Other consulting companies may talk about the hundreds of people they’ve helped (and we’ve helped hundreds), but to be frank, it doesn’t really matter what those people did.
It matters what you do.
It matters where you do your PhD.
It matters what you do with the incredibly valuable PhD offer that only 3% of the population gets to experience.
That’s our philosophy.
If you’re a high achiever who wants to land amazing PhD offers, this is the place to make it happen.
If you are someone who wants others to do the work for them, or who needs a guarantee, this isn’t the place for you. There are no guarantees in life. We guarantee we’ll help you grow your skills and become the most confident PhD in the room; these skills tend to lead to prestigious PhD offers as a byproduct, but we operate with ethics and would never guarantee admission to any specific program.

I had a sense I always wanted to have my PHD, but I didn't really know how. The program really systematized the process for me. I wanted a mentor that had time and resources to answer my questions along the way, I think a lot of times mentorship is a one off call and then you can't ask all of your questions, and so I wanted that and also the community. Having a starting point for a lot of the action items so that I could just expedite that process and get over the anxiety really helped me.


I made the decision to go to grad school a little later on, and finding resources and trying to learn about the whole process was very daunting. Natalie definitely helped clarify this and was also full of great tips I would not have found without her. She helped streamline my thought process and how to focus and reach out to professors.

During my previous experience applying, I sent out 50 or 60 emails and maybe got 3 responses. After this program I maybe sent out 20 emails and received 8 or 9 responses. I spoke with people and decided which program would I would be a fit at.

I wasn't confident at all. And I was even ready to keep continuing in my previous institution with my PhD. But after going through this process and with all of your guidance, I got into my dream program in my dream college and so it's kind of my dream come true. One of the things that really helped me was how you guided me with networking with professors.

Natalie focuses largely on fit, and goes to the point to make us do research on making sure we're not overlooking things. That was very helpful because I added schools and dropped programs because of it. And I was confident in those choices because I was putting in the legwork. What I used the most was the slack group. Because you see other people, other real people that are in this program that have similar fears and anxieties, some of them asking questions that you would want to ask.

I didn't want to apply twice because it's a laborious and stressful and expensive process so I kind of felt like it would be saving some of those expenses in the long run. If I know what I want, I want to do it once. And I wanted to know that I did everything I could to get myself where I wanted to be the first time.
I decided to pursue a PhD again after not getting in the first round. It was really scary and looking back there were lots of things I would have done differently, so I really wanted to set myself up and have as much support as possible in the process for round two. Now, after the program, I mean it's very different in that I have achieved a lifelong goal getting into my PhD, and before the program I was in a state of just feeling really scared about the whole thing. I realized how much I needed a community and people who really knew what they were doing to help me.

So before the Fearless Grad program honestly I was just kind of ruminating on this, not thinking it would really be a possibility or it would take a really long time to get to this space. Then after the fearless grad program I would say it was a peaceful process. I think the structure that you provided made it a fairly peaceful process, because there was a plan and a rhyme and reason for everything. So now I'm on the other side of the fearless grad program with an acceptance and my sanity.

I had a challenge with how to present myself and my ideas. I didn’t really know the mechanics and flow to make it clear that I should be a scholar. This program helped me with that and had a very clear picture of the process and also a very customized and individual editing process with my resume and SOP.

When we had to start sending emails out, to set up calls, I think that was the best part of this program. You pushing us to go talk to people. Because once I started talking to professors and students, I got to pitch my idea over and over again, and found out which parts of my story people were like ‘that’s really cool’ and then that needs to be included in the application. Which ones made people light up. It was very affirming.

In this program, having that clarity and learning how to highlight all of your skills and your experience and tie that into that program of interest really helped. And understanding the professors of interest and also contacting them in a way that they would be more likely to read your email and reply to you. The community was also one of the biggest things I valued, because that really helped me through this.
They probably like us so much because we answer all of their questions within 24-hours so they can use their scarce time and energy to create great offers.
Oh, and if you want to be part of a community of nerdy weirdos cheering you on, this is the place.