Caryn (SBC) Reviews

Caryn was amazing to work with! I am a young candidate with average/below average GPA and GMAT from a mid-level consulting firm, so had lots of reasons to doubt my chances at the top programs. Whenever I was over-thinking or too in my head, Caryn helped me to calm down and think clearly. She helped me bring out my unique story and non-traditional career goals. I was eventually admitted to Stanford GSB, Wharton, Booth, and Kellogg!!! I could not have gotten here without Caryn's patience and dedication, or without SBC's extensive resources! The SBC flight test helped identify holes in my application package and I was able to talk to Caryn and a Wharton team based interview expert to prepare for my interviews. As someone who did not have many friends or mentors who had gone through the MBA application process, I initially felt completely lost. But with Caryn and SBC, I felt well-informed about how to handle every aspect such as class visits, email correspondence, mentioning low grades, etc. When I got my admissions, I could tell Caryn was almost as thrilled as I was! She really believed in me and was highly invested in the process. I highly recommend working with Caryn.

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I applied in Round II for admission to the Class of 2020, gaining acceptance to HBS, Wharton and Kellogg, with a waitlist at CBS, thanks to Caryn's extraordinary help and guidance. I am thrilled to be attending my dream school, HBS, this fall.

Caryn, who worked at Kellogg's Admission Office before starting her career as a consultant, was a great mentor through the application process from school selection to interview prep. She truly wanted to get to know who I am and ensure the career goals expressed in my application were clear and credible. Her judgment was excellent, and I found myself relying her feedback more than that of friends and family early on. For someone with enormous nerves about "aiming too high," the GMAT, essay-writing, and interviews - she was a guiding light! I also appreciated her quick rounds of feedback, including several in the days before applications were due. Overall-- I found her to be a warm, honest and incisive coach for the months we worked together.

I would also commend Stacy Blackman as a firm for their tremendous resources, above and beyond the consultant relationship. Esther Magna and the administrative team made on-boarding with the firm a breeze. The wiki was invaluable, especially for looking at past successful resumes and essays. The "flight test" with a top-business school alumni, in which your full application is read end-to-end, was a helpful exercise. And when interviews came, the access to a Wharton mock interview with other clients of the firm, special 1:1 coaching for HBS, practice interview with Caryn w/ feedback, and online practice tools were a lifesaver.

I think Stacy Blackman does not so much as "steer" your application as give you all the tools and answers to make you come through at your best. What I presented in my final applications was my voice and my experience, informed by the feedback and reactions of numerous ex-Admissions officers. It was clearer and more confident than what I would have written alone. For these reasons, I'd recommend SBC and Caryn in particular highly. Do not hesitate to request her when you give SBC a call!

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I had a great experience working with Caryn. She motivated me to do my best and be on top of my work. She provided timely reviews of all my essays and excellent interview pre (especially as I was last minute for round 2 and was applying to 4 schools with her). She is a straight-shooter and won't sugarcoat- which I greatly appreciated. She was with me throughout the whole process: from brain-storming stages to when I received my acceptance. As a non-traditional applicant with an average (at best) GPA, I don't think I would have gotten the results I did without Caryn. Thank you!

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I was just another lost working professional hoping to make her way into an elite business school. As someone that attended undergrad and law school, I didn’t want to take on the extra cost of business school, unless it was one of the best. I did free consultations with other companies prior to choosing Stacy Blackman. The cost for a consultant wasn’t something I took lightly, and I wanted to make sure I was picking the best company for me. My consultations with other companies were very negative, judgmental or awkward. Additionally, I had to pick a specific person based on short profiles online. Overall, I was thinking I may just have to do this on my own.

However, when I first contacted Stacy Blackman, I was immediately impressed with their process. First, I completed a short questionnaire, which was sent to all consultants that had availability. Then those consultants that felt inspired or interested in my story would connect with me to do a free consultation. I like that the people I was talking with were really interested in me and believed in me. I felt that I couldn’t be successful if someone felt forced to work with me. I talked with a few consultants at Stacy Blackman, all of which were great. But my conversation with Caryn was very easy and made me feel immediately comfortable with her. She really touched on the weak and strong points of my application. As soon as I got off the phone, I knew I wanted Caryn as my consultant. She was friendly and helpful, but also honest and direct. Which is exactly what you need in this process.

