MBA Mission is Well Worth It!

I was initially skeptical of working with a high-priced consultant, but MBAMission had me wowed after the one hour complementary consultation.

The consultant asked me to articulate the reasons for my “top choice” schools at the time, and then proceeded to rip them apart. After learning about what I wanted out of my experience, my background, and my scores/work experience, she was able to draft up a list of 5 schools – a couple “reach”, a couple “target”, and a “safety” program – all within the top ~15 US MBA programs. I was wowed at how quickly she was able to see through my bs reasoning and methodically select a target list for me. After doing extensive research on her suggestions, I ended up applying to 4 of the 5 programs she suggested, and using MBA Mission to help me with my application.

The consultant I initially spoke to matched me up with a senior consultant at MBA Mission with a similar work experience background to mine – Helen Summers. Helen is fantastic!! I literally cannot say enough positive things about her. Here are a few:

- Helen is a straight shooter. When she sees bs/poor logic in your essays, interview responses, etc, etc she isn’t afraid to tell you.

- Helen pushes you to think deeper. Very rarely is your first essay/short answer idea the best one. It takes iterations to find the best story to tell and the best angle to take. Helen consistently pushed you to go deeper instead of taking the superficial/overdone/unconvincing but easy to write route. The essays I ended up crafting with Helen’s guidance are some of my most poignant writing, where my personality really shines through.

- Helen doesn’t write the essays for you. You put in the hard work. She is simply a very honest sounding board and editor. This is especially important since business schools want to hear your voice, not the voice of a consultant.

- She is a perfectionist. Some of my essays were on draft 11 or more before they were considered done. She looks at word count, grammar, syntax, flow, content, how gripping the story is, etc, etc.

- Helen is great at resume assistance. I thought I was already a fairly strong resume writer, but she really helped me articulate my accomplishments in a role, rather than my responsibilities. She also helped me do it in a way that made my accomplishments clear to a reader that would not necessarily know about my industry.

- Helen does her research on the schools. She knows the trend in interview questions for a specific school/ round. This makes interview prep twice as effective.

- Helen is super-responsive. About 70% of the time, she responded to me well before the official turn-around period. Of course as application deadlines approach she’ll have more work, so budget your time accordingly.

- Finally, Helen was super invested in my success. She genuinely wanted to see me succeed. The application process is super successful and it was fantastic to her guidance and support throughout.

I opted for the all-inclusive package. It’s expensive, but for me it was well worth it. Here are a few reasons why:

- You get unlimited essay editing. I cannot tell you how beneficial this is. I would write a draft and get comments back, rewrite, and then get more comments back. Had I only been able to submit for editing once or twice, my essays would not be nearly as tightly-written.

- Having a consultant forces you to keep momentum. I am a huge procrastinator, but having manageable chunks (ie. edit v7 of my essay, edit v2 of my resume, etc) helped me not get overwhelmed and keep going.

- The package includes help with and edits of all the fields in the application. This is a huge area for minefields as you have very few characters to articulate your biggest challenge in a role, etc. Definitely take advantage of this part of the package.

- The package includes resume help, mock-interviews, and all sorts of other super-helpful guidance.

All in all, I had a very positive experience with MBAMission and Helen Summers and would recommend both highly. One final thought – if you are having a hard time justifying the price, remember that after all is said and done, b-school will cost you roughly $200k. It is a huge investment. Spending a little extra to make sure you have the strongest application possible and upping your chances of getting into your preferred programs is well worth it.