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I certainly did. I was not afraid of tests and essays, but I was terrified about talking about myself and my journey. A lot of my fellow MBA applicants fall into this category - we have nebulous, wishy washy thoughts about our strengths and career dreams, and don't know how to crystalize them into a story. Angela completely changed that for me. Unlike other consultants and advice-givers, Angela starts with YOU as the individual, and forces you to reflect very deeply about yourself. For her, the process of career mapping is central to the MBA process, and everything unfolds from there. Career mapping should also be fun - and with her, it is! She brings a positive, humorous approach that is incredibly valuable during this often harrowing process. After working with Angela I not only feel crystal clear about my career goals and story, I also feel great about myself and my decision to pursue an MBA. Instead of dread when someone asks me "why do you want an MBA," I actually get visibly excited to share my story. How great is that? Thank you, Angela!
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Consultant Jessica Shklar
As non-traditional student with very few personal MBA connections, the application process seemed incredibly daunting. After being recommended Jessica by another non-traditional applicant who received admission at Wharton, I was undoubtedly impressed by what she brought to the application process. Not only was I accepted to the school of my (and my wife's) dreams, Jessica brought a layer to the application process I would have never discovered on my own. The sheer magnitude of self-discovery, through her method of consulting, not only helped me evaluate what I wanted from a school and how to write my applications accordingly, but what I want to accomplish both during and post-MBA. Her insights not only helped me receive admission, but helped me draw a better picture of how I want to market myself in my job hunt. I would strongly recommend Jessica to anyone wanting to apply to a top MBA, especially non-traditional candidates.
During an interview at a well known record label, a hiring manager looked at my resume, then me, and said with exasperation, "I don't understand why you are applying for this job. Your path makes no sense to me." While I had a clear vision for the path I wanted to take, I've struggled to help others understand. Angela is the first consultant who has understood my career path and my future goals within minutes. She saw connections that I see, but which I've struggled to communicate to others. In just the first session alone, Angela provided clear advice with tangible action items that gave me confidence to move forward with the daunting MBA application journey. Her passion for learning and understanding others is infectious in the best way, and she is just as strategic as she is warm and insightful. Would recommend her 10/10.
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Consultant Katharine Lewis
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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I met Angela at the Forte MBALaunch 2016 Kick-Off event in Houston (she was a panelist) and through a series of webinars hosted by the MBALaunch program, and from the very beginning I saw in her a genuine individual, with lots of energy, ready to rock and roll. I contacted her in early July 2016, a bit late for R1 applications, and immediately confirmed my interest to work with her for R1, regardless of the tight schedule. What I loved about her was how genuine and straight forward she was when it came to discussing my school choice and the depth in which she wanted to get to know me to gain a better sense of what was the best fit for my goals. She didn't just look at my stats (country of origin, GPA, GMAT score, among others) but went deeper within my experience (personal and professional) to understand my goals and dreams and always encouraged me to apply to my top choices. She helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses in such a way I ended up recognizing extremely important aspects of my life I had, for a long time, taken for granted. Angela became my life coach and led me to discover many attributes, opportunities and room for improvement in other aspects I had completely disregarded as part of the application process. Her good vibes, straight forward advice and awesome energy were key to push myself beyond my limits and deliver three complete applications in less than two months!!!! During the process (essays and brainstorming), she helped me to be 100% empowered with my story, my origins and my goals, regardless of how atypical they were, especially during the interview process, a time in which my nerves skyrocketed!
The results were unbelievable!!! I was accepted to all three (top 5) schools and I'm happy to say that I will be attending HBS in the fall!
As I look back on my application process, I couldn't feel more thankful for having Angela by my side in this self-discovery journey, not only because of the fact that she was key to make this dream come true but also because, thanks to her, I now feel empowered with who I am and ready to keep betting on myself!
I highly recommend reaching out to her. You'll see it for yourselves!
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Consultant Daniel Richards
I booked an hourly package with Dan Richards because I had a pretty good idea of essay topics but needed some help putting it all together and making the essays flow together. I was hesitant to use a consultant at first, but after talking to several friends who recently went through the MBA process, and after my 30 min consultation, I was convinced this would be well worth the investment -- and it was! Dan and mbaMission exceeded my expectations and helped make the application process feel much less stressful.
