Getting into Harvard has been my dream for the last six years. I was worried, however, that I didn’t have that unique story you typically associate with people that get into these universities. Then came Katy, who helped me take a step back and weave the many seemingly unrelated elements of my life into one cohesive story that both provided me with the standout story I never thought I had and quite honestly helped me understand myself better. What I quickly began to appreciate is that Katy doesn’t take a one-size-fits all approach to MBA consulting, she really took the time to know me and then tailored how we tackled the essays based on my background and goals.

Beyond that, she was also very knowledgeable about the process answering my many questions with valuable insights from the view of someone who has been an admissions committee member herself. Even though I read virtually ever piece of MBA advice I could get my hands on over the past six years, everything I thought I knew paled in comparison to the insights Katy provided me.

Lastly, I can’t overstate how much Katy truly cares about the people she works with. The MBA process can get really stressful at times, but with Katy’s sound advice and kind words, I never felt overwhelmed by the process. I genuinely can’t recommend Katy enough and after comparing my first and final essay drafts, I honestly don’t know what I would have done without her!

(Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School Admit)

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I would not have been admitted to HBS without Katy’s help. She was phenomenal to work with, start to finish, and it was so fun to work with her because it’s clear that she loves her job as a consultant and mentor.

A year before I applied, I hired Katy for a two-school prep package and worked with her closely throughout the entire application process. Katy helped me to position my candidacy; structure, review and edit my essays; provided guidance, edits and thoughts on all my short answers; and prepare for interviews. It was a long and intense process but she worked very hard to provide timely feedback and she always made herself available to answer questions.

Perhaps what I appreciated the most about Katy is her ability to listen and ask sincere questions to really get to know me. A good consultant cannot help you if they do not know you, and Katy showed a remarkable ability to understand my story quickly. Her ability was most evident at the beginning of the application process when I was trying to identify how to position my candidacy and articulate what really motivates me. Katy was extremely effective at helping me uncover the real ‘why’ behind many of my experiences and life decisions, which was crucial for how I positioned by application and structured my essays.

Katy is also very candid and honest. After several weeks of working on my essays, she reviewed them one day and told me they were really boring. It was true, and I’m really glad she let me know. I then completely revamped them with her help and the end product was far superior to what I had initially.

All in all, I found Katy to be knowledgeable, experienced, caring, genuine, and a highly effective 'thought partner'. I recommend her to everyone I know applying and am so glad I used her in my process.

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Right from the initial free consultation, I wanted to work with Katy. She was more thorough, professional and insightful than the other consultants I spoke with. I was impressed with the level of detail in her follow-up email analysis where she assuaged some of my fears about my candidacy. After signing up for a 2 school start to finish package, she clearly laid out the road map, with information about key checkpoints such as when to start working on the resume, recommendations, short answers, etc. This helped me focus on the right aspects of my application at the right stages.

During our brainstorming, Katy helped me to take an introspective view which enabled me to craft compelling essays. She has a great ability to see how various parts of one’s application come together to deliver the best possible impact. I did not have great stats, but I was able to build a strong application around my unique story and solid work experience, thanks to Katy. Her feedback during the mock interview proved vital, and in the end, I was accepted to Booth – a school which I initially thought was out of my league. I can't thank Katy enough!

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I have recommended Katy to everyone I know applying to business school. She is a wonderful consultant and far outshined any competitors in my initial 30-minute evaluations. She was most helpful in helping me craft an overarching story, and succeeded because she took a tremendous amount of time getting to know me. In many ways, I felt that she had a much better idea of what I should be doing with my life than I did myself. Katy was also very effective with interview prep, and spent as much time with me as I needed in order to feel confident and prepared. I could not be happier with my experience working with her and my end result!

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I wouldn't have been accepted to business school without Katy's advice and perspective. I only applied to four schools (Stanford, Haas, Ross, and Foster) in the 2nd round. As a military applicant deployed to Korea, Katy always made sure to accommodate me despite the fifteen-hour time difference and my hectic schedule. Katy understood and explained how to polish each piece of my application. Katy's insight into translating military experience into essays and in my resume, were particularly helpful.

Ultimately, I was accepted to my top school. I can honestly say that I do not think I would have been admitted without Katy’s help. I strongly recommend her service, particularly to applicants with non-traditional backgrounds.

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During my admissions process, i spoke to many different consultants to see which was the best fit for me. One of my favorite things about MBA mission was that i was able to get my free 30 minute session directly with Katy. I quickly got a sense of what she was about and realized that she was the best person to help me on this journey.

