As someone who is slightly older than the average MBA candidate, I wanted to start my MBA this coming fall. Due to my career aspirations and the fact that I had my heart set on only ONE program, I had a lot of pressure to get every component of the application right, especially since I don’t possess the perfect MBA profile. Although I have a solid professional background, after months of studying, I could only muster a 650 GMAT. 650 is way below my dream school’s average and I knew I needed to compensate that score with the rest of my application, particularly essays.

One of the smartest things I did during my MBA journey was signing up with Pamela Jaffe at MBA Mission. Pamela helped me quickly switch gears from test taking to soul-searching. She made me realize that Admissions Officers were human beings who are driven by emotions and connection. The best way, sometimes the only way, to connect with their hearts is through essays.

What sets Pamela apart from her peers is her ability to leverage her strengths and background. Pamela’s professional background is marketing, finance, and journalism. This is a very unique blend of skills that contributes to her abilities to guide an applicant. She is both creative and analytical. In my experience, Pamela’s analytical abilities came to play at the beginning of the process as she combed through all of the moving pieces and, along with the applicant, helped to develop a strong personal brand statement. Later in the process, her creative prowess came in as she helped to build your story for essays.

I must comment on Pamela’s abilities as a writer. Pamela is truly a gifted writer. She can capture the essence of a story and turn it into a beautiful piece of work. When I received the admit call from my dream school last week, the AO even made a comment saying that my essays were beautiful! However, she will not write the essays for you, but she will give you amazing pointers and ensure that you select the most appropriate story that will showcase your strengths and character.

One last thing I will mention about Pamela is her global perspective. Because of her previous work in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., she has such a smart way of viewing things. She is so experienced in the world of MBA admissions and her broad perspective allows her to think strategically and critically, truly out-of-the-box thinking.

I cannot recommend Pamela enough. I am admitted to the school of my dreams largely because of her guidance and help. If you need an Admissions consultant, you should go with the best and I personally believe Pamela is one of the best out there.

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I applied to three reach schools for Round 1 and without Dan's assistance throughout the entire process from essay writing to mock interviews - I may not have been invited to interview at any of these schools, much less all three. Dan provided me with insightful feedback and insider information to ensure that I was telling a cohesive, interesting story that would differentiate me from other candidates. I never would have been able to glean specific insights about the school or develop such a successful approach to writing essays without working closely with Dan.

Not only did Dan provide me with extremely valuable information - but he also was very flexible in working with me on a less conventional timeline. I took off a week of work to write essays since my schedule had been less than ideal and I hadn't been able to devote sufficient time to essay writing. I wrote 2-3 essays per day and Dan worked with me to provide valuable, timely feedback on a large number of essays in this very short timeframe which was much appreciated!

The mock interview was also critical in the overall success of my application journey. I thought I was well prepared for an interview until Dan reviewed several potential questions with me and I was unable to respond with well thought out answers. Over the next two days, I focused on answering several of these questions and ultimately most of them were asked during my MIT Sloan interview.

Lastly, Dan was a pleasure to work with! He was extremely encouraging and positive and made the business school application process significantly less overwhelming and stressful. His services were absolutely critical in the success I experienced - I couldn't have done it without him! I've already highly recommended him to several of my colleagues and would do the same to anyone looking for a collaborative, flexible and insightful MBA consultant.

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I signed up with mbaMission because it was recommended by my GMAT course - Manhattan GMAT. Previously, I did not know anyone who had done an MBA so I was unsure of the entire process and Daniel's advice was very beneficial when it came to filling out my application. He made the process for me a lot less stressful.

Certainly, his advice for my resume and my application essays was extremely valuable. I was also writing my gmats at the same time as trying to manage resume revisions and essays - we developed a good work-back schedule to accommodate all so that I could apply for first round at my first choice school (which I did receive an offer of admission from).

Additionally, I could email him whenever I wanted and he always got back to me within 1 day for questions (e.g. interview support, open house etiquette, etc.)

I greatly appreciated his candid remarks and I would certainly recommend his services. In particular, the word count for my essays was very limited, so having Daniel read over my essays and ensure there was a concise storyline that exemplified my own skills/strengths was very good. It is difficult to find a family member or friend who will read through your MBA essays over and over with a critical eye.