Additionally, she helped me narrow down my list of schools. Originally, I was thinking of applying to 7 schools. It was hard for me to understand the full reach of a school that wasn’t located in my immediate area (San Francisco) and how well they would do in my desired function. All the career stats looked so great! Caryn helped me cut out schools that wouldn’t easily bring me back to the Bay Area, but also had strong marketing programs. She even recommended a school that wasn’t on my original list, but has turned out to be far and away the best option, Kellogg.

After hiring Stacy Blackman and being assigned to Caryn, the work really began. She helped me walk through my career goals, after MBA, and helped me narrow down my many ideas and industries into one concise theme that flowed throughout my application. The tools she provided me with in the beginning (career insight, templates for my recommenders, resume template and tips) were incredibly helpful to get a few easier things handled right away and my outlines and essays started. Writing essays for 5 schools within a month and a half is no easy feat. I was lucky enough to have a lull in work at the beginning of August, so I began pumping out outlines and essays pretty quickly. Caryn was always prompt to respond and send me feedback on my outlines/essays. Additionally, this is when the honest and direct part really becomes useful. Seeing where my essays started and where they ended up, it is clear that I wouldn’t have gotten into the schools I did without Caryn.

At the end of the process, I was accepted into 3 of my five schools and withdrew from one before the decision came out, as I knew I would attend Kellogg. I’m truly living a dream right now, and I know I wouldn’t have made it into Kellogg without Caryn’s help. I know the money isn’t the easiest thing to pay, however it was worth every penny to go to a great school that I love.

Choose Stacy Blackman and Caryn today!

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I used Caryn Altman as an admissions consultant. She was brilliant! I would not have been as successful without her!

Caryn was incredibly responsive. There were days where I would send her an essay and she got back to me twice with various rounds of edits.

In addition to that, she was an incredibly valuable counselor for my overall business school application strategy approach. She was honest with me around what she thought was doable and did everything she could to help me achieve my goals!

I would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone looking to solidify his or her status at a top business school.

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I was hesitant about using a consulting firm for business school applications because I was afraid of losing my personal voice and was nervous if the cost would be worth it. However, I nervously took the plunge, choosing SBC over other firms because they had a strong matching process and so many members of their team were former admissions officers with lots of experience coaching. At the end of the process I can honestly say this was the best money I have ever spent! Caryn and the whole SBC team have been incredibly valuable in the entire process. With SBC and Caryn’s coaching, I got interviews at HBS and was admitted to Wharton, Booth, Sloan and Kellogg with huge scholarships from 2/4 schools!
Caryn is particularly incredible. Her background in marketing helped her craft a strong strategy for my application. She took the time to understand my entire story and helped me craft my story without overtaking my personal voice. Additionally, Caryn is INCREDBILY detail oriented and continues to push her clients to improve. From my strategy documents to my resume to my essays and even application, Caryn and I went through at least 6-10 rounds of edits for each piece. She was strict (which I needed!) and she never let me give anything less than my best, continuing to push me to improve my essays, videos and other submissions. Until the very last detail, Caryn was there to make sure my entire application (including rec letters) was perfect. Additionally, Caryn helped me through the nebulous process of getting off Wharton’s waitlist. She helped me craft a strategy for communication that would show interest without being repetitive which eventually helped me land a spot in Wharton’s class. Finally, Caryn’s turnaround time is extremely fast. She always beat her own standards and because of this we completed many revisions and finished 6 applications for R1.
Finally, Caryn really believed in me and wants to see me succeed. She referred me to different members of the SBC community when I received interviews to make sure I was prepared. She truly believed in my application and that made all the difference!

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I'm an international applicant with a decent GMAT score and work experience, but a very weak GPA (2.9), and with no strong extra curricular work to overcome that. I decided to use a consultant to help me understand the best way to craft a compelling application given some significant gaps on paper. After speaking to a few of the most established MBA Admission consulting firms, I decided to work with Caryn at SBC because I felt that both Caryn and Esther at SBC gave me the most realistic advice in our initial conversations, and did not try to sugar coat the potential difficulties I would face in my applications (I had targeted some fairly challenging schools for my stats).

Working with Caryn was a breeze - she helped me think through my goals and stories to craft a compelling narrative, my school selection strategy, and gave me critical advice on remedying the gaps in my GPA and lack of quantitative work during my undergraduate days. She was also super quick with feedback, and would constantly push me to keep to our aggressive timeline, which I found very helpful. In addition, I found the Flight Test with Amy really helpful - and we actually rewrote an entire essay from scratch based on the feedback from that Flight Test.

