Getting into GSB wouldn't have been possible without the amazing support and guidance of Rachel! She has been an absolute rockstar throughout this entire journey. From our very first conversation, I knew I was in good hands. She's been there for me every step of the way, offering invaluable advice, encouragement, and unwavering support. I am so grateful for her dedication and genuine interest to get my application and letters to the best shape possible. Rachel, you are an absolute superstar, and I cannot thank you enough for believing in me and helping me achieve my dreams. If you're considering applying to GSB, or any MBA program for that matter, do yourself a favor and reach out to Rachel—you won't regret it! Thank you, Rachel, from the bottom of my heart!

Read More

Working with Rachel was wonderful! We worked together on a hourly-consulting basis. From the start, she was incredibly responsive and generous with her time, always willing to offer guidance whenever needed. Her feedback was consistently detailed and incisive, helping me fine-tune multiple aspects of my application. Rachel was particularly helpful as I prepared for interviews. She conducted an awesome mock interview that not only simulated the real experience but also boosted my confidence. She provided great feedback and tips to help me present myself in the best possible light.

An aspect of Rachel’s approach that stood out was her focus on helping me take ownership of my achievements - a part of the admissions process I struggled with. Her wisdom, edits, and encouragement improved my candidacy and helped me grow personally. Rachel has been a fantastic sounding board as I work through different visions for my career. Her probing questions and thoughts have challenged me to think deeply about my aspirations.

I fully recommend Rachel to anyone seeking external support as they navigate MBA admissions. Put simply, I believe her influence is a major reason why I got into my first choice school! Thank you again Rachel.

Read More

To state upfront: Rachel is an incredible coach and I highly recommend working with her, to any aspiring MBA applicant. Before getting an admissions consultant, I was overwhelmed by the whole application process and found myself procrastinating and thinking in a very linear fashion. Ever since our first meeting, Rachel helped paint a picture of what the end-to-end process would look like, and we put forward a plan that I could hold myself to account. That said, she was flexible if some things items were slightly delayed, especially if communicated in advance. She invested the time upfront to get to know me and my motivations which really helped when we brainstormed stories for the essays. Some specific characteristics that made my experience with Rachel exceptional:

Practicality – she is very straightforward and clear in communication. It helped to know upfront what the strengths and weaknesses were in my application and obtain suggestions from her on how to best highlight my strengths (in my main essays), and alleviate my weaknesses (leveraging additional/ optional essays that the school provided)

Responsiveness – she was very responsive and always willing to help. Especially in the (rather stressful) lead up to application submission deadlines. I always felt that I had someone on my team

Thoroughness – she is extremely thorough but does so in an efficient way. Rachel is very good at calling out when elements/ ideas are out of place and asked provoking questions which helped me to reframe the next attempt. She also helped a great deal when it came to interview prep

Going the extra mile – there are countless somewhat “little” things which made my experience with Rachel all the more memorable. For instance, calling me after my GRE (2nd attempt) to see how it went, helping me navigate the challenging waitlist process, and in general displaying an incredible amount of genuineness and empathy during the ups and downs of the process

I had a lovely experience with Rachel, and fully recommend working with her. She has most definitely played a large part in me achieving my goal of doing an MBA at one of my top choice schools!

Read More

Rachel was always focused on what was best for me. In our first couple of meetings, we began by exploring why I wanted to go to graduate school before even getting to the where or how. With her guidance, I ultimately decided that applying to less schools was a better fit for my circumstances despite the obvious incentives to apply to more. Her integrity made it easy to trust her, a trust that made the rest of the application process so much more comfortable because of its inherently personal nature. Rachel is also why I found my authentic voice during the application writing process itself. She was uncanny at helping me identify, highlight, and expand on the pieces of my journey and ambitions that are core to who I am. In our brainstorming sessions she listened intently and asked incisive questions that helped me uncover insights about myself that I had never considered. In the writing phase, she had an instinctive feel for which pieces of my writing were sincere and which were banal, and never hesitated to push me to promote the former and cull the latter to the tune of almost 40 drafts of one of my applications. From the macro broad themes of an essay to single word choices in a resume, she was a patient partner, never letting me compromise on sharing the most sincere version of myself. Even if I had not gotten into school, I was proud of the journey because I knew that we had left it all on the table. Fortunately, in large part because of her steadfast support, I was accepted into the Harvard Kennedy School's and Harvard Business School's joint MPP/MBA program.

Read More

After striking out on all my applications in round one (after working on my applications by myself), I decided to turn to an admissions consultant with only about 3-4 weeks left before the deadline for round 2. Rachel was incredible. She was extremely responsive, intelligent, and thoughtful. My essays and resume were magnitudes better from her edits and comments, and I got into MBA programs I wanted in round 2! She also has continued to reach out with advice on waitlist strategies, and just generally checking in. I would HIGHLY recommend Rachel to anyone looking for a consultant - I couldn't be happier with the results.

Read More

I cannot Thank Rachel enough for her instrumental role in helping me get into some of the top MBA programs. Her continuous support, timely responsiveness, and deep investment in understanding my story and goals have made all the difference. From the very beginning, Rachel was exceptionally skilled at grasping my story, pinpointing issues with the story flow, and identifying the potential interest it would hold for various schools. Her understanding of my accomplishments, and of the school's values, Rachel encouraged me to apply to my dream school, GSB, despite my initial reluctance as I thought I would never even get an interview with GSB. Needless to say, I'm glad I did!
Rachel's ability to pinpoint issues in a client's story and improve the logical flow is nothing short of remarkable. She has an incredible ability in helping clients deliver their story in the most concise and interesting manner.
When it came to preparing for my MBA interviews, Rachel dove deep into my story and tailored her questions to simulate real interview situations, leaving me more than ready to face the real thing. Having worked with a total of three admission consultants over two years, I can say with utmost confidence that Rachel is the best. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her to anyone in need of a top-notch admissions consultant.
Rachel's efficiency in her work is incredible. If you choose to work with her on an hourly basis, rest assured that you will receive the highest value for your investment. She uses every minute to provide the best possible feedback and assistance.
On a personal note, Rachel is genuinely one of the nicest individuals I've had the pleasure of working with. She truly cares about her clients' success and dreams, and it shows through her dedication and commitment.
I'm grateful for her support in helping me getting into my dream MBA school.

