Our selected Applicant Stories, grouped by target MBA program, explore a range of successful Menlo Coaching clients and offer a clear perspective on how our MBA admissions consulting can help you, no matter where you are in the MBA application process.
Alice is honest; she tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. I was going to apply with 3 years of work experience—but Alice told me that one more year would make a substantial difference. By following her advice, I ended up with a better recommendation from my VP.
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I wanted to go with an admissions consultant so I could put my best foot forward. And I wanted to make sure that my application was the strongest possible. I wanted no stone unturned—I wanted the best possible case I could make with the story I had!
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It’s really hard to articulate unique life experiences in a way that is appreciated by Admissions Committees. With Menlo Coaching, we focused on “what’s my story” throughout the beginning of the process, and by the end, I had a really good understanding of what my story actually was.
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Alice spent hours listening to my personal story and going back and forth on countless essay drafts. And there were other people on the team who wanted to help me and advise me. I think in this way it’s very personalized attention, and I really liked that.
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I couldn’t really decide which story to write about in my essays, and David helped me see that both stories I had worked out fit together naturally. It had never occurred to me to stitch them together into one cohesive story, but there was definitely synergy in the combination, and the end product was something I was really happy with.
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The project management piece of the Menlo service was perfect for a banking analyst like me who likes to follow a clear lead. So through the platform used by Menlo, David and his support staff were constantly reminding me of the timeline, and this helped keep me on track.
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When I received an offer for a promotion at work, Pascal jumped on it immediately and offered to prepare me for interview. It was extremely helpful and very kind because that’s clearly outside of the contract.
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During the conversation I really clicked with this person. So, I decided to work with Rebecca. I think first of all, she’s very compassionate. I actually told her the full story when we had the initial call and told her, this is what I want. This is what I really need help with. And she understands everything. She really understands it from a personal perspective.
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Menlo was really valuable in helping me to navigate the process and communicate my requests where necessary, always making sure I had enough time. Menlo really helped me in terms of informing my decision and evaluating certain options versus others, figuring out which school would be the best fit for me.
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After I had a quick call with David, I immediately realized it was a good fit. David was always open-minded to hear me out. He’d give me his best ideas and push back on some of the weaker areas of the ideas that I proposed. Instead of being a one way street, it always felt like a very productive communication.
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The fact that Yaron, my consultant, took the time to get to know me and get to know my stories really proved fruitful during the essay writing process. He was able to draw back on some of the experiences that I had explained to him months prior to the actual essay writing, which allowed me to bring those ideas into the final application.
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Lainie was great to work with and really understood my perspectives. In terms of writing, she took the time to really craft every single sentence in my application and gave me feedback constantly. She has a ton of experience, and that really showed throughout the process.
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I was really impressed by the level of detail Yaron went to to learn my stories. He talked to me for hours at the start, he talked to my parents, and he took in everything I sent him and internalized it all. And it really tied things up across multiple iterations and made my final drafts fantastic.
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I think the honesty of the service was one of the most crucial points for me. I had always considered myself a good writer coming out of school, but it became very clear very quickly that my writing was not suited for MBA applications. Yaron helped me overcome this with honest feedback and a clear commitment to quality. I really appreciated that.
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At the very beginning, Yaron was very direct with me and let me understand exactly what I had to work on. And with his help, I was able to work on it and to improve on it. Eventually we were able to achieve results that were really beyond what I originally expected.
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David and all of the other folks at Menlo Coaching were not only really great at giving practical advice on how to approach it, but also offering the support of telling me I could do it. They reminded me to trust in the process and take it step by step. I really couldn’t have done it without them.
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David really helped me to not only think about my career goals but to network with people already in the field I was targeting. That way, I got a better understanding of what it would actually be like to have those positions, and that was invaluable to my application process.
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At the beginning of the process I was terrified. I was worried I had a lot of catch up to do. But Menlo Coaching and Yaron made it very streamlined. Everything was structured, I had discrete things to check off over time. That way, I was able to divide and conquer as I went.
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Yaron was dry and to-the-point, and his feedback was always fair. There were times where I thought I had written the best draft of my life and it came back red-lined through the roof! That was a really big eye-opener for me: the things that I thought came forward well in the essay were typically too wordy or didn’t land the point.
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I was worried about the “soft side,” or telling my story. I’ve struggled telling people about the incredible experiences I’ve had in my life, and I wanted to use a consultant to draw that out and articulate it the best way possible for the AdCom.
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I had someone who could answer my irrational questions, I felt like someone was in my corner and really rooting for me as I was putting my story onto paper and translating it for these institutions, and I also had someone who helped me stay on track and keep my eye on the ball.
