My admission success (admitted to Wharton, MIT Sloan and INSEAD) would have never happened without Katherine Lewis. We have worked together for two years. The first year, I applied to two schools and did not get in. Katy did not let me give up. She not only motivated me to work harder but frequently went out of her way to help me submit six applications the following year. As a result, I got admission letters from Wharton, MIT Sloan, INSEAD with a substantial scholarship from Wharton. We are in touch till this day.

There are many fantastic things about working with Katy. But the following are probably the most important:

1. Responsiveness/always being there – Katy was really there for me whenever I needed her, even during the holidays and weekends. She was sending me revised essays within a day! She was always available to talk whenever I wanted to ask for her advice. When I was in Poland, she would literally work around the clock to make it work despite the time zone differences. I have always felt that she is as committed and engaged in the process as I was. I have never felt that she had other clients – although I know she had. She helped me to apply to 6 schools in 1 round!

2. Honesty and pushing back – I am educated in Eastern Europe. We are not used to writing essays in an “American way” and it took me a lot of time to adjust my style and understand how to tell my story. What I truly appreciate about Katy is the fact that she was always giving me an honest feedback, teaching me how to keep the message simple and learn how to “show” instead of “tell”. Her questions would make me think deeper about the underlying reasons and messages behind the story I wanted to tell.

3. Deep engagement and support – Katy frequently went out of her way to support me. I felt that she truly mentored me on the whole admission process, thinking with me on how to improve my GMAT score, which recommenders to choose ( I changed them from first year to the second one), which schools and programs to apply to. She did not have an easy time with me – I have sent her 40 pages of my bio before we started working with each other and she helped me to extract main massages. All of my essays had dozens of iterations. Katy's patience with me was incredible.

4. Getting to know you – I believe that trust is extremely important while working with a consultant. Katy made me feel since the beginning that I am important to her as a person. She made me feel that she was truly interested in my dreams, challenges, and career. Due to that, she was able to understand me on a much deeper level. Hence, my essays were much stronger, much more personal. I truly hope that we will keep in touch. And I more than recommend working with Katy to anyone!

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I worked with Katy on a 4 school package and was admitted to my top choice and waitlisted at two others. When I first spoke with Katy during a free consultation I was immediately impressed with the amount of background research she had already done, really familiarizing herself with my resume and the company I worked for. She really took the time to address my questions and concerns and didn’t aggressively force a sales pitch upon me, which is why I knew she would be great to work with.

Coming from an engineering background where going to business school was a foreign concept, I decided I wanted to go with the comprehensive 4 school package. This turned out to be a great decision. As someone totally unfamiliar to the application process, the comfort of always having someone to turn to for the even the smallest questions proved to be invaluable and really allowed me to relax and focus of getting my story across. From the outset, Katy helped me narrow down the schools I should apply to based on the criteria that were most important to me, a step I feel is often overlooked. During our brainstorming sessions, she delved deep into my experiences and aspirations to really get at the heart of who I was and what I bring to the table as a candidate. Taking the time to be thorough early on really aided in essay writing and interview prep later on.

Katy was also instrumental in honing my essay writing and interview skills. In an ultra-competitive process such as applying to top B-Schools, you never know which little mistake may be the difference between acceptance and rejection. Katy helped me get my message across in a clear and concise way while avoiding the pitfalls of coming across as too arrogant, too modest, too wordy, etc. Our mock interview sessions, while exhausting, proved to be just the tune up I needed prior to my actual interviews, allowing me to walk in feeling confident and relaxed.

Overall Katy was extremely helpful through every step of the application process. She went above and beyond the “required” duties of a consultant and really built a relationship with me. I would strongly recommend Katy to any prospective students applying to top schools.

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I had the pleasure of working with Katy Lewis of mbaMission for my application to Columbia Business School and was ultimately admitted. As someone in my mid 30s who had always been working in academic biomedical research, I was initially unsure about how to put the best representation of myself through my essays. I spoke to a couple of different admission consultants from various companies but Katy was the main person who I felt a good chemistry. Moreover, she was able to give me a very balanced assessment of my situation in our first contact and I really appreciated that. In my 3 hours with Katy, the first 1-1.5hr was spent on brainstorming about my past experience and really got to the root of why I want to go to business school. This was an extremely important exercise between it gave Katy a chance to get to know me better while giving me the confidence that I could craft a strong story for my essay. During the actual essay writing phase, Katy was extremely efficient in turning around essay drafts that I submitted to her, typically less 24hr and with very helpful insights that were specific to me. Of course, I was absolutely happy with the final version of the essay. Even after the paid hours were up, Katy continued to check in on me and even gave me advice when I was waitlisted, which was a big surprise for me. Overall, my experience of working with Katy was extremely positive, not just because of her in depth expertise but her sincerity in rooting for my success. In conclusion, I have no hesitation in recommending Katy Lewis to anyone in search of a mentor/advisor for the MBA application process. In my humble opinion, it was money well spent!

