Choosing a consultant is a daunting task, given the number of options. However, if you care about having someone with plenty of experience, many success stories, and a personality that fills you with optimism and energy, then look no further than Melisa. I chose Melisa because of how enthusiastic she was in our first meeting and how well she made me feel about my prospects. MBA applications are daunting, and there are many things that you need to navigate, so having a structured process and someone experienced to lean on is remarkably uplifting and comforting. If you are looking for a consultant, you must be in the same boat as I was - confident that you qualify but not sure whether you can tell a cohesive and convincing story. Melisa is so skillful at recognizing the different pieces of your story and helping you put them into a captivating application that you will gain a new appreciation for your accomplishments. Thanks to Melisa, I ended up with a few options to choose from and a merit scholarship that sweetened the deal. I did not expect to receive a significant amount in scholarship, but Darden offered 1/3 and Cornell Johnson over 1/2 of the tuition, which made me choose Johnson. Whatever your dream school is, Melisa will ensure that you put your best foot forward. No one can guarantee admission to Harvard or MIT, but if you want to stand a chance and feel confident that you will have options to choose from, I encourage you to let Melisa guide you. You will not be disappointed!

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Overall, Stratus was a great investment toward my MBA admissions and Lisa Cummings is awesome to work with. I applied to six schools total R1, two using Stratus. I interviewed with 5/6, was accepted by 3/6 with $$-$$$, and was waitlisted at 1/6. I will be attending an M7 with a $80k scholarship next year (one of the schools I worked on with Lisa).

After months of debating whether I should hire an admissions consultant and setting up informational interviews with multiple companies (including Stacy Blackman, Fortuna, MBAMission, Career Protocol, and MBA Prep School), I ultimately chose Stratus for their team-based approach to reviewing candidates' materials and the fact that their consultants were realistic but optimistic. What turned me off about some of the other consulting firms during the initial calls was that they took one look at my profile (F/Asian/Consulting) and my GMAT score (720) and discouraged me from applying to certain schools. This wasn't the case at Stratus. Although Lisa was my primary consultant, everyone I interacted with, including Jennifer Jackson and Melisa Prevost, was extremely helpful and encouraging.

I chose to work with Lisa because she is straightforward and efficient yet thorough (and yes, I could get this from our introduction call). We spent the spring brainstorming and developing my story and resume. She made sure to capture my entire story in a thoughtful manner. She also ensured that I did enough of my own research on the schools so I knew what I was getting into when applying to each. Then, over the summer we worked on multiple iterations of my admissions essays. This phase was the most valuable part of the experience. Lisa quickly turned around drafts of my essays (1-2 business days) and provided incisive feedback. After we finished my essays, she sent them to an unbiased school expert for a final review. In the fall, Lisa conducted mock interviews which prepared me for all of the schools I applied to. When it came to making my decision between schools, all of the introspection and reflection I had done in the spring made my decision easy.

Lisa is super responsive and flexible. She caters to your style (I preferred occasional check-in calls with frequent emails). She was always available to answer any of my questions, particularly as I was filling out my applications. She also went above and beyond - even though I only worked with her on two schools, she provided tips and advice for the other schools I applied to as well.

While hiring an admissions consultant can certainly be pricey, I think it is well worth the investment to have a team of professionals supporting you along the way. It is also a small cost in exchange for peace of mind throughout the process (i.e, essentially a project manager to keep you on track and an editor to help you review), and in my case, help getting into my dream school with a significant scholarship.

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Do yourself a favor and work with Melisa! As a nontraditional applicant I had many fears about the admission process. I chatted with a few other consultants but within the first 10 minutes of my intro call with Melisa it was clear that she could help me achieve my goals. With Melisa’s support I was able to receive full-rides at 4 of my top programs!

From the very first day Melisa took the time to truly understand my story, help craft my narrative, identify my strengths and put together the best possible applications, all while encouraging me to be my most authentic self throughout the process - she even provided guidance on identifying the best target schools when I was indecisive. Not only did she provide guidance but she was always one email away. I knew I could reach out to her with anything and she’d provide me with a thoughtful response in a timely manner.

Melisa went above and beyond in helping me edit my essays and preparing for my interviews. When everything seemed to pile on in the last few days leading up to submitting apps Melisa was so incredibly supportive and flexible with her schedule. I was lucky enough to have received interviews at all of the programs I applied to and even though I had not purchased packages for all of the schools Melisa went out of her way to ensure I was prepared for each of them. She was extremely generous with her time and proved to be genuinely invested in my success.

