Rachel Erickson Hee

Getting into GSB wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing support and guidance of Rachel! She has been an absolute rockstar throughout this entire journey. From our very first conversation, I knew I was in good hands. She’s been there for me every step of the way, offering invaluable advice, encouragement, and unwavering support. I am so grateful for her dedication and genuine interest to get my application and letters to the best shape possible. Rachel, you are an absolute superstar, and I cannot thank you enough for believing in me and helping me achieve my dreams. If you’re considering applying to GSB, or any MBA program for that matter, do yourself a favor and reach out to Rachel—you won’t regret it! Thank you, Rachel, from the bottom of my heart!

Rachel is an incredible coach to work with who goes above and beyond to ensure that your authentic voice and ideas are evident throughout your entire application. From essays to describing extracurriculars to recommendation letters, there are a lot of moving parts to the application. Rachel was instrumental in helping me prioritize and time manage. She’s incredibly timely in providing feedback and I could tell she truly cared about helping me put together a story/application that reflected my core values. I’m so grateful to have worked with her through the process and I highly recommend anyone looking for a coach to work with Rachel.

Working with Rachel was wonderful! We worked together on a hourly-consulting basis. From the start, she was incredibly responsive and generous with her time, always willing to offer guidance whenever needed. Her feedback was consistently detailed and incisive, helping me fine-tune multiple aspects of my application. Rachel was particularly helpful as I prepared for interviews. She conducted an awesome mock interview that not only simulated the real experience but also boosted my confidence. She provided great feedback and tips to help me present myself in the best possible light.

An aspect of Rachel’s approach that stood out was her focus on helping me take ownership of my achievements – a part of the admissions process I struggled with. Her wisdom, edits, and encouragement improved my candidacy and helped me grow personally. Rachel has been a fantastic sounding board as I work through different visions for my career. Her probing questions and thoughts have challenged me to think deeply about my aspirations.

I fully recommend Rachel to anyone seeking external support as they navigate MBA admissions. Put simply, I believe her influence is a major reason why I got into my first choice school! Thank you again Rachel.

Rachel is the best coach I could have ever asked for. The most intimidating aspect of the MBA application process for me was conveying my story in an inspiring and cogent manner. Rachel made me feel those fears were unfounded.

Something truly remarkable about her is the effort she puts in trying to understand her clients’ background. While consultants I have used in the past have tried to get to know me as they review my essays, Rachel invests that time upfront so that she could best advise me about the types of anecdotes and experiences I should emphasize. She is kind, nurturing, and honest, all of which are great qualities to have because they give me the motivation to work hard through this grueling process. It is incredible how much my essays evolved and improved as I worked with her. She reviewed my essays 30+ times and each time I actioned her feedback, I felt they got stronger.

On top of that, her attention to detail is the best I have ever seen. The way she was able to spot even minor inconsistencies between my application, essays and resume just shows how good she is and the passion she has for her work. I couldn’t have gotten into Wharton and Kellogg without her help. Thank you Rachel!

I explored a bunch of admissions consultants (inc one bad experience with another) before ending up with Fortuna and a phenomenal team of Rebecca Fogg and Rachel Erickson Hee. With their help I was admitted into HBS, GSB and Berkeley Haas and ended up choosing HBS.

What made the difference was the belief they had in me and my story – they set my sights much higher than I initially had.

I mean it when I say Rebecca and Rachel were totally instrumental to me getting places at both schools. I nearly didn’t apply to either – non trad background and solid but not great GRE. It was Rebecca that gave me the confidence to do so. We spent a tonne of time getting my story sorted out – it’s a painful process – but when we got there she was incredibly adept at pulling out the right elements and aligning these with the characteristics of the school. There’s no way I would’ve been able to write the essays I did without her guidance. She was always dependable and responsive. I had a load of calls, (some panicked) email correspondence, mock interviews etc. and she was excellent with providing constructive feedback (that ultimately made the difference in my HBS interview).

I wavered over the decision to work with a consultant given the cost. But can honestly say that without Rebecca, Rachel and Fortuna I would not have been admitted into HBS. I couldn’t recommend them enough!