She quickly understood my story and helped me find the best way to express it. I come from an nontraditional background so for me it was very important to get the right story on paper to show my best qualities. Katy was extremely helpful in the planning and brainstorming sessions and was able to ask all the right questions. She was truly interested in my story and made me feel like I was her most important client every time we spoke.

During the application process she was also outstanding, she did a fantastic job of reading and editing the essays without being invasive and making them sound as if they didn't come from me. She was very timely in her responses and was available during weekends and even during Christmas break.

Overall, I was very pleased with Katy's guidance and I am sure that she is a big reason as to why I will be attending Columbia Business School this fall!

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I was introduced to Katharine (Katy) Lewis by a good friend who worked with her throughout the 2014 application cycle. This applicant was ecstatic to have accepted an offer to Stanford GSB and admitted to many other top schools; she could not have been more excited to recommend Katy and get me started with the application process.

As part of the free initial 30 minute consultation (in January 2016), Katy reviewed my resume and discussed my work history, professional goals and interests, and initial school thoughts. My main concern was that I hadn’t achieved a GMAT score I thought was competitive enough; Katy re-assured me to keep going and check back around April / May to re-assess the situation. Once it reached April, I still hadn’t finished my testing but decided to move forward with the process in order to stay well ahead of the round 1 submission timeline. Katy was more than gracious to accept me as a client and start the process while still re-assuring me that the testing would never be an issue as long as I kept trying.

I purchased the “complete start-to-finish” package for 3 schools: HBS, Stanford GSB, and Dartmouth Tuck. HBS and Stanford were my top choices; I was slightly unsure about Dartmouth Tuck and ended up changing this school once my final school decisions were due. A few thoughts on each stage of the process:

Brainstorming: This is the starting point for all applications and consisted of a detailed questionnaire and a few brainstorming calls to solidify the overall arch to my application. It was initially a bit overwhelming -- I needed to provide very detailed commentary on my overall background, from childhood to my current professional environment -- but after diving in, it ended up being the most interesting part of the entire process. Portions of my personal history that I thought were relatively inconsequential ended up providing the best starting point for essays; Katy constantly reminded me of this. Her level of enthusiasm for my background and anecdotes gave me such confidence that I was a strong candidate – it made my essay writing process one of self-discovery rather than a chore.

School Choice / Application Round: I ended up missing round 1 deadlines due to my testing and reset my priorities to round 2; during that time, I decided to add a handful of schools through the Consortium common application and Katy was able to help me pick and choose which schools I’d be most competitive as an applicant. I ended up choosing Stanford GSB and HBS, and through the Consortium common application I chose Yale, Cornell, UVA Darden, UC Berkeley Haas, and NYU. I was amazed by Katy’s level of knowledge for each school; she’s personally spent time at each of them and can talk for hours about the pros and cons for each school. Aside from that, she was always willing to put me in touch with a former client or contact so that I could get a better sense first-hand sense of each program.

Career Goals / Personal Interests: Business school has always been a goal but I had some difficulty verbalizing my post-MBA goals. I’ve spent the last 7 years in the Risk Management division of a large Investment Bank and I did not want to give any impression that I wanted to return to a traditional banking or consulting type of role following graduation. Katy was instrumental in helping me solidify my vision for a logical career path following b-school. This was incredibly important as most (not all) interviews will dig deep here. Katy helped me focus in on a forward-looking vision that was based on my experience and a logical next step that I could believe in my head as I was interviewing.

Essays / Final Applications: Submission of the final applications was hectic given the number of schools I was applying to but Katy never missed a deadline and always had feedback that proved invaluable. The essay writing process was iterative and she never altered or made direct changes to any of my written submissions; instead, she would provide comments on ways to re-think certain aspects or strengthen ideas that seemed thin in the context of my overall candidacy. At any point in time, I was free to ‘reject’ her suggestions if I didn’t feel comfortable but I never found that to be the case. At the outset I thought I’d dread writing the essays just given the number I had to do (~14); however, the extensive brainstorming process made it super simple to pair certain personal stories with essay prompts to the point that they almost wrote themselves. I’d perhaps have 4-5 total revisions per essay on those that I cared the most about.

Interviews: I was absolutely thrilled and quite frankly couldn’t believe that I received interview invitations from HBS, UC Berkeley Haas, Yale, NYU, and Cornell. Every single school has a different approach; you may meet with any combination of current students, admissions committee members, and alumni. Katy was instrumental in helping me prep and I was never blindsided by the interviews that we prepared for.

When all was said and done, I received admissions offers from HBS, Haas, Yale, and Cornell; the result could not have been more positive and I ended up choosing my top-choice of HBS!