I know for a fact that I would not be in the position that I am in right now without Melisa’s support. I am beyond thankful to have worked with someone as genuine, dedicated, and knowledgable as her! If you are looking for a consultant who will not only provide results, but also encourage and motivate you throughout the process, you have to work with Melisa!!

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I cannot recommend Susan highly enough – if there was an 11/10 option she would be worthy of that score and more. I knew that I was going to be working with a top-notch admissions expert from her reputation, but the experience I had greatly exceeded my expectations. She took the time to really get to know me so that I could identify what is unique about me and present my most authentic self through my essays and interviews, and through her introspective inquiry process helped me come to realize my personal and career ambitions. She provides super timely feedback and communication, and was even willing to give me helpful pep talks and prep sessions before interviews to keep me on point. She was able to flawlessly apply the lens of a tenured admissions officer with her feedback on all areas of my application, including making my resume more poignant and impact-oriented. While I was waitlisted and was losing faith in myself, she encouraged me to not give up and helped me secure interviews/acceptances from that seemingly unfavorable position. What meant the most to me was seeing how invested she was in my success at every node of this long journey. I ended up getting into Harvard as well as multiple other top business schools with scholarships/fellowships – something unfathomable to me as I was worried about having a low GPA, being a re-applicant with no success my first go-around, and providing a GRE score instead of GMAT. I do not believe I would have achieved my dream of going to Harvard if I had anyone else in my corner coaching and supporting me. I am beyond grateful to have had the absolute best in the business on my team and I could not recommend her highly enough if you want the same.

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Lisa provided input throughout the application process to help me submit my best application from initial discussions to improve my overall profile to essay writing and preparation for interviews. She was particularly helpful in keeping me accountable to my early exercise work and identifying critical background that I needed to share in my essays in a non-jargony way to better connect with the readers. Although there are not many types of MBA interviews, I took advantage of the practice interview with different questions available for every school where I received an invite. Lisa was flexible in letting me submit applications for some schools in R1 and working with me on R2.
Different pre-MBA organizations/fairs often promoted Stratus services. Some of my friends told me about their experiences with Stratus. I only decided on Lisa from Stratus after meeting with eight different consultants/companies. Lisa from Stratus was a great match for a multi-school full package.

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Melisa was beyond amazing to work with, and I’m confident that my application was the best it could be after working together! I went back and forth on deciding to hire an admissions consultant but ultimately decided it was worth the upfront investment, and it more than paid off since I’ll be going to Booth with a $100K scholarship!

From the beginning, I felt Melisa genuinely cared and had my best interests in mind. We worked together for over eight months and had weekly video calls in the thick of applications! She took the time to get to know me and really learn my story, which is necessary to create strong and authentic applications. She went above and beyond in giving me her time and expert advice. Most importantly, I really enjoyed working with her and she made the daunting application process feel manageable. Melisa is the best guide, confidant, and cheerleader!

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Soterios wanted my admission at least as much as I wanted it, and he did his best at every step of our work together. Even before hitting "submit," I had gained a lot from my experience with him.

For me, one of the great strengths of Soterios is his ability to get to know you well and very quickly in order to strongly support you in your personal direction. I started the application prep process a bit confused, lacking comfort in recognizing and accurately expressing important parts of my stories and future goals. But if 20 years from now, someone wants to know who I really am, what deeply matters to me in life, what has shaped me at times, and what I would like my main accomplishments and impacts in life to be, I could just share my MBA essays with him/her. Soterios guided me in a way that the final versions of my application materials so accurately reflected my truth and so precisely captured my essence. He constantly pushed me in the right direction, encouraging me to dig deeper and find the profound meaning/reasons of things. Because he got to know me very well in a short time, he helped me a lot to keep my ideas relevant and compelling. For example, when outlining my essays, he helped me a lot by reminding me of details and anecdotes from my introspection and personal MBA strategy work that I personally forgot or did not think of as good examples to use.