To state upfront: Rachel is an incredible coach and I highly recommend working with her, to any aspiring MBA applicant. Before getting an admissions consultant, I was overwhelmed by the whole application process and found myself procrastinating and thinking in a very linear fashion. Ever since our first meeting, Rachel helped paint a picture of what the end-to-end process would look like, and we put forward a plan that I could hold myself to account. That said, she was flexible if some things items were slightly delayed, especially if communicated in advance. She invested the time upfront to get to know me and my motivations which really helped when we brainstormed stories for the essays. Some specific characteristics that made my experience with Rachel exceptional:

Practicality – she is very straightforward and clear in communication. It helped to know upfront what the strengths and weaknesses were in my application and obtain suggestions from her on how to best highlight my strengths (in my main essays), and alleviate my weaknesses (leveraging additional/ optional essays that the school provided)

Responsiveness – she was very responsive and always willing to help. Especially in the (rather stressful) lead up to application submission deadlines. I always felt that I had someone on my team

Thoroughness – she is extremely thorough but does so in an efficient way. Rachel is very good at calling out when elements/ ideas are out of place and asked provoking questions which helped me to reframe the next attempt. She also helped a great deal when it came to interview prep

Going the extra mile – there are countless somewhat “little” things which made my experience with Rachel all the more memorable. For instance, calling me after my GRE (2nd attempt) to see how it went, helping me navigate the challenging waitlist process, and in general displaying an incredible amount of genuineness and empathy during the ups and downs of the process

I had a lovely experience with Rachel, and fully recommend working with her. She has most definitely played a large part in me achieving my goal of doing an MBA at one of my top choice schools!

Rachel was always focused on what was best for me. In our first couple of meetings, we began by exploring why I wanted to go to graduate school before even getting to the where or how. With her guidance, I ultimately decided that applying to less schools was a better fit for my circumstances despite the obvious incentives to apply to more. Her integrity made it easy to trust her, a trust that made the rest of the application process so much more comfortable because of its inherently personal nature. Rachel is also why I found my authentic voice during the application writing process itself. She was uncanny at helping me identify, highlight, and expand on the pieces of my journey and ambitions that are core to who I am. In our brainstorming sessions she listened intently and asked incisive questions that helped me uncover insights about myself that I had never considered. In the writing phase, she had an instinctive feel for which pieces of my writing were sincere and which were banal, and never hesitated to push me to promote the former and cull the latter to the tune of almost 40 drafts of one of my applications. From the macro broad themes of an essay to single word choices in a resume, she was a patient partner, never letting me compromise on sharing the most sincere version of myself. Even if I had not gotten into school, I was proud of the journey because I knew that we had left it all on the table. Fortunately, in large part because of her steadfast support, I was accepted into the Harvard Kennedy School’s and Harvard Business School’s joint MPP/MBA program.

I worked with Rachel across 4 applications to schools in the M7 over the course of about a year. We worked very closely, whether it was the countless Zoom and phone calls, back and forth edits of essays, or working sessions where we pored over my resume and application. At every step of the application process, Rachel went above and beyond what you could expect from a consultant – she was thoughtful, direct, supportive, and challenged me to think introspectively in a way I candidly hadn’t before in my professional career. Rachel made sure that she had such a great understanding of my story and experiences that when it came to framing my overall package, she could guide me to do so in a way that was cohesive, poignant, and best captured what truly stood out about me in particular.

I think Rachel truly shined during my GSB application. I was hesitant to even apply, but Rachel insisted (for a variety of reasons, but notably the fit she saw between my personality and the GSB community). We worked tirelessly in a short timeframe to put together the application package I was most proud of. Especially in the “What Matters Most” essay, Rachel became a guiding light on how to strike the right balance between showcasing my personal characteristics and professional accomplishments.

Most importantly, Rachel is simply a fantastic person to work with – always responsive, very constructive, and never afraid to jump into the nitty gritty details with you. Especially during an emotionally draining and time consuming process, it brought me immense comfort knowing I had a coach that was willing to both strategize at a big picture but also wrestle with the verbiage of a sentence for 30 minutes at a time. I couldn’t see myself surviving this process without her!

Rachel was a great coach throughout the application process. After our initial meeting, I knew she was the coach I wanted to work with. From the start, Rachel spent hours with me going through my background, and she helped me highlight the most important parts of my applications.

Rachel was extremely patient and responsive as I worked through and edited countless drafts of my essays. She was prepared for each of our sessions and helped me clearly articulate my goals and motivations. When it came to interviewing prep, Rachel did a great job simulating how the interview would run, helping me feel much more prepared.

