I reached out to 4 admission consulting companies and ended up choosing mbaMission and Debbie Choy in particular. I like the fact that mbaMission allows potential clients to arrange an intro call with a specific consultant, as opposed to other companies who would match you with some consultants.

I enjoyed working with Debbie. She has a very personable and cheerful personality. She helped me tremendously in terms of connecting the individual pieces of experience into a coherent, convincing story. Debbie is also an effective writer and helped me refine my essays to be more readable and interesting. Debbie often guides me to make connections back to my theme/main point in my interview answers that I otherwise would not have thought about (E.g., tying MIT Sloan’s course cross-registration opportunity in the MIT engineering school with ESG investing). There were instances where Debbie offered to go the extra miles without charging me extra, which makes me feel valued as a client.

In terms of areas of improvement, I believe the firm, mbaMission, should prepare some materials that are uniquely applicable to deferred enrollment candidates. I’m a deferred enrollment candidate myself and I feel like some of the materials that I was instructed to read does not pertain to me. Also, I believe the flexibility of the admission consulting process can be improved. I started working with Debbie late January/early February, and the deadlines are in April. With this short timeframe, I got a bit frustrated when I was asked to read the whole 160 pages guide. I understand that the existing protocol might be appropriate for candidates with a lot of time, and hence can prepare them with a holistic view of the application process. But for candidates under time-pressure, I believe there should be some prioritization guided by consultants.

Some other smaller things that could be perfected include: 1) double checking the contents and links sent in emails; and 2) not letting clients feel rushed. There were cases where the links sent in the emails were not working, and other times the prompts for recommendation letters might not be updated. In terms of the second point, very infrequently would I feel a bit rushed near the end of the meeting.

Results-wise, I received a deferred enrollment offer from Columbia Business School, awaiting MIT Sloan and Virginia Darden. I believe that this offer from CBS would not be possible without Debbie’s help, and I’m very grateful for choosing Debbie and mbaMission overall.

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I worked with Gavriella on an hourly basis for assistance with my resume and interview prep. She gave me great tips and edits to perfect my resume, and the mock interviews prepared me for my interviews at a handful of schools. I felt confident with my application after submitting, and the interviews went very smoothly as I had a solid answer ready for every question. Gavriella also helped me choose between my options. With her help, I was admitted to six MBA programs, five with at least a 50% scholarship. All were top 25 programs and I ultimately got into my top choice. I would recommend Gavriella and MBAmission to anyone wanting to perfect their application for a competitive MBA program.

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I am honestly terrible at essay writing, so deeply needed someone patient enough to work with me through a seemingly endless string of rewrites. I also work in finance so was looking for someone that 1) could walk in with a good understanding of my experience and 2) would help push me when I was falling behind on essay timelines given how busy work can get.

Julie-Anne was a great match for me because I found that she was able to help me repackage my experiences in ways that popped on the page, which given how bad I am at essay writing, required a lot of time and iteration. Julie-Anne was patient throughout letting me drive the process (ex. if I wanted to do a 4th re-write) while still providing her thoughts and recommendations, pushing back on my ideas when warranted. More broadly, I found Julie-Anne warm and someone I enjoyed working with.

Dual admit to HBS/GSB

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Jessica took a huge interest in my success and went through my application with a fine tooth comb. Jessica also made me feel less stressed throughout the process. Jessica's greatest skill is packaging your story and her attention to detail. I really appreciated her candid feedback throughout the application process. She was super responsive and I was able to use some of the materials from our sessions and MBAmission for other applications which was helpful (note a lot of the MBAmission resources are available for free on the website so you can access them there). I would recommend Jessica for other applicants navigating the process for the first time.

