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Package Description:
- 4 high-touch coaching sessions (90 + 60 + 60 + 60 min) - Custom school selection strategy (lens: post-grad sponsorship, career arc, ROI) - Up to 3 polished essays co-written (you draft, I revise + strategy) - Resume rewrite for grad school applications - Recommendation letter strategy + template guidance - Visa + career roadmap: how to think about internships, post-grad timing, sponsorship-friendly career paths from your target programs - Complementary 12 months Demystifyd Premium Access (supports the full arc — university networking, internship hunt, post-grad job search) - Direct Slack access for 4 weeks
What you'll get from this package
A polished resume rebuilt specifically for grad school applications, with a narrative arc that reads as a future leader, not just a past employee
A custom school selection strategy with 6-10 target programs ranked by post-grad sponsorship, career arc fit, and ROI — not just brand prestige
Up to 3 fully co-written essays (you draft, I revise) with sharp narrative architecture, distinctive positioning, and the international-applicant edge most generic advice misses
A recommendation letter strategy: who to ask, how to brief them, and templates to give your recommenders so their letters reinforce your application's strongest themes
A complete visa and career roadmap showing how each target program aligns with your post-grad timeline — internship sponsorship, OPT eligibility, H-1B exposure, and long-term career arc
Interview readiness for admissions interviews, including the specific challenges international applicants face and how to address them without over-explaining
12 months of Demystifyd Premium — supporting you through the internship hunt, then through your post-grad job search, with AI job matching, and H-1B sponsorship intelligence.
A clear understanding of your own application's strengths and weaknesses, the narrative that ties it all together, and the confidence to walk into interviews and decisions knowing exactly who you are and what you're going to build
Additional details
Coaching delivered via live sessions and .
Across our 4-week engagement: we diagnose your current positioning, build a school list that's actually strategic, develop the narrative architecture for your essays, and prepare you for both the application process and what comes after. Each session is between 60 and 90 minutes. Between sessions, we use Slack to keep momentum — I'll review drafts, react to school decisions, and give you tactical guidance in real time. What sets this apart: I've sat on both sides of this. I navigated admissions as an international applicant — earning two master's degrees at Carnegie Mellon and now finishing my MPA at Harvard Kennedy School. I know which essay arcs work for international applicants, which schools deliver real post-grad sponsorship outcomes vs. just prestige, and how to position non-traditional backgrounds as strengths rather than gaps to explain away.
Essay scope: Up to 3 essays included, written collaboratively (you draft, I revise with strategic notes). Additional essays for more schools available as $499 add-ons. Most applicants reuse 2-3 core essays across 4-6 school applications. Recommendation letters: I provide strategy and template guidance for recommenders. I do not write recommendation letters or contact your recommenders directly.
Services included:
Recommendations
Interviews
School Selection
Financial Aid & Scholarships
Editing
Talk to a team member
Schedule a call with a Leland team member who can help you explore your options.
Schedule a call
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Offered by David A.
Joined March 2026
Ex-Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla • 2x AI founder — Coaching aspiring MBA founders
As an international student, I navigated the path from an F-1 visa to a career at Apple, NVIDIA, and Tesla, with two master's degrees from Carnegie Mellon. I've sat in the exact seat you're in: writing essays that need to feel distinctive without being gimmicky, picking schools that actually translate to the U.S. career you want after, and figuring out how to tell your story in a way that lands with admissions committees who read thousands of them. International MBA applicants face a specific challenge: most application advice is built around domestic applicants. The narrative arcs that work, the school selection criteria, the post-MBA career lens — they all assume a U.S.-citizen default. That's a real gap. And if your background is international, non-traditional, or both, that gap is where strong applications struggle. I work specifically with international applicants because that's the path I walked, and it's where I can add real value: - Finding the narrative angle that makes you distinct without leaning on the generic immigrant story - Picking schools through a sponsorship and post-MBA career lens - Positioning a non-traditional background as a strength, not a gap to explain - Writing essays that feel authentic and like you. - Preparing for the post-admit reality: visa timing, internship sponsorship, long-term career arc Whether you're applying to a MPP/MPA/MS/MBA program, the crux of a great graduate school application starts with crafting a bespoke winning strategy designed for you. I take a small cohort of clients per cycle. I'm selective because outcomes matter more than volume. If you're an ambitious international applicant aiming at top programs and you want a coach who's lived this path, let's talk.
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1h+ of coaching