknowledge the strengths of my profile. However, Cassandra was able to not only steer me in the right direction in terms of the application but also was always available to address my concerns and questions - over messages, emails, calls, and video meetings. As someone who didn’t start with having MBAs in my network, I also greatly benefitted from Cassandra’s support, expertise, and big-picture perspective in ensuring that my essays were always logical, aspirational, and human. The nice thing about the CSP was that my full application was also reviewed by a director, who has tremendous knowledge of the school. In addition, I was able to make use of a mock interview with Cassandra, during which she gave me actionable feedback around both things that I was doing well and things that I could do better, and helped me go into my interview with confidence.

To anyone who is willing to drive their own application, but would love to have a champion and expert by their side, I would highly recommend working with Cassandra! She truly helped me in my moments of self-doubt and helped me communicate my story in the most impactful manner!

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I worked with Cassandra on 2 EU programs, HEC Paris & INSEAD. Cassandras really knows about these two schools and the admission appetite. She's always responsive, professional and straight to the point. Her past experiences with various European business schools is an asset and really helped me identify my USPs in the essay drafting. Though coming from a slightly over-represented applicant pool (East Asian) with average GMAT, I have relatively unique life/work experiences and Cassandra really helped me press these points. I got accepted to both programs and I can definitely recommend Cassandra to those who are interested in EU top MBA programs!

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Cassandra is an all star. She's a great listener, extraordinarily thoughtful in how to best showcase yourself in essays, and her experience with CBS was invaluable. I truly couldn't have done it without her.

From when we first met, I could tell I wasn't just another client to Cassandra. She spent our first 30min call asking questions about what inspires me, what goals I wish to accomplish with an MBA, and how I'd like to use it to make a positive impact for others. It was incredibly refreshing. And when we dove into the application, Cassandra was able to keep a perfect birds' eye view of the narrative and weak points to address.

Surpassed my expectations, highly recommend her, and couldn't have enjoyed working with her more. THANK YOU!

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I honestly cannot recommend Fortuna enough! I interviewed with 3 different consulting companies prior to deciding on Fortuna. They don't pressure you into working with someone but instead are extremely active in helping you set up coach interviews and finding your best match. They don't give you any advice until they've fully understood your background, whereas I've encountered judgmental consultants at other firms. The team at Fortuna was extremely helpful and would leverage each other's expertise to help me craft the best application. Each of my applications/essays/school choices received attention from ~3 directors/consultants.

Cassandra was amazing since our very first call! I reached out to her in mid-July with zero progress on my applications, and we submitted all my applications by October. From the very beginning, she was very honest in providing feedback and the realistic programs to apply to. From there, she recognized my strengths and made sure my applications really highlighted them. I most valued her ability to help me craft a compelling story and her WRITING SKILLS (!), something that I knew I needed help with. I received offers from HEC Paris (with scholarship!) and Cambridge Judge.

The entire process was surprisingly enjoyable, all thanks to Cassandra!

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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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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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I worked with Fortuna and Cassandra for LBS MBA application (One-School Package). I am extremely satisfied with the service Cassandra provided. To summarise, Cassandra helped me with all application materials from idea collection, application strategy, application materials review and interview preparations. Cassandra reviewed my draft application at least 5 times and she was able to bring additional values and unique selling points tailored to my application upon every review. This is incredible!

Cassandra is very responsive over phone, email and Zoom. She was always there for me whenever I needed. During the mock interview stage, Cassandra provided huge support to coach me better storytelling. And she made sure I was confident and ready before the Alumni Interview. Another huge credit to Cassandra is that she almost reviewed every single email communication I made to the school across numerous contexts and application stages. I found this to be extremely beneficial.

Another benefit of working with Fortuna (one-school package) is that you get second level review by one of the Fortuna Directors, i.e. Emma for my LBS application. Emma has tremendous experience with LBS admissions and her review was also super detailed. We constantly received invaluable inputs from Emma upon her every review. After numerous re-drafting and communications among Cassandra, Emma and myself, we made a stellar LBS application!

In a nutshell, I am very satisfied with the service Cassandra and Emma provided and highly recommend Fortuna to future MBA applicants.

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