Strengths:

Fast response times, clear and transparent communication, and highly actionable feedback. Jennifer is very organized and keeps you on track throughout the process, while also being thoughtful and strategic in how she approaches your application.

Would make the product better:

N/A

Jennifer was instrumental in my MBA application journey. Coming from a non-traditional background, I initially struggled to clearly articulate my story and position my experience in a way that would resonate with top programs. Jennifer completely changed that. She helped me distill my experiences into a cohesive, compelling narrative and pushed me to think more deeply about my motivations, leadership, and goals. Her feedback was always thoughtful, direct, and highly strategic, never generic!

The results speak for themselves. I was admitted to Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Columbia, and Yale. Beyond outcomes, what stood out most was her ability to balance challenge and support. She consistently pushed me to elevate my thinking while ensuring my voice remained authentic. I truly don’t believe I would have achieved these results without her guidance. I highly recommend Jennifer to anyone serious about top MBA programs!

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Have had the pleasure of working with Donna over an extended period, and can attest to her commitment and expertise. Navigating the MBA admissions process is an incredibly arduous process / journey, but Donna was instrumental in helping me stay the course, providing the structure and encouragement needed to ensure every application was submitted on time. Ultimately, her guidance was a key factor in me getting into my dream MBA program.

What sets Donna apart is her uncanny ability to delve deep into a candidate's background, and to hone in on a compelling narrative. She helped me articulate my story in a way that was impactful and authentic, ensuring my true voice was never lost in the process. Her intuition for storytelling, combined with her rigorous professional standards, makes her an invaluable asset to any applicant. I cannot speak highly enough of Donna and would highly recommend her to anyone apply for B-School.

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Strengths:

Thoughtful, high emotional intelligence, listens for what your strengths are and helps them come through properly.

Thank you again for all of the help and insight you've given me this past year, above and beyond what was expected. When I started studying for the GMAT/GRE, I never thought I would be remotely competitive for schools like HBS, Wharton, and Sloan. You helped immensely in sharpening my applications while allowing my voice to come through and in giving me confidence that my story is competitive. I was nervous at first that working with a consultant would feel highly transactional, but that was not the case with you. I felt you really cared about my success and greatly appreciate that you went above and beyond the hours I had purchased, making sure to really get to know me and answering my myriad questions via email.

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Strengths:

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Working with Donna was fantastic. She not only helped me navigate the MBA application process, but also helped me gain real clarity on my career direction and long-term goals. Donna consistently pushed me to think more deeply about my experiences, strengths, and areas for growth.

Donna was extremely professional throughout our work together. She outlined clear expectations and SLAs at the start and consistently turned feedback around quickly, delivering everything on time and as expected.

Stratus was also incredibly supportive throughout the journey. Getting input from multiple perspectives across the Stratus team at different stages, from early strategy and school selection to interview prep, made a big difference. I felt well prepared and confident at every step of the application process.

I’d strongly recommend Donna to anyone going through the MBA application process

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I chose to work with Lisa at Stratus because of her experience working with transitioning veterans. She made the application process as stress-free as possible, and did an excellent job identifying my individual strengths, and making sure I highlighted those in my essays. She edited my essays quickly and gave great feedback, significantly improving the quality of my writing. She was also very helpful during the interview stage, ensuring I was prepared and comfortable for my interviews. She was always willing to hop on a call and discuss any concerns I had, and even accommodated difficult time zones as I was deployed to Asia. I strongly recommend Lisa to anyone who is applying to business school, especially if you are transitioning out of the military.

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Strengths:

Very communicative, honest, personable, responsive, flexible, phenomenal feedback

Lisa was truly an incredible admissions consultant!! She is thorough, personable, and takes the time to give deep, constructive feedback to help you build your story. I did hourly services and she does not include time spent on emails as part of that package - and she would send very lengthy (extremely helpful) emails to ensure you got every bit of feedback from her perspective. She is also very responsive and works around her schedule to make sure she gives you the time needed. Through Lisa's help, admitted to MIT Sloan with scholarship and currently invited to interviews for both HBS and GSB! I highly, HIGHLY recommend Lisa if you are looking for strong, honest assistance with MBA applications!!

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Strengths:

See below

Would make the product better:

Nothing

Susan Cera was truly amazing to work with, as were the other members of the Stratus team who supported me throughout my MBA application process. I ultimately got into each of the schools I applied to—several of which felt like “reaches” when I first began—and I don’t think I could’ve done it without Susan and Stratus.

Susan is a true expert at her job and helped me effectively navigate every aspect of the MBA application process, which is time-intensive and can feel daunting at times. She was there every step of the way, rolling up her sleeves alongside me as I shaped my narrative, wrote my essays, drafted my applications and resume, prepared for interviews, and ultimately decided which school to attend. Every time I faced a situation I wasn’t sure how to approach, Susan knew exactly what to do. From the very beginning, she took the time to truly get to know me—spending months before I even started writing essays helping me think through my professional, personal, and educational experiences, my values, and my future goals, and tying those together into a cohesive narrative. She did an amazing job of helping me recognize themes in my life that hadn’t been top of mind but that are very true to who I am and ultimately shaped much of my application process. She worked tirelessly alongside me as I translated those themes into cohesive essays and applications that genuinely reflected who I am, and later as I prepared for interviews. I felt like I had Susan’s full attention the entire time—she was incredibly responsive; we often spoke multiple times per week and iterated on my essays several times each week. She put tremendous effort and thought into every aspect of my application and interview process and provided insightful feedback that helped me frame and elevate many parts of my application in more effective ways.

