Stratus is Poets&Quants’ Top Medium-Sized MBA Admissions Consulting Team
Since 2006, we have helped thousands of MBA applicants from more than 50 countries gain admission to their target business schools—and earn millions of dollars in merit scholarships—with our unique team-based, personalized approach. Our dedicated team of experienced MBA admissions counselors is there every step of the way to help YOU as an applicant.
Why choose Stratus?
Team-based, personalized approach to MBA admissions consulting
Just as business school admissions committees will read your application multiple times, our staff of highly skilled admissions counselors, the majority of whom are former admissions committee members, will repeatedly review and provide feedback on your application materials throughout the process. We not only pair you with a dedicated Admissions Counselor who will coach, mentor, and guide you—we also connect you with an admissions strategist, school-specific reviewers, and a proofreader who provide additional support.
Expert MBA Admissions Counselors
Our team members combine decades of wisdom and experience with profound insights on how admissions committees think. Having relevant information and critical work experience means our team understands the hard work and the nuances involved in pursuing a higher-education degree. As alumni of top-ranked business schools, we can also speak to the challenges of and offer introspection about the business school application process. Our expertise will help you find schools that will be the best fit for your career goals.
Personalized services for every step of the process
Whether you’re looking to revise your application essays, receive guidance on articulating your goals, update your resume, or prepare for your interview, our counselors will be by your side throughout your admissions journey. They can identify and help mitigate weaknesses in your profile, all while keeping you motivated during the sometimes grueling application process.
MBA Four-School Guarantee
We at Stratus invest in your MBA application goals like no other admissions consulting firm. If you are working with us on four or more business school applications in Round 1 and are not accepted to any of those programs, we will support your applications to two more schools in Round 2—at no additional cost to you! That’s how committed we are to your success.
We have a proven record of success and a clear understanding of how to help you get into your target MBA programs and reach your career goals
Our team-based, personalized approach to MBA admissions counseling has helped young professionals gain admission to all of the top-ranked business schools worldwide, including Harvard Business School, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, UPenn Wharton, MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School, and INSEAD, as well as dozens of others.
At Stratus, we take our clients’ success seriously, and it shows! With a 83 Net Promoter Score, our clients are fiercely loyal and highly satisfied with our services. We are proud of our hundreds of five-star reviews on Google, GMAT Club, and Poets&Quants from past clients. In addition, in 2024 Stratus was named the #1 medium-sized MBA admissions consulting firm on Poets&Quants with an "eye-popping" 9.9/10 client satisfaction rate. Not only that, but our Director of MBA Admissions Counseling, Susan Cera, was named the top MBA admissions coach in 2021 and a top-five admissions coach in 2022 and 2023. Senior MBA Admissions Counselors Donna Bauman and Melisa Prevost have also been recognized with perfect 10/10 scores. We are not just consultants—we are leaders in our field.
Five-Star Reviews on Google, GMAT Club, and Poets&Quants
Net Promoter Score
in Merit Scholarships since 2021
Ranked Medium-Sized MBA Admissions Firm in 2024
Business school applicants love working with us! Read what just a few of the thousands of happy Stratus clients have to say:
From day 1, Melisa has been such a pleasure to work with. She brought insight and experience for each program I applied to and helped me highlight my strengths throughout my application. I could tell that Melisa genuinely cared about my success, and now I see her as more of a friend than an admissions consultant. I would recommend Melisa to anyone interested in pursuing an MBA!
“[My counselor] helped instill confidence in me for my applications and was vital in my navigation of the application process. She was instrumental in my acceptance into Columbia, along with my scholarship offers to Duke and Texas. I recommend Stratus to everyone who asks me what helped me the most in applying to law school.
Thanks to Donna, I secured admission to two M7 schools with merit scholarships at both (even with a weaker GRE quant score, something I was nervous about throughout). I highly recommend working with Donna for your MBA Admissions journey – she’s the best partner I can imagine!
Latest Blog & Resources
MBA Ding Analysis (or Why You Didn’t Get In)
Every year, after business school decisions are released, we at Stratus get an influx of requests for a “ding analysis.” These applicants want to understand why they were rejected by their top-choice MBA programs. To gain acceptance to a highly ranked business school, you need to both be a strong applicant AND submit a strong...
Top MBA Programs for Sports
When I worked at ESPN, the MBA was not yet popular outside of the finance and marketing departments. Some of my colleagues had earned a Master of Science in Sports Management (UMass Amherst was the most popular program at the time) to gain insight on managing the business of sports, but that was about it. However,...
Three Things to Consider When Applying to Wharton’s Health Care Management Program
Wharton’s Health Care Management (HCM) MBA major offers one of the most prestigious paths into pharmaceuticals, hospital administration, earlier stage ventures, and beyond. It’s also one of the most competitive MBA programs to gain admission to. If health care–related MBAs are on your radar, let’s talk about three things you should consider when applying to...
Top MBA Programs for Social Impact
Social impact programs have come a long way since I did my MBA internship in social entrepreneurship with Juma Ventures in San Francisco. This topic has become the cornerstone of many MBA programs, and each time I update this blog post, I am excited to add new schools to this list! While finance, marketing, operations,...
Schedule a free consultation!
Learn how Stratus’s team approach can help you get accepted to your top-choice business schools. Start with a FREE consultation with one of our Admissions Counselors. Our team is ready to dive into your goals, answer your questions about your profile and the application process, and help you boost your appeal to admissions committees!