Comprehensive MBA Application Coaching
This is an end-to-end coaching engagement for applicants who want an experienced admissions perspective throughout the MBA application process. We’ll begin by looking at your candidacy as a whole: Your professional progression, accomplishments, goals, MBA rationale, potential concerns, and what you hope to contribute to an MBA community. That foundation will guide the decisions we make throughout your applications. As we move through the process, I’ll help you determine what to emphasize, where different experiences belong, and whether the individual pieces of your application reinforce one another. We can work across your résumé, career goals, essays and short responses, recommendations, video or recorded responses, and interview preparation. You are welcome to use AI and other resources as part of your process. My role is to help you evaluate what those tools produce, determine what genuinely strengthens your candidacy, and make sure the final application reflects your own experiences, thinking, and voice. Throughout our work together, I’ll bring the perspective I developed from years of interviewing and evaluating MBA candidates: not simply reviewing each component, but considering the overall impression your application is likely to create. The goal is a cohesive application that gives an admissions committee a clear and credible understanding of who you are, what you have accomplished, why an MBA makes sense now, what you will contribute, and where you want the degree to take you. This package includes comprehensive coaching for applications to up to three MBA programs. If you decide to apply to additional programs, we can continue working together through hourly coaching.
What's included
This is an end-to-end coaching engagement. We'll begin with a detailed assessment of your background, goals, experiences, target program, and application requirements. You'll complete comprehensive pre-work and provide your resume and other relevant materials before our first session so I can come to our work already familiar with your candidacy. From there, we'll establish an application strategy and work through the process in a logical sequence—from career goals and MBA rationale through resume positioning, essays and application responses, recommendations, school-specific components, final review, and interview preparation. Our work will include both live coaching and asynchronous review and feedback. I’ll use live sessions for conversations, strategic decisions, development of ideas, and practice; asynchronous work allows me to review materials thoughtfully and provide feedback without using meeting time simply to read documents together. Throughout the engagement, I'll also help you keep the individual pieces connected. Your resume, essays, recommendations, video responses, and interview shouldn't feel like separate exercises. Together, they should communicate a clear and consistent picture of your candidacy. This is for the person saying: I want an experienced admissions perspective and strategic guidance throughout my MBA application, from the initial strategy through the interview.
- You will receive a comprehensive candidacy assessment identifying your strengths, differentiators, goals, and potential areas of concern.
- We will create a personalized application strategy, school-fit guidance, and timeline to keep your application focused and on track.
- You will develop clear career goals and a compelling “why MBA / why now” connecting your experience to where you want to go next.
- I will help you identify leadership, impact, experiences, and perspectives you bring to an MBA classroom and community.
- I will provide MBA resume development and positioning through an admissions lens.
- We will cover school-specific essay and short-answer strategy, development, and detailed feedback.
- We will cover recommender strategy and preparation to help your recommenders provide specific, substantive evidence of your strengths.
- I will provide guidance on video, creative, and other school-specific components, plus final application review for consistency and missed opportunities.
- We will have a session on school-specific interview preparation and mock interview, with detailed feedback and ongoing strategic guidance.
Meet your expert
Donelle B.
11 Years Leading Kellogg Part-Time MBA Admissions
I spent 11 years leading admissions for Kellogg’s Part-Time MBA Program, where I recruited, interviewed, and evaluated candidates and helped build four incoming cohorts each year. That experience gave me a firsthand understanding of how admissions professionals assess not just individual parts of an application, but the strength and credibility of the candidate as a whole. Today, I bring that perspective to my work with MBA applicants. I help clients step back from the individual requirements of the application to understand what is distinctive about their candidacy, where questions or gaps may exist, and how their experience, goals, and reasons for pursuing an MBA fit together. My broader career has included leadership roles in higher education and my current work in workforce strategy and policy. Across these roles, I have spent my career evaluating, developing, and advising people at important points in their education and careers. My coaching style is thoughtful, candid, and highly individualized. My goal is not to manufacture a version of you that you think an admissions committee wants to see. It is to help you make sound strategic choices and present a clear and well-supported case for your MBA candidacy.