For those targeting the top schools, I would highly recommend working with Rachel. She was extremely helpful and easy to work with, and I’m excited to be heading to one of my top-choice schools this fall.

After striking out on all my applications in round one (after working on my applications by myself), I decided to turn to an admissions consultant with only about 3-4 weeks left before the deadline for round 2. Rachel was incredible. She was extremely responsive, intelligent, and thoughtful. My essays and resume were magnitudes better from her edits and comments, and I got into the MBA programs I wanted in round 2! She also has continued to reach out with advice on waitlist strategies, and just generally checking in. I would HIGHLY recommend Rachel to anyone looking for a consultant – I couldn’t be happier with the results.

I cannot Thank Rachel, enough for her instrumental role in helping me get into the top MBA programs. Her continuous support, timely responsiveness, and deep investment in understanding my story and goals have made all the difference.

From the very beginning, Rachel was exceptionally skilled at grasping my story, pinpointing issues with the story flow, and identifying the potential interest it would hold for various schools. Rachel encouraged me to apply to my dream school, GSB. Despite my initial reluctance as I thought I would never have a chance in even getting an interview with GSB, Rachel’s deep understanding of my accomplishments and the school’s values convinced me to take a chance. Needless to say, I’m glad I did!

Rachel’s ability to pinpoint issues in a client’s story and improve the logical flow is nothing short of remarkable. When it came to preparing for my MBA interviews, Rachel dove deep into my story and tailored her questions to simulate real interview situations, leaving me more than ready to face the real thing.

Having worked with a total of three admission consultants over two years to apply for different MBA programs, I can say with utmost confidence that Rachel is the best consultant to help you with your MBA applications. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to anyone in need of a top-notch admissions consultant.

Furthermore, Rachel’s efficiency in her work is incredible. If you choose to work with her on an hourly basis, rest assured that you will receive the highest value for your investment. She uses every minute to provide the best possible feedback and assistance.

On a personal note, Rachel is genuinely one of the nicest individuals I’ve had the pleasure of working with. She truly cares about her client’s success and dreams, and it shows through her dedication and commitment.

I’m beyond grateful for her support in helping me in getting into my dream MBA school.

I can’t over-emphasize enough how much I enjoyed working with Rachel!!! I applied as a somewhat non-traditional candidate and while interviews with other consultants made me question if I was “right” for an MBA, Rachel was supportive of my candidacy from the get-go (while also being very realistic with solid feedback). Applying for MBA programs is an incredibly introspective (and occasionally vulnerable) experience, so I found it incredibly helpful to work with someone who I knew believed in my candidacy and set high standards. Working with Rachel, by the time I applied, I knew I had put together my most authentic and best application I possibly could.

What I enjoyed most about working with Rachel was her ability to shift between helping me articulate and refine the “big picture” narrative as well as dig into the nitty gritty details (as she said, putting together an application is kind of like “a big puzzle”). After working through my career vision, I worked with her to develop the essay, which took many many revisions. She gave me incredibly helpful feedback and pointers on how to develop a logical flow, and compelling narrative, and then gave feedback on word choice, grammar, etc.

Rachel also went above and beyond to make herself available as we neared the application deadline. A day before applications were due, I was still making minor edits to my resume, essays, and short answers. Rachel was super responsive and helped me work through last-minute edits (which I should have done earlier).

In short, if HBS is your top choice, I HIGHLY recommend working with Rachel.

Rachel has been a great coach to lead the whole process and provided meaningful feedback. She made herself available as necessary and gave me inspiration when I almost gave up.

Rachel is a terrific coach – I started working with Rachel with only about 3 months left till the application deadline. I don’t know how I would have gotten through the process without her meticulous help on every step of the application. Rachel has a skill for really listening to the core values and pursuits of the candidate as well as pulling out the WHY. She helped me stay on top of the tasks for every step and was very patient with all the iterations of my personal statement. She provided in-depth interview practice, helping me fine-tune my answers down to minute details.

Working with Rachel helped me discover my authentic self during the application process. She untangled my story and background and help me navigate through it. When looking at the final application, I knew I would not have been able to create a coherent and well-rounded application without Rachel. Besides navigating my story, Rachel helped me be organized and made sure I was on track. She went above and beyond in helping me shape a wonderful authentic application. Working with Rachel has been a blessing.

