Gavi was a great partner throughout my application process. She was especially helpful in identifying the core message I wanted to convey in my essays and ensuring there was clear, consistent linkage between the essay prompts, my experiences, and how they connected to my post-MBA goals. Coming from an engineering background, I also really valued how she helped translate my skillset into a more compelling narrative. She also pushed me to fully own my background and recognize how my path was atypical in a way that strengthened my story.

She was a great motivator and played a big role in building my confidence throughout the process. I truly believe the way she helped me articulate who I am is what enabled me to gain admission to top programs.

If I were to do this again, I would spend more time upfront (1 or 2 hours) aligning on overall fundamentals and positioning, since many essays across schools follow a similar structure. From there, you can carry that foundation forward and adapt it across applications. Overall, I really appreciated her guidance and would highly recommend her.

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I worked with Nisha Trivedi on my MBA applications and had a really positive experience overall. She was incredibly kind, smart, organized, and always came prepared to our conversations. The brainstorming sessions were particularly helpful—her thoughtful questions helped me unlock strong essay ideas. Nisha was also super fast with feedback and made communication seamless, whether over email or hopping on a call to talk through tricky parts.

One piece of advice I have for future applicants is to create a clear and structured plan for your MBA journey. Nisha helped me define mine, but it was ultimately up to me to stay on track. Since the process can feel overwhelming at times, having built-in structure really makes a difference. I recommend setting personal deadlines early and scheduling regular check-ins with your consultant to stay focused and organized.

Nisha was a great partner throughout, and I’d recommend her to anyone looking for a thoughtful and responsive consultant!

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I reached out to 4 admission consulting companies and ended up choosing mbaMission and Debbie Choy in particular. I like the fact that mbaMission allows potential clients to arrange an intro call with a specific consultant, as opposed to other companies who would match you with some consultants.

I enjoyed working with Debbie. She has a very personable and cheerful personality. She helped me tremendously in terms of connecting the individual pieces of experience into a coherent, convincing story. Debbie is also an effective writer and helped me refine my essays to be more readable and interesting. Debbie often guides me to make connections back to my theme/main point in my interview answers that I otherwise would not have thought about (E.g., tying MIT Sloan’s course cross-registration opportunity in the MIT engineering school with ESG investing). There were instances where Debbie offered to go the extra miles without charging me extra, which makes me feel valued as a client.

In terms of areas of improvement, I believe the firm, mbaMission, should prepare some materials that are uniquely applicable to deferred enrollment candidates. I’m a deferred enrollment candidate myself and I feel like some of the materials that I was instructed to read does not pertain to me. Also, I believe the flexibility of the admission consulting process can be improved. I started working with Debbie late January/early February, and the deadlines are in April. With this short timeframe, I got a bit frustrated when I was asked to read the whole 160 pages guide. I understand that the existing protocol might be appropriate for candidates with a lot of time, and hence can prepare them with a holistic view of the application process. But for candidates under time-pressure, I believe there should be some prioritization guided by consultants.

Some other smaller things that could be perfected include: 1) double checking the contents and links sent in emails; and 2) not letting clients feel rushed. There were cases where the links sent in the emails were not working, and other times the prompts for recommendation letters might not be updated. In terms of the second point, very infrequently would I feel a bit rushed near the end of the meeting.

Results-wise, I received a deferred enrollment offer from Columbia Business School, awaiting MIT Sloan and Virginia Darden. I believe that this offer from CBS would not be possible without Debbie’s help, and I’m very grateful for choosing Debbie and mbaMission overall.

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I worked with Gavriella on an hourly basis for assistance with my resume and interview prep. She gave me great tips and edits to perfect my resume, and the mock interviews prepared me for my interviews at a handful of schools. I felt confident with my application after submitting, and the interviews went very smoothly as I had a solid answer ready for every question. Gavriella also helped me choose between my options. With her help, I was admitted to six MBA programs, five with at least a 50% scholarship. All were top 25 programs and I ultimately got into my top choice. I would recommend Gavriella and MBAmission to anyone wanting to perfect their application for a competitive MBA program.

