This review came from consultant's tenure at mbaMission.

As someone who is not a naturally strong story teller or writer, I knew I could use some outside help on both starting and crafting my business school story. Kim did a fantastic job asking me questions in the beginning to help me narrow down what I should focus on in my essays. I initially hesitated to use a consultant out of fear that I would just receive generic feedback. But each time I went through an iteration with Kim, she provided honest, actionable, and specific feedback that I could use to better craft my story. I purchased an hourly package with Kim, and I would highly recommend her to anyone to anyone looking for help on their essays regardless of where they are in the process.

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I applied to business school in Round 1 this year and am very glad that I had the opportunity to work with Hannah, at Vantage Point. I will be attending Harvard Business School this fall and I would highly recommend working with Hannah to anyone applying.

Experiencing an essay based admission process for the first time, I had no idea about the school’s expectations from my essays. Also, I had less than than the average number of years of work ex for my target schools, which made me anxious.

My reasons for choosing Vantage Point were two fold:
1. Personalized attention - I has an initial call with Melody and in 30 minutes she not only understood my profile well but also gave me pointers on how to present myself well in my applications to highlight my strengths and balance my weaknesses.
2. Cost effective - Although most top consultants are priced roughly the same, Vantage Point was at the lower end of the spectrum.

When I first started working with Hannah, I had initial drafts of my essays but quickly realized I was nowhere close to being submission-ready. Hannah knows exactly what each school is looking for and gave me very clear points on how to shape my essays for each. She also helped me rework and rewrite my essays so that they addressed 1) the highlights of my relatively short work ex, 2) my personality / interests, 3) my professional goals, 4) and how the schools would help get me there. Hannah's 'tough-love' really forced me to dig deeper and write essays that truly captured the essence of my experiences, where I am now & where I want to go next. The transformation of my initial drafts before working with her to the final drafts after was truly amazing.

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I believe that any good consultant can work with a strong candidate (great GPA, GMAT score, extracurriculars, etc.) and produce a winning application, but it takes a truly exceptional consultant to work with a candidate that has major application weaknesses (aka me, very low GPA, few extracurriculars, no quant classes in college, etc.) and create not just a strong application but one that results in an admittance. That exceptional consultant is Melody.

Melody is patient and thoughtful and will diligently review every aspect of who you are as a person so that she can craft a cohesive and realistic story with her incredible creative ability. She is honest and direct when you come to her with questions, and she is supportive and understanding you just need someone to be your rock during this stressful process.

There are a million things I could write about Melody, but what it all comes down to is this: Melody is your partner. She is your partner every step of the way and she will be there with you at the very end to celebrate. I could not have gotten into business school without her: the story might have been mine, but the presentation was hers and I am truly honored to have worked with Melody.

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This review came from consultant's tenure at mbaMission.

After unsuccessfully applying to business school during my senior year in college, I decided to recruit the assistance of a consultant to help me out the second time around. I reached out to a few consultants from other companies, and was met with the same disappointing reaction each time. Everyone I spoke to discouraged me from applying and recommended that I wait a few years given the fact that I was a fairly young applicant. I had completed my undergrad only 12 months earlier, and would only have 2 years of full-time work experience at the time of matriculation. I was just about ready to give up on my b-school dreams for the time being, until I spoke to Kim. She took the time to listen to my career goals and understand why I believed business school was the logical next step in my career. Kim wholeheartedly supported this decision and offered the much-needed encouragement to move forward with my b-school aspirations. She believed in me when nobody else did and guided me through the process from start to finish. I decided to go all in and purchased the complete packages, which proved to be a worthy investment given the numerous hours Kim dedicated to me. She did not give me unrealistic hope, but rather helped manage my expectations by shedding light on my areas of weakness and identifying strategies to overcome these threats to my candidacy. I could tell she was genuinely invested in my applications and took the time to help me select the schools that best aligned with my goals and priorities. She created a structured approach for this otherwise chaotic experience and held me accountable to our established timeline. With Kim’s guidance, I was able to craft a compelling story that was tailored to each program. What I especially appreciated about Kim was that she always provided honest, objective feedback. She did not hesitate to identify any deficiencies in my application materials and offer recommendations and insight into potential solutions. From editing essays, to proof-reading applications, to providing interview preparation, Kim served as my coach, mentor, and even therapist at times. Thanks to her, I was accepted into two top-ten schools, despite being four years younger than the average age. As an added benefit, both of these b-schools offered me a partial scholarship. I have no doubt that I would not have been able to accomplish this without the dedication, support and guidance that Kim provided.

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This review came from consultant's tenure at mbaMission.

Kim Leb at MBAmission was incredibly insightful in helping me craft "my story" to portray to MBA programs. Originally, I thought I didn't need help from a consultant and was rejected from the first school I applied to. I quickly signed up with her and she helped me get into my top choice. The insight she was able to provide into what the ad coms look for was perfect and took my application from average to exceptional. She was available any time to talk through things and calm me down when I started stressing out. I know, without a doubt, I wouldn't be here without her help and can't recommend her highly enough.

