The HKS Blueprint
A focused package designed to help you build a compelling, cohesive HKS application grounded in your public purpose, leadership, and vision for impact. We’ll clarify the experiences and values that have shaped the problems you want to solve—and develop a clear narrative connecting where you’ve been, the impact you want to have, and why an MPP or MPA is essential to getting there. We’ll develop your essays around HKS’s emphasis on public leadership and service, selecting stories that demonstrate how you lead, navigate challenges, work across differences, and contribute to the communities around you. Together, we’ll also identify specific HKS resources—courses, research centers, faculty, policy areas, student organizations, and experiential opportunities—that connect directly to your goals and demonstrate how you’ll contribute to the HKS community.
What's included
- Public Purpose & Career Narrative: A cohesive story connecting your experiences, values, policy interests, and long-term vision for impact.
- HKS Essay Strategy & Drafts: Story selection, outlines, and iterative edits across your HKS essays.
Meet your expert
Allie K.
HKS Grad | MPP/MPA Admissions Coach | Public Service & Policy
Allie brings a deep admissions expertise to her coaching practice. Allie has helped candidates earn admission to the world’s leading MBA programs, including Harvard Business School, Stanford GSB, Wharton, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School, and Yale SOM. Her strength lies in finding the story beneath the résumé—identifying the experiences, motivations, and differentiators that make a candidate memorable and weaving them into a cohesive application. She has coached candidates across finance, private equity, consulting, healthcare, technology, real estate, and impact investing, and brings direct admissions experience as a writing coach and alumni interviewer for Penn. Allie works best with ambitious, highly coachable candidates who are receptive to candid feedback, move quickly between drafts, and are willing to push beyond the obvious answer. Her coaching is collaborative and iterative: she challenges candidates to take creative risks, dig deeper into their experiences, and build applications that are both authentic and distinctive. Professionally, Allie has worked across finance, consulting, and impact investing, with experience at Goldman Sachs, Boston Consulting Group, the Rockefeller University Endowment, Omidyar Network, and Jonathan Rose Companies. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from the Wharton School, and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.