Read More

I can't over-emphasize enough how much I enjoyed working with Rachel!!! I applied as a somewhat non-traditional candidate and while interviews with other consultants made me question if I was "right" for an MBA, Rachel was supportive of my candidacy from the get-go (while also being very realistic with solid feedback). Applying for MBAs programs is an incredibly introspective (and occasionally vulnerable) experience, so I found it incredibly helpful to work with someone who I knew believed in my candidacy and set high standards. Working with Rachel, by the time I applied, I knew I had put together my most authentic and best application I possibly could.

What I enjoyed most about working with Rachel was her ability to shift between helping me articulate and refine the “big picture” narrative as well as dig into the nitty gritty details (as she said, putting together an application is kind of like “a big puzzle”). After working through my career vision, I worked with her to develop the essay, which took many many revisions. She gave me incredibly helpful feedback and pointers on how to develop a logical flow, compelling narrative, and then gave feedback on word choice, grammar, etc.

Rachel also went above and beyond to make herself available as we neared the application deadline. A day before applications were due, I was still making minor edits to my resume, essays, and short answers. Rachel was super responsive and helped me work through last minute edits (which I should have done earlier).

In short, if HBS is your top choice, I HIGHLY recommend working with Rachel.

Read More

Rachel is an absolutely fantastic coach!!! I spoke to several admissions consultants and Rachel stood out from the start – she offered a well measured review of my candidacy and I felt confident she could add real value to my applications. Right away, Rachel invested many hours in truly understanding my professional experience, extracurriculars and goals. I believe this upfront investment enabled her to support me in effectively creating a cohesive and compelling narrative.

When it came to writing and pulling together my applications, Rachel’s support allowed my story to shine. She went through 30+ iterations of my core essays, providing often very quick and thorough reviews (much beyond what I had expected). She would always quickly understand what wasn’t working and was able to offer a very strategic perspective on how we could refine or alter my strategy to something that worked better. Her publishing skills were also extremely handy in trimming unnecessary wordcount etc. once my story was down. In short, I felt very confident that when I hit submit, that I had put my best foot forward in my applications. Rachel was incredibly supportive throughout the whole (and what can be a very demanding) process, always being on hand to provide guidance or help with even the tiniest question. With Rachel’s help, I have now been admitted into HBS and I am looking forward to keeping in touch and sharing updates during and after my MBA program. I can wholeheartedly recommend her to any future applicants considering the very top schools.

Read More

I could not be happier after working with Rachel. She was extremely thoughtful and diligent through the 5-6 months we worked together. From the start, she asked deep questions to help me unpack prior experiences and some of my core values, which would go on to drive my application. As I worked on my 30+ drafts worth of essays, Rachel carefully reviewed them and came up with new thoughts/comments every single time. She constantly questioned whether the product was strong enough and even when I was exhausted, she continued to push me to keep going so I could submit the very best version of myself. She was incredibly helpful every step of the way, and I'm happy to report she helped me gain admission to a top school I'm excited to attend. The business school application process is tedious, but having Rachel on my side made my process 1000% better.

Read More

First and foremost, Rachel was absolutely instrumental in helping me get into my dream school, Stanford. When I first started the process at the beginning of the year, Fortuna’s director suggested that I had a 12-15% chance of getting into the GSB, an estimate that I felt was fair. Stanford was a reach given my background.
I was fortunate to be able to start the process early, about eight months before the deadline. At the beginning, Rachel took the time to really understand my story, my motives, my strengths and weaknesses, and helped me strategize which attributes I needed to highlight, and through which stories I could best share my strengths. Rachel was one part MBA coach, one part therapist, as she dug deep into my motivations and helped me find meaningful answers to questions about purpose. Rachel is an incredibly kind and caring person, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to develop a strong relationship with her.
Rachel worked with me on the Stanford essay for 26 drafts, continually sending feedback paragraph by paragraph, then sentence by sentence, then finally word by word. By draft 20, I was ready to throw in the towel and hit submit, but Rachel insisted we could make the ending stronger, really pushing me to the next level. In the end, I had a much better final product than I expected, and I felt at peace because I knew I put in my best possible work. I am so appreciative of the amount of effort Rachel put into my application. She sent me ideas and edits way past a normal bedtime, and always had a quick turnaround time on any new material.
When it came to the interview stage, Rachel helped me tremendously by teaching me how to frame my stories to highlight the attributes Stanford was looking for. She drew upon her decades of experience interviewing candidates, and it made the interview seem much less scary and opaque.
This whole process has made me a much more confident person, as I now understand myself much better. It’s also helped me define and refine my vision and what I want to do in the next decade. I felt that even if I hadn’t gotten into any MBA programs, I still would have found this experience to be valuable for these internal gains. It was so valuable in fact, that I would still want to repeat this process in ten or twenty years (even without applying to schools), when I’m at the next fork in my career, because it gave me so much clarity in my life.
I honestly don’t think I would have gotten in without Rachel’s help, and for that I will be grateful for a lifetime.

Read More