MBA Protocol wrote this comparison and is one of the two firms in it. Facts about Fortuna Admissions come from its own website and public sources, checked October 2026.
Fortuna Admissions and MBA Protocol are both MBA admissions firms, built on different models. Fortuna’s model pairs you with a former admissions director or senior admissions professional who applies insider knowledge of how committees read applications. MBA Protocol’s model pairs you with a senior coach who starts with self-awareness work before any essay gets written, so you work out what you have to say and build the skill to say it yourself. Fortuna is built for applicants who want their application read the way a committee would read it. MBA Protocol is built for applicants who want to work out what sets them apart and leave the process more articulate as well as admitted. Here are the facts on both, so you can place yourself.
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What is Fortuna Admissions?
Fortuna Admissions was founded in 2012 by Matt Symonds, co-founder of QS and the World MBA Tour; Judith Silverman Hodara, former acting Director of MBA Admissions at Wharton; and Caroline Diarte Edwards, former Director of Admissions at INSEAD.
Its site describes a team of 40 former admissions directors and senior professionals from top business schools (checked October 2026). Coaches formerly at HBS, Stanford, Wharton, INSEAD, LBS, Chicago Booth, Berkeley Haas, Columbia, Kellogg, Duke Fuqua, Dartmouth Tuck, and Cornell Johnson are named.
The model gives each client a dedicated Expert Coach or Senior Expert Coach throughout, plus a mid-point review of the full application by a senior Fortuna advisor. Beyond the full-time MBA, Fortuna also serves EMBA, deferred MBA, Master in Management, and Master in Finance applicants. It offers a free 30-minute consultation.
Fortuna’s product is admissions-committee experience, applied to your application by a team whose coaches have admissions-side experience.
What is MBA Protocol?
MBA Protocol is a coaching firm. It helps humble overachievers secure M7 and top-15 MBA admissions and scholarships to power bold pivots into new industries and leadership roles. The founder, Angela Guido, has been a full-time MBA coach since 2008; before that she was a Yale philosophy major, an ESL teacher in South Korea, a hiring manager at KPMG, a Chicago Booth MBA, and a consultant and MBA recruiter at the Boston Consulting Group. She wrote Interview Hero and defined the method MBA Protocol’s coaches use.
That method rests on three named pieces:
- You Discovery™, a structured self-awareness process you complete before any essay work begins
- Career Gameplan™, which builds a post-MBA vision that holds up under questioning
- Communication That Connects™, the storytelling and communication skills that turn self-knowledge into an application that sounds like you
Coaches shape the message with you. You write your own essays. There is no ghostwriting.
MBA Protocol publishes its results with the methodology behind them. Since 2018, 93.1% of clients who applied earned at least one admit, and 99.1% did when you leave out only the clients who chose not to follow the school-portfolio guidance and were turned down everywhere. Admitted clients averaged $109,000 in scholarships over the last three years. How those numbers are counted, including who is in the denominator, is in the published methodology.
MBA Protocol’s product is depth of self-knowledge, and the skill to communicate it. Want a taste of how it starts? The MBA Story Quiz takes about a minute and shows you your story type.
What’s the real difference between Fortuna and MBA Protocol?
Both firms treat your application as a portrait of a whole person. They part ways on what produces a good one.
Fortuna’s position is that the edge comes from insider knowledge: what committees look for, how they read, and which signals carry weight at a given school. The former-admissions-director model expresses this. Your coach is likely to have evaluated applications for a living, and the mid-point review adds a second experienced reader before you submit.
MBA Protocol’s position is that the edge comes from self-knowledge: understanding yourself clearly enough that any committee, at any school, sees a real and specific person on the page. You Discovery™ surfaces the experiences, values, and leadership qualities that many applicants skip past because they seem ordinary from the inside. The coaching then builds storytelling skill that carries into interviews, recruiting, and the leadership roles you’re applying for in the first place.
Evaluating an application and building one are different crafts. A committee member assesses and filters. A coach finds the potential in someone who may not fully see it yet and helps them express it. One reads the finished thing. The other helps you become the person who can write it. Angela Guido has sat on an admissions committee herself, which is part of why MBA Protocol is built around the second craft.
