Lainie Blum Cogan

If you are currently working towards 2024 admissions cycle, or thinking about 2025 admissions cycle, and you aren’t sure how to put all of your materials together to present it to the adcom in a cohesive/comprehensive manner, then I highly encourage you to reach out to Menlo Coaching and ask for Lainie’s availability for two reasons (1) her expertise and knowledge in crafting a successful application (2) her professional commitment to be available and also be kind throughout this arduous process.

Lainie was able to dissect, analyze, and formulate all the components that an applicant needs to be a competitive candidate for each of the specific schools that I wanted to apply to (M7s and T15s). She first took her time and effort in learning about my entire personal and professional history – this allowed her to help me craft a personalized, goal-driven, and execution oriented essays that are compelling and viable for the adcom evaluating my candidacy. I cannot stress the importance of the months long back and forth I had with Lainie in fine tuning the essays: it’s perhaps the most convincing component of your application as to why you want to attend the school, and Lainie made sure we had that down to the tee. Without Lainie, I am unreservedly convinced that I would not have received interview invites and offers from CBS, Stern, Johnson, Tepper, and McDonough.

Beyond her obvious talent and expertise in this field, Lainie is highly empathetic to how difficult this entire process can be, and her experience allows her to be the perfect pacemaker throughout the entire journey. She checks up on you frequently to ensure that you aren’t overwhelmed, and helps you breakdown the workload so you are still working towards your goals. And when we need to accelerate and push, she’ll be energetic and reliable in ensuring fast turnarounds.

So go ahead and reach out to Menlo Coaching to ask for Lainie as soon as you decide to work with a consultant – it will be a great investment for your peace of mind as your work to put together your application. And I am confident the results will immensely satisfy you!

Lainie helped make my dreams come true – simple as that! The unconditional support, mentorship, advice, and constructive feedback that she provided me with were monumental in helping me secure an offer at my dream school – CBS in New York!

I was originally very stressed about managing application work, exam studying, my current job, and physical therapy from a significant injury but Lainie helped me build out a schedule that was tailored to my needs and goals. She is the most organized person I have worked with and was there for me 24/7 with any questions I asked (which were a ton)!

Whether it came down to helping decide which schools to apply to, which exam (GMAT, GRE, EA) I should take, or which topics should be addressed in essays for each individual school, Lainie guided me. She armed me with questions to ask at info sessions, how to present myself during interviews, how to address sensitive areas of the application, and how to display confidence with every action and response. This made the process not only less daunting but actually fun and enjoyable – with plenty of self-reflection and pride.

The most important thing is that Lainie let me be myself in my essays and let me show my own voice. I felt empowered and her direction and feedback were critical in my story-telling.

I can confidently say that I would not have gotten the results I did without her help. She made sure that all the long hours and sacrifice that went into the admissions process was worth it, and for that, I will be forever grateful. She will make you feel like the center of her focus, and will help you achieve your goals!

As an R2 applicant, who only decided to consider pursuing an MBA in early October, I genuinely don’t know if I could have pulled off completing the application process without Lainie’s help, and I am sure I would not have seen nearly the same results. Now on the other end of the process, I have five full tuitions (including named fellowships/special programming) offered to T15 and M7 schools.

Lainie worked hard to understand my story, both in regard to my career path so far and my hopes for the future. It was so helpful to hear her perspective on how to craft a narrative that would connect with admissions officers, and her feedback on my writing helped me consider new perspectives and better draw the trajectory of my life. Lainie helped me not only craft great admissions essays but also learn new things about myself and how I feel about my experiences: something I think is an undervalued part of any admissions process. Our conversations were often deep and left me feeling excited about my next steps both in and beyond an MBA program.

Beyond the writing, though, Lainie also helped me stay on track with the minutiae of the application process. Since I was starting so late in the game, I was concerned that something would fall through the cracks. However, Lainie kept me on a pace that was both achievable and got me to the finish line with time to spare, even as I had to complete all my standardized testing!

While MBA consulting is an expensive proposition, it’s an investment in the future, and I can’t recommend investing in Lainie enough. I will be more than making up the cost for services by accepting my full tuition scholarship to Booth at UChicago this fall and have no doubt that I would not be in the same position had I not chosen to work with Lainie this year. She’s a gem!

Lainie was the most thoughtful, considerate, and supportive coach I could have asked for. In my applications, I could tell that she really cared about making my story come across authentically, in my own voice – while appealing to the admissions committees.

