Menlo Coaching
Rating: Amazing! Would work with them again.
Tl;dr;
a) Brings structure to an unstructured process
b) Great work ethic. Usually, got responses to questions within an hour or two (unless it’s like super late for them) and usually responds to all of your essays within 8 hour. The time difference (I live in the US, David in the Netherlands) really worked to my advantage as I got input on my essays at least twice a day – once before I woke up and once before evening.
c) Gives solid advice and is always there to listen to your ideas and concerns.
d) No room for complacency. Will not sign off on any essay/topic until the final product lives up to his expectations.
e) Nice people
Longer VersionA little about me: I am in the dreaded {Indian, Male, IT} genre and was the founding member of the 2015 Zero Admit club (that’s a nice way of saying that I didn’t get any admits in 2015). I work for one of the Big Five Tech firms and as you can see on my profile, have a 760 GMAT. Anyway, enough about me…
The ProcessOnce you decide to engage with
Menlo Coaching, you will be paired with one of the coaches depending on the industry you work in (and probably other factors). I worked, primarily, with David so this review is mostly going to be about him.
To get started, you will be sent a detailed work schedule. The whole process is divided into
15 modules, each module taking care of one aspect of the application. This works well because you know once you are done with a module, you are pretty much done with that topic/essay(s). He also gave us the timeline of when these modules would be released
in advance so we can plan accordingly.
Each module in itself would consist of a few
videos of David or Alice talking about what needs to be done and what is a good way to get it done and in some cases a few gotchas you need to be aware of. Also, included in a module are an assignment or a
set of assignments that would get you started on the relevant work. Once you are finished with a draft, you submit it… David reviews it and sends it back to you with edits and comments and rinse and repeat.
We went 21 rounds on my Resume before he was finally satisfied with the result. Some of the later topics took less to and fro as I got more used to writing but
he never let me submit a less than perfect essay even if I were satisfied with it.
Sometime in the second month of the schedule, David set up a 2-hour call with me and we basically talked about my whole life story including about how different interactions with my parents and grandparents influenced some of my choices. David took notes throughout the call and sent me a few observations after the call. Fun fact: My mom was impressed with how insightful those were! ?
Anyway, this whole thing comes in handy when you are writing your personal essays about what you are doing with your life and how some random thing that happened in 5th grade affected your choices later on.
The thing that most impressed about this whole process is how committed David is to your success. I applied to seven schools so I am sure it was by no means easy to maintain such
high turnover with such low latency.
I used to write up 2-4 drafts in the morning and sent it to him by 6 AM my time. He used to respond with his edits and comments by about 1 PM my time. I, then, worked on those edits in the evening after work and sent him a second version by 9 PM my time and voila by 4:30 AM the next day, I received the V3 version. This went on the whole of June, July, and August with the result that I was mostly done with my essays before September rolled in. I had a relatively stress-free September.
Along the way, we had
group calls with other fellow applicants so we could learn from each other. We also had guest speakers in the form of current students at Harvard, and Booth. He also arranged for a
public speaking coach to work with us so we can appear confident during the interviews and the video essays.
Once you are done submitting the applications, he will work with you to prepare you for your interviews. I had a quite a few mock sessions set up with him and also with another member on his team – Rebecca – and that really helped me prepare for my interviews.
I strongly believe that a decision should only be judged based on the effort you put in. And in that, I can be confident in saying that working with
Menlo Coaching was the best thing I did with my applications. It was a lot of money but I have no regrets whatsoever. Even now, he’s helping me negotiate the waitlist at Wharton, getting funding from LBS and with Pre-MBA internships.
If you insist on results, I interviewed at four of the seven schools (H/S were two of the three where I didn’t get an interview), and I have been waitlisted at Wharton and accepted at LBS.
All in all, if I had to re-do the whole thing, I would for sure work with David again.
Feel free to ping me for more details. Happy to help in any way I can.