I strongly recommend ApplicantLab to anybody considering an MBA! I come from a fairly vanilla work background and was worried about differentiating myself among applicants in my "bucket". I utilized ApplicantLab for every aspect of my application (resume, essays, interviews, recommendations, etc) as the tool has advice for anything you could think of, as well as things you may not think of! Before using the tool, I had no idea that MBA admissions committees look for resumes that highlight experiences that generally aren't the focus of traditional professional resumes.

Within the tool, you are encouraged to map out experiences in your personal/undergraduate/professional life that demonstrated key traits that MBA programs look for in strong applicants (leadership, mentoring, innovation, overcoming obstacles, etc), and then allocate those experiences/stories to your essays, application boxes, as well as your interview question responses (especially useful for elaborating more on stories that you could not include within your essays). Most of this advice is included in extensive videos that Maria has recorded for each specific section of the application process.

In terms of essay advice, Maria includes specific advice (both written and videos, which often include much appreciated humor) for each required and optional essay for a school. I can't stress enough how detailed the advice is for these essays. Maria includes hyperlinks to specific offerings that each program is particularly proud of (and thus, very good to reference in your essays). There is advice for basically any top-50 program and Maria will add schools if there is interest.

I also purchased a mock interview with Maria. Maria’s advice was incredibly detailed and the interview itself simulated my actual interview to a tee. She spent about 1.75 hours speaking with me; she recorded the interview, and then discussed her feedback on the responses I gave to each question. I found the small tweaks she suggested to my answers particularly beneficial (putting less emphasis no my technical experience vs interpersonal experiences). I definitely felt like my interviewers were impressed with my responses.

Ultimately I was accepted to CBS + another top-15 program, and received interview invitations to the other 4 schools I applied to (withdrew my applications as CBS was my top-choice). Not only that, I received a generous fellowship from CBS, which most people told me was a significant reach for me!

I strongly believe it would be beneficial for every MBA applicant to utilize ApplicantLab; Maria has put a great service together, and the price is almost certainly cheaper than any other admissions consultant service.

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I purchase the a la carte hourly services through mbaMission, and worked exclusively with Kate. I utilized my time with Kate primarily for refining my application essays’ narrative structure, grammar, and highlighted stories. I also used an hour of time for a mock interview via webcam. Kate was amazing to work with and was a huge reason for my success during Round 1 last year.

I strongly believe that Kate's advice and suggested edits to my application essays were incredibly beneficial, as some of my initial wording was repetitive, and I sometimes had individual sentences that didn't fit the overall theme of my essay. She was very honest in her feedback and wasn’t afraid to let me know when certain aspects of an essay just didn’t work. She also had a great deal of knowledge of each school I was applying to (six in total!). This info made my "why MBA" (aka how will our school help you with your post-MBA) story incredibly detailed and more importantly, personalized, for each school I applied to.

Kate was incredibly responsive to the many emails I sent to her for advice, and her suggested edits to application essays I sent her were always returned on time in regards to mbaMission’s standard turnaround time on essay feedback/edits. As I was applying to so many programs in Round 1, it was a necessity to work with someone who was professional and able to get back suggested edits to me as quickly as possible. Kate was all that, but also incredibly friendly and had a good sense of humor.

I also used one hour of my purchased time to conduct a mock interview with Kate (for CBS). We conducted the interview via webcam, ran down a handful of common CBS interview questions, and then discussed the interview and points of improvement. Kate was able to identify a few points of improvement and my actual interview ended up being quite similar to our mock interview.

Ultimately, I received interviews for all six of the schools I applied to, and received offers from three schools (with merit based aid from two of them!). I withdrew my applications from the other three, but I’m confident I would have received offers from all of them.

Overall, I thought Kate was vital to my success in Round 1, and I’m glad I decided to work with her all throughout the application process. I was so satisfied with her advice, that I purchased additional hours twice! For any applicants applying in Round 3 this year, or applying the next admissions cycle, I cannot recommend Kate and mbaMission enough!

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