The Ultimate Resource

Before I ever met Melissa Blakeslee, I was excited to work with her because of her experience working on the other end of the admissions process, as an executive director of admissions at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business. More than helping me craft essays and applications that would appeal to the admissions officers though, Melissa helped me build an authentic application because she was completely committed to getting to know me. Equal parts therapy session and brainstorm, our first meeting was a 1.5 hour call where we talked about everything from my upbringing to my work experience. During our next brainstorming session, she continued to bring up ideas that evolved some of the topics we had discussed 2+ months earlier.

When it came time to practice for my interview, Melissa was the ultimate resource because she knew me as well (if not better) than I knew myself. She suggested answers that I hadn’t considered and reminded me of experiences that I had forgotten. In the end, I was perfectly set-up for an interview that told one cohesive story, rather than a series of disjointed, one-off answers.

More than anything else though, in searching for an admissions consultant, I was looking for a real partner to guide me through a pretty overwhelming process. Someone who’d be as invested in my success as much as my mom or dad might be. In Melissa, I found exactly that. When it was crunch time, I was incredibly grateful to have Melissa with me in the trenches. She provided feedback on my essays quicker than I could edit them and was the only reason I got everything in on time. After a poor interview, Melissa gave me some much-needed perspective, helping me parse the emotional from the rational. And when I found out I had been admitted to my dream school, Melissa was my third call (after my parents and grandma). If I could go through it all over again, I wouldn’t do it with anyone else but Melissa.