Sia Admissions is a boutique MBA admissions consulting firm founded by Susan Berishaj. We work with a limited number of candidates each cycle applying to M7, top 10, and top-tier MBA programs in the US and Europe.
If you are reading this page, the research is done. You know your target schools and what the process requires. What you are deciding now is who to trust with it.
At many large firms, a single coach carries twenty-four to thirty clients per round. The coach may be excellent. The math is the problem. The time available to develop your story shrinks with every name added to the roster, and depth is the first thing to go. That is the reason this firm exists.
Why Sia Admissions exists
Sia Admissions started with one applicant who had exactly that experience. A colleague came to Susan after a disappointing engagement with a large consulting firm, where her application had been processed rather than understood. Susan worked with her to build an HBS application that made a single, honest argument in her own voice. She applied to 5 schools. Her only acceptance was Harvard Business School.
That result clarified the mission. MBA applicants deserve more than to feel like a number, and the depth of work that separates a good application from an accepted one does not survive being done at volume. So we do not do it at volume. Each coach at Sia Admissions works with no more than 12 clients per round, so every candidate who goes through our full process leaves no stone unturned.
How do MBA applications actually get evaluated?
Every candidacy is evaluated on 2 arguments. The trajectory argument: why this person, this career, this program, now. And the contribution argument: what you bring to the classroom. Most applications only make the first.
What we see most often in strong candidates is not a weak profile. It is an application without a thesis: a collection of strong parts making no single argument. At Sia Admissions, we call this the thesis problem, and the reason it is dangerous is that the gap is invisible to the candidate. You cannot read your own application the way an admissions committee will. Nobody can and the problem is proximity to your own story.
The real risk for a strong candidate is not rejection. It is admission to the safety school and never knowing if the top choice was possible. The outcome has a cause, and the cause can be found before you submit. Finding it is what the Sia Method exists to do.
Who you will work with
At Sia Admissions, you work with one coach. Yours for the entire engagement, from the first strategy conversation to the final decision. Every coach runs their own roster and applies the same standard, the Sia Method.
Susan Berishaj, founder. At heart, Susan is an educator with a deep commitment to authentic storytelling and to the conviction that racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic, and professional differences are strengths, not obstacles to explain away. She holds a master’s degree from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree with honors from NYU. She grew up in Montenegro and moved to the United States during her senior year of high school, so she understands firsthand what it takes to build credibility inside an unfamiliar system. Susan coaches her own roster of clients each cycle.
Danae Anderson, senior consultant. Danae brings a rare combination to MBA admissions coaching: a professional background in product management at 2 FTSE-listed companies, graduate training in linguistics, and an MBA from EDHEC Business School. Her approach centers on narrative, identifying the throughline that connects a candidate’s experience, goals, and character into something an admissions committee actually remembers. She works with clients targeting M7 and top global programs across a wide range of backgrounds, including management consulting, finance, investment banking, product management, healthcare, and non-traditional paths. Danae has spent 5 years guiding high-performing professionals through one of the most consequential decisions of their careers. Before joining Sia Admissions, she coached at Menlo Coaching. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature, an MSc in Developmental Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, and an MBA in Global Leadership from EDHEC Business School.
We cap every coach at 12 clients per round. That is the ceiling at which a coach can still give each candidacy the hours it takes: the iterative drafts, and the availability to actually think with you between them. Double or triple that caseload, as much of this industry does, and that time is what disappears. Small is not a stage we are passing through. It is the structure the work requires.
What does working with Sia Admissions look like?
Every engagement runs on the Sia Method, the evaluative standard we apply to every candidacy we take on. Goals are defined before a single essay is written, and we do not move forward until they are specific enough to withstand scrutiny. Stories are selected for the judgment they demonstrate, not just the outcomes they produced. And every element of the application, from resume to recommenders to interview answers, is built around one throughline. You can read the full standard on the Sia Method page.
The engagement itself is a structured partnership across your full application cycle. That includes school selection strategy built on fit and probability rather than rankings alone, resume development, recommender strategy, essay development across as many drafts as the argument requires, interview preparation including specialized formats like Wharton’s team-based discussion, and informal communication with admissions offices. When the offers come in, we support scholarship negotiation and final school selection so the admissions outcome becomes the strongest financial and career decision available to you.
What that means in practice: by the time you walk into an interview, your key stories have already been stress-tested, because you answered harder versions of those questions with us first. You stop reopening the same decisions. The strategy is set, and you know why every element of your application is there.
Our Clients Have Been Admitted To:
Where our clients have been admitted
“Susan’s investment in my story helped me convey my true personality in my application. Highly recommend!”
J. C.
Deferred MBA Applicant
Danae brought clarity, structure, and calm to every stage of the process. I earned admission to 5/5 MBA programs and $330,000 in scholarships
S. J.
Full Time MBA Candidate
“With Susan’s guidance, I got into 5 schools (3 with major scholarships)! I’m attending Wharton!”
R.A.
MBA Candidate
“Susan’s guidance was key in getting into my top M7 schools. She made the process less stressful!”
A.C.
MBA Candidate
“Susan’s insights transformed my application. Accepted to an M7 while balancing work and life!”
N.W.
FT MBA Candidate
Read more success stories here.
Who we work with, and who we do not
Because of the depth of the engagement, we take on a limited number of clients each cycle and work only with candidates we can serve at the level the work demands. The right fit is a candidate who is ready to be honest about their gaps and their real motivations, because every part of this process depends on working with the real material rather than the managed version. The right fit is evaluating whether this partnership will produce the strongest truthful version of their candidacy. The wrong fit is shopping on price alone.
If that describes where you are, the next step is a conversation, not a commitment.
Not ready for a live conversation yet? Request a written profile evaluation and find out how your candidacy reads before you decide anything.