Stacy Blackman Consulting MBA Admissions Reviews

I worked with Amy my consultant on more drafts than I thought she could even handle and am now going to Wharton. At one point I thought - she is going to send these back and tell me enough! But she never did. She always responded with great feedback. She was always very on the ball and responded quickly. She was always in touch, always a professional. I always felt she had my back and was giving me her best. She was always kind. She has served on an admissions committee and that background was useful but it was more than that. It was also the care she put into the applications, her writing skills and her ability to communicate with me and coach me. I utilized the interview tools that Stacy Blackman offered a lot and got feedback from Amy plus Bill. When the interviews came along I was very prepped and felt so calm because I knew I could nail it and wold not have surprises. I also knew how to handle things if a surprise did come up. Very happy to report that the hard work and investment in the team at Stacy Blackman Consulting paid off. Will forever be a reference for this terrific operation.

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In a nutshell - I highly recommend Stacy Blackman Consulting to any individual who is truly serious about getting into a great school. I spoke with five different firms and asked every question I could think of. Stacy Blackman was so buttoned up and professional and at the end of the day the only one who said - "hire us for a couple of hours and see how it goes". They were willing to prove their value. I was sold after one hour, my consultant helped organize me and put things into perspective. I then hired them for 3 schools. Money well spent. I now had an expert at my fingertips. Every question, every fear, I could discuss with someone who had seen and done it all. Bill was amazing as a resource and a friend in many ways. He knows more about me now than many close friends. He put me at ease and made me feel comfortable that we could work through all the parts of me and pull together a package that would really represent me. I am in to my number one and all I can say is....THANK YOU BILL. THANK YOU Stacy Blackman.

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I worked with a dream team at SBC and am more than happy about the results. The thing that stood out to me about SBC was the amazing range of talent and experience. Wanted admissions committee eyeballs on my essays. Check. Wanted someone who understood marketing and admissions strategy. Check. Wanted interview expertise to help with interview prep. Check. Because I had several people weighing in I was able to get exactly what I needed. I had coaching in writing. I had assistance with strategy. I had amazing feedback, perhaps more than I wanted sometimes in the moment when I was told to redo or rethink something! I learned that there are many skills needed to make a high quality application. I first worked on my strategy and my story and then got down to the finer details. Lisa helped with it all. Honestly they gave me more resources than I could possibly have used, but I used what I needed, always got help when I asked and had a terrific guide helping me thru it all. The process was scary at times as I navigated the hows and whys but I was ultimately successful and say thank you.

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I was not sure if I wanted to get an admissions consultant initially. However, I had signed up to be on SBC's mailing list, and their weekly emails always had great advice. So, I decided to get their help in preparing my application for NYU Stern. I was paired with Bill who was incisive in telling me how I should craft my story. Bill was prompt, insightful and a source of great help and guidance for me through the process of writing essays. He was frank and prompt with feedback, and without his assistance, I don't think I would have been admitted. Thanks Bill!

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I was new to the application process and I had applied to a couple of business schools without any outside help. Unfortunately, I was waitlisted at my top choice school. I wanted to get off the waitlist so I contacted Stacy Blackman services and was assigned to Sherry Holland. She was an excellent resource and helped devised a plan for me to get off the wait list. She was able to identify weaknesses in my application and helped me address them properly. She was very responsive and reliable throughout the entire process.

Thankfully, a month later, I was admitted off the waitlist and could not have done so without her help. I would recommend the SBC service, specifically Sherry, to anyone who who is stressed, needs morale support and guidance throughout the application process.

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I was skeptical at first about using a consulting service to help me with my MBA applications, but I’m a believer now. From the initial strategy call, to the edits and re-edits of essays, all the way to the interview-prep help, Erika was my cheerleader, trusted advisor and go-to person whenever I had questions (and trust me, I had a lot). When it comes to MBA applications, candor is king, and Erika did an amazing job at keeping me on the path that we had outlined.

Initially, Erika told me that my four top-choice schools—Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley and MIT—were the four toughest schools to get into (by acceptance rate, respectively). Even knowing this, Erika and SBC took the risk and worked with me, knowing that it could hurt their own client acceptance rate numbers. My GMAT/GPA stats were very average at the schools I was applying to (below average at my top choices), and I knew that I would need a compelling story. I had the work background and personal initiatives on my resume to tell that story, and Erika challenged me to be authentic, to show and not tell, and to craft my story until it was perfect.

I ended up applying to six schools in round one (all top-ten), and with the help of Erika and SBC, I was able to land four interviews, eventually getting admitted to one of my top choices—Berkeley!

