The most important things about you aren't on LinkedIn.
Anyone can tell you how to write an MBA essay. The hard part is sounding like yourself, choosing the right schools, and knowing where you stand before you start. That's the part we do.
Request my free 25-minute call
We reply within 24 hours. No pitch, and if you don't need us, we'll say so.
Comparing consultants? Here's how we work, and the questions to ask every firm.
One of these eight is your coach. Five to ten clients each per round, never more, and the whole team behind them.
Five situations, five different first steps. Pick yours. Every one of them is free.
Join the free MBA Momentum Club: the steps, the templates, and the company of people doing the same thing, any time before you submit.
Join the free Club
See what graduates of 29 top schools earn, where they land, and what the schools pay in scholarships.
Get the Career Report
Check where you stand at one school in about two minutes, with the five things schools weigh.
Check my odds at one school
Tell us about yourself. We'll tell you where you stand, which schools make sense, and what we'd do first. 25 minutes, no pitch.
Request my free 25-minute call
What the interview is really like at your school, counted from client debriefs. 40 schools.
Open my school's interview guideMany firms publish a success rate without saying who's counted. Here's who we count, and how the number gets made.
Before you apply anywhere, we run your profile through MBAmo and tell you, school by school, whether it’s a reach, a match or a safer bet. Then we work the list until it holds some of each, and we don’t lock the portfolio until you and your coach both believe at least one will come through.
of clients who built their list this way earned at least one admit.
Since 2018
of all clients earned at least one admit, including the ones who chose to apply only to reaches.
Since 2018
average scholarship per admitted client.
Last three years
Two to three business days per draft. Faster on Admit All Access.
All packages
Clients per coach, per round. Most carry fewer.
Never more
The difference between the two percentages is the school list. Either way, you know the risk you're taking before you take it, and you own the choice. Nobody gets surprised in March.
Read how we define and calculate these numbers Check where you stand with MBAmo
We pull the employment reports of 29 top business schools, clean the data so the schools can be compared fairly, and publish it free. As far as we know, MBA Protocol is the only coaching firm that does this. If you want to know whether the MBA is worth it for your path, which schools pay off, and what they pay in scholarships, it's here, and there's no sales call attached.
You've been delivering quietly for years. The application process is exposing a gap between what you've actually done and what you know how to say. That gap is closeable. We close it every day.
Your path zigged when you expected it to zag. Your story is real, it's just harder to explain than most. That's exactly the kind of story we're built for.
Strong score, name-brand resume, school list already drafted. You don't need reassurance. You need a rigorous process and coaches who've seen a thousand profiles like yours, because what sinks strong applicants is sounding like all the others.
Six free calls with consultants. Forty Reddit threads. Everyone says something different. You don't need more advice. You need one clear voice and a process you can trust. That's what we are.
25 minutes. We'll tell you where you stand, which schools make sense, and what we'd do first. You'll leave with a plan whether or not you ever hire us.
Turnaround
His standard 48-hour turnaround kept the momentum going, and he matched my pace perfectly – a stark contrast to the experience I had with the consultant from previous year.
The plan
Tiffany’s structured guidance and unwavering support made a tremendous difference throughout the process.
Results
I received offers from Kellogg, Booth, and Columbia, with a total of $390k in scholarships! (After negotiating, of course.) I truly couldn’t have done it without her.
Your coach
From day one, I felt like I’d finally found people who genuinely believed in me and my story—even at times when I struggled to believe in myself.
Brian pushed me to chase my dreams and also to hedge with some other schools (though not Florida).
Jake · First-gen · Cornell Johnson
Jake's path to Cornell JohnsonI grew up in rural Vermont and was the first in my family to graduate college. The Ivy League felt like a place that existed in imagination only. Thanks in no small part to MBA Protocol, I am on the path to Johnson.
Kate · Trade law → CPG · 7 admits · $275K
Kate's seven admits and $275KI applied to 9 programs and interviewed at 7. I was admitted to each program I interviewed with. When I heard about Booth, I sobbed. I poured my heart into those essays and that translated into success.
Ilana · Music teacher → Chicago Booth · 8/8 · $121K
Ilana's eight admits and Chicago BoothAfter one meeting, Heather articulated things about who I am that no one had ever put into words before. I was accepted to schools I wouldn't have even applied to without her pushing me.
Andy · Engineer → Berkeley Haas · Clarity first, then the admit
Andy's pivot to Berkeley HaasThe biggest change was clarity. I walked away with a much clearer understanding of who I was, what I wanted, and what kind of future I was actually working toward.
They weren't sure they were competitive either.
Sorted by your concerns, so you can find people who were where you are.
Rated 5.0 on Poets&Quants across 307 reviews
Hear about the experience from one of our clients
Find yourself
Before we touch a single essay, we go deep into your career, your values, and the moments that shaped how you lead. By the time we're done, you'll see your own story differently, and so will everyone who reads your application.
Define your future
Knowing who you are isn't enough. You need to know where you're going, specifically enough that a stranger in an admissions room wants to sponsor it. We help you build a post-MBA vision that's ambitious, credible, and unmistakably yours.
Own your voice
The hardest part isn't the writing. It's learning to talk about yourself in a way that feels true instead of rehearsed, confident without bragging. You'll use it in the essays, in the interview, and for the rest of your career.
Illustrative examples of the real deliverables, built for a fictional applicant. The full set is on the Guided Quest page. See the Guided Quest page
You write every word of your own application. We make sure it sounds like you and lands. Long after decision day, when the grind makes it hard to see yourself clearly, you'll come back to this work.
