GMAT Club

Helen Summers Reviews

Company: mbaMission

Before joining mbaMission, Helen Summers served as the director of MBA Programs at Management Leadership for Tomorrow—a national nonprofit that guides underrepresented minorities through the business school application process—where she developed curriculum and programming for nearly 1,000 fellows. Helen’s passion for business school admissions began when she was earning her MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS). In recognition of her significant involvement in admissions efforts and outreach there, Helen received the HBS Student Association Award and the Bert King Fellowship. Before attending business school, Helen was a senior financial analyst with Johnson & Johnson (J&J)—during which time she earned her CPA—and began her five years with the company as part of the Financial Leadership Development Program (FLDP). She gained valuable experience through rotations in finance and accounting, managing Motrin Franchise marketing expenses and analyzing the financial impact of new initiatives in the production process of cardiac catheters and stents. As a graduate of FLDP, Helen returned to J&J’s corporate headquarters, where she helped develop a new financial reporting system and managed the $160M budgets of the company’s CEO and CFO. She is a former Division I scholarship tennis player and has completed two Chicago marathons in recent years. Helen now enjoys exploring vegetarian and vegan cooking.

4.9 /5 Average Rating
Based on 61 reviews
July 26, 2012
arutt25

Joined: Jul 26, 2012

Posts: 0

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Helen was great in helping me with the application process. She helped me target schools in my GMAT range and provided me with assistance in writing my application essays. Helen gave me constructive criticism and helped me learn how to enhance my resume to its fullest ability as well as how to construct and interesting and informative essay. She was very quick to respond to my inquiries and was very easy to contact and work with. The turnover time in between drafts and her critique was at the most 3 business days;she was very very efficient, yet gave me an very detailed criticisms. I would highly recommend her as a consultant .

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June 20, 2012
Anonymous

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I was initially skeptical of working with a high-priced consultant, but MBAMission had me wowed after the one hour complementary consultation.

The consultant asked me to articulate the reasons for my “top choice” schools at the time, and then proceeded to rip them apart. After learning about what I wanted out of my experience, my background, and my scores/work experience, she was able to draft up a list of 5 schools – a couple “reach”, a couple “target”, and a “safety” program – all within the top ~15 US MBA programs. I was wowed at how quickly she was able to see through my bs reasoning and methodically select a target list for me. After doing extensive research on her suggestions, I ended up applying to 4 of the 5 programs she suggested, and using MBA Mission to help me with my application.

The consultant I initially spoke to matched me up with a senior consultant at MBA Mission with a similar work experience background to mine – Helen Summers. Helen is fantastic!! I literally cannot say enough positive things about her. Here are a few:

- Helen is a straight shooter. When she sees bs/poor logic in your essays, interview responses, etc, etc she isn’t afraid to tell you.

- Helen pushes you to think deeper. Very rarely is your first essay/short answer idea the best one. It takes iterations to find the best story to tell and the best angle to take. Helen consistently pushed you to go deeper instead of taking the superficial/overdone/unconvincing but easy to write route. The essays I ended up crafting with Helen’s guidance are some of my most poignant writing, where my personality really shines through.

- Helen doesn’t write the essays for you. You put in the hard work. She is simply a very honest sounding board and editor. This is especially important since business schools want to hear your voice, not the voice of a consultant.

- She is a perfectionist. Some of my essays were on draft 11 or more before they were considered done. She looks at word count, grammar, syntax, flow, content, how gripping the story is, etc, etc.

- Helen is great at resume assistance. I thought I was already a fairly strong resume writer, but she really helped me articulate my accomplishments in a role, rather than my responsibilities. She also helped me do it in a way that made my accomplishments clear to a reader that would not necessarily know about my industry.

- Helen does her research on the schools. She knows the trend in interview questions for a specific school/ round. This makes interview prep twice as effective.

- Helen is super-responsive. About 70% of the time, she responded to me well before the official turn-around period. Of course as application deadlines approach she’ll have more work, so budget your time accordingly.

- Finally, Helen was super invested in my success. She genuinely wanted to see me succeed. The application process is super successful and it was fantastic to her guidance and support throughout.

I opted for the all-inclusive package. It’s expensive, but for me it was well worth it. Here are a few reasons why:

- You get unlimited essay editing. I cannot tell you how beneficial this is. I would write a draft and get comments back, rewrite, and then get more comments back. Had I only been able to submit for editing once or twice, my essays would not be nearly as tightly-written.

- Having a consultant forces you to keep momentum. I am a huge procrastinator, but having manageable chunks (ie. edit v7 of my essay, edit v2 of my resume, etc) helped me not get overwhelmed and keep going.

- The package includes help with and edits of all the fields in the application. This is a huge area for minefields as you have very few characters to articulate your biggest challenge in a role, etc. Definitely take advantage of this part of the package.

- The package includes resume help, mock-interviews, and all sorts of other super-helpful guidance.

All in all, I had a very positive experience with MBAMission and Helen Summers and would recommend both highly. One final thought – if you are having a hard time justifying the price, remember that after all is said and done, b-school will cost you roughly $200k. It is a huge investment. Spending a little extra to make sure you have the strongest application possible and upping your chances of getting into your preferred programs is well worth it.

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January 24, 2012
Anonymous

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Kudos: 0

I was a little nervous in singing up for mba missions start to finish package. Most reviews I had read were from those seeking entrance to top tier institutions, whereas I was just hoping to find somewhere that would accept me and needed help in everything from school selection to navigating the entire process. With the aid of my consultant, I was able to find a school that was a perfect fit for mend get accepted, which is no small feat given my prior record in academics. Emails were always promptly returned no matter the time. I couldn't be more pleased and believe it was a wonderful investment for person's in my position as well as those trying to get into an ivy league school.

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