After a free 30 min consulting, I was referred to consultant, Jen Kedrowski, who was recommended after the initial point of contact decided that my style, story, and direction would be best matched with Jen. I purchased 3 hours, which I thought to be quite pricey for the amount of time, but I was willing to pay that price because I was in a place where I just needed someone I could trust to verify that my thoughts and ideas made cohesive sense. There's only so much that your friends can do, and they can only be so invested in YOUR future. So I sought a consultant because it's their fulltime job to be invested in you. So what I was actually paying for was peace of mind and another set of eyes that would help me formulate a plan for each school that I was applying to. Upon introducing my story to Jen, she listened, and gave very helpful feed back in terms of what ideas were good and what ideas weren't so great. I told her in the beginning that I want feedback to be straight up, and to not worry about hurting my feelings, because what I want from all this is the best possible application and essays I can make, and that is exactly what she delivered. I had applied to McCombs (WL), Foster (Admitted with scholarship), and Wisconsin (admitted with scholarship) with a GMAT score of 680 and a GPA of 3.1. As you can see, my scores aren't particularly exceptional, and what I believe gave my applications the edge were my essays that Jen helped me formulate. She doesn't play any gimmicks with making things up with what you should say. What she does is gather all your information, tell you what about your past stands out the most, and help you tie those important pieces together in a way that you are able to articulate your strengths while making cohesive sense to your overall past, present, and future. Even though I had gone over my time limit that I purchased, she always responded with answers to any questions I had beyond what she was paid to do, and even helped me decide which school I should attend. Long story short, she's genuine, smart as hell, and trustworthy. I would highly recommend her to anyone seeking help on essays and which schools would best suit your needs.

Read More

Heidi provided an excellent service on my essay ideas and editing. She helped me generate my most convincing strength on my essay, which made me successful in my application. Heidi always turned her editing back to me in a timely manner, never later than her promise date. I signed up total 3 hours of her time in my essay edition and I think they were more valuable than my investment. I highly recommend Heidi to everyone who wants to apply for top MBA programs. Without her help, I don't think my application process will be such smooth and efficient (I did not waste one minute in my essay).

Read More

I was connected to Harshad by Angela Guido, another mbaMission consultant and generally amazing human being whom I'd met through the Forté Foundation MBALaunch program. I'd had my sights set on attending Chicago Booth from the time I opened my first Manhattan prep book, and I knew it would be a challenging process. I come from a social impact background, and I knew I could really only afford a couple of hours of admissions support. Although I was applying to a number of schools, I decided to devote my time with Harshad to structuring and editing my Booth essay. A Booth alum himself, Harshad was incredibly thoughtful and easy to talk to, and before I knew it I was sharing my life story with him. He helped me to choose an essay topic that felt authentic and meaningful. Notably, Harshad has a depth of expertise about the school and its philosophy, and he helped me to connect the dots between my own values and those of UofC's "Chicago Approach." Harshad is an expert storyteller and with his guidance I was able to shape my thoughts into a cohesive and compelling piece of writing. He is strategic and logical, and asks thought-provoking questions. Working with Harshad felt like participating in a writing workshop, and at the end of the process I was proud to submit my application.

After I was accepted to Booth in Round 2(!) with some scholarship funding, Harshad helped me to draft a respectful inquiry about possible additional funding, and the school was able to increase my scholarship package. This fall, I'll be attending Chicago Booth with a very generous scholarship award, and I owe a great debt of gratitude to Harshad for this outcome. I would absolutely recommend working with Harshad for your MBA admissions process.

Read More

If an MBA is a personal discovery journey, working with Monica is the perfect way to prepare :)

I got to know Monica through a friend, currently HBS student.
When I had my 30-min call with Monica, I already knew what my biggest struggle would be - essay writing. I was under some time pressure, didn't have much experience in essay writing and had an unconventional career path I was struggling to take advantage of.

After our initial call, I knew I had found the right person to help me. Through her targeted questions and comments, I knew Monica would push me stay true to myself and would help me bring the best (and even leverage the worst) of my personal and professional paths.

On essay writing, Monica was a life-saver.

She helped me brainstorm the structure of my essay, what my stories and decisions meant to me, and which anecdotes would best convene my personality and would be more authentic. She would criticize, praise, help me think through my experiences and have a magical way to helping me communicate what I was really trying to say, even if I didn't know it at first (it's borderline scary sometimes). Plus, as a non-native speaker having Monica helping me was essential - she would turn convoluted sentences into incredibly powerful messages.

Monica also helped me prepare for my interview - and here again she was an amazing help.

Monica helped me understand the mindset of the interviewers, the best pace, depth, breath, and also what were the must-have questions/answers that I would need to prepare to. Thanks to Monica I was able to feel confident and relaxed, and follow her advice of being as genuine and authentic as possible during the interview :)

In the end I got an admitted to my target school - HBS - and I could not be more happy I got to work with Monica on this journey!!

