Margaret (SBC) Reviews

Margaret from Stacy Blackman Consulting saved me from near disaster. Is this dramatics? No. She took a rambling jumble of irrelevant, uncohesive thoughts and helped me figure out how to organize it all. I was torturing myself every day, asking my brother (Tuck alum) for help and thinking I could figure it out on my own - and then came Margaret. We had to push my apps to second round but she helped me make that decision that I was nowhere near ready and then helped me get things in order. Margaret is funny, kind and wise. I am so grateful that I was connected with her. Thank you to Esther for that original pairing. The process I went through with Margaret was valuable in and of itself - I learned a lot about me and what I value, who I am and then I got into business school as the grand prize. Being clear about all of these issues helped me in my interviews and also in directing recommenders. It's not just a strategy for an essay, it's an overall presence and confidence that helped me present my whole case.

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Margaret was my consultant during the admissions process. Having her to support me kept me focused on the task and she was very professional. She absolutely helped me find my voice and pushed me when I needed it during the essay writing process, and definitely made it easier than it would have been otherwise. She provided very useful comments and helped me think through things from different perspectives. I would not have been able to get to the stage I wanted (3 admits) without her advice. She was also always responsive and very professional throughout. Highly recommend Stacy Blackman for their essay writing support!

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I highly recommended Stacy Blackman Consulting.

I worked with consultant Margaret Strother for my MBA application this year. My experience with Margaret is very positive. She is very professional and guided me all the way along my MBA application. Especially, She helped me edit each word in the resume and essay to make sure I can present my experience and stories in the best way. Thanks to her excellent work, I was admitted by a top 10 business school this year. I also recommended many of my friends to use Stacy’s edit services, and all of their feedback are positive.

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Oxford was only a dream till I started working with SBC and specifically Margaret Strother. When I started I didn’t have enough knowledge of how this would work, I literally made a leap of faith with SBC and it turned out to be the best investment I could’ve made. I not only ended up being accepted into the only school I applied, i.e. Oxford SBS, but also secured a full scholarship. It was all dreams come true at once. It would have been very difficult without the help of Margaret. I went in with an unrealistic demand: One school, very short deadline, not knowing where I wanted to go and essentially very vague post MBA goals. It was amazing how she could polish my thinking and bring out what was always within me specially in the lingo that adcom is looking for. The things that I did not value at all became my biggest selling points in my essays. It’s amazing how she polished everything I had to say without even putting in a single sentence of her own. Hours and hours of her asking questions and then asking some more till I’d become speechless and start to see what she wanted me to see. And it was not only essays, she guided me to ace my interview with mock interview preps too. I have nothing but praise for Margaret – she is a miracle worker :).

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I am a reapplicant (dinged at 4 schools, only 1 interview), and Margaret Strother was my consultant for the six schools I applied to (2 of which were reapplications). She was not formerly an AdCom or an MBA graduate, but she’s a fantastic writer, confidant, and advisor. She does MBA application consulting full time, so she devotes all her energy into understanding the changes and demands the AdCom have of successful applicants.
She was very conscientious in laying out how difficult and challenging the process would be while still making sure I kept my morale and confidence up. I cannot stress enough that working with a consultant is a two-way street; the consultant is not there to write your essay for you and they can only do their best work when you do yours.
At the start, Margaret reviewed my prior applications and my prior recommendations, figuring out where I needed improvement. We spent a good deal of time figuring out an overall strategy and we spent a lot of time batting around ideas for essays. We had six to seven drafts of each essay, and she was not afraid to say that the story wasn’t working and that we should rebuild from the ground up. She was also very sharp when identifying when my drafts for one school were too close to essays for another. When three of the schools had deadlines within a day of each other, she was extremely hardworking, turning around essay comments in very short order. Margaret was also easily available to answer non-essay related questions, which was very helpful with a number of the application forms. When interviews hit, she was able to give me great pep talks and advise me on a general theme for the interviews.
I also used the SBC flight test to tighten up my application for one of the schools, and the SBC Wiki was very useful as one-stop shop for general information and deadlines. The school guides were a nice complement as well.
With all this fantastic support, I came away with 5 admits (1 school I withdrew from after getting to the interview stage), 2 of which gave me substantial scholarships. I firmly believe that I would not have been as successful, and possibly staring at the dark abyss of R3/reapplying next year, without Margaret’s help. Instead, I’m going to Chicago Booth.

