Susan emerged as a beacon of hope as I embarked on my MBA journey. Despite being advised by multiple consultants that my verbal scores weren't strong enough to gain admission to top B-schools, Susan instilled in me the confidence that my aspirations were within reach and in my first conversation with her I decided to go with her. Sia Admission possesses a distinctive approach to comprehending students' backgrounds, delving deep into their experiences to extract their full potential.
Susan served not only as an expert admissions coach helping me with crafting admissions strategy as well as hammering out every detail until she was satisfied, but also a career coach and a sounding board that has helped me create a clear and compelling career path – could not recommend working with her more!
I recently used Sia Admissions counseling service to help me prepare for my admission to the MBA, and I must say that my experience was nothing short of exceptional. From the beginning, Susan was extremely professional, knowledgeable, and attentive to my needs.
Word of advice:- Strongly suggest looking for a boutique consultant, especially those who are founders, as they will take you seriously and provide immense support as they are in the process together with you.
Admitted with a full ride to Michigan Ross, Johnson, and McCombs
Working with Susan turned out to be the best decision I made during the application process. Given that I am an Indian male with a 307 GRE score and a 2.72 undergraduate GPA, I knew getting into any of the top programs would be difficult. The other issue was that, despite having an interesting professional background (I’m an ex-racing driver who worked exclusively in motorsport), I struggled to translate my value add to an MBA classroom through my essays. After a thorough review of my background and by scheduling a detailed call to understand what motivated me, Susan was able to help me intrinsically work out how I would contribute to the classroom as well as help me figure out how best I could use my MBA to make the career pivot I desired. Read more…
I could not speak more highly of Susan Berishaj and her MBA admission consulting services. Coming from a non-traditional background with a blip in my professional experience, I was worried about the prospects of getting into business school. With Susan’s help, I was able to interview with Stanford GSB and was accepted to 6 of my 7 target schools (Wharton, Yale, Kellogg, Booth, Berkeley-Haas, and NYU), with a full-ride scholarship from NYU, significant scholarships from Yale, Kellogg, Booth, and Berkeley. Read more…
As an international student, I was not confident I would be able to gain admission to my top choice M7 schools but ended up with admission to my top choice school. I worked with Sia on a 3 school application package from the initial application process through the interviews and eventual admissions. Read more..
Susan’s structured process, support, and guidance along every step of the journey were key in helping me to get into my top choice M7 business schools. Working with Susan on crafting and telling my personal story and goals was incredibly valuable. Read the full testimonial on our website. Read more.
Susan also helped me understand my own story, in terms of how I’ve gotten to where I am, why I was interested in an MBA, and what tangible goals I wanted to achieve in the future. This is an exercise that is critically important to not only receiving admission to an MBA program but finding success during the program.
I cannot recommend Susan enough as an admissions consultant. With Susan’s help, I got into all five MBA programs that I applied to (Wharton, Booth, Kellogg, Haas, and LBS) with several scholarships including my top choice school. Susan led me through a thorough and structured process from start to finish, including personal story and goal development, school selection, application development, recommender strategizing, interview practice, and even acceptance decisions and early recruitment planning. Susan was truly talented in her ability to identify a rich and thoughtful application story that was true to myself and my passions – a task that seemed daunting at first. Her feedback is succinct and effective, and she was willing to dedicate whatever time necessary to ensure my best application.
I chose to use an MBA consultant because I entered the application process slightly late and was overwhelmed by the amount of work in front of me. Susan’s role in distilling this work into actionable steps and helping to guide me through the decisions and priorities was invaluable.
Susan provided extensive, detailed knowledge specific to each of my 5 schools to help tailor to unique preferences, notable offerings/professors, and school culture. This encyclopedic knowledge of each school was invaluable in customizing each application and resonating with the schools’ interests.
I strongly recommend Susan as an MBA consultant to anyone applying. She offers specialized skills at each step in the process as well as an impressive ability to maintain the bigger picture and guide you through the process from start to finish (and even further than that).
T.S., MBA Candidate, The Wharton School
The review first appeared on P&Q.
I was a re-applicant, applying to the same M7 schools that had rejected me in the previous year. I did manage to get some interviews during my first application cycle but fell short.
After the rejections, I wasn’t too sure on what I had to do differently the second time around. So, I decided to research for consultants and found Susan from Sia Admissions.
With Susan’s help, I obtained an acceptance letter to an M7 school.
It was a lot of work. We went through roughly 10 drafts before each essay and resume submission, and numerous practice interview sessions. But I am glad I worked with Susan because she possesses all the technical tools of a great admissions consultant, in addition to her strong ability in empathizing with applicants.
What surprised me the most about Susan was the huge amount of effort she put into understanding my full story from my perspective. We spent much time on self-reflection and this allowed us to go deeper into the stories from my first applications and even utilize stories that I dismissed as ‘useless’ in the past.
After celebrating my acceptance, she keeps in touch with me to help prepare for the upcoming school year and is there to help whenever I have questions.
