Akiba Smith-Francis Reviews

After hearing about this company at an MBA open house I was immediatly interested in hiring them to help me apply to school.

I have a different background than most MBA applicants. My work, life, and education experiences are completely different. They helped me compose the strongest application possible to each school- highlight my strenghts, show them off properly and show how big of an asset I could be to the schools I was applying to. When I had a major change in my life that affected the schools that I was applying to and the programs that I was applying for my advisor was flexible, understanding and willing to give me as much of her time as possible to ensure that my applications were great, got out on time and would be to a standard that was worthy of the schools that I was applying to.

Without the help of my advisor I would have been lost and would not gotten in to my prefered MBA program. The school packages are even better, they allow me to work through the entire application with my advisor, I even consulted with her on some of the short answer questions. The fact that she was there to help me answer the questions, the essays, which school to apply to and expecially Interview prep made it all the better. She was able to answer any questions I had about B-Schools and even some of the school I was thinking about. I recommend their services to anybody that I talk to.

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I enthusiastically recommend Akiba at MBA Mission for the following concrete qualities and inputs:

1- She knows very well how to communicate ideas: oftentimes I had a certain accomplishment or story to convey and she helped me phrase it in appropriate ways without omitting details or making assumptions. Eventually, her coaching allowed me to write fluid essays that the Adcom can understand and that demonstrate my thought process and experiences. Akiba will spare no efforts to edit and critique the smallest details and often success comes from those small details that the experienced eye of the Adcom can spot.

2 - She is very professional in terms of time management and client relationship: Akiba respects deadlines and you can expect her to give her best to answer any of your questions. This created a level of trust and commitment that was essential for any applicant to business schools. Also, she gets well prepared for our calls and that is surely inspires confidence. She does not overpromise and acts as a reality check to push the client to realize that the competition is tough. This was true for pushing me to retake the GMAT to reach an acceptable level and for my expectations for interviews.

3 - She is personable and interested to help you: I previously worked with an Admissions consultant from another top firm and realized after the first call and discussions that I was not going to be comfortable with the person. The consultant was arrogant and with a US-centric mindset and not really interested to deep dive in the details of my experiences. When I move to MBA Mission, I quickly felt that Akiba is going to be of great help. Akiba was a trusted advisor for all the smallest details of my MBA applications and she inspired me on different levels to think more clearly, leverage my strengths, and grow as a future leader - as I believe this application process is also a terrific opportunity to develop further.

In a nutshell, I highly recommend Akiba. Without her fantastic help, I would not have been able to get into Wharton.

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I reached out to mbamission after going 0/2 last year from 2 "stretch" schools. My consultant was Akiba Smith-Francis who I selected after reading several glowing reviews. I didn’t have a whole lot of cash to splash so I selected 1 school and added another later.

I asked her which schools should I use her for and she suggested the ones that I find most difficult. She could have easily suggested the easier ones.

So I started off with two sets of applications where I didn't know where to begin as I'd used all my best stories and material last year. I was totally stumped and this is where my consultant came into her own.

We did a series of brainstorming sessions in which she pushed me to bring out some answers that truly answered the questions at hand. This only got better as she got to know me better for the second application. Akiba was so helpful in explaining which parts of my profile would be worth mentioning in my essays and which parts wouldn’t – often contrary to what I was expecting. I was very focused on what I wanted to do post MBA and what parts of my profile might help me get there, Akiba pointed out several experiences in my past that would be interesting to adcoms. By the end of these sessions I had a plan for what I’d write for all the essay questions, writing the essay was just like filling in the blanks.

In the end I had two sets of applications that were far better and focused than my previous applications. While I was waitlisted at one of these schools, my GMAT and GPA were far below the averages of these top 5 schools, and my work experience is distinctly average.

Akiba is an extremely bright woman able to frame responses in a way that will resonate with adcoms. She is very popular and I only got to use her as she had a last minute pull out, so I suggest if you are keen to engage her then start early. I highly recommend her, I don’t think I could have had anyone better!

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I offer my highest recommendation to Akiba. I’ll try to sum up my experience with Akiba in 3 brief points.

1. Akiba helped me tell my story with integrity, creativity, and purpose. Always a patient listener, Akiba made the effort to get to know me. This paid off -- her in-depth knowledge of me and my experiences helped her deliver valuable insights throughout the application process. Often times her insights would be pulled and patched from conversations we had months earlier.

2. Akiba didn’t sugar coat anything. I was seeking honest feedback, and that is what I received. I was happy to hear “we need to re-think this… this could be stronger… I don’t really like where you’re going here.” This ‘real’ communication ultimately made my essays stronger. (She also offered tons of positive encouragement throughout the process). She was especially talented at restructuring sentences to lose the fluff and emphasize what was important.

3. I am extremely happy I had to the opportunity to work with Akiba. There is no doubt that my applications were stronger after working with Akiba. My partnership with her earned me interviews at 2 top 10 schools and a sizeable scholarship from a top 15. I am now reviewing offers from multiple schools. If you are going to work with MBA Mission, seek Akiba out. You won’t regret it.

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