It doesn't just build an application. It builds you.
Brian fully respected my voice.
Yale philosophy major. English teacher in Korea. Chicago Booth MBA. BCG consultant, then BCG recruiter. GMAT instructor at Manhattan Prep for seven years. Failed screenwriter. Full-time MBA coach since 2008.
I didn't have the resume my Booth classmates had, and in my first big interviews, I bombed. What fixed it was years of trying, and failing, to write screenplays, which taught me how a story works: told plainly, by the person it happened to.
The whole method fits in one line: you find your own story and tell it in your own words, rather than guessing what the schools want to hear. My team coaches the same way. The 99.1% and the $109,000 are what it looks like when it works.
If you'd like to hear how I think before we talk, start on YouTube.
Brian
The admissions wizard who turns your track record into a winning narrative.
Daniela
The founder who knows that the most compelling brands are built on authenticity.
Heather
The calm operator who sees you before you see yourself.
Paul
The Hollywood screenwriter who knows exactly how to make your story land.
Tiffany
The product manager and consultant who makes the hardest parts feel manageable.
Tina
The investor who understands your potential before you do.
Vijay
The social impact founder and venture capitalist who helps you build a story worth backing.
Every client gets one senior coach from start to finish, and the whole team workshops your work in a weekly huddle behind the scenes.
1:1 coaching
Our 1:1 coaching package. You Discovery, your school list, essays you write yourself, recommenders, and interviews, with the same coach throughout and the whole team workshopping your work behind the scenes. Three tiers, priced by how many schools we coach you on.
From $5,000 for one school. Most clients invest $12,000 to $18,000.
If you follow our school portfolio guidance and get no admits, we build your reapplication strategy and work with you at a deep discount to go again. Core and Admit All Access.
The MBA X-Ray, an illustrative example built for a fictional applicant.
Twenty-five minutes, no pitch. You'll leave knowing what makes your story worth telling, which schools fit it, and what we'd do first, whether or not you work with us. Where you stand, you can check right now with MBAmo.
No. Plenty of people get in on their own, and if that's true for you we'll say so on the free call. A coach earns their fee when the stakes are high and the story is hard to tell: a career change, a profile that doesn't fit the usual pattern, a weak spot you're not sure how to handle, or a school list you want to get right the first time. Our job is strategy, story, and the school list, with you doing the writing.
There's also a second thing our clients pay for, and it's the part they talk about most afterwards. Working out who you are and learning to say it plainly changes how you interview, how you lead, and how clearly you know what you want next. That part you keep whatever the schools decide.
Adolfo, still waiting on his decisions when he wrote this, put it better than we can: “Whatever happens with my applications, I’m leaving this process with something I didn’t have before: a clear sense of where I’m going.” Read Adolfo’s story
Across the industry, multi-school packages run from about $1,500 to $20,000 and hourly help from roughly $195 to $425, according to Poets&Quants. MBA Guided Quest starts at $5,000 for one school, and most of our clients invest $12,000 to $18,000. Single sessions (Power Hours) are $495. A Reapplication Strategy Pack is $797 per school. The free 25-minute call is where we tell you what, if anything, makes sense for you.
99.1% of clients who followed our full school-portfolio guidance earned at least one admit, counted since 2018. Across all clients, including those who applied without a match or safer school on their list, it's 93.1%. The two numbers differ because the school list is where most applications are won or lost. We publish exactly how we count.
No. You write every word. We start with You Discovery, so you know what you're writing about before you open a blank page, and we coach every draft until it sounds like you and lands. Schools can tell the difference, and so can you, years later.
It's the Quest Map Call, your free 25-minute conversation with a coach, no pitch. You'll leave knowing what makes your story worth telling, which schools fit it, and what we'd do first. Where you stand at each school, you can check right now with MBAmo. We reply within 24 hours of your request with times to talk.
Two to three business days on every draft, with unlimited drafts on your coached schools. Admit All Access clients get 24 to 48 business hours.
If you follow our school portfolio guidance and get no admits, we build your reapplication strategy and work with you at a deep discount to go again. That's on Core and Admit All Access.
Yes. Start with our free interview guide for your school: what the interview is really like at 40 schools, counted from our clients' debriefs. From there you can add the school's Interview Archive of real, anonymized client interviews ($29), the MBA Interview Toolkit ($197), or Expert Interview Coaching with a mock interview ($997).
M7 is powerful branding, but the right school is the one that best supports your specific pivot: industry access, geography, recruiting strength, culture, and scholarships. For some pivots, a non-M7 top-15 with better fit, stronger recruiting in your target field, and a big scholarship is a smarter long-term move than a shinier name with weaker support and more debt. We help you evaluate that trade-off school by school.
Many firms optimize for volume. We're boutique by design and we go deep: You Discovery before any essay, a Career Gameplan a stranger would sponsor, and a way of talking about yourself that carries into the interview and the job. You write your own essays. Prices are on the page, every tier, so nothing changes on the call. We publish our success rates with the methodology, and every two years we publish the free MBA Career Placement Report on 29 schools' employment, pay, and scholarship data. As far as we know, we're the only coaching firm that does. Our clients average $109,000 in scholarships per admitted client over the last three years.
Have you met Fred? Our dancing unicorn mascot reminds us that the best MBA applicants don't blend in. They stand out by being unapologetically themselves.