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I started this cycle of applying to business school with no knowledge of what programs look for in their applications. I contacted Stacy Blackman and was paired with Nakeyshia Kendall. I wanted to get all of my applications submitted by the first deadline, but Nakeyshia made various recommendations to me to strengthen my application which ultimately made me submit all of my applications in round 2. Nakeyshia is extremely knowledgeable and knows the MBA application process inside out. We went through several drafts of my essay until it was perfect. Ultimately I was able to get into an Ivy League MBA program with <3.2 GPA <700 GMAT and < 3 years work experience. I highly recommend both Nakeyshia and Stacy Blackman.

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I was referred to SBC by a friend who used the service last year and am very glad that I went through with it. The entire SBC team was extremely professional and helpful. My personal consultant, Lisa Anderson, was fantastic. She always made herself available, gave constructive feedback on my applications and was simply a pleasure to work with. She was also extremely responsive which made the process run that much more smoothly. Although I was waitlisted at my top choice, I was admitted to three top 20 schools (including a scholarship at one) and waitlisted at another top 10 school. The investment is definitely worth it and I want to thank (again) the team at SBC and especially Lisa.

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I went through the business school application process recently, and am glad that I used Stacy Blackman Consulting. SBC is responsive, organized, and knowledgeable. I applied to eight top 20 full-time programs for entrance in the fall of 2015 and used SBC’s all-in package for five of them. Ultimately, I was offered interviews at five schools and accepted at three. I am happy and excited to say that I will be attending one of them, a top 10 school, in just a couple of months.

Initially, I had planned on not using a consultant. After reading a lot of articles and books, I felt like I was capable of handling things on my own and didn’t want to spend any extra money. Fairly quickly into the process, however, I realized that I would benefit significantly from some expert guidance. I had taken a week off from work in July to get the ball rolling, but immediately found myself struggling with and taking much longer than expected on some of the early steps of the process, including redoing my resume. On Thursday of that week, I emailed SBC. I had been referred to SBC from a friend whose sister had used them and had gotten into her top choice. Almost immediately after doing so that day, Esther, one of SBC’s principals, contacted me, and before I knew it we were off to the races on an eight-month journey together.

My SBC consultant was Joyce Whang, and I recommend her highly. Joyce is a real professional. She is effective, thorough, and fast. Additionally, it was obvious to me that she truly cared about my outcome. She took the time to fully understand my background and goals, and quickly pinpointed my strengths and weaknesses as an applicant. She was frank and honest with me about these weaknesses, which was somewhat tough for me to take initially but pretty quickly became evident to me as absolutely necessary. In doing so, we were able to develop and pursue a strategy that put my application in the best light possible by highlighting the most unique and powerful aspects of my story while crafting reasonable and persuasive responses for those other aspects of my story that needed explanation and support.

To me, such highly personalized and nuanced help is one of the major reasons to use a consultancy during the business school application process. Personally, I was a candidate at the older end of the applicant age range and did not have some of the other so-called check-the-box qualities or experiences of many other candidates. So, without a doubt, I know I benefitted immeasurably from the guidance SBC and Joyce provided in navigating some of these challenges. In all honesty, there is a good chance that I would not be getting ready to go to the school that I am if I hadn’t made that call to SBC almost a year ago.

Finally, if you can afford it, I recommend going with the all-in package for as many schools as you can. Although higher priced than the a la carte options, I believe it was money well spent because it gave me the full, around-the-clock help and attention that I needed. Good luck to all current and future applicants who read this. I hope you get to where you want to go, and maybe I will see you around on campus.

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I begin my consultant search by calling the free consultation that most consultants offer. In the call, a lot of them are very quick to point out that my academics would be my biggest obstacle to my Stern MBA pursuit and that I have to take some other finance/accounting classes before my application to show the admissions that I am serious about my MBA pursuit. They also recommended me to get the 1 school package for unlimited help.

I am skeptical of their assessment until I talked with Bill Chionis from Stacy Blackman Consulting. He walked me through the process of the optional essay to address my undergrad mishap. He also provided a lot of pointers to brush up my resume and essays. Finally, he assure me that my application to Stern would go smoothly because I have strong working experience. The most amazing thing is that he did all of the above in 5 hours.

To nobody’s surprise, I got accepted to Stern. To me, Bill’s work demonstrate what a good consultant should possess: a working knowledge of what admission officers are looking for, quick responses when you need some pointers and most importantly, confidence in the client he is working with. For that reason, I would highly recommend Bill for your MBA pursuit.

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