Outside of my written applications, she was so supportive, provided thoughtful advice on my path, and was the person I could turn to for all my unanswered questions.

I applied to MBA programs for the class of 2025. I was admitted to Wharton, Darden, and Yale… with scholarships, among others. I’m incredibly grateful for all the help she provided and would do it all over again!!

If you’re looking for a best-in-class consultant to help with your MBA applications, look no further than Lainie and the Menlo team. I received multiple offers of admission and am thrilled to be attending UC Berkeley Haas for the 2025 cycle. Being the first person in my family to earn an MBA and coming from a non-traditional nonprofit background, I’m not sure that I would have ended up at Haas without Lainie and the incredible team at Menlo.

If I could give Lainie and Menlo 6 stars, I would. Working with them was a complete game-changer for me during the application process. To start, the structure, quality, and quantity of resources provided by Menlo are incredibly helpful and exhaustive and make every aspect of the application process approachable. They allow you to maximize every aspect of your application by helping you understand why it’s important, what the programs are looking for, and how you can put your best foot forward. If you feel you have a weak spot in your application or that you aren’t sure how to proceed, you most certainly will after working with Lainie and Menlo. Beyond Menlo’s structure and resources, their deadline-driven project management approach ensures that you’re exactly where you need to be at every step of the journey. This made me feel at ease and assured that I wasn’t behind or spending too much time on any single component of my applications.

There aren’t enough good things to say about Lainie specifically. She was incredibly responsive to any questions big or small, always available to meet, and very quick with turnarounds. More importantly, she made me feel like I was the only client she had with how personalized her attention was and how dedicated she was to learn about me and my story. She’s creative, intelligent, and thoughtful, and knows how to guide an applicant from the brainstorming phase all the way through to the submission phase with her extensive expertise. There were certain essays that we went back and forth on over 20 times! There was no limit to her dedication. She worked with me until everything was the best it could be. Working with Lainie was so fantastic, I’m actually sad that our work together is finished!

I cannot speak highly enough of my experience working with Lainie and the Menlo Coaching team! I started working with Lainie for Round 1 admissions in April 2022, and she was with me every step of the way from school selection, resume building, essay writing, interview practice, and scholarship negotiations – and all other moments of stress and nerves. It was easy to forget that I actually wasn’t her only client; Lainie is that focused on you, and becomes an expert on every facet of you throughout the time you work with her.

I was initially a puddle of nerves and insecurity, but Lainie patiently guided me throughout the whole process with concrete milestones and a plan so that I never felt overwhelmed or like I was running behind schedule. When we first started working together, my school selection was still all over the place, but Lainie is so knowledgeable about all these programs that her advice helped me narrow down my choices, and naturally led us to craft my career goals.

Writing personal essays felt so daunting before I began the process, but Lainie patiently went through so many ideas and drafts with me until we were both sure that it felt true to who I was and was also a compelling story that I wanted to tell. She is direct, kind, understanding, clear with her advice, and so incredibly sharp with the advice she points out that I never felt like I was wasting time or going in circles, and I trusted every comment that came from her.

And then the interviews – I am 100% positive I would not have survived any of my interviews without Lainie’s coaching and numerous practice sessions. Not only did she help craft the content of my answers, she also coached me so that I could make the psychological/mental switch I needed to make to “perform” in the interview. I would not have been able to make that shift on my own, and I think it’s become a life skill that I’ll take with me moving forward.

Applications are stressful. Working with Lainie was the best decision I made, and I feel so good being on the other side of the process because I know that I did the best that I possibly could – and I owe all of that to Lainie, along with the generous merit scholarships I received with my admissions offers. And honestly, professional services aside, I love Lainie and genuinely miss our regular calls! You cannot go wrong working with her, and I cannot recommend her highly enough!!

I worked with Lainie for the class of 2025 applications and had a wonderful experience. I’ve been accepted to HBS and Wharton (with a large scholarship) in R1, and could not have done it without her!

Lainie is always responsive, timely, and honest. She is a perfectionist and isn’t afraid to push me on areas where I needed improvement. Her 15+ years of experience in being an admissions consultant really showed throughout the application process, because she knew what story would resonate with admissions and what would be considered “generic”. She also helped me a ton during the interview stage and always took the time to do mock interviews with me. She is truly outstanding.

Most importantly, she gave me confidence. I knew that if Lainie was signed off on an essay, the essay had the right tone and portrayed my story. I can’t underscore how important this was for my mental health during this stressful process – having Lainie’s review gave me the sense of comfort that I needed.