About

Inside MBA Admissions is committed to working with our clients to craft a perfect application based on their background and goals combined with our inside knowledge and expertise.We work closely with each applicant to ensure they understand their own individual strengths and weaknesses and can effectively market themselves to top the Business Schools.  We are unique because we make sure each client understands the application evaluation criteria used at their targeted schools.

Inside MBA Admissions pairs each client with a single consultant to ensure that they receive dedicated and consistent advice throughout all aspects of their application.  As a client, you will be matched to your consultant based on your career and business school aspirations.  In addition to working with your assigned consultant, you will also have regular advice and involvement from Jana Blanchette, the Founder.  We feel this added attention is important to ensure our clients receive the best possible admissions expertise.

Our Founder

Jana Blanchette, President and Founder

When using an admissions consultant, you need the best - someone who has not only been through a top MBA program, but also has recent and senior experience on an Admissions Committee from a top business school.

Jana Blanchette founded Inside MBA Admissions to provide applicants an insider's perspective of the application process. Jana was a Senior Director in the Admissions Office for the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. While at Ross, Jana evaluated and counseled applicants from all over the world. She has specific expertise on how applicants get evaluated and the criteria utilized in decision-making settings. She re-designed the entire application process and admissions criteria for the Ross School of Business, and in doing so, benchmarked the processes and admissions criteria utilized at other top business schools across the nation.

Prior to her work in Admissions, Jana received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and her B.S.E from the University of Michigan. After receiving her MBA, Jana worked as a management consultant for A.T. Kearney and later became a principal with the Firm. She has written hundreds of reports for Board Level Executives across automotive, retail, and consumer products companies. In addition, she has published several intellectual capital and business issue papers on a diverse set of topics, ranging from corporate bankruptcy to material cost reduction.

In addition to Jana's admissions and consulting work, she runs seminars for consulting firms, financial corporations, and local alumni groups on MBA Admissions.

Our Management Team

Ryan Blanchette - COO and Admissions Consultant

Ryan Blanchette provides his clients unique perspective as a past General Manager and Operations Executive with key insight into MIT Sloan and other top business school programs. Ryan has been a Sloan Alumni Admissions committee member and continues to interact frequently with the Sloan business school. He has advised numerous clients on the key success factors for admissions into Top MBA Programs. In addition, Ryan was also the lead for the MBA recruiting efforts at MIT Sloan for his previous employers.

Ryan has three degrees from MIT, receiving a dual degree MBA and Masters from the prestigious “Leaders for Manufacturing” program at Sloan/MIT and a Bachelors degree in Aerospace.

Before joining Inside MBA Admissions full time, Ryan was the General Manager for a $200M automotive components company located in Chongqing, China. He is proficient in the Mandarin language. Ryan has also worked in positions ranging from M&A of small privately held companies to advising CEOs of multi-billion dollar organizations in Supply Chain strategies. In these roles Ryan has developed expert writing skills as he has written legal agreements and cases on a variety of business topics. He has also created and delivered presentations to CEOs and Board members.

Kiri Cole – Senior Admissions Consultant

Kiri Cole’s diverse professional background makes her an excellent asset to Inside MBA Admissions and to MBA candidates pursuing a variety of careers, from consulting to entrepreneurship. Before joining us, Kiri worked as an admissions consultant for another top admissions consulting Firm. She has comprehensive Admissions experience that includes coaching MBA applicants, but also includes advising applicants applying to other graduate programs and professional schools.  This enhances the breadth and depth of Kiri’s knowledge and aptitude to dexterously guide MBA applicants.

Prior to her career in Admissions, Kiri earned her B.B.A. from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. After working in investment banking for J.P. Morgan Chase and Prudential Financial, Kiri leveraged her affinity for the entertainment arena and  launched Cole Productions, an advertising company that focused on commercial creation and production. Years later, Kiri graduated from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business with her MBA. Her enterprising mindset led Kiri to business development and marketing consultant work for various boutique firms. However, as a health enthusiast and a student of nutrition for nearly two decades, Kiri decided to fuse her passions in health and business and established a thriving nutrition consultancy. The bulk of Kiri’s work entailed advising clients to help them attain optimal health. Still, eager to empower others with knowledge, she has also conducted educational lectures, written monthly health editorials for Black Working Man magazine, and regularly published articles that explore cutting-edge health topics and issues. 

Kiri’s prior work experience has provided her with solid skills in understanding client needs, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and developing plans to best “market” the client to the admissions committee.  Kiri’s desire to use information to empower others fuels her admissions consulting work. She relishes advocating and educating applicants, emboldening them with the know-how and tools to realize their ambitions and ultimately fulfill their MBA plans.

Laura George - Senior Admissions Consultant

Laura Bishop George joins Inside MBA Admissions after two years of independent work as an MBA admissions consultant through her own company, Get It Write Consulting. Laura originally gained an insider’s perspective on the application process by serving as a member of the Admissions Committee at the Kellogg School of Management for two years while attending the full-time MBA program.

Prior to her work in Admissions, Laura earned her B.A. from Duke University, where she contributed to the student newspaper, the Chronicle, as a reporter. Laura then worked as a copywriter and account manager at Burks/Butler, a multicultural advertising agency. After receiving her MBA from Kellogg, Laura joined the brand management team at Kimberly-Clark and then served as the retail marketing manager for Saputo Inc., an international food products corporation. Throughout her career, Laura has accumulated extensive writing and marketing experience and has developed focused expertise in the MBA Admissions process.

Laura has had a lifetime passion for writing, and she truly enjoys getting to know clients and learning about their backgrounds, strengths, and interests so that she can more capably guide them in crafting well-written, compelling essays that effectively capture the essence of their candidacy.

Kim Vickerman - Senior Admissions Consultant

Kim Vickerman is a Senior Consultant, whose admissions and professional work experience have made her a well-rounded advisor to MBA candidates globally.

Kim received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. While at Kellogg, Kim was a member of the Admissions Committee where she reviewed and assessed hundreds of applications from candidates from around the world. Kim was the sole class representative on the Admissions Committee for the MMM program, helping to create the yearly selection criteria and to shape an entire class. Since Kellogg, Kim has conducted Alumni Interviews and outreach to applicants. She has also successfully mentored many professional colleagues through the MBA admissions process.

In her professional career, Kim has worked in various functions including consulting, program management, and procurement in industries ranging from aerospace to telecom to investment banking. She has contributed to dozens of white papers and cases, as well as to hundreds of presentations to various levels of management, including the Boards of Directors of Fortune 100 companies. In addition to recruiting extensively for the companies where she has worked,
Kim also helped manage the relationship between her consulting firm’s recruiting team and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Kim holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Kim spent a year of her undergraduate studies at l’Université de Technologie de Compiègne in Compiègne, France. In addition to her MBA from Kellogg, she also holds a Masters of Engineering Management from Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. She has traveled throughout Europe and Asia, including India, China, and Japan.

Our Admissions Consultants

Our team of consultants have former admissions experience from top MBA programs like Harvard Business School, The Wharton School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Columbia, Chicago Booth, Northwestern Kellogg,  Michigan Ross, Dartmouth Tuck, Duke Fuqua, London Business School, Texas McCombs, Yale School of Management, UCLA Anderson, Berkeley Haas and other leading MBA programs.

Our team comprises a wide array of industry, functional, and geographic backgrounds.  Backgrounds include everything from financial services to consulting to engineering to marketing to entrepreneurship.  Each of our consultants possess a unique set of geographical and cultural experiences ranging from living and/or  working in China, India, Europe, and the United States.  The depth and breadth of the Inside MBA Admissions team will ensure you are matched with your perfect consultant.