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Katherine is more than an essay consultant; she is a true mentor and adviser. Not only did she exceed my expectations - helping me craft my essays, but she continued to help me craft e-mails to admissions staff, current students and alumni, which is what I believe sealed the deal. More importantly, she was a constant source of support and advice thought out what was a very stressful time.

I would have not gotten into my top choice school if it wasn't for her and I know my co-worker (who referred me) feels the same way. In fact, I recommend her to all my friends and wish I could still pick her brain as I apply for summer MBA internships.

I cannot imagine an admissions consultant better than her and I give her my highest recommendation.

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I worked with Katy Lewis from mbaMission for my Round 3 2+2 application the Harvard Business School and was ultimately admitted. As a non-STEM student, I knew it would be an uphill battle to convince the Admissions Committee that they should accept me to the program. Right away, Katy made me feel comfortable going forward. No matter how many questions or concerns I brought to her attention, she was always enthusiastically helpful, aiding me in portraying my best self to the Admissions Committee, from the application portion all the way through the interview. Katy was crucial in helping me craft my story. Before we spoke, I was unsure and unclear with my vision for what I wanted to put in my application and how best to present myself. Through our essential brainstorming session, Katy got to know me better than I knew myself, helped me refine and carefully choose which parts of my experiences were appropriate, and ultimately made me feel more than confident in my ability to put together a stellar application. Any time, any place – Katy was there to read through a draft (or several!) and suggest creative and unique ways to answer those tough application questions. In fact, after looking at my profile, Katy understood the career path that was best suited for me at this time, and that would shed my past experiences in the best light. She is more than an admissions consultant; she is like a career and life coach! And, I am glad to call her not only my trusted advisor, but also my friend! If you want to ensure the best chances of acceptance at your dream school, do not miss out on working with Katy!

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I was initially not going to use an admissions consultant but after buying GMAT books from Manhattan GMAT I was offered a free 30 minute consultation and figured I would try it out. I was very impressed by Katy on our first call. She had really done her homework before the call and knew my resume and had creative thoughts about my application and how I could tell my story. She was thoughtful, methodical, and very clear. I decided to work with her and am very happy I made that decision. While she helped me in countless ways, I think there are three areas where she was truly invaluable.

First, she really helped me tell my story in the most coherent way possible. I had to explain certain non-traditional parts of my application and she helped me come up with elegant ways to do so. She didnt change my story or goals, just helped me display them in a coherent way. After coming up with the story and crafting the essay, I sent them to her to have her poke holes in them. She analyzed my 'why MBA' argument the way a lawyer analyzes a case (not surprising she went to Harvard Law School). While the application is certainly not a legal case, this was really helpful in a number of ways. First, it forced me to make the strongest and most logical case possible for why I needed one of the seats at GSB and HBS. Second, it prepared me for the interview. I knew what to expect.

Second, Katy was really helpful in advising me how to manage my referees. She suggested that I prepare a memo outlining some examples that I thought illustrated the qualities that the b-schools were after. Since I was no longer working for those recommenders, they said they really appreciated the memo as it helped jar their memories.

Third, Katy really made me feel prepared for my interviews. The analysis of my argument showed me what to expect and we did a few mock interviews wherein she critiqued my answers. She also gave me a list of questions to expect given my background. Nothing surprised me about the interviews.

I can't recommend Katy highly enough. She is a pleasure to work with (friendly, responsive to emails, excellent listener) and I intend to stay in touch with her. Her advice and help played a big role in my admission to Harvard and Stanford.

