MBA admissions consultants

The mbaMission Complete Start-to-Finish Admissions Guide collects all nine mbaMission Application Guides into one comprehensive package designed to help you navigate the entire application process from beginning to end. For greater detail on each of the guides, see the individual descriptions below.

The mbaMission Complete Start-to-Finish Admissions Guide includes the following:

• The mbaMission Long-Term Planning Guide
  Offers an in-depth breakdown of application criteria and an extended and detailed timeline of activities and milestones to help guide you smoothly and successfully through the application process
• The mbaMission Brainstorming Guide
  Provides valuable guidance on how to approach brainstorming, a list of 16 probing brainstorming questions for you to answer and straightforward advice on how to pinpoint your most compelling stories from your professional, personal and extracurricular activities
• The mbaMission Essay Writing Guide
  Explains the importance of essay outlining and walks you through the process, discusses how and why to consider a narrative approach to your essays, details how to craft effective opening lines and introductions, and includes numerous sample outlines, excerpts and full essays with notes
• The mbaMission Resume Guide
  Delivers helpful guidance on how to write a strong admissions committee–focused and results-driven resume; explains how to approach spacing, formatting, special sections and descriptions of consulting work; and includes three sample resumes with accompanying notes, plus a list of more than 300 action-oriented verbs that demonstrate accomplishments rather than responsibilities
• The mbaMission Personal Statement Guide
  Presents tips on how to craft your personal statement, multiple excerpts from well-written personal statements and four complete sample essays with accompanying notes, plus a worksheet to help you structure your own personal statement essay
• The mbaMission Letters of Recommendation Guide
  Includes advice on properly selecting, communicating with and managing your recommenders; a document you can provide to your recommenders for them to use in preparing your letters; and a full sample recommendation with accompanying notes
• The mbaMission Optional Statement Guide
  Provides crucial guidance on how to properly use the optional essay to address “issues” within one's candidacy (and when not to), and includes more than ten sample essays
• The mbaMission Interview Guide
  Presents key information on preparing for your interview, understanding how the interview works and may be weighted at your target school, interview FAQs and a list of 100 questions that candidates are often asked during MBA interviews
• The mbaMission Waitlist Guide
  Helps you navigate through an often bewildering waitlist process, providing direction and advice on proper communication with “open” and “closed” waitlist schools and offers two sample letters—with notes—as models of appropriate and compelling correspondence

Total pages: 162

Almost all business schools require candidates to submit some form of a personal statement. Although personal statement essays can vary in length and in the precise question asked, in almost all cases, candidates must discuss their past accomplishments, explain why they want to earn an MBA at the school to which they are applying and propose professional goals for the future. Because the personal statement essay is common to almost all MBA applications, we have prepared the mbaMission Personal Statement Guide to will help candidates develop a personal statement that will “wow” the admissions committee and increase their chances of being admitted.

The mbaMission Personal Statement Guide provides key tips on how to craft your personal statement, multiple excerpts from well-written personal statements and four complete model personal statement essays with accompanying notes, plus a worksheet to help you structure your own personal statement essay. This document is free.

Successful essays and well-rounded applications both begin with a thorough brainstorming session. The goal of such a brainstorming session is to reveal not just the experiences but, more importantly, the stories that make each candidate distinct. Most people, however, have difficulty truly examining their lives thoroughly enough to be able to identify and discuss all of their most interesting and important accomplishments—or they simply don't know where or how to get started. We have therefore developed the mbaMission Brainstorming Guide, a vital aid that can help candidates effectively survey and draw on the full spectrum of their accomplishments, both inside and outside of the professional world. The mbaMission Brainstorming Guide assists candidates in first uncovering and then selecting the stories that will form the basis of a successful and well-rounded application.

The mbaMission Brainstorming Guide provides key tips on how to approach brainstorming, a series of 16 brainstorming questions to guide you through the process and advice on how to pinpoint your most compelling stories from your professional, personal and extracurricular activities.

Writing compelling essays is central to a strong business school application, but many candidates have difficulty organizing and drafting these important pieces and could benefit from some advice. For example, applicants who outline their essays before writing their first drafts are not just more organized and efficient, but also enjoy the essay writing process more. In the mbaMission Essay Writing Guide, we present clear and easy-to-understand instructions for creating time-saving (and stress-reducing) outlines and for crafting comprehensive, engaging and effective essays. Part of a successful MBA application is submitting essays that are properly organized, detailed and presented, and the mbaMission Essay Writing Guide provides the guidance all candidates need when writing their essays.

The mbaMission Essay Writing Guide covers key tips on essay outlining, how and why to consider a narrative approach, effective opening lines and introductions, and numerous sample outlines, excerpts and full essays with notes.

When preparing their business school applications, many candidates simply update their existing resumes (often at the last minute) and submit them along with the rest of their application materials. At mbaMission, we strongly believe that this is a mistake. Your resume should always be tailored to your audience—the admissions committees, in this case—and this requires taking some time to overhaul your resume to ensure that very specific characteristics and accomplishments shine through. What's more, experience has shown that many candidates' resumes are not as strong as they could be, often mistakenly conveying responsibilities rather than accomplishments and wasting valuable page space on unnecessary information. The mbaMission Resume Guide provides vital tips on how to approach, organize and present the data in your resume to best frame and highlight your accomplishments—and to stand out from the crowd.

