Rachel Erickson Hee

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!