Thank you Monica!! :)

Read More

Working with Jeremy Shinewald from mbaMission was a gift and a pleasure. I signed up with him a mere 3 weeks before my Round 2 deadlines. I figured “the leverage” of using a somewhat pricey consultant made sense for a couple reasons – (1) If I get into my dream school, it leads to huge dividends for my future and (2) If I get awarded financial scholarships, on an immediate monetary level, the consulting services pay for themselves…I am fortunate to say that both outcomes happened to me. I got into my dream school and with a $25k+ scholarship.

I chose mbaMission because they were referred to me by ManhattanGMAT which I had an amazing experience with. I chose Jeremy because he is the founder of mbaMission and happened to be the only consultant available for my very short 3-week timeline.

Jeremy in particular, added a phenomenal amount of value to me personally and my applications. On a personal level, he helped me do some soul-searching and gain clarity on what I wanted, my past experiences and my strengths. As a “Type A” type of person, I can often be hard on myself and Jeremy helped me see a bigger and wider picture. On application materials, Jeremy truly went above and beyond, turning around tons of work back to me on tight deadlines (i.e., hours) without charging me an extra penny and despite the “two-business-day response” in our contract. The quality of Jeremy’s writing skills are tremendous and he understood the schools I was applying to on a much better level than I could from my own research.

In short, I highly recommend mbaMission and Jeremy. Whether you choose to go with them, I highly suggest taking advantage of the free 30-minute session as that short call on its own added a lot of value to me plus gave me a feel of their services without having to pay anything.

Read More

My stats: 740 GMAT/3.3 GPA/5 years WE in tech. I applied late in the game (took the GMAT end of Otc, applied for Round 2 to 5 schools starting in late Nov).

I took the Manhattan Prep course and they recommend mbaMission so I signed up for the 30 minute free consultation with Monica. She was absolutely on-point, pointing out weakness in my EC and providing feedback on my target schools. It was such a productive session I signed up for a package deal for hourly consulting. Given the price of business school, the price of consulting seems absolutely worth it, especially given the potential pain and price of having to apply again if you don't get in to a target school.

I worked with Brian Eng, who was really helpful in a number of key ways:

1. He listened to my story, helped me understand and reflect on what exactly I wanted, and how I could fine-tune my goals and express continuity from where I was to where I wanted to go. He didn't re-write my story or push me to change anything so much as say something to the effect of "it sounds like you want to be involved in X in the long term, why not spell that out as your long term goal?"

2. He provided very pointed feedback about line items in my essays as well as general thoughts on gaps I needed to fill or directional issues in my essays. This was always according to my asks however. I would generally request either high level review to start with, and then ask for more line item reviews when I got to a later draft.

3. He would match my quick pace during phone calls so we could get the most out of our time. I really appreciate that because there were some essays I would have a lot of questions about and others I would have just a few pointed questions about. Some of my questions were really broad e.g. of these 5 ideas, which one do you think best addresses this prompt and shows a new side of me? He was great at getting to the point and moving quickly from topic to topic as per my request.

4. He helped me figure out what each essay questions was really trying to "get at" in terms of what schools wanted to find out about me. Rather than telling me what kind of stories to use, he would point out that certain essays were better answered with personal rather than professional anecdotes, or constantly explain how much more school-sspecific and tailored I would need to make my essays. Ultimately the big questions are why b school, why now, why this one, short term goal, long term goal. And Brian helped me determine which essay or place in the application I would be best served putting each answer since it's not always possible or advisable to answer all those items in one prompt.

If I had any constructive feedback, it would be that I was expecting a touch more hands-on help in terms of help brainstorming essay ideas and responsiveness, but those were both mostly driven by the fact that I was in a time crunch and very stressed. That said, it was fairly minor and I appreciated that he encouraged me at every turn and mentioned he had been in a similar situation when he applied for schools. Ultimately, he helped me get accepted to 2 top 10 schools, both my top choices.

In terms of how "worth it" the service is, I definitely think from a price perspective it is worth it given how much you're already paying for business school and applications. The best way to optimize the service's worth is to brainstorm questions and ideas before calls/emails and hit all your concerns at once. From an application management perspective, it's absolutely worth it if you don't have a lot of people who have previously applied to help you out. I also really appreciated all the free school guides the website provides!

Read More

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.

Read More

I had a great experience working with John Sisk from mbaMission on my essays, resume and short answers. It was great to have a third party who really knows what he is doing and has no bias towards my writing/content. With his support, I was accepted into my top two schools (HBS and Columbia). I would highly recommend working with him.

(1) John pushed me. Each time that I thought I’d nailed it, he’d reply with insightful feedback, always asking why….why did I want to do X in my career, why does Y motivate me...He challenged me, pushing me to take each aspect of my essays to the next level, really examining my motivations and how they play into my overall story. He is an expert in the space and helped me to dig deeper to product essays I was really proud of.

