ESSAY EDITING

Our expertise and eagle eye for your MBA essays.

Transform Your MBA Essays with Expert Editing Services

Your MBA essays are your chance to make a lasting impression on the admissions committee. At Fortuna Admissions, as former admissions committee members, we understand how to transform your ideas into a compelling narrative that reflects your strengths, goals, and singular journey. We’ll help you create essays that capture your authentic voice and stand out in a competitive applicant pool. Whether you’re seeking help with the finishing touches or in-depth guidance, our MBA essay review services are designed to meet your needs.

What’s Included in Our MBA Essay Editing Services?

✔Our essay editing services are designed to help you stand out by presenting your singular story with clarity, impact, and authenticity. Here’s what we can provide:

✔ Comprehensive Feedback: In-depth, tailored feedback on structure, tone, and content to ensure your essay resonates with admissions committees.

✔ Strategic Storytelling: Assistance in weaving your experiences into a compelling narrative that highlights your strengths and aligns with your target school’s values.

✔ Expert Guidance: Insights from former admissions directors and business school insiders who know what top programs are looking for.

✔ Polished Writing: Line-by-line editing to enhance grammar, syntax, and readability while preserving your authentic voice.

How It Works

Our MBA essay editing services are billed on an hourly basis; hourly rates are below. We’ll tailor the hourly package that you choose to meet your needs; here is how it typically works:

1: Free Consultation: Sign up for a free consultation with a Fortuna coach to discuss what stage you are in with your application, and how you can best leverage our support. We’ll discuss how many hours of support you’ll need and recommend which Fortuna coach is best suited to help you.

2: Submit Your Draft Essays: Share your drafts with your coach.

3: In-Depth Review: Your coach will provide detailed feedback on content, structure, and tone, suggesting specific improvements to best position your candidacy.

4: Collaborative Revisions: You integrate the revisions suggested by your coach and then send your essays back to your coach for review. The number of iterations your essays go through is up to you, but typically two or three iterations are suggested.

5: Final Polish: In the final iteration, we’ll fine-tune your essays, focusing on grammar, flow, and adherence to word count requirements.

6: Submission-Ready Confidence: Submit your essays knowing they represent your best work and capture your authentic voice.

Why Choose Fortuna Admissions’ MBA Essay Editing Services?

Selecting the right partner for your MBA journey is crucial. Here’s why Fortuna Admissions stands out:

✔ Unmatched Expertise: Our team comprises former admissions directors and senior professionals from top-tier business schools, including HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton, CBS, Booth, Kellogg, INSEAD, and more. This level of insight means that we can take the guesswork out of your application process.

✔ Proven Track Record: We have helped thousands of applicants gain acceptance to their dream programs, with an exceptional success rate across top-ranked schools worldwide.

✔ Personalized Approach: Every applicant is unique, and so is our strategy. We tailor our services to your goals, strengths, and aspirations to deliver a highly customized experience and product.

✔ Collaborative Partnership: From brainstorming to final polish, we work closely with you to ensure your essays authentically reflect your story and resonate with admissions committees.

✔ Holistic Support: Beyond essay editing, we offer a comprehensive suite of services, including interview preparation, resume reviews, and career strategy insights, ensuring every aspect of your application is strong.

Pricing

MBA essay editing services are on an hourly fee basis; our hourly rates are below. During your free consultation we will discuss how many hours you’ll likely need. A rule of thumb is that each iteration of 500 words takes around 20-30 minutes, depending on the quality of the draft. Early drafts usually take more time than later drafts.

What Our Clients Say

Real results are what set us apart. Here’s what some of our successful applicants have to say about working with Fortuna Admissions (real reviews verified by Poets&Quants):

“I opted for the hourly service to workshop essays and my resume. Not only did Scott give me super creative and honest feedback, but he was respectful of my budget and I never felt like I was being upsold. I wholeheartedly believe I got my money’s worth from the experience despite going in skeptical.