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I was very thankful to have Molly as an admissions consultant. She did a great job walking me through the admissions process quickly and efficiently - she helped me come up with a great personal narrative and come up with a nice strategy for recommendation letters. I was applying R2, and I was glad to have a structured framework of "what to do when" - for example, when to start refining each of my essays and when to reach out to my recommenders.

I would definitely recommend Molly and Vantage - they did a great job overall, very responsive and quick on email questions, and clearly very passionate about helping students put together compelling stories about themselves!

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Meredith was recommended to me by a previous colleague and she completely surpassed my already high expectations.

I worked with Meredith and opted to do a comprehensive package for three schools because it gave me the most flexibility and support, which is what I was looking for. During my research process, I was initially drawn to Vantage Point's organized approach and how they laid out and broke down every step to keep me on track (as part of their services, they provide an easy to use client portal that has great resources and templates). However, what really set Vantage Point apart for me, was the genuine interest and care for Meredith conveyed during our free consultation call.

From the get go, Meredith encouraged me to think big with my goals and helped me frame my story in a way that was authentic yet compelling. She had a way of making me feel excited about the process (a hard thing to do) and made me feel like my goals were achievable! I always looked forward to our calls and appreciated how she pushed me to be truly thoughtful about what I wanted out of business school (personally and professionally). Meredith was a great thought partner and provided stellar edits (without putting words in my mouth or doing the actual writing) in order to showcase leadership qualities and articulate my goals all within word count. She was efficient in returning drafts and I always felt her edits and feedback were spot on!

During the submission and interview process, Meredith ensured I stayed on schedule and was a great cheerleader in getting me across the finish line. She had me put together an "Application Packet" for a blind review with another Vantage Point consultant, which pushed me to have everything completed well ahead of schedule. She also enthusiastically checked in with me before every deadline and did thorough prep to ensure I was 100% prepared and confident (her mock interview questions were almost identical to my interviews!)

Above all, what sets Meredith apart is that she felt like more than just a consultant. Meredith genuinely cares about each person she works with, and was the first person I went to whenever I had a question about the process (GMAT vs. GRE) or about a decision I was facing at work (whether or not to take a new role). I always knew I could go to knowing that I would get only the best advice. Meredith is upfront yet optimistic in her approach and I think it’s a winning combination for the application process. I highly recommend her to anyone considering working with her!

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What I love about working with Melody is that she is able to push me to the best of myself. Working with her is a great investment to my MBA application. I reached out to Melody a little late in the preparation process while I was quite overwhelmed and confused working on the applications myself. After I reached out to Melody, she made sure she understood what I was looking for in schools and helped me strategize my application package. Her feedback to my essays was straight to the point and constructive. She made me feel that we were on the same team and she was committed to help me achieve my goals. Although she was busy, she was always able to meet the timelines that we initially agreed on. I can’t thank Melody enough!

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Melody (VantagePoint consultant) provided an excellent service which ensured that I got accepted to the school of my choosing (LBS) while minimizing friction in the process. LBS was the only school I chose to apply to hence our collaboration was fully geared towards LBS adcom requirements.
Melody is a very insightful person with a very clear perspective on how the admission process should be run in order to be successful - clear sign of experience / expertise. While ensuring a super pleasant dialogue, Melody will know when to challenge the status quo and push to hit milestones. Melody was very structured and managed the timeline very well, which was the most important contribution that I was looking for.
Being a good consultant, Melody kicked off the advisory relationship with in-depth interviews. Melody provided a very tailored set of objectives / milestones for me to hit to really improve my profile before applying. Networking with past / current students was one important avenue that I explored thanks to her advice.
I recommend Melody and VP full-heartedly because of a very high level of professionalism, result-driven approach as well as supportive culture (for those tough moments where you will inevitably worry too much about your GMAT score, essay, etc).

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I did not enjoy applying to business school. There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty inherent to the process and each school varies greatly in both deliverables and expectations.

That said, I did enjoy working with Melody Jones at Vantage Point. It is largely due to her amazing efforts that I was ultimately admitted to Stanford GSB, Columbia Business School, and the Cal Berkeley Haas School of Business. The reality is that I did not believe I would get into any of these schools and all credit goes to both the process and diligence of people like Melody at Vantage Point for helping me flesh out and articulate a coherent, authentic story.

This last point is perhaps most important as I think the tendency for most (at least me) is to write what one believes an adcom wants to hear. Melody and her team were particularly adept at helping me find and express the best version of my personal truth in my essays. This took many drafts and much patience and Melody is exceptionally disciplined and responsive and consistently provided meaningful feedback to keep things moving forward. The fact that this specific service also included a review from an expert at a given school helped me fine tune my application prior to submission and ensure that nothing was missed along the way.

These services are expensive, but I can say without hesitation that Vantage Point represents a worthwhile investment in the future of any applicant.

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