I had a great experience working with Stacy Blackman and in particular, my consultant Dawn.

When looking for an admissions consultant, I wanted someone who was ethical and who could best help craft my story and position me for each school's unique criteria. I selected Dawn because it was clear she was a very intelligent, strategic thinker who would give me honest feedback.

While working together Dawn developed a very helpful strategic plan/assessment for my candidacy - a roadmap for mitigating my weaknesses and highlighting my strengths. As someone who is not naturally and consistently introspective, this was feedback was very helpful! I flipped back to this plan often while writing my essays.

In addition, Dawn's honesty and willingness to hold me accountable were important throughout the application process. During one stretch, I was so jammed at work that I was not able to write a quality essay, and instead sent Dawn a half-baked draft. Dawn held me accountable and told me to completely re-do the draft, which was definitely the honest feedback that I needed to submit the best application possible.

All in all, I had a very good experience and it led to a great outcome - I will be going to Wharton next year! Thanks Dawn!

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A quick summary of my profile - liberal arts undergraduate university, double major in business/econ, IB then PE, white, male.

After evaluating a number of consulting firms (MBA Mission, Paul Bodine, Critical Square, Square One Prep, Personal MBA Coach), I chose to work with Dawn at SBC. I also liked Square One Prep and Menlo Coaching.

As an HBS graduate, I felt Dawn was most comfortable with HBS but had a good handle on Wharton and Columbia as well. Dawn's strength was helping me evaluate my profile and craft a story. She then worked with me to develop the high level structure / flow of the document. Thereafter, the heavy lifting was on me to develop a detailed outline of each essay and ultimately write the essay. Dawn explained that I was a strong writer so she essentially provided zero edits on most essays after I wrote the essays (this is in part because we got so detailed on the outlines).

Overall, I enjoyed working with Dawn. She is extremely positive and supportive. She is great at helping you craft stories and I am sure she can dig into the language / grammar if need be.

I used the comprehensive package for 3 schools. I was accepted to my top choice.

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I chose to work with SBC because I felt that they were the most realistic in helping me determine my target schools. In fact, in my initial call with SBC they were VERY upfront with me about the quality of my candidacy. I really appreciated this and ultimately chose to work with SBC because of how direct they were.

After my initial call with SBC, I spoke with Dawn (who eventually became my admissions consultant). The purpose of this call was to determine if we were a good "fit". I will say this - the people at SBC know how to pair their clients with the right consultants because our call could not have gone better. Dawn was highly intelligent, extremely motivated, and expressed a genuine interest to help me get into each one of my target schools.

Working with Dawn was an absolute pleasure. She helped me navigate the process with ease and was always VERY responsive. Dawn knew all of the intricacies of each of my target schools' applications and did an excellent job of helping me to identify how to connect my story to each application. I genuinely believe that any prospective MBA applicant would be lucky to work with Dawn throughout the admissions process.

Thanks to Dawn and SBC I was accepted to every school that I applied to (all top 10 programs) and received significant scholarship offers to multiple programs.

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I cannot recommend Dawn Clare and Stacy Blackman Consulting more highly. Coming in as a foreign applicant with good work experience and strong grades, I knew that telling my story through admissions essays would be the crucial decider in whether I was admitted to any of the top schools. Dawn spent many hours helping me to craft my story, using language that would resonate with adcoms in the US. She was exceptionally patient, considered and thoughtful throughout the process.

Additionally the plethora of resources that SBC gave me access to were crucial when it came to interview prep and school selection.

I have no doubt that I would not have been admitted to several of the top business schools in the world were it not for the assistance of Dawn and the team at SBC.

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I started out with SBC targeting a magnificent 7 B-school with GMAT score that was in range but slightly below average. I spoke to Dawn before signing on and was immediately drawn by her clear and direct approach to the application process. Dawn helped me plan my strategy; she helped me bring out things in my application that actually mattered. Things that adcom actually cared about. She put an entire strategy together with clear target dates, proof read my essays and gave me a mock interview. Her approach was systematic and through various steps she helped me think about different aspects of my application that put my essays in shape. Without Dawn and SBC I wouldn’t have put my best foot forward and wouldn’t have gone for my interview with such confidence. Today, I am finally going to my dream school and couldn’t be happier with my experience with SBC.
In summary, I highly recommend SBC and Dawn if you are targeting a top 10 B-School.

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SBC exceeded my every expectation. From their vault of past essays and interview questions to the Flight Test, SBC offers a truly differentiated service.

Coming from a financial background, my overall profile and stats made me a competitive, but not necessarily winning, candidate. Dawn, my consultant, devoted considerable time getting to understand my story and was instrumental in helping me strategize and craft compelling stories tailored to each school without compromising my personal voice. She showed me how to mitigate the weaknesses in my story and made time to review every aspect of my application, including the post-interview reflection for HBS.

I will be attending HBS in the fall thanks to Dawn and SBC's tremendous support and guidance. I could not have done it without them!

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I am so glad I chose SBC to help me with my MBA applications! I applied to 3 top 10 schools using the All-In package, and I'm happy to say I got into all 3 :)

I initially chose SBC because of their expertise and resources. As I started to work with several members of SBC, I was blown away by their professional approach to the entire process!

I got matched with an incredible advisor, who really got to know me. She developed a solid strategy for my applications, which guided everything from my resume, essays and interview prep.

If you are serious about getting into your dream school, I would highly recommend you go with SBC!

Good luck!!

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I evaluated multiple consulting firms when I first started my MBA application journey. Because Stacy Blackman had a strong presence and Dawn (from SBC) was highly recommended by a close friend who is now at Wharton, I chose to move forward with Dawn (fortunately she was available to work with me!).

When I started, I had a story and a ton of different ways to approach my applications. Dawn is very strategic in nature and was extremely helpful in guiding me to create a focused brand. She's very in-tune with what the top schools are looking for, which helped ensure I mentioned relevant information in each application. I applied to 4 top schools and was accepted to 3, 2 of which I received generous merit fellowships for. I have no doubt that without Dawn's help, I would not have been able to achieve this level of success.

I highly recommend Dawn!

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