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 could tell from the very first time I spoke with Jessica, during my initial mbaMission phone consultation, that she’s extremely knowledgeable and experienced. Right after that initial phone call, I knew that if I were to hire a consultant that it would have to be her, so I immediately put myself on her list of upcoming clients (she fills up fast).

Even though the school packages are pretty expensive, once I started working with Jessica I knew I had made the right decision. None of the advice she gave me was ever cookie cutter, and she has the experience of having worked with countless clients over many years. This wealth of experience proved valuable on multiple occasions, as I had to navigate a few confusing situations and bumps on the road during my MBA application journey. If I hadn’t had Jessica to lean on, I’m not sure if I would have figured everything out.

Not only is Jessica extremely knowledgeable about the schools and the admissions process, but she’s also a master storyteller. You have to put in all the work, obviously, but Jessica provides endless feedback, suggestions, and input along the way. She was always there when I needed to ask how a certain section of my essay sounded or whether there was a better way to convey a certain point. And she doesn’t beat around the bush—if she thinks an essay needs work, she’ll tell you. I really appreciated that she was direct and straightforward, because I think a lot of other consultants (or friends, family members, etc) just tell you what they think you want to hear. In addition, even though I was living overseas in a totally different time zone, Jessica was always quick to respond and on time with everything, which is really important when the deadlines are so tight.

Throughout the process, I grew to see Jessica as a trusted friend. After all, the MBA application process involves deep introspection and takes place over a fairly long period of time, so I felt like we really got to know each other. I can’t recommend her highly enough, and anyone would be lucky to work with her. In the end, I got accepted to several top programs (and Jessica was once again helpful with bouncing ideas back and forth when deciding which school to attend). I’m excited to attend one of the top MBA programs this fall, and if I could go back in time I would absolutely hire Jessica again.

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If you are looking for a consultant who is an excellent communicator and has deep experience bringing together successful applications, look no further than Jessica Shklar at mbamission. She knows how to get applicants admitted into the nation’s top programs.

Her expertise resonated in every interaction with me, as she helped me focus my attention on the most important tasks and helped me polish my application. Her experience and ability to communicate her thoughts clearly are worth every penny and cannot be emphasized enough. I am a busy person and cannot afford to waste time on numerous iterations of my resume, essays, or general profile. Building on Jessica’s feedback, I was able to expeditiously polish all the above—which in some cases involved cosmetic fixes and in others broad rewrites. Jessica’s ability to quickly hone in on the important elements of the application and succinctly communicate how “ready” any particular deliverable was made working with her a pleasure.

I was extremely busy throughout the process and had to rely heavily on Jessica’s organization. Having done this numerous times, she has a birds-eye view of the process that helped me meet my deadlines and refine my approach to items such as recommender selection and interview questions in a timely manner.

I ended up getting accepted to Wharton and did not have to spend time applying elsewhere. Thanks to Jessica, I knew what to expect, got prescient feedback on my application and expectations, and was accepted into my first-choice school. If you are on the fence, don’t be. Call her and let her help you make your wishes a reality.

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Katharine (Katy) Lewis from mbaMission was integral to my MBA application success. Her advice and guidance helped me to secure offers from three top business schools.

I was recommended to Katy by a friend; however, I didn’t want to commit to the financial outlay until I was sure of the value. Therefore, I arranged a free initial consultation with Katy. Immediately I could see that her vast experience would be incredibly valuable to my application.

Katy goes the extra mile to truly understand who you are as an individual and what is driving your desire to attend business school. She helps to craft an engaging and personable story, ensuring that every aspect of your application is meticulously reviewed and enhanced. Importantly, during our very first session we pin-pointed areas to improve. This allowed me to take action that significantly strengthened my application.

I secured three interviews and the mock interview with Katy was, by far, the most useful preparation. It was instrumental to ensuring that I entered each interview feeling confident, relaxed and prepared.