Dan is an extremely gifted writer; my responses would often be verbose and all over the map, but Dan has the unique ability to cut through the weeds and say "this is what I think you're trying to say, let's try to frame it in this way...". We went through 5-7 drafts on each essay, and each was significantly better than the last thanks to Dan's feedback and guidance. I am confident I would not have submitted such strong essays without his help.
What was even more valuable was that Dan really helped me map out my career path and think through what each job (and responsibilities) meant. This was key both to my essays as well as my own, personal growth. Dan is clearly very familiar with all types of career paths and can offer many details and insights to roles, responsibilities, etc.
Going into the process, I thought my resume would need minimal work - boy was I wrong! Dan helped make it MUCH stronger and cleaner. I learned that a business school resume is different than a professional one, but I also took away some tips to use in a professional context as well.
Lastly, Dan helped me decide when enough was enough, and to just submit and stop worrying :-) I think you can go on forever refining essays, resumes, etc., but at one point that becomes more detrimental than helpful! Dan helped me decide when that point was reached.
With Dan's help, I was able to get into my top choice school!!
I felt Dan was very respectful of our time together and I would not hesitate to recommend him, or mbaMission, to a friend. Well worth the investment!
A side note about mbaMission:
I originally spoke with Katy from mbaMission during my 30 min consultation. When it turned out she was booked for hourly work, she was quick to recommend Dan based on my background and choice of schools. I get the sense that mbaMission has a lot more camaraderie than some of their peers -- which I think is great! I had several 30 min consultations and was most impressed by mbaMission's professionalism, breadth of knowledge, and superior recommendations. I would certainly use them again.
Angela is amazing at her job! She's been extremely helpful throughout my MBA application process. She's been great at addressing all the parts of my application I was really concerned about. The Success Inventory toolkit has been such a difference maker in deciding which aspects of my life I'm most proud of that I can share in my essays. Learning how to create an MBA specific resume, creating a personal statement that is a story and creating my career game plan are areas (amongst a few others) Angela helped me further develop. I would not have been able to do this on my own and highly recommend working with Angela!
Angela helped at multiple stages in my application process. In particular the Success Inventory document gave me great tips to start off my journey in thinking about the different things I had achieved and how they all fit together in one narrative.
The workshop I did with Angela early about storytelling on also helped me build confidence and think about a distinct and more interesting way of telling stories without being too formulaic.
In general, listening to Angela has overall made me feel like the MBA is something achievable for me. Actually going through process she also gave tips that will help me in career for the rest of my life, I would definitely recommend her.
Angela provided excellent insight and advice on my resume, application materials, and essay. Her knowledge and expertise pertaining to MBA applications is unparalleled. She is very generous with her time and made additional time available in her calendar to accommodate me. I would highly recommend working with Angela for all application needs! She provided the Success Inventory document for a deeper insight into my professional narrative, as well as the resume guidelines. She led webinars and workshops as part of the Forte Foundation and shared useful resources. I now realize all that there is to do and how much I don't know about each business school and how to make the strongest application possible! Angela provided tactical tips and inspiration to help make the road easier and solidify my professional profile, my story, and my approach to applications.
I had the opportunity to learn from Angela during a handful of webinars for the Forte MBALaunch program. Of all the webinars I been through with the MBA Launch, hers were the ones I looked forward to the most. Of the few webinars that she presented her resume protocol and success inventory were the highlights for me.
The success inventory is a valuable tool to strategically build a greatest hits list for applications, and is a helpful tool to arrange thoughts for application essays, etc. I am looking at application essay topics now and I have few where I don't already have a story/experience that I can integrate into the essay from this greatest hits list.
The resume protocol helped me to revamp my resume to a b-school friendly application format. I found it very easy to convert my current professional resume into the format, it was just a matter of rethinking about what I had done in my current/previous roles and really getting at the highlights vice the day to day tasks. The protocol has clear guidelines on how to think about approaching the resume, and how to make sure it stands out.
Beyond the tools, I really appreciated Angela's presentations. I found them to be chock full of good nuggets and were interesting throughout. I HIGHLY recommend Angela!