Rebecca is the absolute best!

Rebecca was absolutely critical to my success in the application process and has been nothing short of amazing since the minute I met her. I started late in the process for 2021 Round 2 applications (I hadn’t even started studying for the GMAT in September!) and only wanted to apply to three schools. I wasn’t sure I could get into a single one, but with Rebecca’s help, I was accepted to Columbia, NYU Stern, and London Business School with a full scholarship to one and two Forté Foundation scholarships.

Part of the reason I wasn’t confident in my chances was that I didn’t believe I had a story to tell. But one of the key differentiators for Rebecca and the Menlo approach was the personal story call – a session over two hours long during which Rebecca listened to me talk about my life experiences and took notes. I’ve always thought I that I have a very disjointed set of experiences that I couldn’t weave into a compelling story, but Rebecca found threads that I hadn’t been able to see. Her thoughtfulness, insightfulness, and background in journalism make her uniquely talented at this. Throughout the process, she challenged me to highlight different experiences and aspects of my story that not only improved my essays, but also helped me really understand my own motivations for business school and my career. By the end of the application cycle, I felt like I had an impactful narrative that was authentically mine.

Rebecca also really personalizes her approach. When I changed my first choice school to LBS, Rebecca went into the Menlo archives to see what previous applicants who were accepted into LBS had done with their applications so she could give me data-driven guidance on how to improve my own application. She suggested I write the LBS Optional Essay (different from other optional essays in that it isn’t just about clarifying employment gaps or academic performance etc) and also suggested that I touch on a pivotal but personally traumatic experience I had described to her during our personal story call. I was reluctant to cover such a personal topic in a business school essay, but Rebecca helped me see how the story was in service of my larger narrative. She got my consent to have Alice from Menlo review the essay as well, went back into the archives to see if other applicants had covered such personal topics and been successful, and never made me feel pressured into writing something I wasn’t comfortable sharing with an admissions committee. It turned out to be a really great essay thanks to Rebecca’s guidance, and on a personal level, she helped me come to terms with a story that I had never really shared before.

Besides being a rockstar admissions consultant, Rebecca is also one of the kindest, warmest, and loveliest people I have had the pleasure of working with. I am eternally grateful for her time, attention, and help, but also just to have met her.

If you’re considering Rebecca as your coach – take the leap! You won’t regret it for a second, and your future will be forever changed.