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Jarrett is a creative writer-type. He’s very detail-oriented. Knowing that there was someone there to have that level of care in every single word in every essay was really important. Jarrett’s skill sets and personality in driving me to the finish line were exactly what I needed.
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If I had known at the start of the process what I know now, I think a lot would stay the same, but something that was very important in my process was starting early. Having the time to really craft my story was very, very important.
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MBA applicants need to realize the importance of honesty: it’s something David said from the beginning. You have to be honest, you have to present your case as it is. Because the more honest you are, the more impact you will have on the AdCom.
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Menlo Coaching does a great job of organizing all the tasks for you—whether it’s researching career goals, choosing recommenders, or tackling the essays. The service can be a huge time saver.
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I knew that I needed someone to really challenge me in the process, question my assumptions, and give me advice. Menlo Coaching did exactly that, because the firm only wants to take on people who are genuinely interested and passionate in getting an MBA.
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It was really great not only having an MBA coach but a cheerleader when we needed it. It wasn’t just about writing essays, it was about helping us discover what we were interested in and what the MBA could actually unlock for us.
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The process of working with Pascal was fantastic. We set up weekly standing meetings, which really helped me stay on track. Pascal was a great resource to have as a sounding board for ideas and for general advice.
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So I reached out to Menlo Coaching, and Lainie was the perfect coach to kind of help people who have a bit of an unconventional background but also who want to really laser focus on a specific career trajectory. So she was a perfect fit for me—I came from a media and communications background, and from there moved to a hedge fund—not the typical path!
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If you’re in a situation like I was where you have a tight schedule and you need to work around employer dynamics—you don’t have 10 or 12 hours a day for the MBA application process—I think the streamlining you get from Menlo Coaching makes it a much more enriching experience.
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I feel like I built a personal relationship with Alice, and this really helped me to think through my career. Menlo Coaching offers the full service, helping you with every single step of the process. Now that I’m at the end, I couldn’t be more happy with the results.
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I felt like I needed something to give me a boost and take me to the next level. And when I did more reading about Menlo Coaching, I realized that they are truly the creme de la creme. And because I really wanted to push myself, I knew that working with Menlo Coaching was the only way to go.
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One of the main reasons that I worked with Menlo Coaching is that they know what the admissions team is looking for, and they definitely know what they’re not looking for, which was a big help. Also, I felt that Yaron gave me great direction, and actionable steps, to make sure that I had a successful application this year.
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I applied to seven schools which I was a lot, though two of them were added at the last minute. I was invited to interview at all seven, which was fantastic…and honestly, really unexpected! I think I wasn’t sure how schools were going to react to my profile, but the hard work I put in, all enabled and supported by Lainie, really paid off.
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If Jarrett and I didn’t live in different parts of the country, we’d be buddies ourselves. We got along great. I felt immediately that it wasn’t a transactional relationship for Jarrett. He wasn’t providing me that level of service just because it was his job: he truly cared about me, and I could feel it right away, starting in those early sessions.
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As far as scholarship negotiations that I went through, even though I was accepted at my first choice, I wanted to see if I could get more money. Menlo Coaching was awesome in that they walked me through my talking points and equipped me to handle that process successfully.
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When I started talking to Menlo Coaching, they didn’t try to sell my on anything. They listened to my story and helped me put things into perspective. I got the personal touch, and it seemed like I was being taken care of.
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I decided to hire a consultant was because I didn’t know the ins-and-outs of what I was about to get into. Just having somebody in my corner to have my back was extremely valuable.
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My target career path of investment banking requires a certain set of criteria, or things that you’re willing to bring to the table. And so I knew to differentiate myself, I needed someone with know-how and experience.
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With COVID-19, Menlo actually organized a session for all their clients so that we could talk about how to prepare for the MBA application and to provide support for those who were thinking about deferring. When Menlo Coaching says they offer the full package, they really mean it.
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When I spoke to David it was an instant sort of click that I would want to work with him, because at the beginning he did not ask for my standardized test scores, he did not ask me for the marks I got, he just asked me what I wanted to be, what I wanted to do in the future, and what my journey had been.
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I was really hoping for an MBA to make a career transition. I knew that I had a lot of operations and management experience, but the skills, the skill set, the resume, and the story—I wanted to get all that right.
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You’re going to be spending two years of your life doing something that you hope to get a good return on your investment on. Of course, I’m in a season of life where two years is even more important to me than it is to most people! So you really want to make sure you get the best service you can…and if you want that assurance, you really want Menlo Coaching.
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Rebecca and I had a two-hour long call where she asked me a lot of questions about my life. And this allowed me to not only get the right personal statement and the right value-add for my essays, but it allowed me to reflect on myself. Now, I feel like I have more direction in my career and my life.
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