Put plainly: Fortuna helps you understand what admissions committees want to see. MBA Protocol helps you understand what you have to offer, then builds the skill to communicate it. Both approaches have produced admits. The question is which one matches what you need.
What does each firm include?
Fortuna’s All-Inclusive MBA Package is scoped by the number of schools and by coach level, Expert Coach or Senior Expert Coach, with Director rates on request (checked October 2026). The dedicated coach stays with you throughout, and the mid-point review by a senior advisor is part of the package. Hourly coaching is also offered; the package page does not publish the rate (checked October 2026).
MBA Protocol’s 1:1 program is MBA Guided Quest, in three tiers: MBA Guided Quest Essentials, MBA Guided Quest Core, and MBA Guided Quest Admit All Access. Every tier gives you a dedicated senior coach who takes at most 10 clients per round and 20 a year (as far as we know, the lowest cap in the industry), unlimited essay drafts, and the MBAmo All-Schools Readout, interpreted with your coach to shape a school portfolio with realistic reaches, matches, and safety schools. On MBA Guided Quest Core and MBA Guided Quest Admit All Access, your coach is with you start to finish, from You Discovery™ and Career Gameplan™ through interviews and scholarships, and you also get brainstorming and storyboarding for extra schools beyond your coached schools, matching the number you’re coached on. Three coached schools gives you three more, so six in total. MBA Guided Quest Essentials covers the application build only and does not include the extra schools. Every MBA Guided Quest client is also invited to optional group coaching sessions, many led by Angela Guido, where clients learn alongside each other and stay connected through the process. And every client's work gets input from the whole coaching team at weekly team huddles.
Honestly, the shape of the week matters as much as the inclusions list. At MBA Protocol the coaching happens in conversation about you, then you write, then you talk again. MBA Protocol doesn’t hand you a draft.
What does each firm publish about results?
The clearest difference is that MBA Protocol publishes its success rates and Fortuna’s site doesn’t.
Fortuna’s site says it has over 1,000 verified five-star reviews on Poets&Quants. It publishes no success rate (checked October 2026). Many firms don’t, so this is an observation rather than a criticism.
MBA Protocol publishes its success rates with their denominators. Since 2018, 93.1% of MBA Protocol clients who applied earned at least one admit. We push every client to include both reach and safer schools in their portfolio. Some decide to skip safer schools, knowing exactly where they stand and accepting the risk. A second figure, 99.1%, leaves out only the clients who made that choice and then didn’t get in anywhere. Everyone else is counted, including clients who skipped the safer schools and got in anyway, and clients who followed the guidance and failed to get in. The methodology article explains what counts, what’s excluded, and why school selection matters to the number. If a firm you’re talking to quotes a rate, ask for the same.
MBA Protocol also publishes research that isn’t about itself. Every two years it pulls the employment reports of top U.S. business schools, cleans the data so programs can be compared fairly, and publishes the findings free as the MBA Career Placement Report. The 2026 edition covers 29 schools: employment, pay, AI exposure, and visa data. As far as we know, MBA Protocol is the only firm that publishes this. It’s the same data the coaches use to build school lists and Career Gameplans.
One more thing MBA Protocol publishes, in the form of a promise. The free Package Build Call ends with a straight answer about where you stand, which schools make sense, and what we’d do first. Sometimes the answer is that you don’t need to hire anyone yet. Nobody will push you to buy.
How much does each firm cost?
Fortuna’s All-Inclusive MBA Package (checked October 2026): with an Expert Coach, $6,200 for one school, $8,200 for two, $10,000 for three, and up to $18,500 for eight. With a Senior Expert Coach, $7,400 for one school, $9,600 for two, $11,600 for three, and up to $21,000 for eight. Interest-free installments are offered through Splitit. Director rates are on request.