Headed to an M7 and received large scholarships at multiple T15s as well!”

“Melissa helped me craft essays that truly reflected my journey, goals, and aspirations. Her guidance and expertise gave me the confidence I needed.”

“I was coming from a relatively unconventional background, but Michel took the challenge head on and helped me create a clear story that flowed in my essays.”

“With Heidi, we crafted an application that not only highlighted my strengths, experiences, and goals but also authentically reflected who I am. For an essay as personal as What Matters to You and Why, having a coach I trusted was essential. Heidi created a space where I could dig deep and tell my story in the most meaningful way.”

Frequently Asked Questions About Our MBA Essay Editing Services

What is included in Fortuna’s essay editing services?

We tailor the support to your needs; during your free consultation with a Fortuna coach we’ll discuss the status of your essay drafts and how much support we recommend so that you’ll be able to submit an application you’re proud of! See above for further details of how we typically work with clients.

Will you write or rewrite my essay for me?

No, we never write clients’ essays ourselves. We’ll refine your work but it’s important that you draft your own materials, both from an ethical and authenticity standpoint. The admissions committee is not looking for award-winning writing but a glimpse of the real you, and this can only be conveyed by your own authentic voice.

Who will be editing my essay?

Your essay will be reviewed by an experienced Fortuna coach who has successfully coached clients admitted to your target schools. During your free consultation, we will discuss with you which coach is best suited to your goals and target programs. You can explore our team bios here.

Can you help me reduce my word count?

It’s common to struggle with tight word count constraints. Having read and edited thousands of essays, we can quickly streamline your content so that your essays adhere to the required word count while conveying your key messages as powerfully as possible.
Do you provide content strategy advice with editing?

When we review your essays we’ll give you feedback on whether you are getting your message across effectively. Keep in mind that our perspective will be limited to the information you have provided. With our Comprehensive Package, we start the process by doing a deep-dive into all aspects of your background so that we can then identify together the key messages and examples to showcase in your application. With this deeper extensive insight into a client’s story, we are better positioned to advise how to strategically position your candidacy and which are the key points you should convey in your applications.

Can you help if I haven’t started my essays yet?

We can work with you from the brainstorming stage to final polish, helping you develop and refine your ideas along the way. If you have not yet started work on your application, we recommend our Comprehensive Packages for the highest impact and best use of Fortuna resources.

How long does the editing process take?

The timeline varies depending on how quickly you can incorporate feedback and the application deadlines you’re targeting. We recommend starting early to allow time for thoughtful revisions. The best applications are never thrown together in a hurry in the last few weeks before an application deadline! Our turnaround time for each iteration of review of your essays is two business days.

Meet Some Of Our Coaches

Heidi Hillis

Heidi has twice been named one of Poets and Quants’ Top Admissions Consultants worldwide, and has nearly 100 five-star reviews. She has extensive experience working with MBA applicants and is passionate about helping Fortuna clients find their own unique and powerful story. She holds three degrees from Stanford: a BA in English Literature, an MA in Russian Studies, and an MBA from the GSB. At the GSB she was student chair of the school’s Global Management Program, helped launch the school’s first GMIX internships, and served for several years as a GSB alumni interviewer. Currently she lives in Australia where she serves as an undergraduate interviewer and is on the board of the Stanford Australia Foundation.

Heidi has worked with Fortuna Admissions since 2015 and has helped hundreds of applicants gain admission to their dream schools, with a special emphasis on the GSB and HBS.

Sharon Joyce

With over 30 years of experience in admissions and student affairs, Sharon Joyce is a seasoned higher education professional known for her innovative approach to graduate admissions and her commitment to fostering inclusive academic communities. At UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, she served as Associate Director of Admissions for the full-time MBA program, shaping strategic admissions initiatives as part of the Senior Management team. She also held a leadership role at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, where her work spanned admissions and career services.

