Coming from a non-traditional pre-MBA background in public service and a niche area of IP law, Julia sought help from an MBA admissions consultant to help her tell the best version of her story, as well as to understand what she wanted to get out of business school. She worked with us to not only define her post-MBA career goals, but also figure out how an MBA would help her achieve them.
One of her biggest concerns was school selection. We convinced Julia to visit her target schools, about which she said: “I had not anticipated how much of an introspective time this can be and how much understanding the fit with the school really, really matters.” She actually took the unusual step of crossing off HBS from her list for reasons that she discusses in the video, showing how confident she had become in knowing which schools really fit her best.
Julia didn’t want to be forced into any pre-MBA bucket, and wanted to make sure that her “very unusual background” would come across in her MBA applications — while still crafting the story in a way that would achieve her goals.
She occasionally worried that her story wasn’t going to work, but although she was quite nervous about the essay writing, she comments that the Menlo Coaching program gave a lot of structure to the process, allowing her to always know what to expect and what to work on next.
She also appreciated the “patient” support of her lead coach, Rebecca, who “always had her back” and the fact that she could draw in experts from the rest of the Menlo team when needed.
Ultimately, Julia was accepted to Chicago Booth and NYU Stern with full rides, a generous scholarship at Wharton, and admissions offers at Berkeley Haas and MIT Sloan.
She enrolled at Wharton because of its great fit with her target post-MBA sector, FinTech, and is busy advancing her career.
The result of working with Julia to understand the best version of her story and bring it into her applications were not only her successful acceptances into the programs she applied to, but also the scholarships she received at many of these schools. Wharton was Julia’s top choice, and she received a scholarship for a little over 50% of the cost of attending. To this point she says:
“I would not have done anything differently. As expensive as [the Menlo Coaching service] might look, when you think about the results that I got, it’s really cheap.”
Currently, the cost of the Wharton MBA program is estimated at $222,540 for tuition, room and board, health insurance, and other personal expenses for two years. In order to help pay for the program, there are a number of Wharton scholarships available. Financial aid at Wharton is possible through a number of fellowships that may cover all or part of the cost of attending the program. The Wharton Fellowship Program includes Forte Fellowships for exceptional female students, the Reaching Out LGBT MBA Fellowship, and social impact fellowships, among others.
All admitted students are directly considered for Wharton fellowships. The admissions and financial aid committees determine who receives scholarship money based off of the general Wharton MBA application, i.e., there is no formal application that prospective candidates need to complete. Students who are already enrolled in the Wharton MBA program may also apply for any additional fellowships that become available during their time in the program.
Want to hear more admissions case studies from real MBA candidates? Check out our collection of Applicant Stories.
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