Tolu Akinyede
Former Columbia Student Interviewer | Columbia undergrad + Wharton MBA
Studied at The Wharton School (UPenn)
Worked at Oliver Wyman
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Tolu's Offerings
Custom hourly · $125/hr
Get help with Application Strategy, Editing, and .
Tolu’s College Qualifications
10+ people coached for College
As a Columbia graduate and an incoming MBA candidate at The Wharton School I offer coaching for both undergraduate and MBA applicants. Over the past 6+ years I have successfully advised students who have gained admission into top schools such as Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Brown, UPenn, UC Berkeley, and USC. What I offer: Story-telling: A bad story can kill a great application and a great story could be what gets you into your dream school. I help prospective applicants craft a singular narrative that is authentic, compelling and intentional. Interview training: As a trained interviewer at Columbia I am able to give high quality mock interviews for any program International perspective: I did not go to high school in the US and there was no playbook for college admissions. I navigated the undergraduate and MBA application process on my own, and received admissions to several Ivy Leagues and top schools.
Tolu can help with:
Application Strategy
Editing
Essays
General Exploration
Interviews
Resume
School Selection
Secondary Review
Supplementary Materials
Waitlist Strategy
Tolu also coaches for Management Consulting and MBA. View all.
About Tolu
My name is Tolu. I grew up in London, spent the last eight years in New York working in management consulting, and I'm heading to Wharton for my MBA this fall. I applied to US colleges completely on a whim. No counsellor, no guidance, just me spending an entire Christmas break figuring out what the Common App even was. Somehow it worked and I got into Columbia. That process helped my middle sister get into Princeton the following year, and my younger sister into Brown PLME a few years after that. By the time we were all applying to grad school, what had started as slightly chaotic and completely foreign had become something we actually knew how to do. My sister ended up at Stanford Law and I ended up at Wharton. I've been helping students navigate applications ever since, whether that's college, grad school, or figuring out their careers. When I'm not working you can find me cooking / baking / hosting dinner parties or at a workout class.
Why do I coach?
I applied to college from the UK completely alone. No counsellor, no consultant, no older sibling who'd done it before. Just me, the internet, and a slightly panicked family who were figuring it out in real time alongside me. It was stressful in a way that it didn't need to be and I learnt the hard way that the process isn't actually that complicated once someone breaks it down for you. Writing your essays is easy once you've found the right angle. Narrowing down you school list isn't overwhelming once you know what you're actually looking for. I've helped students get into schools across the board from Ivy Leagues to UC schools and what I've found is that the difference almost always comes down to story. Not your GPA, not your test score — your story, and whether you know how to tell it. I'm also very aware of how much students (and parents) tie their worth to this process. Part of what I do is remind you that you are not your acceptance letter. I'll push you to write the best application you possibly can, but I'll also be the person who tells you that there is life after a rejection, and it's a good one. Think of me as the older sister who's been through it, came out fine, and wants to make sure you don't have to do it alone.
Work Experience
Consultant - Senior Consultant
Oliver Wyman
September 2022 - December 2024
Interviewer
Senior Consultant in Oliver Wyman’s financial services practice, specialising in anti-financial crime. Outside of work I lead the social committee, am a mentor to junior consultants, and support firmwide recruiting events, including screening resumes and interviewing candidates.
Insights Analyst
IBM
June 2020 - Present
Summer Fellow
Create Studios
June 2020 - Present
Education
The Wharton School (UPenn)
MBA
2026 - 2028
Incoming MBA candidate at Wharton
Columbia University
Bachelor of Arts - BA, Financial Economics and Sustainable Development
2018 - 2022
Financial Economics Major, Sustainable Development Concentration. Interviewed 30+ students as part of the undergraduate recruitment centre.
1 Review
Overall Rating