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I originally was going for a consultant who had a track record as an admissions officer at one of the schools I was targeting. However, after talking it through with Stacy Blackman, particularly what I was looking for - a tough & honest reviewer, with deep experience, they recommended Margaret. Margaret kept me on track through the marathon of the admissions process. She was an excellent reviewer, her turnaround time was always fast, and always had insightful feedback. Her experience, encouragement, and deft touch was crucial in helping me think through key issues: school choice, positioning post-graduation, approaches to interview questions. I was offered admissions to MIT and Stanford. I highly recommend working with her.

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I used Stacy Blackman Consulting because I was short on time (taking classes, working, AND applying all at once) and because I had a major weakness in my application (my GPA). Going in I was honestly overwhelmed and didn't know how make the task of applying feel more manageable. My end result - I got into two of my schools and one with a significant scholarship - speaks for itself. (Full disclosure: I applied to 4 schools, SBC worked with me on 2 apps, one of which I didn't even get an interview to - but my other 2 application essays definitely benefited from what I learned working with an SBC consultant so I don' think I'd have gotten the same result on my own.)

If I could do it again though, I might have approached it slightly differently:

- I relied on my consultant too heavily for school selection. This is an area where I should've put in my leg work on my own before hiring anyone as SBC. While my consultant was helpful with "I would strongly advise not applying to that one for XYZ reason" she didn't offer any "have you looked at ABC?"

- I would have paid for additional essay hours for essays related to other schools.

The only real downside was the price. But, that said, you get quality for what you pay.

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I had a very positive experience with Stacy Blackman, and Margaret particularly. I did the hourly service and Margaret was extremely sensitive with my time and used it efficiently and with care. I liked that most of our communications were via email so we could respond to each other quickly.

The greatest strength in my opinion was helping you craft your own story. Margaret really listened to my experiences and helped me pull out relevant stories that would be compelling to admissions. One of my biggest concerns going into the consulting process was that my essays wouldn't sound "like me." That is the exact opposite of my experience here -- my essays were the best versions of my experiences and views, in my own voice. This was never compromised.

Margaret also assisted tremendously with prioritization. She told me when to move on from an essays that were 95% of the way there in order to spend time on essays that needed more work. This was helpful when coming up against deadlines, while working at a full-time job, as we all do.
Margaret was ruthless when managing her and my time - it was incredibly helpful!

I didn't notice a particular weakness, but my advice would be to take an inventory of where you think you might need the most help. I was very sensitive to the financial investment here, so I wanted to focus on the areas where I thought they could make the most impact. For example, I didn't have Margaret help too much with recommendations. I edited these myself and I'm very comfortable with how these turned out. This will differ with everyone, I'm sure, but worth thinking about where the consultant can add the most value for you.

Overall, highly recommend! They gave me a lot of confidence throughout the process that I was on the right track. I absolutely think they made a difference in my applications.

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In short, I was very happy that I chose to hire Stacy and team. My consultant was absolutely great. Her biggest assistance was in helping me craft my essay topics and frame my stories in a more compelling way. We'd do this by sending drafts back and forth via email, first revising the big-picture" then working on the specific wordings and grammar. Between our initial phone discussions and reading my essays, Margaret got to know me quite well so she knew what kind of personal questions to ask and suggestions to make. I believe that we were up to version 15 for some of the essays, but by the end I had full confidence that my essays were as best as they could be. Margaret also gave me a mock interview over the phone before each of my real interviews and double checked my data sheets and resume before I submitted everything. Her turn around time was no more than 24 hours for essay revisions, but normally much shorter if I just had a quick question. Margaret would sometimes check with Stacy and others on tricky aspects or judgment calls on my application. The best thing about Stacy Blackman consulting is that it is truly a consulting relationship where I felt that they were my partners and they really wanted me to succeed.

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I found that b-school applications were very much about selling myself, which is something that didn't come comfortably to me at all. Margaret helped me discover aspects about me that I previously thought were mundane, taught me to talk them up, and turned them into selling points. She also turned my marginally-readable essays into literary genius! The whole applications process was extremely demanding and just as a professional athlete has a coach and agent, having Margaret in these roles kept me motivated through this arduous process, which was critical for me in getting my best application in.The Stacy Blackman service is expensive. I found that it's absolutely worth the money because my results speak volumes. With my undergrad GPA well under 3.0, I didn't even have dreams of Haas, but with your focused gameplan, I made it in! Stacy's stats don't lie. Her clients make it in to where they want to go!

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