MBA Protocol’s MBA Guided Quest starts at $5,000 for one school. Most clients invest $12,000 to $18,000. The three tiers:
- MBA Guided Quest Essentials: from $5,000 for one school, $8,500 for three
- MBA Guided Quest Core (most popular): $9,900 for one school, $13,500 for three
- MBA Guided Quest Admit All Access: $12,000 for one school, $17,500 for three
Both are real money. The useful question is which process is most likely to produce the outcome you want, including the scholarship. MBA Protocol’s admitted clients averaged $109,000 in scholarships over the last three years (how that’s tracked), which for many admitted clients covers the cost of coaching many times over. To weigh that against what the degree pays afterward, the Career Report shows employment and salary data for 29 schools.
Who should pick which firm?
Fortuna’s model is built for applicants who:
- Want a coach who has worked inside admissions at a top school
- Already know what they want to say and want it read and positioned the way a committee would read it
- Want a second experienced reader built into the process at the mid-point
- Are applying to an EMBA, deferred MBA, MiM, or MiF program and want a firm that names those tracks
MBA Protocol’s model is built for applicants who:
- Aren’t sure yet what sets them apart, and want a healthy dose of story discovery in the essay writing process
- Are pivoting careers or have a non-linear path that resists easy summary (start with the free guide on how to use an MBA to pivot careers)
- Want to write their own essays with a coach beside them, and want those essays to sound like them
- Want skills that carry into interviews, recruiting, and leadership after the cycle ends
- Want results published with the methodology, so they can see what the numbers mean
Some applicants shouldn’t hire either firm yet. If you’re 4 to 36 months out, the free MBA Momentum Club is where to build your profile first, and members get discounted test prep through Engage Prep. Not sure this is your year? Read Is 2026 the Right Year to Apply for an MBA? before you spend anything.
What should you ask any MBA admissions firm before you hire?
Whichever firm you’re evaluating, ask these. The free guide How to Choose Your MBA Application Support Team goes deeper on each one.
- Who will I work with directly, and does that person stay with me throughout?
- How many clients are you personally working with this cycle? If they won’t say, that’s an answer too.
- How many live calls are included, and what does a typical week look like?
- What happens before any writing begins? If the answer is “we dive right into essays,” the firm is built for applicants who already know what they want to say, or who are happy to take the consultant’s recommendations as given.
- Do you start with my story or with the prompt? Prompt-first is efficient. Story-first ensures an optimal finished product.
- How do you handle applicants who don’t yet know what they want to say?
- What is your success rate, and how do you define it? Ask what the denominator is.
- What is excluded from that rate, and what timeframe does it cover?
- Who writes the essays?
- What do clients say they gained beyond the acceptance letter?
- What happens to the schools outside my package?
How should you read the reviews?
Fortuna’s reviews are on Poets&Quants, and the firm’s site points you there.
MBA Protocol’s reviews page holds 584 client stories and 187 Poets&Quants reviews, sorted by client backgrounds and concerns: your test score, an unusual path, not being sure you’re competitive, everyone in your job applying, paying for the MBA, and whether coaching is worth it. Find your worry and read what happened to people who had it.
We tested this ourselves. In October 2026 we took 300 of Fortuna’s Poets&Quants reviews and 318 of ours, removed every name, mixed them in with reviews of four other firms, and scored each one blind against fixed rules for a single question: does the reviewer describe a personal relationship with the coach (being known, believed in, stood by as a person), or a service delivered well? 28% of Fortuna’s reviews described a relationship, against 77% of MBA Protocol’s (how we did it, and what it doesn’t show). Allowing for sampling, Fortuna’s likely range is 21% to 37%, and ours is 74% to 81%. Fortuna’s reviews are shorter on average; comparing reviews of the same length, the figures are 40% and 78%. Fortuna’s reviews lean toward its coaches’ admissions expertise, which is the firm’s main selling point, and a few Fortuna coaches have reviews as warm as any we scored. If you choose Fortuna, ask which coach you’d get and read that coach’s reviews first.
Whichever firm you look at, read the text of the reviews rather than the count. Look for the experience you want in the words, and for the kind of applicant you are.
Free tools and resources from MBA Protocol
- How to Choose Your MBA Application Support Team: the guide to evaluating consultants, coaches, and firms before you hire anyone.
- MBA Story Quiz: eight questions, about a minute, and you learn your MBA story type.
- MBAmo (free MBA odds calculator): see where you stand at your target school, free, with the five things schools actually weigh.