If you want to get into a top business school, there are three main reasons why I’d highly recommend mbaMission’s complete start-to-finish package with Katy:

1) Unlimited reviews… take Katy up on this and iterate every aspect of your application as many times as you feasibly can… and then some more (other applicants will).
2) Actual adcom experience… Katy was on the admissions team at Stanford GSB!! This is unbelievable insight into how applications are reviewed and how you can “stand out from the crowd”.
3) Improve yourself… Katy’s advice helped me to improve myself and this provided an extra edge to my application.

The above is underpinned by Katy’s incredible personality. She is an awesome person who genuinely cares about your success. I cannot thank her enough for her support during my MBA application journey.

Best of luck with your application.

David,

Berkeley Haas, NYU Stern & Chicago Booth Admit

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Katy was fantastic to work with! I was referred to her by family. I personally had a complicated personal narrative, a non-linear career, etc., and she really helped me tell that story in a very clear and compelling way via the process she set up, from brainstorming to drafting to comments to finished essays and then several mock interviews. Katy was extremely accessible and I’m a pretty demanding client - she did numerous calls with me and really wanted to get to know me, deeply understand me, what makes me tick, how to convey my passions throughout my whole application process, and was very responsive to questions/drafts over email. This is extremely important in order to build a stronger profile. She also had a deep understanding of what each school looks for and the nuances/differences between them, what is overused by applicants when explaining why that particular school and what are the hidden professors/gems about each program, which goes far beyond what you'd be able to find on a website (and maybe even if you talk to current students?) and makes you stand out as having "done your homework" (and saves you a lot of time and hassle). At the end of the day, these schools get tons of qualified candidates, and it is incredibly important for these schools to know that you are choosing them based on what they have to offer and how that fits with your personal narrative as much as they eventually choose you. It obviously worked out great as I got into 2 of the 3 top schools (H/S/W), which is way beyond my ceiling with my stats that most would consider mediocre in terms of the averages these programs tend to admit. I'd highly recommend anyone to work with her...she knows her stuff and you will undoubtedly improve your odds and strengthen your profile!

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Despite solid work experience, with an Undergraduate GPA in the low 2's I knew that if I was going to have any chance of obtaining admission somewhere I was going to need to be able to tell my story incredibly well.

As I scanned the profiles of consultants to work with, Rachel immediately stood out. With a background in financial journalism, I knew that if my story needed to be told well, she was the one to help me do it.

From the outset Rachel was candid and realistic about my opportunities. This was not going to be easy, and while Rachel was going to be there to assist me throughout the process, she was not going to drive the process for me.

From our initial consultation through brainstorming and mock interviews, Rachel knew almost instinctively how to interpret where I was going with something and how best to reframe it back to me.

She was there to answer my endless questions about process, or strategy, to soothe my natural paranoia in overthinking every last detail. She was there to challenge me when needed, and apply tough love, too.

I had expected a fairly impersonal process, with someone to act as a sounding board. Instead, Rachel sought to get to know me, personally, to understand my motivations, and talk through *why* I wanted to do these things to help clarify my own thinking.

Rachel half-jokes that she feels like the den-mother to her clients. She means it. She e-mailed the other day, months after we were done, just to check in amidst the COVID crisis. I find that pretty revealing.

And oh by the way, I was accepted to every school that I applied to.

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I cannot recommend Melissa highly enough!
I spent a lot of time reading about b-school apps prior to starting the process, and my ambitions were to get into a select few of the top schools – or bust. And because of Melissa’s help I was accepted into Wharton and Yale!

Due to the time I spent researching, I was skeptical of the value of an admissions consultant but thoroughly explored my options anyway. After talking with several companies, I decided to work with Melissa based on the connection she developed with me on our call. She provided practical, tangible advice, had significant experience in an actual admissions department prior to mbamission and was very optimistic but realistic in a helpful way.


Not only did Melissa meet my high expectations, but I found the most valuable part of my experience was getting her advice on areas I did not expect to need help on. Every interaction we had, Melissa provided actionable guidance and helped me become a better storyteller. She helped me brainstorm the importance of my own experiences that I may have overlooked and use every opportunity in the application to reflect why that school fit my trajectory. Melissa and mbamission had a ton of useful data and insights on the schools I was interested in.