I worked with Rachel on preparing for my GSB interview. Her insights and guidance have really made a difference for me and played a crucial role in my admission to my #1 school.
Rachel took the time to really get to know me and was extremely helpful in crafting my stories, tackling the weak points, and appropriately applying each story to its relevant question and message.
She came prepared for our session and provided quick and thoughtful feedback that also allowed me to effectively utilize my learning time in the days before the interview.
I cannot emphasize enough how valuable her tips were in the actual interview. Bottom line, If you are looking to get into Stanford – Rachel is the one.

Rachel is a strong coach because she focuses on the applicant’s authentic vision (nurturing that through a thoughtful reflection process and writing revisions) and is a close partner through dozens of reviews. I consulted with Rachel on a 1-school package but felt her input improved all of my applications. I was ultimately admitted to 3 strong schools including one of my top choices, Wharton.

Rachel is an absolutely fantastic coach!!! I spoke to several admissions consultants and Rachel stood out from the start – she offered a well-measured review of my candidacy and I felt confident she could add real value to my applications. Right away, Rachel invested many hours in truly understanding my professional experience, extracurriculars, and goals. I believe this upfront investment enabled her to support me in effectively creating a cohesive and compelling narrative.

When it came to writing and pulling together my applications, Rachel’s support allowed my story to shine. She went through 30+ iterations of my core essays, providing often very quick and thorough reviews (much beyond what I had expected). She would always quickly understand what wasn’t working and was able to offer a very strategic perspective on how we could refine or alter my strategy to something that worked better. Her publishing skills were also extremely handy in trimming unnecessary word count etc. once my story was down. In short, I felt very confident that when I hit submit, that I had put my best foot forward in my applications. Rachel was incredibly supportive throughout the whole (and what can be a very demanding) process, always being on hand to provide guidance or help with even the tiniest question. With Rachel’s help, I have now been admitted into my dream school and I am looking forward to keeping in touch and sharing updates during and after my MBA program. I can wholeheartedly recommend her to any future applicants considering the very top schools.

Rachel was incredibly thoughtful throughout the entire process and pushed my thinking, my anecdotes, and the overall quality of my application. She was extremely diligent about every single draft of my essays and applications (30+ drafts), up until the last moments before submission. Even when I was getting exhausted, she kept me going and helped me submit the very best version of myself. In the early months, she dug deep into the stories I had and helped me identify core values/parts of me I didn’t even understand about myself. All this soul searching Rachel facilitated was a critical part of my journey and I’m so happy it led to an admission to a school I can’t wait to attend. The business school application process is tough but having Rachel on my team made it 1000% better!

First and foremost, Rachel was absolutely instrumental in helping me get into my dream school, Stanford. When I first started the process at the beginning of the year, Fortuna’s director suggested that I had a 12-15% chance of getting into the GSB, an estimate that I felt was fair. Stanford was a reach given my background.
I was fortunate to be able to start the process early, about eight months before the deadline. In the beginning, Rachel took the time to really understand my story, my motives, my strengths and weaknesses, and helped me strategize which attributes I needed to highlight, and through which stories I could best share my strengths. Rachel was one part MBA coach, one part therapist, as she dug deep into my motivations and helped me find meaningful answers to questions about purpose. Rachel is an incredibly kind and caring person, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to develop a strong relationship with her.

Rachel worked with me on the Stanford essay for 26 drafts, continually sending feedback paragraph by paragraph, then sentence by sentence, then finally word by word. By draft 20, I was ready to throw in the towel and hit submit, but Rachel insisted we could make the ending stronger, really pushing me to the next level. In the end, I had a much better final product than I expected, and I felt at peace because I knew I put in my best possible work. I am so appreciative of the amount of effort Rachel put into my application. She sent me ideas and revisions way past normal bedtime, and always had a quick turnaround time on any new material.
When it came to the interview stage, Rachel helped me tremendously by teaching me how to frame my stories to highlight the attributes Stanford was looking for. She drew upon her decades of experience interviewing candidates, and it made the interview seem much less scary and opaque.

This whole process has made me a much more confident person, as I now understand myself much better. It’s also helped me define and refine my vision and what I want to do in the next decade. I felt that even if I hadn’t gotten into any MBA programs, I still would have found this experience to be valuable for these internal gains. It was so valuable in fact, that I would still want to repeat this process in ten or twenty years (even without applying to schools), when I’m at the next fork in my career because it gave me so much clarity in my life.

