Older Reapplicant with Amazing Results!

With Rebecca’s help, I got into Kellogg, Columbia, Yale, Ross and NYU with $560,000 total in merit scholarships. Every school gave me money, including two full rides and two $100k scholarships. 

The year before I had also applied. I was rejected or waitlisted by every top school I applied to. I had also worked with a different well known consulting firm. Their help was somewhat rushed and impersonal, and I didn't really feel like it provided any edge in the process. 

As someone in his 30s with a winding career history that included some substantial gaps, I was undoubtedly an atypical business school candidate.  I was starting to wonder if I’d ever “fit in” at a business school. 

Rebecca’s help along with the broader Menlo ecosystem was the highest value and most comprehensive service I have ever received in my life. There’s no question about it: they were fundamental in the success I experienced during this second attempt to apply to school. 

If you’re like I was prior to working with Rebecca, you’re probably looking for tangible, specific evidence of how she and Menlo drive success. Rebecca stands out because: 

1. She has a true informational edge: Rebecca and the broader Menlo crew are incredibly well networked with admissions departments, students and alumni at the top business schools. Rebecca quoted recent conversations she had with admissions committee members at top schools while helping me. Down to the specific anecdotes I mentioned in my essays, Rebecca helped me target the tone and specific content that she knew each individual school would be looking for. Plus, she was able to bring knowledge from her peers at Menlo to the conversation too. 

2. She has a strong, consultative point of view on… everything. Rebecca provided strategic advice on everything from checkboxes on applications to how to write thank you notes to students I met while visiting schools. I sent Rebecca hundreds of e-mails, worried about every detail and interaction in the process. She provided quick, sharp advice, no matter the question. This was a lifesaver for someone as detail-oriented and neurotic as me! 

3. She helped me develop a holistic, strategic plan for success, given my atypical profile. Rebecca stressed that due to my profile I would need to gain an edge by networking intensely with the schools. I am not a natural networker. So: from choosing the events to attend, admissions members to speak to and professors to contact… Rebecca helped me build a networking plan for success. The results: Admissions committee members knew me by name and cited our relationship as part of their decision to admit me. Students I met volunteered to write me letters of support to admissions. And with Rebecca’s guidance on how to ask the right questions to the right people, I learned enough to weave very specific anecdotes about students and schools into essays and interviews. Multiple interviewers said that my ability to name specific students, classes and professors was a key reason they strongly recommended me for admission.

4. She is an incredible storyteller and editor. I am not concise; I also struggled to build a story that made sense around my winding and atypical career history. Rebecca worked with me to build multiple, ultra concise pitches that conveyed my interest in business school, career goals, and personal history within minutes. Not only did these immediately resonate with admissions committee members (every AdComm member I met responded quickly and favorably to these pitches), but they became the backbone of my essays. Rebecca’s incredible ability to help you build a strategic story about yourself — both the good and the bad — that exposes the essence of who you are, while still appealing to the admissions committee… and then edit it down to a powerful but concise narrative is savant-like and undoubtedly changed the course of my applications. Plus she helps you tailor these narratives to each school and what they are looking for in candidates. 

5. She is rooting for you every step of the way. Rebecca brings such warmth, care and support to her consulting process that you can’t help but feel true confidence in yourself and your story. This helped me wow admissions committee members, ace interviews, and leave a favorable impression on everyone I met during campus visits. 

Menlo initially seemed expensive to me. Now I wonder how they don’t charge more. 

Rebecca is so comprehensive, so knowledgeable and so responsive — for months on end — that you’re going to wonder how she has time to do anything else in her life. You’re also going to be so well prepared, write such awesome essays, and wow every student and admissions committee member you meet.

I haven't once questioned my decision to work with Rebecca (for an older reapplicant, the results speak for themselves) and I can guarantee you won't either.