I applied to 2 schools with Caryn (1 stretch and 1 target), and really used that experience to apply to a further 3 schools. I'm happy to share that I was admitted into 3 of the 5 programs (all top 15 programs), with scholarships to boot, which was really unexpected given the gaps in my application. I will now be attending a great program - and I absolutely could not have done it without the tireless support and encouragement from Caryn and the entire team at SBC. If you are looking for a highly professional consultant to enhance your chances in an increasingly competitive business school landscape - you can't go wrong with this team.

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After having initial conversations with 4 other admissions consulting firms, I ultimately decided to go with Stacey Blackman. This choice was driven by a great first conversation with Esther (the initial point of contact who coordinated multiple SBC services throughout the process), fantastic reviews/referrals/results from friends of mine (all got into their top choice schools) who had used SBC, and great fit/reputation of Caryn Altman (ultimately the consultant I chose to work with throughout the process).

The level of engagement throughout the application process was spectacular, and the breadth of experience that both Caryn as well as the broader SBC organization provided me was second-to-none. Even though I was applying to a pretty large number of schools in a single round, and knew Caryn's particular involvement/experience with Kellogg, I was given great, specific advice on how to approach and execute stellar applications to each individual school I was applying to (including Kellogg).The specific tips I received from Caryn were spectacular and not only instilled a great sense of confidence in me prior to submission/interviews, but undoubtedly impacted the quality of each of my applications.

Things I found to be particularly helpful: 1) Caryn kept me on track throughout the process. I was a little late to the game, and decided to try and fit 5 schools (all M7) into R1. Caryn ensured that we were both on top of our deadlines, and never throughout the process did I need to question whether I'd miss any deadlines or have anything but the highest quality application. 2) I had a below average undergrad-GPA at all the schools I was applying to. After reviewing my transcript in detail with Caryn, we were able to come up with a concise, honest, authentic, and compelling strategy to address this in my additional essays. Honestly, I think this was one of the strongest pieces in my application, and I definitely would not have known how to approach this without Caryn's advice and support. 3) The interview assistance (both for one-on-one as well as group interview) was fantastic. I felt not only much more prepared compared to other candidates (the questions asked during the mock interviews were extremely close to those in the actual interview), but much more confident going in.

I am thrilled with the results, and ultimately got into multiple top business schools, including my top choice school!

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After having been dinged from all the schools I applied to for the class of 2019, I knew that I wanted to use an admissions consultant when reapplying for the class of 2020. After evaluating several options, I decided to go with SBC for a couple reasons: their track record and my initial conversation with Caryn Altman.

Caryn was upfront with me and did not sugarcoat things - when telling her which schools I wanted to apply to, she said that they would be stretch schools for me, but did not discourage me from applying.

Luckily for me, I got a head start working with Caryn, signing up in early 2017. Caryn and I hit the ground running; within weeks, my resume had taken shape and, per her suggestion, I became actively involved with a couple of charitable organizations around my hometown.

Caryn was always lightning quick to respond to my emails - whether they be essay draft reviews or random one-off questions, she was usually able to respond within hours. She really went above and beyond when it came to responsiveness.

Beyond working with Caryn, I benefited from working with SBC's other consultants for the flight test and mock group interview.

Ultimately, working with Caryn was great because I trusted her and benefited from her candidness in reviewing and talking about my essays and overall candidacy. All of the essays, resume, work, etc. was mine, but Caryn gave me the tools and advice needed to properly frame all of it into a successful MBA application!

In the end, I was admitted to two schools and am proud to be able to say that I am going to be at Booth (a school where I was dinged without interview last year) this fall!!

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I worked with Caryn to apply R1 in 2017 after having unsuccessfully applied to five schools in the first round of the previous year. Caryn was on top of every detail and made sure that we stuck to our deadlines, which was critical applying to five programs no matter how far in advance we started our planning. She absolutely has a mind for this work and was able to position my experience to fit with each individual school. Most importantly though, she helped me think through where I had been and where I really wanted to go and that made my application all the more authentic and genuine. In the end, I got acceptances from Columbia, Booth, and an interview invite from Haas that I did not move forward with due to extenuating circumstances. Thanks Caryn!

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