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425
9,700
Graduate: 30 Years
Independent Consultant
Harvard Business School
Yale University
Economics
BCG
Morgan Stanley
English
Senior Admissions Consultant
mbaMission
United States
Net Promoter Score: 9
I completed my BA in economics and political science at Yale (for which I have been an admissions interviewer since I graduated) and my MBA at Harvard Business School. Over the past 30 years, I’ve been fortunate to work in investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York and Los Angeles, in private equity in California, in consulting with BCG, and in the nonprofit sector to advance issues I am passionate about, including education and workforce development (with organizations such as DonorsChoose and Jobs for the Future). I’ve also had the privilege of leading collaboration, conversation, and curated counsel for private communities of Fortune 100 C-suite executives through my work at World 50. This variety of experiences has provided me with a great deal of perspective on the unique and dynamic nature of work and leadership in many industries, insight that I use to help candidates tell compelling stories about where they’ve been and where they want to go—especially when that may involve transitions across sectors.
I genuinely enjoy building relationships and connections, and there is nothing I look forward to more than getting behind resumes and CVs and into what applicants truly care about while helping them to see themselves in a new light. My own story began with my father—who was the first of my Italian family born in this country and who raised us on the pillars of hard work, education, and family—and has stretched to opportunities and experiences he could not have imagined for his daughter. I am passionate about helping others unlock the same kinds of opportunities and believe that the pursuit and achievement of an MBA can be a transformative experience.
I consider the opportunity to serve as a dedicated advocate for each of my clients a true gift, and I treat each application journey as if it were my own. I bring my passion, warmth, candor, and unwavering support to the process of customizing and communicating strategic guidance to every applicant, and in most cases, we both end up gaining a lifelong friend in the process.
I got into admissions consulting work as an outgrowth of my passion for mentoring young professionals, which I’ve enjoyed doing for the past three decades. In every industry in which I’ve worked—from investment banking to private equity to consulting to the nonprofit sector—I’ve met incredible young colleagues looking for informal guidance on their career and educational journeys. I cherished the opportunity to get to know them and help them clarify their own goals and paths, and over time, I found myself helping more and more of them apply to business school. Eventually, I realized that I had a far greater passion for enabling the success of those I mentored than I did for my “day job,” and I decided to dedicate myself to doing it full-time.
What I have learned after doing this for applicants from every part of the world and with every conceivable background is that everyone has a unique story to tell—and it is that authentic story that admissions officers are looking for. I’ve worked with dozens of candidates who didn’t believe they were special when we began but who, after completing their applications, had a new level of confidence and appreciation for their own strengths and contributions. There is nothing I enjoy more than helping students recognize the value in themselves and parts of their background that they had previously taken for granted or overlooked. The admissions process is as much about telling your story as it is about connecting the dots within that story in a way that brings you and the path you are charting from your past to your future ambitions into laser-sharp focus. I help my clients do that by listening carefully, probing deeply, and building a meticulous and cohesive strategy for every part of the application. Moreover, I do it in a way that allows them to feel calm and in control of a dynamic and competitive process that, for many, would otherwise become stressful and daunting
One-on-one consultation services, comprehensive admissions and school-specific guides, a robust blog, free eBooks, essay analyses, and other valuable resources—visit our Web site to find all that mbaMission offers.
FREE CONSULTATION Want to know your chances of being admitted to business school? Wondering how to differentiate yourself from other applicants? Sign up for a free, 30-minute consultation with an mbaMission Senior Consultant today!
FEATURED SERVICES Complete Start-to-Finish Package A la Carte Hourly Services Mock Interview Sessions Ding Review Pre-Application Strategy
RESOURCES Robust blog Free Interview Primers Free Personal Statement Guide Free Selecting Your Target MBA Program eBook Free Social Media Primer Business School Insider’s Guides MBA Admissions Guides Free monthly online and in-person events
Location: United States
Email: susanmcinerny@mbamission.com
Website: https://www.mbamission.com
10=Without Hesitation, 1=I would advise against it.
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Susan was incredible and I would recommend her 100 times over to anyone who is interested in pursuing a competitive MBA program. She was incredibly attentive, supportive, and encouraging throughout the application process, while also providing candid and realistic feedback during our conversations and brainstorm sessions. Susan is incredibly responsive, and I felt that we built a strong relationship throughout this process. I feel like she took the time to truly learn and understand my story, and helped me translate this into a competitive application (including essays and short answers). Additionally, Susan’s expertise helped me tailor my applications appropriately, and supported me as I was looking to boost my candidacy outside of the application itself (i.e. advice on letters of support, networking, events to attend, etc.). I will be attending Columbia Business School on a full-ride scholarship (along with multiple fellowships), and could not have done this without her. I have personally recommended her to multiple friends of mine, and appreciate her openness to continuing a relationship moving forward.
Susan was the best partner I could’ve asked for to help me navigate the entire application process! We connected fairly late in the process, when I was experiencing significant anxiety and doubting whether I would be able to prepare thoughtful, quality applications in time. Despite challenging circumstances and condensed timeframes, Susan was consistently positive, warm, engaged, and supportive throughout the entire process and gave me tremendous confidence.