Susan and Stratus have the MBA admissions process down to a science—not in a cookie-cutter way, but in a way that is highly personal and provides the structure, methodology, and resources that enabled me to navigate a complex, multi-step, months-long process. Susan broke everything down into discrete steps, each with resources and guidance to help me approach it correctly—from brainstorming relevant life experiences, conducting school research, and developing my key themes and application strategy, to crafting my MBA resume, briefing my recommenders, writing my essays and applications, and preparing for interviews. I felt in control at every stage because I knew exactly what I needed to do and what to expect next. Stratus brings together so many unique resources from its years of experience—I not only worked closely with Susan, but also received feedback at multiple points from Melisa and Lisa as I refined my narrative and prepared for interviews, as well as from reviewers who are experts in each school’s application. I also had the opportunity to connect with past Stratus clients and students at my target schools to learn directly from their experiences.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed working with Susan, feel like she really got to know me personally and really invested in my success. I could not recommend working with her and Stratus more highly.

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Strengths:

- Team Based approach
- Amazing Advisors
- Discounts for forte program members

Would make the product better:

Nothing, they’re amazing!

Choosing Stratus was the best decision I made during this entire MBA journey. Being a younger candidate, I knew my path would be difficult to get into my dream M7 program, but Stratus supported me in every part of my journey and not only helped me get an acceptance, but also a massive $140K scholarship!! This would not have been possible without the help of Donna, who is the ABSOLUTE BEST!

Donna helped me work on and refine every single step, right from creating an application strategy, setting goals, reviewing essays, refining my resume, and getting me prepared for the interviews. The best part about stratus is the team based approach. Apart from Donna, the other counselors also provided a lot of help and great feedback to get the best version of my application ready. There were several moments when I felt confused, burnt out, and contemplated everything, but Donna constantly supported me and helped me set realistic timelines to be able to manage all my applications. Thank you SO MUCH to the entire team, and I would 100% recommended Stratus to anyone thinking about getting help in this process.

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I worked with Donna Bauman on my EMBA applications to six top business schools (four of them M7) and was admitted to all six. Two of the schools also offered merit-based scholarships of around $20K each, which is relatively rare for EMBA programs. Looking back, I genuinely believe these results were a byproduct of the process Donna guided me through, not just the final applications themselves.

Where Donna added the most value early on was helping me slow down and deeply explore my past experiences. The introspection phase wasn’t about “finding good stories” for essays; it was about understanding patterns, themes, and motivations that I hadn’t fully articulated before. That work completely changed how I thought about my own career and leadership journey, and it became the foundation for everything that followed.

From there, Donna helped me create a clear application strategy across schools, what to emphasize, what not to force, and how to stay authentic while still being intentional. When we moved into brainstorming and essay writing, I could clearly see how different this approach was compared to simply drafting or polishing content. Before working with Donna, I had even considered using ChatGPT to help write my essays. At the time it felt efficient, but after going through this process, I now see how risky that would have been. There is a real and obvious difference between AI-generated writing and essays grounded in deep self-reflection. My final essays sounded unmistakably like me.

Donna also helped refine my resume so that it aligned with the broader story I was telling, rather than just listing achievements. Everything felt connected instead of piecemeal. The team-based approach at Stratus was another big plus; I received feedback from multiple consultants at different stages, which felt very similar to how admissions committees actually review applications.

Interview preparation was another area where Donna made a huge difference. I completed six mock interviews for six schools, and I could feel myself improving after each one; more clarity, better structure, and stronger presence. By the time the real interviews came around, I felt prepared but still natural.

Finally, even after the offers came in, Donna helped me think through my options objectively, not just rankings. Throughout the entire process, she was always responsive and consistently offered candid, honest advice, even when it meant challenging my initial thinking.

Working with Donna Bauman and the Stratus team was easily one of the best decisions I made during my EMBA journey. I would highly recommend them to anyone aiming for top EMBA programs and who wants a process that genuinely adds value at every step, not just better essays.

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Strengths:

personally tailored, caring, flexible and engaging counselor. Extremely knowledgeable and offers great structure + guidance during the entire process.

Would make the product better:

None - Go with Jennifer you won't regret it!

Jennifer was absolutely instrumental to my MBA application journey. She was knowledgeable in what each school was looking for, and she provided valuable insight and information in helping me tailor my essays and story around each school. Most importantly, Jennifer knew how to poke your essays and ask the right questions – her feedback led me to think deeply about my story and what I was trying to convey through my essays. The entire process was very comprehensive, from drafting my story to essay revision to interview prep. Jennifer is an all-star consultant who will lead you to success!

I ended up getting accepted into all of my schools I applied to with scholarships (3 M7s). I truly believe I wouldn’t have had this outcome without Jennifer, especially as an applicant from a non-business/finance background. Jennifer is your best bet in securing your dream MBA program!

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