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I worked with John using a 3 school package and I believe I would not have had the same outcomes, particularly with scholarship money, that I received if I had not worked with him. I had no idea how to frame my "story" and he came in with great ideas and excellent editing/writing abilities to help me pull my application together into a very compelling application that adcoms loved! I got into 5/6 schools I applied to, all with major scholarship money. I'll be heading to Wharton in the Fall. I think I might have gotten into some of these schools on my own, but John helped push me out of the pack and gave me an edge that led me to substantial scholarship money. He spent hours on the phone with me brainstorming ideas for essays, heavily edited essays for the 3 schools for which I was working with him (and then I rather easily transferred many of these essays to the schools I did on my own), and really helped me prep for interviews. My biggest issues with John were that he was late to almost all of our phone meetings, sometimes forgot to respond to my emails and would return essay drafts to me way after his promised deadlines. Also, there were times where I felt John lacked emotional support and was biased i.e. not congratulating me when I received scholarships to schools he didn't help me with, and when I got dinged from my top school he focused on defending himself instead of supporting me. Overall I would highly recommend John! He was not without his faults, but he definitely helped me achieve my goals and in the end that's all that really matters.

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Jen provided really helpful feedback on essays and and my mock interview, helping me hone my story and tell it in a concise and compelling way. Our communication was mostly by email and she was always quick to respond.

If I had to offer one piece of constructive feedback, it's that I think Jen could have pushed me even harder by being more frank with her comments on the content of my essays. Her feedback on structure, wording, etc. was spot on, but I found several friends and family members who weren't afraid to tell me I had missed the mark in my response to a prompt and that I needed to alter my overall approach. In hindsight, I think Jen was a bit more forthcoming with feedback like this. (Important note, this may be a result that I was using Jen on an hourly basis, so she admittedly didn't know me as well as she might have if we were working together more extensively).

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I worked with Jen from MBAMission during my MBA application process and it was a seamless and wonderful experience. I got in to Ross and INSEAD and finally decided to go to INSEAD. I used MBAMIssion's services as I did not have time to go through the application process with my full time job. Jen did an incredible job in helping me to articulate my story and tie up the loose ends. She always responded to my queries and her comments were never late. We had a brain storming session in the beginning and then most of the communication was through email and it was very efficient. I really thank Jen for her wonderful support during the intense application period.

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I would definitely recommend mbaMission and specifically John. He was always timely with his edits to my essays and provided in-depth commentary & edits to every draft. For me, it was helpful to know someone who is an expert in the space had viewed my documents, almost giving them a seal of approval before sending off to schools. Since I applied Round 2, my essay writing/reviews fell over the holidays but John was still checking emails and communicative about drafts etc. Last, mbaMission has so many helpful documents and white papers to help you navigate the process - I found them really helpful and reassuring as I faced each step of the admissions process.

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I initially started trying to tackle MBA applications on my own. Right before Round 1 deadlines I realized my applications were not nearly the caliber they should be to get into one of my ambitious schools. I was initially very shocked at how expensive an admissions consultant could be but settled on Stratus Prep quickly after talking with some of their staff and appreciating how easy they were to talk to.

I worked with Harold Simansky and immediately we began crafting my story. His push to make me dig deeper was a tough experience, but ultimately so rewarding as we were able to create a solid framework for my strengths, story, and where I'm looking to go. The experience itself really helped me understand why I wanted an MBA and what some realistic goals were.

Harold was able to help me write and shape essays that were lightyears ahead of the essays I wrote by myself. He helped me shape each essay for what the school and prompt were looking for, and cut out any material that really didn't provide a purpose or differentiating factor. I was nervous about how quickly I would receive feedback, but always impressed by the speed and quality I received, even as I was finishing applications around Christmas time.

In the end, I got into a great program I really didn't think I had much of a chance with. I'm so grateful for the help that Harold and all the Stratus Prep team was able to provide.

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I used the hourly service because I mainly need help with proof-reading my essays and finding the right "story" to tell. My consultant has been very responsive to all my questions, and gave many useful comments on where I could provide more context and how I can make the essays clear and powerful. I also used mock group interview service, although it's a bit expensive, it helped to give me an idea of what kind of group dynamic and interaction I expect to experience in the real setting. I appreciate their nice and encouraging style, but I think sometimes they could've been a bit sharper on pointing out where I needed to improve. Overall it's been a positive experience working with mbaMission.

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