I highly recommend her if you are looking for a personalized experience in the MBA application process.
T.K., MBA Candidate, University of Chicago Booth
Review first appeared on GMAT Club.
Susan is simply amazing. Her support is end-to-end and you get more mock interviews than necessary to absolutely knock the MBA interviews out of the park! Susan was my guiding light in preparing my essays, narrative, and interviews.
She is extremely knowledgeable in the MBA space. She has a finance background from Yale which was extremely comforting. I am from a state school background with no remarkable employers, so there was a lot of impostor syndrome going in – Susan helped me feel more confident about the schools I chose.
Before Susan, I was thinking I would barely make my way into a top 50 school due to my background and very average GMAT/below-average GPA. After Susan’s guidance, I confidently applied to LBS, Oxford, Cambridge, Duke, NYU, Cornell, and Vanderbilt. I was only dinged from LBS, waitlisted at Cornell and Cambridge, and accepted everywhere else, even receiving a $76,000 scholarship to Vandy.
Really at the end of the day, it’s next to impossible to maximize your MBA potential without a seasoned consultant who knows how to play the game. I’m not sure if I would have gotten into any of these schools if it wasn’t for her.
At the end of the day, if ROI is your concern, Susan’s extremely fair fees will pay themselves over with better acceptances or scholarships.
Susan also simply just cares! I concluded working with her in December 2021 but she still sends me monthly email updates with info to help me prepare for my MBA.
She doesn’t just want you to get accepted, she wants to see you succeed.
Review first appeared on P&Q
Having Susan by my side proved valuable throughout my application process. She helped me overcome an absolutely terrible GPA (<2.7) to gain admittance at my dream M7 school.
When I initially reached out to several MBA consultants, Susan was one of the very few who was willing to work with me despite my glaring academic weakness. During our first conversation, she took the time to closely evaluate my profile and was honest about both my strengths and weaknesses. From the start, I already had a feeling I would be comfortable working with Susan. She gave me very thoughtful advice even before I officially signed up for her service.
Once I signed up, Susan made me go through a very comprehensive self-reflection process. I learned so much about myself – my personal journey, motivations, achievements. This set the foundation for crafting extremely deep and personal stories that would later pique the interest of 3 top MBA programs.
Susan constantly challenged me throughout the essay drafting process. I would usually write what I would assume were very compelling initial drafts, but Susan would leave comments such as “Why does this matter?” or “Explain what you mean” on certain sections. I would sometimes get frustrated, but I knew why she would do it – these are the same questions adcoms would ask while reading my work, so I have to make sure my essays are as clear as possible for them to understand. The final versions were all clearly stronger and more compelling than the initial versions, and I attribute that to Susan’s guidance.
Susan also helped me practice my interviews by making sure I’d be ready with responses that were true to myself and at the same time, speak to the school’s culture. I felt I gave a strong interview with my top school, and again, this is because of multiple practice sessions with Susan.
Overall, I had an amazing experience with Susan. I couldn’t have done it without her support.
Review first appeared on GMAT Club.
I had a great experience working with Susan. Not only was I accepted in my first choice, but I enjoyed the entire application process.
In February 2020, I decided to apply to 3 of the top MPP programs (Oxford, LSE, and Cambridge). I was overwhelmed by the number of requirements for each school and confused about the entire process, so I started looking for help. I interviewed over 10 consultants and when I spoke with Susan, I knew I wanted to work with her. She is passionate about helping people achieve their goals, listens to them, and understands them. This was very important as she was able to help me reflect on my goals throughout my application. Even though I knew what I wanted, I didn’t know how to put that on paper, and she helped me to do it. She has a methodology in which I learned what the universities were looking for and how would that fit my purpose, increasing the chances of acceptance. We did a lot of work before we even started drafting the essays. This included creating a strategy for each of the applications and a timeline. While working on the essays, we had many iterations. All of Susan’s comments were very valuable to improve the content of my essays and to be able to include all the important things in a limited number of words. Although my programs didn’t require an interview, she recommended scheduling calls with relevant professors and alumni and helped me prepare for those calls. She also helped me select my recommenders based on what they needed to reflect on the recommendation letters. At the end of the process, she thoroughly reviewed each application before submitting them. I was accepted into two of the three programs I applied to. After the application process, she continued following up on the results and after I got accepted, she has been helping me a lot to prepare to start the program.
In addition to the amazing experience I had working with her and the perfect results, I really enjoyed sharing this process with her. She knows how to listen and motivate you and if she agrees to work with you it is because she truly believes in your dreams and does everything possible to help you achieve them.
Post first appeared on Poets&Quants
I heard about Sia Consulting from the GMAT club, I decided to ask for a consultation, and I immediately felt how much Susan was interested in helping people achieve their objectives. I was a bit in a rush with my application process, but Susan immediately stood up to help me in any way she could. After a while, I changed my target school and Susan helped to present me in the best way possible to the Admission Committee. Thanks to Susan’s work I have received an offer from my target school, and I can only say thank you to Susan for her professionalism, kindness, and willingness to help. I would totally recommend Susan to anyone that is seeking support in a delicate process such as admission to competitive institutions. Thank you very much, Susan.
