Julie-Anne Heafey Reviews

A little bit of my background:
Chinese with an engineering degree and working in investment. I decided to apply for an MBA in the US to get more exposure in PE/VC. 720 GMAT, Near perfect GPA.
I could have brainstormed with a local consultant, but I believe that working with a US based consultant is a must so we can craft a story that would catch the eye of a top US school Adcom.

I started my application with another admissions firm 2 years ago, and was finally dinged without interview.

I did not lose hope and decided to have another try the year after. I was struggling between staying with the former firm or test a new one, and contacted mbaMission for a free consultation. Julie-Anne Heafey was strongly recommended to me, and she was willing to review my past application to pinpoint areas of improvement. She pointed out elements that could be presented from another perspective and I directly felt that she could strengthen my application substantially. I bought 3 schools packages and kicked that application journey off.

Julie-Anne was particularly helpful during the story draft stage. As a former consultant, she knew what questions to ask to find the root cause, all the why’s and external factors that led to any decision or accomplishment.
She really wanted me to write the story myself, so she kept introducing new questions to dig deeper.
At the end, I felt that my story was very unique and assisted me to stand out.

As compared to the former firm’s consultants, MBAMission’s consultants are working full-time. Julie-Anne was there, supporting me, and answering quick questions on the spot and it REALLY ease the process as I also have a busy work schedule.

I also submitted application on 2 schools on my own, and was invited to interview at HBS, MIT, Yale, and Booth - was so ecstatic! Remember, I was dinged without interview prior application cycle.

A word on the interview prep:
mbaMission interview guides are updated regularly and tailored to each school, so feel free to download them for free.

Julie-Anne’s support was crucial. I rehearsed couple times before the interview prep session with Julie-Anne, but there was still room for improvement.
As she knew every details of my application - just as an Adcom would for a non-blind interview - she always prepared a list of challenging questions to see how I react. We then reviewed my performance and she provided me insightful feedbacks and ways to sound natural and not scripted.

Finally, Julie-Anne is very resourceful, and by working with mbaMission, you have the support of the entire team as well.
Working with Julie-Anne is one of my best decisions, and thanks to her, I am attending my dream school this fall!!

She helped me make the impossible possible. THANK YOU!!

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Background: econ undergrad to investment banking to private equity. Applied to HBS and GSB. Received interviews at both schools (GSB R1, HBS deferred R1, interview R2), and was admitted to GSB (did not take HBS interview).

I was looking for a consultant who would a) walk me through the process of the application to limit effort on my end, b) provide constructive criticism on the essays, and c) keep me on track to submit so I don't pull an all-nighter the night before. Julie-Anne certainly filled all of those roles for me. I would say that she stood out the most in regards to the essay writing, where she was extremely helpful with brainstorming constructs, as well as giving me the hard feedback of when I totally needed to scrap an essay (which with hindsight, was the right call!).

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I had heard good things about mbaMission from online reviews but, unfortunately, my experience feel drastically short of expectations.

1) There were one or two instances of my essay reviews coming back with obvious errors. For example, I got feedback from my consultant and their draft had a repeated sentence. For the cost of this service I expect consultants to avoid such basic mistakes.

2) As round 1 deadlines approached I noticed that the feedback I was getting was increasingly minimal (accounting for the fact that essay quality increases with time). There was a couple instances when I only got a one sentence response

3) I also noticed that there was a lot of back and forth with the consultant's own advice. I would write A and they would ask me to write B; a little while later they would ask me to scrap B and write A again

Overall I was better off than I would have been had I not gone with a consultant but I definitely don't feel like I got my money's worth. The ideas I got from my consultant were okay at best. Additionally, I noticed a drastic drop in quality as application deadlines approached. I'm assuming the consultants here are overstaffed and couldn't keep up with the workload.

I recommend using a different service; I've heard great things about Expartus from my peers.

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I had a challenging story to communicate (white male, finance background, weak GMAT, career pivot, location pivot, etc.) but Julie did an amazing job of working with me to craft a compelling and unique story for each MBA program that I considered. In addition, I was an extremely demanding client (applied to nine top MBA programs) yet Julie always rose the occasion when deadlines arrived. She went above and beyond for me several times throughout the application process and I am very thankful that I selected her as my consultant. Highly recommend to any MBA candidates looking at hiring a consultant!

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Julie-Anne was instrumental in helping me secure a spot in the top MBA program on my list. I scored 700+ on the LSAT and had a good undergrad MBA, but from a non-target school. I graduated from undergrad in 2016 so had limited work experience. I was nervous about my chances of being admitted, but Julie-Anne helped me brainstorm essays that highlighted my strengths. Julie-Anne also prepared me for interviews by hosting Skype mock interviews, which I found very helpful. She was always quick to respond with helpful thoughts on my essays. I would highly recommend Julie-Anne to anyone applying to B-school!

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