On a personal note, my relationship with Katy went from client to personal confidant. She was always there to keep my nerves in check and re-assure me when I was doubting myself. Her positive attitude and willingness to chat, at ANY time of the day, made this incredibly long journey surprisingly enjoyable. She was even gracious enough to invite my boyfriend and I to her home when we were in her neck of the woods.

In short, this review could never summarize how incredibly instrumental Katy has been throughout this (lengthy) stage in my life. I knew she would get results, but I’m still completely blown away by how positive the results turned out in my case. Some friends of mine have recently expressed a faint interest in b-school themselves and, as a result, I’ve gone out of my way to have them at least speak with her. I would hate for anyone to miss an opportunity to work with such an incredibly talented and caring person.

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I decided I wanted to work with Katy after reading her reviews in both Gmat Club and mbaMission website. I was impressed by how everyone said she was amazing and also, I realized most of her clients were accepted to the schools I wanted to apply. Today, after working with Katy during the whole admission process, I can understand the reason behind such reviews, Katy is truly an outstanding coach!

The thing I liked the most about working with her is how during the whole process she makes you feel like you are the one writing everything, and coming up with the ideas… because in fact you are. She is just so good in drawing the boundaries and guiding you into what are the most compelling stories for each school, but other than that you feel like her edits are mostly grammar related. That gives you a sense of authenticity during the whole process that for me was invaluable. I truly felt like the applications I submitted were 100% my input. The other great thing about Katy was that she helped me in all the aspects of the application. From the brainstorming session (which was really good and insightful) to the interview process. Even if in some subject she was not an “expert” she lets you know and shares material that is very helpful. She even got in me in touch with students from different schools when I was deciding where to apply.

I was fortunate enough to meet her personally before starting with the essays and she is a great person! Very friendly, always available (with normal restrictions) and always willing to help in more ways than she is “supposed” to. I know that I will be contacting Katy again for job related questions and I know she will be available to help me in the coming years, because even after the formal process has ended, after working with Katy, you feel more like a friend of hers than a client.

I definitely and highly recommend Katy to anyone looking for an admissions coach. She is amazing and extremely helpful, and her results are impressive!

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I worked with Katharine (Katy) Lewis, who was a terrific thought partner to advise me throughout the application process. I am delighted to share that I will be going to the Wharton MBA program!

I spoke to ~10 admission consultants from various firms and Katy stood out for her experience, track record and most importantly, a savvy ability to recognize my unique story.

Through a detailed brainstorming session, Katy was able to get to know me really well, elements of my story which she reminded me throughout the process. Katy was always available to speak and bounce ideas off (even multiple times a week if I requested) and provide feedback on my thoughts to guide me along. I appreciated that she also had the candor to indicate when she disagreed with my approach or felt that I was not conveying my story to the best of my ability. Through continuous drafts, she help me distill my prior professional and personal experiences and ambitions into a compelling and successful application! What was also really impressive was Katy's ability to be thoughtful about how to use all the various elements of my application (resume, short answers, etc.) together to reinforce and complement my story.

Likewise, when I received interviews (at all 3 programs I applied to), Katy was incredibly helpful in my preparation. She was very thorough on thinking through and testing me on potential questions on behavioral / leadership / experience etc. She went above and beyond offering me multiple mock interviews.

In conclusion, I am thrilled to have worked with Katy, and cannot recommend her more strongly to anyone looking to apply to a top MBA program.

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I wanted to attend the NYU Stern Part-Time program for Fall 2017; unfortunately, I was facing a major hurdle a low undergraduate GPA. I reached out to MBAMission and after reading the GMATClub reviews I decided that I wanted Katherine (Katy) Lewis to help me with my MBA application. Katy had glowing reviews, helped individuals with low undergraduate GPAs before, and was located on the west coast, which I felt made working with her outside of my working hours much easier.

Katy was extremely helpful throughout the process, she was very responsive and never missed the turn-around windows. We started off with a brainstorming questionnaire, to help craft the themes of my essays and was very perceptive, she was able to identify things about my background that I had never thought of before which made for very effective essay topics that highlighted the uniqueness of my candidacy. She was also able to help me analyze my undergraduate transcripts to identify patterns that laid the groundwork on how to address my GPA issue. With her help I was able to craft amazing essays, a powerful resume, and an impactful set of application answers that resulted in my acceptance into the NYU part-time program.

I would highly recommend Katy, who was amazing to work with, easy to talk to, insightful, and is very familiar with the nature of part-time programs and its students, and especially of how they compare to full-time programs and students. I would not have been able to gain admission to NYU without her, and when I told her the great news, and she was as thrilled as I was! She was helpful even after I was accepted and her job was done, by sending me resources and information that would help me finance my MBA.

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