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My application was far from ordinary. I was applying to two business schools (CBS, LBS) and three real estate programs (Harvard, Columbia, MIT). My undergrad GPA was under a 3.0 and I had started my own development company instead of having bulge bracket experience. Initially Katherine helped demystify the process and gave me a non-sugar coated analysis of my application, which I very much appreciated.
In dealing with my low GPA, she suggested an unapologetic approach that ended up turning a weakness into an opportunity. I don't know how many clients Katherine was helping at the time but she certainly made me feel at ease by being consistently available to address questions and concerns. She got to know me quickly, understood my strengths and weaknesses, and helped my leverage the former over the latter in both the big picture and small details of my essays. Katy helped me see the application as a holistic process and crafted it accordingly with essays, recommendations, and a resume that worked together to really bring out my story to the admission committee. I feel like this was especially helpful given my background. Katy helped me tell a great story about myself, sometimes in under 500 words. She was great at showing me what was important, what was not, and what I shouldn't say at all.
There wasn't much information on the real estate programs available, but Katy researched what others within mbaMission had done and provided greater insight than what I could have found on my own.
At first I was hesitant to hire an admission consultant after already paying for Manhattan GMAT prep. Those hours were well worth it, not only for the results but also because I felt less stressed throughout the process. I was admitted to all of the programs except London and will be attending Harvard in the fall. I would absolutely recommend Katy for anyone pursuing a graduate degree at a top tier school.

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mbaMission was incredible in helping me apply to school. I am a joint-degree candidate, who was interested in only HBS and I was able to work with a joint-degree holder from HBS, Katharine Lewis. That in and of itself is unique. But Katharine was above and beyond fantastic. My application was very last minute and she took on the case because of an obvious interest in my story and love for her job. She was always available, be it weekends, or two days before the deadline.

Katharine worked with me in reviewing my application and in my mock interview. Because I was interested in only one school, Katharine’s “insider baseball” knowledge was really useful and comforting. In addition, her feedback was insightful and helpful in shaping my story and improving my candidacy.

Working with Katharine was great not only because of the work we produced, but also because she is really on the ball. You can tell she is just an incredibly sharp person (in additional to her killer resume at McKinsey, Stanford, etc.) who likes working with applicants. As a result, I felt like my two hours went an incredibly long way—definitely a solid investment.

I should note that I came to Katharine after an incredibly negative experience with someone from MBA Exchange who literally called me by the wrong name in all of our email exchanges, despite the fact that she had read my resume, spoken to me on the phone ,etc. Do NOT just go with any consultant who has worked in admissions at your target school, because they are not all made the same. Katharine is clearly just sharper and doing this consulting because she likes it and finds it interesting as opposed to “hey, I used to interview for a top school so I’m probably qualified.”

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Before committing to mbaMission, I explored some other high-priced consultants through the 30-minute free consultations that many of them offer. I was disappointed with how the other consultants used the time to provide vague and generic advice. Because of this, I doubted that I would use a consultant, but Katharine Lewis at mbaMission really wowed me in our first meeting with her specific suggestions about what I should highlight in my essays. She was realistically honest, but confident in my abilities saying, "If you can convince Berkeley-Haas that you really want to go there, I think you have a great shot."

Katy ultimately helped me craft my personal story by probing me with insightful questions and challenging me to think about why I do the things I do. She helped me identify my strengths and experiences that would specifically resonate with my top choice, Berkeley-Haas, and was very knowledgeable about what they were looking for.

With Katy's guidance, I was able to convince Berkeley-Haas that I really wanted to go there and was recently accepted. I am so excited and grateful to Katy.

Sign up for a free consultation today! There really is no risk at all and I am confident you'll be impressed.

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As a prospective MBA student 10 years removed from writing essays for applications, I knew applying to Wharton's Executive and Berkeley's EW program would be a challenge. What I didn't realize was that the application process was so much more than simply writing essays. Thankfully I met Katy, and she helped lay out a plan for tackling the applications.

Specifically, these are reasons why I would recommend Katy and MBA consultants in general.

- She facilitated a discussion to help draw out themes that would be highlighted in my application. Spend the $ on the brainstorming session, it's worth it.
- She explained the differences between MBA programs from a perspective I hadn't thought of.
- She introduced me to current students in the program.
- She was very good at helping create a clean narrative from my own prospective and with my own style.
- She could answer the one-off odd questions that invariably arise during the application process (the ones you can't really ask the adCom).
- A word to the wise, if you plan to use hourly service do some research first and have an idea of what you are looking for as far as assistance goes, otherwise the per school cost makes more sense.

Thank KL!

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