Has anyone used Stacey Blackman services?

Question

Looking to get feedback...If you have used Veritas Admissions Consulting let me know as well.

riverripper · Answer

The topic of consultants has been covered numerous times try a search, you will quickly find out most of the successful applicants from the past few years dont see the value of consultants. That said if time is at a premium, I would say that a consultant could help...If you have the proper motivation you can easily figure out a lot about the process and will be able to craft solid applications. No matter how great a consultant its still going to be up to you to put in your best effort.

agold · Answer

Agreed. It only makes sense if you're a banker or private equity guy with more money than time available, and I would venture to guess that this demographic makes up a large portion of admission consultants' clientele.

jasonc · Answer

I agree with the points brought up by both posters above. However, admissions consultants can be very helpful in helping you edit your essays. Also, they are more easily able to point out missing pieces in your application versus having friends/family review your essays & applications because they have a holistic view of your application and have experience .

But, if you know MBA grads (your manager/co-worker/friends/etc) who can help you along in the process then I don't see a point in hiring admissions consultants~

But, if you know MBA grads (your manager/co-worker/friends/etc) who can help you along in the process then I don't see a point in hiring admissions consultants~

jimmyjamesdonkey · Answer

yep, thanks guys...but out of all the posts I've seen on the topic (on this board), not one person has ever said they have used them and had success.

jallenmorris · Answer

That's because most of them got into the schools on their own. When you're looking backwards after being admitted, it's a lot easier to say "Consultants aren't worth their expense." but it's harder to hear when we're in the application process and scared to death!

Raabend · Answer

I think I read somewhere that 25% or more of accepted students to top b-schools used consultants. Maybe some people here are just pretending they got admitted all on their own. Then again, people who frequent this board seem to be "go-getters" so maybe they all did get admitted on their own.

charlerp · Answer

I think that admission consultants definitely have some value. Once you get past the hard stats, GMAT, GPA, etc., what's left is the story you tell. I think in that capacity, consultants can definitely add some value. Sure, you can have your friends and family read your essays, but most likely they don't know what they're looking for. Consultants sure are expensive, but to a certain extent they can be considered a "necessary" expense for business school.

IHateTheGMAT · Answer

Agree 100%

jasonc · Answer

I agree with the posters above - the people visiting this forum is not representative of the general applicant pool. 
If you have the time to be browsing this forum, you probably don't need an admissions consultant - besides for the reasons I mentioned (lack of contacts with experienced people to help you edit your essays/app)

kryzak · Answer

great avatar, JasonC

but yes, many of us from GMATClub who got into our dream schools do not need consultants simply because we got help from people who have gone through the process (and some are even part of the admissions process at their schools now). for example, I think EVERYONE who got in for the Fall 2008 class benefitted from rhyme's very detailed posts about strategy, how to tell your story, and what to watch out for (some of which are in the Knowledge Vault). Many of us are still around (river, myself, nc, etc...) trying to help the current applicants out through populating the Knowledge Vault and answering questions in the Ask B-School Ambassadors areas. I truly think that most of GMATClub members can get by without a consultant, and if they can get a couple people here (or current students they know in real life) to look at their essays and talk strategy for 1-2 hours, they will do just fine. Most of us "current" students will know enough to help many piece together a coherent story and know what the adcoms are looking for (of course, not as experienced as the pro consultants, but good enough), for free or some food/beer/coffee money. If we are too busy, posting your dilemma on the forums and asking your fellow applicants for help is also a good strategy. Sometimes the old-timers will come back and give you a quick critique that can push you to the next level. For instance, rhyme helped me tremendously by pointing out how I should tell my story to make a convincing "Why MBA" argument, almost within 2-3 posts.

So with that said, if you truly believe that you need a paid consultant to have the greatest chance of getting into your top school, then by all means, go for it. If you want to save some money and do it yourself, contribute to GMATClub and people will help you out in return. Cheers!

solaris1 · Answer

jjd - most application consultants will let you schedule 45 min. initial review sessions for free. I did these with 3 of the more well known consultants around and I decided it was not going to be worth it in the end.

Even in those 45 mins. you certainly get a good sense of how your future interaction with them will work out if you do decide to go ahead and hire a consultant. For instance, I'm just not willing to pay several hundred dollars an hour to someone who says she's going to e-mail me a document right after our conversation and then conveniently forgets all about it.

The consultants try to make you fit a certain profile, a profile that they believe will successfully get you into 1 of the 4 or 5 schools of your choice. They can also be dismissive of achievements that mean a lot to you personally, simply because in their mind a successful applicant should have done X, Y and Z and if you for some reason ended up doing A, B and C or followed a somewhat non-traditional, or "wonkier" as one consultant put it, path in your career then you aren't getting in into the top schools unless you undertake a 6 week long trip to Africa and work with malnourished children or the like. Of course, I'm being a bit facetious here but you get the drift.

So essentially if you already fall into the profile of a successful MBA applicant, you don't really need a consultant to begin with. If you don't, the consultants are, in my subjective opinion, going to try their darndest to make you fit that profile. In the end that's not who you are, and you can be sure doing this will make your essays look a lot more studied and a lot less genuine.

And in closing, I know this will raise some hackles, but some schools (Tuck comes to mind) expect MBA applications to subscribe to a basic code of "honesty and integrity" and want each applicant's essays to be "exclusively" their own. So depending upon your own conscience, you may or may not want considerable outside help with your essays.

Obviously no one wants to admit to having their applications crafted, fine-tuned, reviewed or whatchamacallit by application consultants, so I'm sure a lot of folks don't really want to "out" themselves by admitting to having used consultants. That said however, listen to what kryzak is telling you - there are a handful of extremely smart and helpful people on this board, and in my experience what you learn from your peers here on gmatclub is often just as helpful as the advice a two hundred dollar per hour consultant will dish out.

Has anyone used Stacey Blackman services?

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