She really took pride in understanding who I am, how my experiences molded me into the person I am today, and what matters most to me, and used that to craft an incredibly compelling narrative that helped get me into HBS!
I could not recommend her highly enough – not just for her contributions to my application and sage advice, but also for how supportive and fun she was during the entire process!! I will miss working with her!
Susan has been instrumental in my MBA journey and helped me land admissions into top schools. Initially, the admissions process felt daunting, but Susan was always there to provide words of wisdom and calm my nerves. She helped connect the dots across my experiences and personal interests to draft a compelling narrative. Her initial brainstorming sessions were incredibly helpful as she sought to get to know me on a deeper level. She truly is a gifted storyteller! Susan was super flexible when I fluctuated between schools and ensured I had all the materials provided for a strong application. Despite some of my last-minute edits, she was very responsive. I loved my interview prep with Susan as I felt that it was extremely thorough, and a lot of the questions were also asked during my actual interview.
Susan was a great consultant. I did the 30min free session with her at the start which helped me understand how many and which universities I should target. After purchasing the hourly sessions, Susan shared a lot of valuable resources she had prepared to help with the essay writing process. She was very efficient with her time, and I got through the majority of essays I needed to with the hours I purchased. In addition, she had a quick response time, enabling me to meet all my deadlines. Her experience shows, and helped my craft a unique story to stand out as a candidate. In addition, she provided great resources so I could prep for the interviews and was easily reachable by mail. In the end, I got accepted into my target school with an entrance award!
I HIGHLY recommend working with Susan (and have referred her to several of my friends who are applying), as she was a tremendous help to me during the applications (got into HBS and GSB).
Susan was an incredible resource during the application process, from helping me formulate my application strategy, to helping me tell my story in a crisp, concise way, to preparing me for the interviews. She provided valuable input and feedback every step of the way, and is incredibly knowledgeable about the application process and the specifics of the MBA programs I applied to.
I could tell that she is very invested in my success, and made sure that I was feeling comfortable and confident throughout the process. She is also very responsive to email questions, feedback, etc. I could not have asked for anything more from an MBA Consultant.
It’s hard to overstate what a thoughtful, sharp, responsive, creative, brilliant and kind partner Susan was to me during the MBA admission process. As a non-traditional applicant (practicing physician), Susan was able to quickly identify the most important and impactful aspects of my past and help me weave them into an airtight application. In fact, I refined my own goals through the process of working with her.A Additionally, through helping me put the pieces of my journey together, she helped me feel more empowered about my own story, reminded me of the value of coaching, and helped me to become a better story-teller. As an older applicant, her positivity and encouragement were also instrumental for me. Another highlight was the precise, accurate interview preparation she put me through. With her help, I applied to only one MBA program for Executives, and happy to say I’ll be at Wharton! I feel very fortunate to have been put in touch with Susan.
I worked with Susan throughout the application process secure an acceptance from UVA Darden. I did multiple initial free consultations with different MBA consultants, but Susan immediately stood out as superior. I had concerns regarding work experience, standardized test scores, and narrowing top choices, but Susan quickly identified my strengths and most compelling stories to enhance my candidacy.
While other MBA consultants highlighted deficiencies in my application, Susan recognized opportunities to distinguish myself and guided me in crafting an application tailored to the specific school. Susan was flexible, professional, honest, and had excellent insight into the unique components of each program. 10/10 I would recommend!!!
I have only the most positive things to say about Susan.
When I started my MBA journey, I was skeptical about working with a consultant (purely from a cost perspective), but I had an initial call with Susan and immediately realized how much value she would add. Throughout the process she was brilliant to work with: very clear, always knew the right questions to ask, and really helped refine my essay topics. The other highlight was the interview prep: this made such a difference to my confidence going into the interviews.
Whilst I’d been thinking about my professional goals for a long while, I basically started my actual application process in mid-August. So this meant I had about a month to do everything, including writing the essays, prep my resume, do all the smaller application questions, and study for and sit the exam twice… The point being: Susan’s advice and expertise helped me enormously in a short time frame!
I’m delighted that I got into every school I applied to: Harvard, Stanford, and Wharton. I’m so excited and grateful. I really doubt I’d be in this position if I hadn’t worked with a consultant as strong as Susan.
I would recommend her in the strongest possible terms and without hesitation to anybody. My younger sibling wants to apply for MBAs in the next couple of years and Susan would be my first call. Thanks so much Susan!
I worked with Susan McInerny at mbaMission as an hourly client while preparing my application to the HBS Class of 2026. I’m incredibly excited to say that I was accepted to HBS and that I couldn’t be stronger in my endorsement of Susan!! She helped me transform my application from good to GREAT. As an HBS alum herself, Susan gave me amazing insight into how to best tell my story in a clear and compelling way. She offered invaluable guidance every step of the way from my resume to essays to interview prep. Not only did she help me strengthen my application, but she also instilled in me a confidence about my background, my story, and what I have to offer at these elite programs. Susan was sharp, professional, responsive, and friendly – I truly felt that she had my best interest at heart which shined through in her guidance and support. I can’t imagine a better MBA admissions consultant! I STRONGLY recommend Susan and mbaMission.
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