I quickly realized that being in line and happy with every word, every sentence, and the structure of each of my essays/answers to short questions, and even my CV, was very important to Soterios. As we were about to complete a step, he would stop and clearly ask me whether I felt good and was happy with the outcome, expecting me to actually answer and be sincere. If necessary, before moving on to the following steps, he would not mind additional iterations/revisions, always ready to jump on improvised calls. I specifically remember, for example, when I was working on my career goals, we had many iterations and at one point had a long zoom meeting that was very helpful to me as Soterios brainstormed with me and brought his own experience and field expertise, which significantly helped me clarify and find the right words for my short term and my long term goals.

Thanks to the tremendous support and incredibly genuine guidance from Soterios, from day one, I ended up submitting my applications in a serene mood, in a peaceful state of mind, very happy with everything I shared with the Adcoms because I shared my authentic self. I knew that the school or schools that would accept me would do so based on my real personality, story, and aspirations in life.

One thing worth mentioning is that when you decide to go with a Stratus MBA Consultant, you really gain a whole support system with a dedicated strategist, as many school-specific reviewers as MBA programs you are applying to, and proofreaders, all of them always present whenever necessary.

I feel fortunate and grateful to have had Soterios by my side on my application pre journey, and I recommend him 100%. Soterios will be sincerely interested in your story; he will carefully listen to you; he will push you to travel deep into your past and to take the time to seriously reflect on your career ambition in connection with your core. Once he knows you well, he will bring his expertise to guide you step by step. At the end, not only will you have very solid application materials, but also will you walk away from your collaboration with him with a better understanding of yourself, having experienced personal growth along the way. Then you will have won for your whole life, no matter where you end up. That's my case.

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Susan was such a great partner in the MBA process! I'm so glad I worked with her as her guidance really took my applications to the next level, and she made the process less stressful for me. From start to finish, she provided me with valuable insight and helped me clarify my goals and application strategy. It was helpful having her support and more importantly, her encouragement and positivity. With Susan's help, I got into all 5 of the schools I applied to with scholarships. I would 100% recommend working with Susan for everyone thinking about applying to bschool. Thanks so much Susan!

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The MBA process is exhausting and scary; trust me, I've been there. Susan was recommended to me by a MBA admit who had worked with her the year prior. From our first consultation call, I knew that I really liked Susan. She genuinely cared about my story, my aspirations, and my goals, which was not always my impression when I talked to other consultants. I got so many great nuggets from our first call and even follow-up emails I shared with her, I knew I had to work with her.

We started in early spring with the goal of applying Round 1. We really thought through and ironed out my story and my career aspirations in the first few months. I took a month off to study for a certification for work, and Susan was so flexible and as soon as I was done, she jumped right in, not missing a beat, in our preparation. When we started our essay / short answer process, I really felt supported by Susan (and the school specific reviewers and proofreaders from the Stratus team) who really guided me in producing something that was memorable yet mine. I can seriously say I loved every essay I wrote for the MBA process, and I always felt like each application was my best work. I got interviews at all four schools I applied to, and Susan really helped me prep. When one of my interviews felt terrible, Susan was there to (1) cheer me up and (2) provide great insights and advice on how to mitigate any gaps from the interview.

Susan is fabulous and so fun to work with! If you're looking for a consultant who cares about you and takes the time to get to know you as a person, pick Susan!

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I worked with Soterios on a comprehensive package for R1 of 2021. I truly cannot speak highly enough of Soterios and his expertise. With his guidance, I gained acceptance to three top 10 MBA programs and received ~350k in total scholarship funding across four T20 programs.

With a somewhat non-traditional background, Soterios was able to help me craft my story in a way that was consistent and compelling. He challenged me to dig deeper into my background and really understand the ‘why’ that fueled many of my decisions, and I felt that I walked away from the experience with a fundamentally better understanding of myself. He even spent time coaching one of my recommenders who is a non-native English speaker.

Stratus more broadly has some fantastic resources tailored to each school. Through their interview guides and team of school experts reviewing my essays, I was able to put forth the best fitting application for each school.

In every step of the process, I was impressed with the quality and timeliness of support Soterios provided during a hectic application season, answering my most detailed questions with kindness and clarity. He made a stressful process infinitely more manageable and I felt assured knowing I was submitting the most polished and cohesive applications I possibly could.

I'm really pleased I chose to work with Soterios, and would happily recommend his services and the Stratus team to others. With his advice, I was also able to negotiate a higher scholarship to the T10 program I’ll be attending in the fall!

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