MSc in Finance & Accounting Candidate, Imperial College Business School
#1 Investment I have made in my 30 years, resulting in #1 choice achieved for Graduate School with successful admission to Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Optimization: Susan helped me uncover and project my application narrative to reach my absolute potential. This was CRUCIAL for the numerous essays required for each school.
Peace of Mind: Working with Susan, I had minimal stress during the application thanks to the incredible results she enabled me to achieve day by day, week by week. From the beginning, her thorough process and dedication, coupled with my own hard work gave me the peace of mind to know that I was going to achieve success in graduate school admissions. This peace of mind is priceless.
Personal Approach: Susan tailored her proven framework to suit my schedule and needs. Again, this brings incredible value and quality to the experience.
I’m truly fortunate to have discovered Susan’s professional work from my friend Jack (see his review below). This was truly a life-fulfilling investment.
MIPP Candidate at Johns Hopkins University, School fo Advanced International Studies
Review first appeared on Poets & Quants
Coming from a non-business background, I was looking for a consultant to help me with all aspects of my MBA applications. I spoke with four companies before choosing Sia Admissions. Susan’s personalized approach sold me.
On our first call, Susan promised to be there every step of the way, and she meant it! From the initial stages of getting to know me and crafting my school list in the early summer to celebrating my acceptance in December, she was always on my side.
As a consultant, Susan is very meticulous. She goes through several drafts of all of your documents until they are perfect. She will constantly push you to do your best work and make sure you are telling your unique story. For example, we did eight drafts of my resume alone. I definitely got frustrated at times with how much she pushed me (re-writing the same paragraph over and over is not fun!), but I knew she was just doing it to make my applications as strong as possible. For interviews, she offers multiple mock practice sessions for each school to ensure you are fully prepared. Her all-inclusive package is truly all-inclusive.
Long story short, I am very glad I worked with Susan. An MBA consultant is an enormous investment, but with Susan’s help, I gained acceptance to my top-choice program with a partial scholarship.
Helping applicants showcase their strengths and tell their story is Susan’s genuine passion. If you are looking for both a coach and cheerleader on this crazy journey, I highly recommend her!
Review first appeared on GMAT Club
My experience with Susan has been very positive. I was amazed by her insight into my personality and motivations because she connected experiences in my past that I didn't fully appreciate. This shows her investment with the candidates and the depth with which she understands them, which is quite commendable. Her detail oriented approach helped me bring out my personality in my writing and convey it rightly to the school. MBA application is a lot about figuring out our best story and for that it's very important to build a strong relationship with the consultant with whom we work . Since Susan is extremely easy to talk to, I was able to build that relationship easily. If you’re looking for a person who is invested in you and your story and with whom you can build a positive relationship then she truly fulfills that criteria.
The review first appeared on Google: https://goo.gl/maps/YmB5WqVHSgzE9cHA7.
Susan at Sia Admissions turned the daunting task of application essay writing into a great experience of self-expression. After an initial in-depth consultation, Susan worked with my schedule to set target dates so we could comfortably meet the submission deadline. Susan was organized and stellar to work with; a great listener who took the time to understand my goals, prompt and exact with her feedback, and developing my individual voice while keeping it within the essay parameters. Susan helped organize my thoughts effectively on to paper and with each successive draft, I could see my essays coming together in a clear, concise, goal-oriented manner where every word, every sentence contributed to my story. Susan’s guidance in putting together my complete application from resume to essays made the process stress-free – I could focus on ensuring all the details I wanted to present were in the essay knowing that Susan would help me with clarity and readability. Working with Sia Admissions allowed me to submit my application with confidence. One hundred percent I would work with Susan again, and highly recommend her to anyone who is looking for an accomplished and trustworthy application consultant.
Review first appeared on Google: https://goo.gl/maps/Azjmpbj2S2QwVZsx6
After being admitted to the next phase in my MBA-application, which involved a zoom-interview, I started looking for assistance in preparing for this interview. I looked at the websites of several organizations but didn't found what I needed. They looked all very standardized/impersonal/not tailor-made. The last website I looked at was that of Sia Admissions and I had an instant good feeling about it. It's warm, personal, and professional, so I contacted Susan to assist me in preparing for the MBA interview.
Given that I needed to be ready on short notice, we started the day after with our mock interview. Susan knows which questions are important to prepare for, based on her experiences but also based on a thorough examination of my profile. During the interview, she reviewed the answers and made sure that the answers make the story speak out. In a very short period, I gained confidence and experience, which I would not have achieved without. I would highly recommend Susan, based on her experience, tailor-made approach, professionalism, and dedication. This helped me to be admitted to the program.
MBA Candidate, Imperial College Business School