Overall, I am really happy I chose mbaMission. I only gave 4 stars out of 5 because I would say that the prices are very expensive, though there is true value to mbaMission and their consultants. If I had to do it over again, I would still chose to move forward with mbaMission.

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I would highly recommend mbaMission, in particular Dan, for anyone who is looking for additional support to help craft and execute their business school applications. Although I was first reluctant to get a consultant because of the cost, I ultimately decided that I wanted to work with a consultant because I didn’t have the support at work or outside of work to help me develop and refine my story. After having a few consultation calls with other firms, I decided to go with mbaMission with a comprehensive package, and couldn’t be happier with my choice.

I had my mbaMission consultation call with Dan and immediately knew that I wanted to work with him. I was struck by Dan’s candidness as we talked about my background and where I could play within the top ten schools. I wanted a consultant that was going to be critical of my overall application so that I knew where my strengths and weaknesses were relative to my peers. Dan was spot on about what were my strengths and weaknesses and was able to use those characteristics to my advantage in my application. He was immensely helpful at all points of the process, including crafting my story/strategy, resume and essay writing, and recommenders and interview prep, and was extremely responsive (always ahead of timelines).

I recently received the good news that I got into a top ten program and know that the process wouldn’t have been as successful or as relatively stress-free if it wasn’t for Dan. I had also initiated additional applications with Dan after I had fully completed one package, which is a testament to how useful I thought the services were, but didn’t need to pursue them since I got into my top program! I would strongly recommend Dan – he was a great partner throughout my business school application process and truly instrumental to my success.

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One of the things I loved about working with Angela was how she helped me articulate what I really wanted to do and the unique skills and experiences I would bring to an MBA. After a conversation I had with her about the eclectic activities I had been involved in on campus, my various internships, and what I like to do, Angela was very quick in identifying a pattern in everything I had done so far.

While she was spot on, I had never seen that there was indeed a common string to everything I had done, and I am grateful to her for finding this common thread-- which is to bring people together. Working with Angela helped me bring out my most meaningful stories and more deeply understand myself and my greatest passions and accomplishments. She always had creative ideas and helped me articulate my ideas in a much better way. Angela also checked my letter of recommendations and provided feedback to my recommenders so that they would add to my application and express their ideas in the best possible way-- it was much better than me telling them what to write.

Angela is also incredibly fun and thoughtful. Not only were our conversations always lively, encouraging, and exciting, but she was also very kind and would regularly check up on my work and encourage me when I was frustrated with the process or the essays. She made the entire process much more manageable and enjoyable than going through it alone! Even after the process was over she wrote to me a few times to see how I was doing-- she knows me so well now and I am sure we will keep in touch, she genuinely cares about her clients. I'm so glad I was matched with her!

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While I looked into numerous elite MBA-consultancy firms, I was immediately drawn to MBA Mission due to its team of highly qualified consultants, substantial track record of success and commitment to personalized help. I was lucky enough to work with Pamela Jaffe throughout my business school application process, and she was an invaluable resource. First and foremost, Pamela actually cares! She took the time to help me explore my personal history and future aspirations, and to craft a story that properly highlighted my strengths. She helped me to understand myself in a more profound and accurate way. Pamela is also an exceptional writer and technically gifted - she continuously provided tangible help in reworking oftentimes disjointed components of my application.

While all consultants at MBA Mission adhere to an exceptional sense of professionalism, Pamela exhibited a particularly high level of punctuality and expediency, always on or ahead of time. I'd also like to highlight that Pamela provides holistic advice - from brainstorming, to essay writing, to the final interview.

But above all, Pamela possesses something that I think is the most important quality in any prospective consultant - trustworthiness. I completely trust Pamela's advice because she was not afraid to be honest, even if we disagreed on certain topics. I could always rely on Pamela to provide genuine feedback, and she helped to re-direct me to the proper path.

In the end, Pamela guided me to be successfully admitted to Columbia Business School, my top choice. I couldn't have done it without her.