- 2026 MBA Career Placement Report: employment, pay, AI exposure, and visa data for 29 schools.
- MBA Candidacy 360° Self Assessment: a structured look at your profile before you talk to anyone.
- MBA Momentum Club: community for applicants 4 to 36 months out.
Sources for the Fortuna figures
- Fortuna Admissions All-Inclusive MBA packages: package prices.
- Fortuna Admissions homepage: founders, team and services.
Keep reading
- The Complete MBA Admissions Support Guide: every option, every price point
- Is an MBA admissions consultant worth it?
- What MBA consulting clients actually say: a blind study of 1,636 reviews
- mbaMission vs. MBA Protocol
- Stacy Blackman vs. MBA Protocol
- Menlo Coaching vs. MBA Protocol
- Personal MBA Coach vs. MBA Protocol
- I built MBA Protocol around relationships. Then I checked whether it worked.
- MBA Guided Quest: what working with MBA Protocol includes
Frequently asked questions
Is MBA Protocol better than Fortuna Admissions?
They’re built on different philosophies about what works, and toward different goals. Fortuna’s model rests on admissions experience: a coach who has read applications from the committee side, plus a mid-point review by a senior advisor, with the goal of presenting your application the way a committee wants to see it. Its site publishes no success rate (checked October 2026). MBA Protocol grew out of Career Protocol, which began as career development for MBA graduates, and treats communication as a skill you hone. The goal is to make you a stronger candidate, and the application gets better because you do. MBA Protocol publishes its results with the methodology: since 2018, 93.1% of clients who applied earned at least one admit, and 99.1% did when you leave out only the clients who chose not to follow its school-portfolio guidance and were turned down everywhere.
How much does Fortuna Admissions cost?
Fortuna’s All-Inclusive MBA Package starts at $6,200 for one school with an Expert Coach and $7,400 with a Senior Expert Coach (checked October 2026). Three schools cost $10,000 or $11,600, and eight schools cost $18,500 or $21,000. Interest-free installments are available through Splitit, and Director rates are on request.
How much does MBA Protocol cost compared to Fortuna?
MBA Protocol’s Guided Quest starts at $5,000 for one school, and most clients invest $12,000 to $18,000 across the MBA Guided Quest Essentials, MBA Guided Quest Core, and MBA Guided Quest Admit All Access tiers. Fortuna’s packages run from $6,200 to $21,000 depending on schools and coach level (checked October 2026). MBA Protocol’s admitted clients averaged $109,000 in scholarships over the last three years, so for many admitted clients the fee is covered many times over.
Does working with a former admissions officer give you an advantage?
It gives you pattern recognition: someone who knows what a particular committee tends to flag or favor, and who can read your draft the way they would. That is a different skill from helping you build up your own personal best story. Decide which one you want, then pick the model built for it.
What is the difference between MBA coaching and MBA consulting?
A consultant applies what they know about schools to your application and tells you what to say. A coach helps you work out what to say based on who you are, and builds the skill to say it well, so you write your own essays. Fortuna’s model leans toward consulting. MBA Protocol operates as a coaching practice.
Does MBA Protocol write essays for clients?
No. Coaches work with you from You Discovery™ through storyboarding and unlimited drafts, and you write every word yourself. There is no ghostwriting.
The bottom line
Fortuna Admissions and MBA Protocol run on different theories of what makes an application succeed. Fortuna’s is admissions experience applied to your file. MBA Protocol’s is self-knowledge built in you, then communicated in your own words.
MBA Protocol is built for applicants who haven’t finished working out who they are and what they have to say, or who want to leave the process more articulate and self-aware as well as admitted. It’s built for pivoters, for people from crowded applicant pools who need to be a person rather than a profile, and for anyone who wants to write their own essays with a senior coach beside them. The results are published, with the methodology.
If you want to know where you stand before you decide anything, book a free Package Build Call. In 25 minutes you’ll get a straight answer about where you stand, which schools make sense, and what we’d do first. Nobody will push you to buy. The team replies within 24 hours with times to talk.
Information about Fortuna Admissions is drawn from its own website and public sources as of October 2026. MBA Protocol is not affiliated with Fortuna Admissions.