The mbaMission Resume Guide offers important guidance on writing an effective admissions committee-focused resume; explains how to approach elements such as spacing, formatting, special sections and descriptions of consulting work; and includes three sample resumes with accompanying notes as well as a list of more than 300 action-oriented verbs that demonstrate accomplishments rather than responsibilities.

Letters of Recommendation can be one of the most stressful elements of applying to business school—and with good reason, given that many candidates are unsure about how to best choose, approach and manage their recommenders and thus risk reducing their chances of getting admitted. The mbaMission Letters of Recommendation Guide can vastly help reduce the stress associated with this process by providing key guidance not just about identifying your best recommenders but also on managing the process, ensuring that your recommenders are fully informed and submit their letters on time, and what to do when you are unable to obtain a recommendation from a direct supervisor.

The mbaMission Letters of Recommendation Guide provides key information on properly selecting, communicating with and managing your recommenders as well as a document you can provide to your recommenders for them to use in preparing your letters. A full sample recommendation with accompanying notes is also included.

Business school admission interviews can be a key component of the application process and are usually unlike any other interviews candidates have experienced before. Properly preparing for the MBA interview will both lessen candidates' stress and increase their chances for success, yet most candidates don't know what to expect or how to prepare. The mbaMission Interview Guide helps clarify the process by explaining the different kinds of interviews (blind versus comprehensive, on campus versus off campus, invitation versus applicant initiated) as well as the types of questions typically asked. It also provides valuable tips on what to do before, during and even after the interview.

The mbaMission Interview Guide provides key information on preparing for your interview, understanding how the interview works and may be weighted at your target school, interview FAQs and a list of 100 questions that candidates are often asked during MBA interviews.

Is your GPA lower than your target school's average? Is your GMAT score uneven? Do you have a gap in your work experience? Most business school candidates have at least one irregularity in their profile and must consider whether to write the optional essay to explain it. And, of course, if you decide you do need to write one, you need to know how to do so effectively. In our mbaMission Optional Statement Guide, we present a variety of scenarios in which one should—as well as should not—write an optional essay, and advise you on how best to mitigate your weaknesses and accentuate your strengths in such essays.

The mbaMission Optional Statement Guide provides crucial guidance on how to properly use the optional essay to address “issues” within one's candidacy (and when not to), and includes 15 sample essays.

Finding yourself on your target school's waitlist can be frustrating, but keep two things in mind as you prepare to play the waiting game. First, being waitlisted is actually an endorsement of your candidacy, and second, there is a right way and a wrong way to manage the waitlist process, depending on the school's policy. In our mbaMission Waitlist Guide, we explain the difference between an “open” waitlist policy and a “closed” one and help you understand when and how to continue to communicate with the school to increase your chances of ultimately gaining a spot in its next incoming class.

The mbaMission Waitlist Guide can help you navigate through an often bewildering waitlist process, providing direction and advice on proper communication with “open” and “closed” waitlist schools and offering two sample letters—with notes—as models of appropriate and compelling correspondence.

The foundation for a truly strong business school candidacy ideally begins long before you start writing your application essays or take the GMAT. We have created our Long-Term Planning Guide to help you most effectively address the various facets and steps of the application process, including framing and charting your professional path, choosing your community activities, preparing to take the GMAT, considering additional coursework, pursuing personal achievements, researching target schools and much more. This guide will help you fine-tune your candidacy by explaining ways to develop your strengths, mitigate your weaknesses, use your time wisely and ultimately submit a standout application.

The mbaMission Long-Term Planning Guide offers applicants an in-depth breakdown of application criteria and an extended and detailed timeline of activities and milestones to help guide them smoothly and successfully through the application process.

Reviews every aspect of the application process—from the application's short-answer data questions to the interview—and provides a thorough discussion of the recommendation process, covering whom you should ask, how you can guide your recommenders and what makes a good recommendation letter. You will also receive the presentation's accompanying slides as well as mbaMission's Complete Start-to-Finish Guide.

Offers advice on how to showcase different aspects of yourself in the strongest way possible. Provides tips and exercises on selecting topics and writing your essays to create a multifaceted application that will truly stand out. You will also receive the presentation's accompanying slides as well as mbaMission's Complete Start-to-Finish Guide.

Drills deeply into how to approach the “flagship essay”—the essay common to most schools that asks you to detail your experience, your goals and why that specific school is the best one to help you achieve them. Learn how to stand out from the crowd and make your story compelling. This recording is particularly valuable for career changers! You will also receive the presentation's accompanying slides, a worksheet to help you determine what aspects of your past to highlight in the essay, and mbaMission's Complete Start-to-Finish Guide.

Discusses how to tailor your resume for MBA applications, advises on how to process and organize the massive amount of information you take in during a school visit, and offers key interview tips. You will also receive the presentation's accompanying slides as well as mbaMission's Complete Start-to-Finish Guide.

Purchase single recordings for $59 each or receive a 15% discount when you buy the complete set, just $199. If you purchase all four recordings, you will receive all four sets of slides, a worksheet to help you determine what aspects of your past to highlight, and mbaMission's Complete Start-to-Finish Guide.