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I wanted to briefly share my experience working with Katy on the forum. As a male applicant from an overrepresented career demographic, I first got in touch with Katy so I could better craft my story. I had heard good things about MBA Mission, however my expectations were low. I primarily was looking for a consultant to sanity check my work and ease my anxiety as I entered the application process. What I received was far more than I ever could have anticipated. Katy immediately immersed herself in my experience to date and on our first brainstorming call already seemed to possess a crystal clear vision for my story. Her genuine care for me as an applicant was apparent in her frequent, thoughtful feedback. By the time I pressed submit, I was totally confident in all facets of my application, a true testament to Katy's expertise and attention to detail.

In the end, I was accepted to my top choice school, Columbia, early decision. I would highly recommend Katy to anyone considering applying to business school. Her advice was invaluable and her experience in the elite business school admissions space is definitely a differentiator.

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Working with Angela helped me tremendously to build good stories and a stronger resume. Her comments were deeply constructed to address my strengths in the essays and resume in a smart way. Working with Angela enabled me to get a better sense of who I am, my accomplishments, and my future vision. Her feedback was very precise, direct, and constructive. Angela’s feedback helped me to shape the details of my big picture. In addition, her feedback was a great guidance for me because it was easy to follow and build on it in my essays and resume. Angela’s critical feedback made me craft my stories to flow and be solid.
Working with Angela helped improve my efficiency and confidence by unleashing my hidden strength from my past – getting more done faster and with more confidence in the outcome. She is very cooperative, supportive, and flexible and because of that the application process was less stressful with her.
I can say confidently that Angela is willing to help students genuinely. She is a great adviser and I enjoy working with her. I strongly recommend working with Angela.

In general, mbaMission is very professional in terms of addressing student’s objectives.

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I researched a lot of admission consulting companies and decided to go with mbaMission. I was initially attracted by their professional website and exceptional online school guides. I did some more exploring and discovered that all of their consultants went to top notch schools themselves, have years of experience, and do consulting full time. This makes them fully vested in your success and not distracted by other priorities (it's amazing how many other "consultants" just do MBA admission consulting work part time to make some extra money). I called them up for a free phone consultation and was very impressed by their process and strategies for getting me into a top school. After the call, I knew mbaMission was the company for me.

mbaMission lets you decide which consultant you want to work with, which I found to be a difficult decision, as they are all very qualified. I eventually chose Monica Okrah. She went to HBS and has successfully helped many students get admitted into their dream schools, but what really made her stand out was her aura of positivity and genuine enthusiasm about helping me achieve my goal.

Choosing Monica ended up being a great decision. I cannot stress enough how extremely pleasant she is to work with and I'm convinced that my essays were 3x better because of her. She did a great job helping me choose topics (which is trickier than you may think, she saved me from making some huge mistakes) and patiently helped me work through as many as 9 drafts per essay, even though she was paid a flat rate. She really cared about my success and wasn't going to give an essay the thumbs up until she thought it was 110% good to go. In the end, I was accepted to a fantastic school, but almost more importantly she help me develop a crucial life skill. She taught me how to craft my story and market myself extremely well. I've since applied many of the things she taught me to my LinkedIn profile and have been contacted by at least one recruiter per week, which is a dramatic increase for me. It's amazing what a difference telling your story in just the right way can make.

If you're considering applying to a top business school I highly recommend that you work with mbaMission and Monica Okrah. Remember that you are competing with extremely qualified candidates and that the smallest details can make the difference between being accepted and being dinged. mbaMission and Monica Okrah will ensure that you nail all of those details and ensure that you shine!

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I definitely would recommend Dan as a consultant in the MBA application process. I applied to two schools in Round 1 and wanted the advice of a consultant because I had no idea where to start on my essays or how to differentiate myself. After just an initial conversation, I felt that Dan really understood my story and was on my side to help craft a standout application. We went over my life story in our brainstorming session and he helped crystalize the highlights of my experiences into meaningful and interesting essays. He was always prompt with replies and thoughtful in his responses regardless of the triviality of my questions. Working with Dan has been a pleasurable and calming experience in this otherwise hectic process. I'm still waiting on the verdict from Round 1 schools.

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