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Consultant Donna Bauman
I had a somewhat unconventional application being an international student with an average-ish undergraduate GPA, a decent GRE score, and 4 jobs in 5 years due to traveling around the world. Donna motivated me to get a higher GRE score and guided me from the ground up in terms of my career direction and school alignment. The discovery exercises were very beneficial to help you explore what you want to do and how that matches up to each school. In a competitive COVID year I managed to get three round 2 responses; including a scholarship. The guidance through the essay writing phase and interviews were extremely valuable.
I am very excited and thankful for Donna's help which definitely lifted my applications.
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling MBA Admissions Counseling Packages
Consultant Susan Cera
Susan and the rest of the Stratus Admissions team were instrumental in helping me identify my strengths and shape my narrative for business school. When you begin working with Susan, she takes you through several introspection exercises, which alone are worth the interaction and are tremendously helpful in creating your unique story. Susan and Co. also bring in-depth knowledge of the individual characteristics of each school to ensure you find the right program for you. Additionally, Stratus deploys a team effort. While Susan was my main counselor, she brought in many of her colleagues at various stages of the application to get a fresh set of eyes. Susan also connected me with some of her old clients at the schools I was interested in, providing me an opportunity to learn even more about the various schools. I fully recommend working with Susan as she helped me better understand myself and, just as importantly, get into my top choice program.
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling MBA Admissions Counseling Packages
Consultant Donna Bauman
I had an amazing experience working with Donna. She was extremely useful in helping craft my story and establishing my goals. She provided me with some valuable insights. She has also very responsive throughout the entire process and even made herself available during the holiday period to help me. Donna is able to ask you the right questions to trigger self-reflection and she is gifted at getting the best out of you. I highly recommend Donna and I am very satisfied with the investment. In the end, I was admitted to Anderson with a scholarship and a Tuck. Thank you again for your help Donna!
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling MBA Admissions Counseling Packages
Consultant Melisa Prevost
I got into my two top schools and could not have done it without Melisa's guidance. I was very confused at the start of the process but she was super organised and guided me meticulously through every step of the process right from choosing your recommenders to interview prep. The brainstorming exercises she gave me really made me think and present a well rounded and genuine story. Also the fact that stratus have a team based approach was another big plus! She was also very efficient with time and got back to me the next day in most cases. Highly recommend!
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling Hourly Services
Consultant Melisa Prevost
Working with Melisa was the best decision I made. I had chatted with a few other consultants, but felt the most at ease with Melisa after our intro call. She seemed genuinely excited about working with me, and I really appreciated her energy and encouragement. Since I was only planning to apply to two programs, Melisa was very flexible with pricing and we worked on an hourly basis for my top school's application. I was able to leverage the same essays and resume for my backup program. Her detailed feedback and thoughtful suggestions helped me to highlight the most important parts of my story in the essays. Melisa is extremely knowledgeable about the process and working with her made me feel very confident about my applications when the time came to hit submit. We also worked together on interview prep, which was huge because I had not been thinking about that part of the process at all. I was admitted to both programs I applied to with significant scholarship money. After our allotted hours were used, Melisa was more than willing to respond to my calls and emails as I worked to make my final decision. She is an absolute rockstar, and it was a pleasure working with her.
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling Hourly Services
Consultant Melisa Prevost
As a first-generation college graduate, the MBA admissions process was daunting, and I was skeptical about working with a consultant. I talked to several consultants who tried to push me to apply to “safety” schools that I wasn’t interested in or tried to push me to pay for their all-inclusive packages. Melisa was the only person who not only gave me critical feedback and opinions, but also, trusted my vision.
I worked with Melisa on an hourly basis on essay reviews and interview prep. She was efficient and always provided clear and thoughtful feedback. My application included many personal experiences, and I always felt that she cared for the story I was trying to tell. The MBA admissions process requires deep reflection, and it was important to me that the people reading my stories honored them.