Melissa’s attitude throughout was positive and encouraging. I strongly felt she was genuinely interested in my success and designed her help based on my needs and goals. She was responsive to all of my questions and usually even had the answers I needed before I thought to ask.

The application process can be daunting from selecting schools, finding ways to differentiate yourself and creating meaningful ways to link your objectives to specific programs. Applying for MBA programs is a significant investment of time and effort, and I felt working with Melissa made a more than a big enough difference in my end result to justify the money. Choose Melissa!!

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I decided to hire Melissa from mbaMission following a free initial consultation and a fit conversation. We spoke of her deep industry experience and how she could help my fiancé and I achieve our goals. Throughout the process she was very supportive, frank and it became clear to me that she was invested in our success. The brainstorming process was a lot work to get through, but it really laid the groundwork of what would later become my essays. Her help and guidance for the essays of each school was instrumental; we discussed ideas for each essay in depth and these discussions were always very helpful in figuring out what to write. I often found myself reviewing essay prompts, completely stuck without a direction as to where to go, but Melissa was able to look back on my experience (from the brainstorming) and help me formulate a plan forward. Having much industry experience, she was able to help me understand what specific schools were looking for and how my experience was a fit. She was easy to work with and supportive of helping me craft compelling stories. I am happy with our outcome and with admittance to a few schools as result. Should I have not been so fortunate, I would very much look to collaborate again with her in helping me portray compelling stories of myself.

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I started the admissions process very late (September 2019 and I was looking to submit my applications for R2). My career had hit a complete dead end and I had no idea what my next steps were. I decided to begin the application process and study for the GMAT. At the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing. Melissa helped calm me down and laid out a very detailed road map that described all of the steps I should take, when I should take them, etc. The brainstorm exercise was maybe the best thing that I have ever completed. Going into that activity, I thought that there was nothing special that I had done since I graduated high school. The questions and the instructions on the brainstorming activity made me remember things that I had forgotten that I did and I used some of those memories for my essays. She is a former admissions counselor so she knows exactly what schools are looking for in a candidate. She also helped me craft my essays perfectly. Without her, I am positive that I would have never been admitted to a single school and I would still be stuck at my dead end job hating every single second of it. She is a brilliant, successful woman who truly cared about how I was doing and how I was handling GMAT studying and the application process. I could not recommend her more highly.

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I started my MBA journey in 2018, and despite having a decent GMAT score, I got dinged by many top B-schools. Re-applying to these schools was a significant challenge before me. After a lot of deliberation and research, I zeroed in on ‘MBA mission’ to help me with my applications.

I spoke with Susan in July 2019 and felt an instant connect with her with the way she listened to my story, gave her inputs on the possible weaknesses in my application and the steps I could possibly take to improve them. She explained to me about the rigour and focus it would take to put together a strong application and instilled so much confidence in me in our first interaction that I decided to work with her and bought a two-school start-to-finish package.

The brainstorming document that she shared initially really pushed me to think through my story: strengths, weaknesses, achievements, failures. A full 1.5 hour session that followed really helped me create a concrete foundation for all my applications. She constantly encouraged me to do thorough research about the programs and school resources, learn about my fit with the school, and, most importantly, think through my story. Susan responded to my every query and would regularly schedule calls to make sure I am never stuck and always on the right track. She never shied away from giving an honest opinion and comments on my essays and provided constructive feedback to direct me towards the best version of my applications. On many occasions, I did feel all burned out and frustrated working on multiple iterations and drafts, but Susan really helped me piece together an effective and sound application.

She also helped me get the video component of the application right that one of my schools required. She made sure that I practiced it right to master this segment. I was elated when I got the interview calls from both the schools. Susan arranged mock interview sessions (and at a very short notice for Kellogg) with her that really helped me prepare for the most dreadful part (for me, at least) of the application process.

I got admitted to both the top schools (Cornell and Kellogg) that I applied to with her help. I would strongly recommend Susan to anyone and everyone who is headstrong about getting into a top B-school. I am really excited to be going to Kellogg this year and can’t thank her enough for making it possible for me.

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