Sharon holds a BA from Chatham University and a doctorate in Administrative and Policy Studies in Higher Education from the University of Pittsburgh, where her research focused on first-generation college students. She is a Certified CliftonStrengths Coach, WOW Certified Essay Coach, and an Associate Member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).
Patty Keegan

Patty brings 30 years of expertise in MBA admissions, marketing, and student life, including her role as Associate Dean for Chicago Booth’s EMBA program. She played a pivotal role in the program’s global expansion, opening campuses in Europe and Asia, while recruiting applicants worldwide. Patty has admitted and supported thousands of MBA students throughout their journeys and has been recognized with the highest award from the Executive MBA Council. Most recently, she served on the Admissions Committee for Stanford GSB’s MSx program. A featured speaker at the EMBA Council, GMAC, and AACSB conferences, Patty holds an MS in Adult Education, a BA in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame, and has completed multiple Chicago Booth Executive Education courses.

Get Started Today

Schedule a free consultation to explore how Fortuna Admissions can help you achieve your MBA dreams.

How it works

1

During this process, we do a deep dive into your profile and then work with you to develop the strategic positioning of your candidacy. We’ll work together to develop a clear storyline and personal branding, with a plan for mitigating any weaknesses and a timeline for your plan of attack. In this phase we also brainstorm essay approaches and discuss how to best prepare recommenders to write an impactful letter on your behalf.

Strategically Position Your Candidacy
2

We help you with targeted b-school research and outreach, through extensive alumni networks, clubs and associations, faculty research and career opportunities, to reinforce familiarity and understanding of the institution – its personality, its people and its ‘fit.’ Throughout the process, we’ll ensure your interactions reflect well on your candidacy, from campus visits to adcom correspondence. Every single “touch point” can affect the final decision.

Conduct School Outreach
3

Our in-house MBA resume expert will work with you on your resume to provide a coherent narrative and compelling quantifiable examples of skills and levels of responsibility – results achieved, leadership, team building, analytics, persuasiveness, etc. We also accompany you as you complete the application form, handling any questions about transcripts, resolving ambiguities related to studies and professional experience, and formulating explanations for chronology or absent materials.

Create a Coherent Narrative in CV & Data Forms
4

We’ll work with you to identify your best possible choice of recommenders, and then we’ll develop a strategy with you for mobilizing those individuals effectively. This includes developing briefs for them on characteristics and examples to develop, and a step by step plan to ensure timely submissions. This is a critical step that needs careful planning—from selecting the right champions to preparing them to write a powerful letter of support.

Solicit Recommendations
5

Throughout this multi-part process, we’ll guide you in producing an initial draft of target school essays that reflect multiple examples of leadership and outstanding achievement from professional, academic and community experience, as well as a clear and detailed post-MBA career vision. You’ll receive feedback on content, flow, structure, amendments and style, with clear direction for subsequent rewrites. This iterative process continues until your essays reflect the best possible presentation of your candidacy.

Craft & Polish Essays
6

We review your social media presence for content and strategic insights — from LinkedIn and Facebook to Twitter and other channels — ensuring that everything that reflects on your profile tells a coherent, positive story.

Audit Social Media
7

We will perform a final review of your entire application. This includes any remaining modifications, and fine-tuning of essays, as well as verifying status and input from recommenders. We’ll also field any last-minute questions.

Review the Final Application
8

We will brief you on how the school with which you are interviewing conducts this part of the assessment process, and how they evaluate your performance. We will advise you on how to prepare, and then put you through your paces in a mock interview, providing feedback and coaching to enhance your delivery and messaging. We’ll walk you through what to expect, the finer points of managing your interview time, appropriate follow-up and how to address your understandably sweaty palms. You will be interview ready – not overly rehearsed – and able to speak with confidence, reflect on past experiences and clearly convey your future potential.

Prepare for Interviews
9

Wondering what to do or what not to do? Whether you're choosing between multiple offers or you're a waitlisted candidate, we'll provide smart advice on next steps.

Manage Decision-Making