If you have ever wondered what MBA admissions consultants do for their clients—beyond editing their essays—this episode will illuminate a process that runs far deeper than you might expect.
In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast, Harold Simansky sits down with mbaMission Managing Director Rachel Beck and Gatehouse Admissions Founder Liza Weale for a candid conversation about the core responsibilities of admissions consultants. The discussion covers the full arc of the process, from brainstorming with clients and creating an experience inventory with them, through months of revisions and personal relationship building, to the final check before an application is submitted.
Table of Contents
Everything Begins with Brainstorming
Both Rachel and Liza describe brainstorming—the process through which a client’s “experience inventory” is created—as the foundation of the entire engagement. Clients are asked to document their life story broadly: where they grew up, family dynamics, college choices, career highlights and setbacks, global experience, and anything else of significance that has occurred since childhood. At this point, the goal is not to produce polished essays but to uncover key material about the person’s candidacy that is not conveyed in their resume.
Rachel explains that candidates cannot “layer” stories—her term for weaving together multiple anecdotes that reinforce the same trait—if they have not first identified all the relevant stories they have to work with. Liza describes the process as a kind of fishing expedition; you do not know what you will find until you start looking. In short, brainstorming is a way of helping clients break out of their preset narratives.
You Have to Be Messy to Be Ready
Harold’s bottom line for his clients is “If it’s not messy, it’s not ready,” meaning that the authentic, genuine version of a person’s story rarely emerges in the first or second draft. The consultants assert that early-stage ambiguity, when an applicant’s direction is still unclear even after multiple drafts, is a normal, and even necessary, part of the process. Liza reassures clients that their efforts will likely feel “murky” at first and that discarding their early work and starting over is a sign of progress, not failure.
Optimize the “Kicker” and Layering Your Stories
Rachel, whose background is in journalism, introduces the concept of the “kicker,” which is the closing line of a story that leaves the reader with a strong, memorable impression. She applies this principle when working with her clients on their essays, encouraging them to ensure that the final line makes an impact. She also recommends a strategy called “layering,” which is using multiple stories in an essay to reinforce the same trait, which creates a more vivid and believable impression than a single anecdote ever could.
The Strongest Editing Requires Detachment
Harold offers one of the episode’s sharpest pieces of advice, which is to not fall in love with what you have written. If a paragraph, sentence, or even a phrase does not answer the school’s question or move your narrative forward, it has to go—no matter how much you like it or how long you spent writing it. Rachel adds her recommendation to read every draft out loud. This approach allows you to hear what the writing actually sounds like, which might be very different from what you imagined or intended. Liza has her clients read their work aloud at every stage, not just the final draft.
Dedicate More Attention to Your Resume
Liza notes that the transformation she sees in a client’s resume from before they work with a consultant to after is almost always “night and day.” Because most professional resumes are responsibility based, rather than accomplishment based, they merely describe what the job required rather than what the person achieved. Business schools use your resume not to evaluate your technical or financial skills but to learn who you are as a person and a leader. The consultants direct their clients to use strong verbs in their resume to demonstrate initiative and impact, and to ensure that each bullet point reveals something new and distinct about them.
Total Application Alignment Is the Final Objective
The consultants state that at the end of the process, they focus on alignment. Do all of the pieces of the client’s application—the essays, resume, recommendations, and so on—tell one cohesive story about who the person is? Liza uses a simple test with her clients: If the application sounds like them, it is ready to submit. Rachel takes a slightly different approach, asking whether the overall application tells a great story about the client, not just a technically correct one.
The episode closes with a reminder that the application process is deeply human. Admissions committees are looking for people they feel would be additive to their program’s classrooms and community. The consultants’ job is to help applicants provide enough authentic, specific, and well-told material to make the committee’s decision easy.
New episodes of The mbaMission Podcast are released every Tuesday on all major streaming platforms, with full video episodes available on mbaMission’s YouTube channel. If you are curious about working with an admissions consultant, sign up for a free 30-minute consultation with Rachel, Harold, or another member of the mbaMission admissions team.
