The team at Sia Admissions
When you hire an admissions consulting firm, you do not work with a firm. You work with a person. And before you trust someone with a decision this consequential, you want to know exactly who that person is and whether they have done this well for someone who looks like you.
That is what this page is for.
How does coaching at Sia Admissions work?
You work with one coach, yours for the entire engagement. Each coach at Sia Admissions runs their own roster of clients, capped at 12 per round, because that is the ceiling at which the hours your candidacy needs are actually available.
Every coach applies the same standard, the Sia Method: goals defined before essays, stories selected for the judgment they demonstrate, and one throughline across every element of the application. And no coach evaluates alone. When your goals are being pressure-tested, the coaches do it together internally, so what reaches an admissions committee has already survived the hardest room it will face.
Who are the coaches at Sia Admissions?
Susan Berishaj
Founder
Susan founded Sia Admissions in 2017 and built the Sia Method, the evaluative standard every coach here applies. Her study of human behavior and psychology shapes how she coaches: she reads what actually drives a candidate, then works with them until the application argues it in a voice that is unmistakably theirs.
Born in New York City and raised in Montenegro, Susan made an hour-long walk to and from school. The walk was never a chore. Education was empowerment, and it brought her back to the United States during her senior year of high school, then to NYU, where she graduated with honors, and on to Yale for her master’s degree. On both campuses she was a builder rather than a spectator, founding clubs and raising money for causes she believed in. That instinct carries into her coaching: she works the whole candidacy, not just the essays.
In nearly a decade of coaching, Susan has worked with candidates from consulting, banking, tech, and healthcare, and from paths that fit no template, including family business, retail, entertainment, nonprofit, and military backgrounds. Her focus is M7 and top 20 programs, and she coaches her own roster of clients each cycle.
Read more about Susan’s story and experiences.
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, and non-traditional paths. Candidates who choose Danae tend to share one trait: they have done substantial things and cannot yet articulate what makes those things add up to an argument. That articulation is her work.
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.
Read more about Danae’s story and experiences.
What happens next
Let’s find out if this is the right fit.
Not ready for a live conversation yet? Request a written profile evaluation and find out how your candidacy reads before you decide anything.