Danae Anderson

Danae was an incredible source of support throughout the process! I got into HBS, GSB, and Wharton with her help. She gave me invaluable advice on all topics across applications, GMAT, and essays, truly helping me present my story in the best way. She was available at all times to help me brainstorm, discuss concerns or just listen to me vent! She is also an incredible accountability coach – I had too many things on my plate at the time and she really made sure I kept up the pace needed to meet my deadlines. I definitely recommend working with her!

I chose to work with Danae through a recommendation from a close friend. My expectations were extremely high, and now that I am through the process, I can’t recommend Danae highly enough! I am so grateful to have had the guidance of Danae and the whole Menlo team during this process. Danae is very thoughtful, patient, focused, and knowledgeable. She knew when to push me to come up with something better, and how to guide me through key decisions. Throughout every phase of the application, Danae made herself available to support me. She always found time to meet, sometimes multiple times a week, even last minute, to go through any sort of edit or question that I had. From the beginning, Danae was intent on getting to know me as a person and made sure that I got to know her too. This set up a trusting relationship where I was very comfortable going deep and diving head first into the process. Going into the application process, I was most nervous about articulating my career goals. While she definitely helped me there, in hindsight, the area that I needed the most help with was developing my MBA resume. I would not have known where to focus my energy had it not been for her guidance.

The application process is long, and there are many stages. Danae helped me stay on track and focus on the most important parts at the right time, in a way that felt very personalized. I cannot imagine being in the position I am today without Danae’s support and I am forever thankful!

I started my MBA application quite late compared to other R2 applicants but Danae was a great support throughout this entire process.
She was able to help me put together my applications, my essays and my goals in a convincing way aligned with my values and my story. I am amazed at the number of drafts and reviews we did over 2 months and that we managed to put together all the application elements ahead of the submission deadlines.
Danae has great interpersonal skills – she was able to understand my story and to provide constructive feedbacks throughout this process.
She is also very responsive – she was getting back to me with comments in less than 24 hours which was really important as we were closing in on the application deadline.
I also really enjoyed the interview preparation at Menlo Coaching. I have never felt more ready and confident ahead of interviews.
Overall I highly recommend Danae & Menlo Coaching.

I started working with Danae around April 2021 to start preparing for R1 applications. And I cannot speak highly enough of my experience working with her. I got into Kellogg’s MMM (MBA+MSDI Dual Degree Program) and Columbia. I would definitely work with Danae again if I were to re-do the whole MBA application process again.
Some of the things I liked most about Danae and Menlo Coaching are:

– High level of commitment to you – When you talk with many MBA consultants, they always tell you that they will be committed to you. But I can attest that this is absolutely true for Danae! Even before we started brainstorming about the application strategies, Danae spent extensive hours asking and listening about my life (from childhood until now) and background. Through this process, not only was she able to get a better understanding of me, but even I was able to get a better understanding of my life and also helped identify my drivers and motivations. Danae really remembers all the discussions that she has had with me and brings up topics or ideas from the past that would be helpful for the essay topics that we would be tackling, which I thought was amazing and impressive.

– Very responsive – This relates to the high level of commitment, but Danae’s responsiveness was truly amazing. She would check and provide feedback on my essay drafts within a day, which was super helpful. MBA Applications can be hectic and managing the schedule can be tough especially when you are applying to multiple schools in the same round, but due to Danae’s high level of responsiveness, I was always at peace. Many of my friends that used different MBA consultants often complained how their consultants would be very slow and not respond back to their e-mails/drafts quick enough, but I never felt that with Danae. Also, Menlo uses Basecamp to manage and monitor the progress of each school’s application, which was very helpful!

– Great feedback – As an international applicant where English was not my first language, I was worried about the application essays. But Danae really helped me build a strong narrative for each essay prompt and she never compromised. For some of the essays, I was fairly satisfied, but she would tell me “we can probably do better” and really pushed me to do better. We had over 5+ iterations for each essay (10 for some) and it turned out to be so much better than I could have ever come up with.

Overall Danae’s service quality was extremely high and she has a great personality on top of that! She is very respectful of the applicant while being very honest, and that is something I really appreciated. Menlo Coaching is probably on the higher end in terms of the pricing, but I think their quality more than makes up for it. If anyone is looking to apply for MBA, I would highly recommend working with Danae! 🙂

I couldn’t have done the business school application process without Danae. I think the most valuable part of the process was helping me think about how I wanted to present myself in my apps. She teased out stories, experiences, qualities that were unique to me and helped me articulate those. It’s very apparent when you work with her that she’s a talented writer and teacher (and very patient :)). Added bonus was that she was previously a Product Manager, so she understood the kind of work that I do and am interested in pursuing.

On a more personal note, the application process can be very humbling, and there were times I felt very insecure about my application, interview skills, chances of getting in, etc. She helped boost my confidence and assured me that I was qualified for the schools I was applying to. She also probably spent more time doing interview practice with me than any other client (sorry, Danae!) to ensure that I was comfortable.

I also literally wouldn’t be going to Wharton without her because I thought of Wharton as a “finance bro” school that wouldn’t help me in a tech career and so I wasn’t going to apply. Danae explained how Wharton could be a good fit for my interests and encouraged me to reconsider. Her wealth of knowledge on all the different schools/programs was integral in my school selection process.

Overall, I’d highly recommend Danae and Menlo Coaching!