Now, I’m so excited to attend a top, full time MBA program with a scholarship (especially after a highly competitive application cycle) and can’t thank Melisa enough for her support. I highly recommend her, especially if you come from a similar background.
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling MBA Admissions Counseling Packages
Consultant Donna Bauman
TLDR version: Donna and Stratus are just incredible to work with and I could not be happier with my outcome of being admitted to Yale SOM.
Now the longer version: I have to admit, mostly due to the high price of a typical multi-school package, I was seriously considering not using a consultant at all (in hindsight, that would have been devastating!!). Once I talked myself into hiring a consultant, I spent more time than I would like to admit reading these very reviews and obsessing over ’top consultant lists.’ I finally came up with a short list of ~5 consultants to have intro meetings with and quite frankly was underwhelmed with most as they were much less personal and much more transactional than I had anticipated. It took no more than 5 minutes of speaking with Donna for me to decide that she is the one I would enjoy/benefit working with the most. Not only is she extremely well-versed in the admissions world, but also it is extremely clear that she genuinely cares about each of her clients – and that is what mattered most to me. Donna made what is a very daunting process a breeze. Add on top of that me having to take the GMAT THREE times and finally hitting a score beyond what I thought was possible for me only a week or so before R1 applications were due. She was able to connect me with the right folks in order to get my GMAT score up and, most importantly, stay sane throughout the process! I could not imagine having to go through the application process with anyone but Donna and would 1,000% recommend her to anyone that is deciding on who to work with!
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling MBA Admissions Counseling Packages
Consultant Donna Bauman
Donna and the rest of the Stratus team were a joy to work with and I can not imagine going through the MBA application process without them. Donna's assistance was crucial in making sure that I submitted the best possible application and helped me find tutors to increase my quantitative GMAT score. Her honesty, organizational prowess, and experience within the field were what helped me get into my target schools and set clear goals for myself. I will not hesitate to recommend their services to anybody that is going through the MBA application process as I know she is the best available consultant on the market.
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling Hourly Services
Consultant Melisa Prevost
I would highly recommend working with Melisa and Stratus. Melisa helped me get into four of my top-choice schools, with substantial fellowships at three of them. She supported me from the beginning of my application process to the end. Melisa was always very responsive, and was available to answer any questions I had about schools and applications, no matter how trivial they seemed. She helped me shape my story and goals so well that I had a clear idea of how to approach each essay question. Her detailed advice and feedback on my resume and essays was instrumental in my admissions.
Melisa also helped me prep for interviews. I really benefited from Melisa’s experience in this area, and she helped me present my story in a way that was well-defined, but still genuine. I was admitted to every school I interviewed with, which I could not have done without Melisa’s help.
Something I really liked about Melisa was her positivity throughout the process, as it can be daunting at times. I had a non-traditional professional background, and Melisa helped me present it in the best possible way. Her encouragement, positivity, and support is what set her (and Stratus) apart from other MBA admissions consultants I’d considered, and I’m so glad I was able to work with her. Highly recommend!
Product Stratus Admissions Counseling MBA Admissions Counseling Packages
Consultant Soterios Rouman
Soterios is an expert consultant. He provided hands-on guidance and feedback throughout every step of process and got me into HBS. While working with Soterios, I always felt supported and that he was 100% dedicated to getting me into my dream school.
Key Strengths:
Crafting My Story - Provided a framework for identifying my top selling points as an applicant and advised on how to build those into a compelling story (that helped me overcome weaker parts of my application).
Maximizing My Essays - Offered detailed, iterative feedback on my essays to maximize every sentence.
School-Specific Tailoring - Leveraged his expertise and Status’s community to recommend alterations to essays that fit what each Admissions Office is looking for.
Rigorous Interview Preparation - Soterios prepared me for the stress of the interview process by pressure testing me in mock interview sessions. Without this I would not have succeeded in the real thing.