(2) That said, he never stressed me out. He consistently offered great advice, stayed patient, kept me calm and on track, and helped me get my essays across the finish line. He was honest, straightforward and optimistic.

(3) I was late to the game and I wish I’d allowed for more time. John was always responsive, but 2 business day turnarounds can add up when you’re close to deadlines (and holiday breaks are upon you). We had a lot of essays going back and forth (and ended up wasting costly $$ b/c I was sending John multiple versions to review at a time due to the pending deadlines). Make sure to take this into account + reach out as early as possible.

(4) Before I began working with mbaMission, I spent a lot of time reading sample essays and brainstorming. I ended up overwhelmed and wasting time. I wish that I had reached out to John sooner in the process for his guidance in how to approach the essays and structure my thinking.

It was costly, but entirely worth the investment. To have an unbiased expert was invaluable

Read More

Before I get into the review, a few items about myself:
1.) American who was born/raised in the Chicagoland area.
2.) I'm at a company that works with utilities and renewable energy developers across North America. My job function is a structural engineer.
3.) Undergrad GPA: 3.30, Masters GPA: 3.28
4.) GMAT: 750 (6.0 AWA, 7 IR, 50 Quant, 42 Verbal)
5.) I'm extremely involved with a structural engineers association and other engineering societies.

I'm a somewhat unorthodox candidate (given that I'm a structural engineer as opposed to a mechanical or electrical) who really needed help. While I knew that I wanted to get into business school, I wasn't quite certain I could do it by myself. So, I enlisted Monica to help me craft my story. As some here have echoed, she won't do the work for you. You will need to do the brainstorming and the writing of the essays. She will help you craft your story as well as edit the essays to really bring out the best person you can be so that the admissions staff sees a polished candidate.

I knew that I couldn't really articulate why I wanted to go to b-school and Monica helped me find the real reasons why I wanted to go. When I got done with the essays, she would tear them apart (in a good way) and ask all the questions to prod me towards finished and cohesive essays that presented a consistent narrative. She also looked at my weaknesses (relatively lower GPAs for undergrad and grad school) and we were able to be proactively address those in optional essays to go on the offensive instead being reactive. She also made certain that I understood the industries that I was going into, so that I had a clear idea of what I was talking about. Before I submitted my applications, she did a final review of my applications (after I had done it 3-4 times) to make certain I didn't miss anything. After I got interview requests from multiple schools, she helped me with interview prep so that I properly communicated what my passions were and how I felt I was going to be an asset to the schools that I applied to.

Bottom line, Monica helped me tremendously. She helped a seemingly hopeless structural engineer figure out what the next steps were so that I could get to where I needed to be. While the hourly rates were truthfully very highly, I felt as though it really helped me get to where I wanted to be and I wouldn't have done it any other way.

Read More

I really enjoyed working with Monica as I applied to b-school for the fall of 2017. After looking through a couple of consultants across a few different companies, I chose Monica given client testimonials online, her prior experience in banking/finance (my field), and the fact that she had earned her MBA at HBS (my #1 choice). I planned to be very efficient and focused as I applied, and accordingly chose to go with the hourly service to keep me on track.

Right off the bat, Monica's background came in very handy as we edited my resume, since she knew what industry jargon to cut out and how best to highlight my accomplishments / achievements in the workplace.

Regarding my essay, I thought I had a fairly good idea of what wanted to say and submitted my first draft. Monica sent back her first revision with very honest feedback, pointing that though my essay was fine for an initial draft, it lacked a cohesive message or theme to make it easy for the reader to understand my story. A bit discouraged, I called to discuss her feedback, and Monica calmed me down and let me know that we had a lot to work with and that we would be able to craft an essay that spoke to my strengths in a more cohesive manner. After discussing my background in some detail, we identified a theme that ran across different points in my life, and we put together a writing plan based on that theme.

With the more focused plan, the writing process became much more seamless. Monica returned all revisions promptly and really helped me to dig deep and refine the examples that drove home my points. Her warm personality came through in her comments, and she helped me feel relaxed and much more in control of the application process. Since I chose the hourly service, she also kept me regularly posted on how much time I had used up, so that I knew when to buy additional time or when to focus on self-editing instead.

With my much improved essay and resume, I submitted my HBS application and was invited for an interview some weeks later. To prepare, I scheduled a mock session with Monica. Since HBS interviews are customized for each applicant, Monica had read my application and tailored my practice interview to mimic the real thing, instead of asking run-of-the-mill questions. Her feedback on my responses helped me feel better prepared for interview day, and ultimately, some of the questions we practiced came up during my actual interview! This is a testament to how well she understands the admissions process.

For the good news: I was admitted to HBS in December, and can attest to the important role that Monica played in getting me there! I am excited to be enrolling this fall, and appreciate all of her hard work in helping me get my application to where it needed to be. I truly recommend her services for applicants looking for a warm, honest, experienced consultant who's in their corner!

Read More