I honestly don’t think I would have gotten in without Rachel’s help, and for that, I will be grateful for a lifetime.

Rachel is hands down an AMAZING coach. She was instrumental in my admission to 4 top schools including my dream school: Harvard Business School! 

Early on, she invested the time to get to know me and understand my personal journey and my work experience. Because of her genuine interest in me, Rachel challenged me to dig deeper and to be introspective during the essay writing process. She was able to diligently sift through my stories to uncover recurring themes and help me refine my thoughts. She often challenged my assumptions and provided honest feedback even when it countered my initial thought process.
Looking back, I have so much admiration for the honest and tough feedback that she provided to help me craft a compelling story and find my own voice. 

Her ongoing encouragement was key in helping me surmount the roadblocks encountered in a particularly challenging year (test retake, writer’s block, self-doubt). She was particularly helpful in our mock interviews by providing direct and actionable feedback that enhanced my interviewing skills.

She was highly responsive and flexible throughout the entire process. Her turnaround time was unmatched. Our sessions were always productive and enriching. She leveraged the Fortuna network and knowledge base to help thoroughly answer my questions about the specificities of the different school programs.

While I was generally aware of the MBA application process, I underestimated the time, effort and commitment that the process would require over a period of time.  She was tactical and helped me stay on track of each step of the process. We worked through numerous essay edits and introspective exercises, even in the wee hours sometimes. Her can-do attitude, her empathy, and her attentiveness are unmatched!

Beyond being an amazing coach and subject matter expert, Rachel is a genuine and caring person who offered me support and advice as a friend would. While working with her, I have also gained an amazing advocate and mentor. I could not recommend her enough! 

I had an extremely positive experience working with Rachel on my mock interviews for Stanford GSB. Rachel, a GSB alum, has an unrivaled understanding of the type of questions Stanford interviewers like to ask. Thanks to her I was able to correctly predict many of the questions thrown at me at my actual interview. Rachel is highly conscientious: she is deeply invested in the success of her students. After my mock interview, she sent me several pages of action-oriented notes within 24 hours. These covered everything from how to convey my examples more vividly to my choice of attire. Rachel’s strategic advice proved critical to my success.

I decided to apply to business schools with little to no knowledge about the process. Because of this, I was looking for guidance on how to best tell my story as a non-traditional candidate who hadn’t spent the past few years building up a “typical” MBA resume. After connecting with numerous consultants from 6 different MBA Admissions consultancies, I decided to partner with Rachel. From the start, Rachel provided a measured yet optimistic perspective about my candidacy. This was particularly helpful as I navigated the ups and downs that come with applying to business school. I felt that Rachel would be able to provide honest feedback and direction I knew would be necessary to craft a strong application and not try to oversell or sugarcoat things along the way.

Rachel went through 13 different versions of my main business school essay with me. While editing, she made sure to focus on strengthening my story and voice instead of replacing it with her own. She always managed to send back edits within a day, which was extremely helpful in streamlining the process.

In addition to guiding me through the mechanics of pulling my application together, Rachel also provided personal perspectives from her own journey through business school. As someone who doesn’t come from a community largely comprised of MBA students and alumni, I greatly appreciated Rachel sharing her story with me to help me envision in more detail what the business school experience might be like.

If you are considering partnering with a consultant on your MBA application, I cannot recommend Rachel enough!

Rachel is a WONDERFUL coach. From the start, she invested a ton of time to get to know who I am by listening attentively and taking detailed notes. This came especially handy when we brainstormed which stories to use for each of my essays as she was able to bring up anecdotes that I even have forgotten. Rachel also kept an incredible can-do attitude throughout our entire engagement, reading and providing helpful comments for EVERY SINGLE DRAFT of my 26 versions for my main essay. Her publishing background was especially helpful in cutting down words and allowing my essays to flow better. As I hit the submit button on all of my applications, I KNEW that I had put my best foot forward and I had no regrets.

But the most important thing Rachel has given me is clarity on my career. Thanks to Rachel’s guidance, I actually made a job switch during the application process because I knew that this would bring me closer to my long-term goals. Without the close relationship I’d built with Rachel, I don’t think I would have had the courage to realize that my current job was no longer the best fit for me.

I am really excited to be able to keep Rachel updated on my future endeavors – not just business school, but all the highlights in my career. I am excited to share my future successes with Rachel and I’m so thankful to have had her outstanding mentorship.

THANK YOU RACHEL!