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I am honestly terrible at essay writing, so deeply needed someone patient enough to work with me through a seemingly endless string of rewrites. I also work in finance so was looking for someone that 1) could walk in with a good understanding of my experience and 2) would help push me when I was falling behind on essay timelines given how busy work can get.

Julie-Anne was a great match for me because I found that she was able to help me repackage my experiences in ways that popped on the page, which given how bad I am at essay writing, required a lot of time and iteration. Julie-Anne was patient throughout letting me drive the process (ex. if I wanted to do a 4th re-write) while still providing her thoughts and recommendations, pushing back on my ideas when warranted. More broadly, I found Julie-Anne warm and someone I enjoyed working with.

Dual admit to HBS/GSB

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Jessica took a huge interest in my success and went through my application with a fine tooth comb. Jessica also made me feel less stressed throughout the process. Jessica's greatest skill is packaging your story and her attention to detail. I really appreciated her candid feedback throughout the application process. She was super responsive and I was able to use some of the materials from our sessions and MBAmission for other applications which was helpful (note a lot of the MBAmission resources are available for free on the website so you can access them there). I would recommend Jessica for other applicants navigating the process for the first time.

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I worked with John using a 3 school package and I believe I would not have had the same outcomes, particularly with scholarship money, that I received if I had not worked with him. I had no idea how to frame my "story" and he came in with great ideas and excellent editing/writing abilities to help me pull my application together into a very compelling application that adcoms loved! I got into 5/6 schools I applied to, all with major scholarship money. I'll be heading to Wharton in the Fall. I think I might have gotten into some of these schools on my own, but John helped push me out of the pack and gave me an edge that led me to substantial scholarship money. He spent hours on the phone with me brainstorming ideas for essays, heavily edited essays for the 3 schools for which I was working with him (and then I rather easily transferred many of these essays to the schools I did on my own), and really helped me prep for interviews. My biggest issues with John were that he was late to almost all of our phone meetings, sometimes forgot to respond to my emails and would return essay drafts to me way after his promised deadlines. Also, there were times where I felt John lacked emotional support and was biased i.e. not congratulating me when I received scholarships to schools he didn't help me with, and when I got dinged from my top school he focused on defending himself instead of supporting me. Overall I would highly recommend John! He was not without his faults, but he definitely helped me achieve my goals and in the end that's all that really matters.

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Jen provided really helpful feedback on essays and and my mock interview, helping me hone my story and tell it in a concise and compelling way. Our communication was mostly by email and she was always quick to respond.

If I had to offer one piece of constructive feedback, it's that I think Jen could have pushed me even harder by being more frank with her comments on the content of my essays. Her feedback on structure, wording, etc. was spot on, but I found several friends and family members who weren't afraid to tell me I had missed the mark in my response to a prompt and that I needed to alter my overall approach. In hindsight, I think Jen was a bit more forthcoming with feedback like this. (Important note, this may be a result that I was using Jen on an hourly basis, so she admittedly didn't know me as well as she might have if we were working together more extensively).

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I worked with Jen from MBAMission during my MBA application process and it was a seamless and wonderful experience. I got in to Ross and INSEAD and finally decided to go to INSEAD. I used MBAMIssion's services as I did not have time to go through the application process with my full time job. Jen did an incredible job in helping me to articulate my story and tie up the loose ends. She always responded to my queries and her comments were never late. We had a brain storming session in the beginning and then most of the communication was through email and it was very efficient. I really thank Jen for her wonderful support during the intense application period.

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I would definitely recommend mbaMission and specifically John. He was always timely with his edits to my essays and provided in-depth commentary & edits to every draft. For me, it was helpful to know someone who is an expert in the space had viewed my documents, almost giving them a seal of approval before sending off to schools. Since I applied Round 2, my essay writing/reviews fell over the holidays but John was still checking emails and communicative about drafts etc. Last, mbaMission has so many helpful documents and white papers to help you navigate the process - I found them really helpful and reassuring as I faced each step of the admissions process.

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