I worked with Yvette from the beginning on my applications. She made me feel comfortable with my own story, she guided me to write better essays while being honest with myself. But she also went above and beyond. She advised me on which schools could be a better fit given my personality.

Applying to business schools is no easy task. Yvette helped me organize my applications from the beginning. She made my life easier during this stressful process. Her feedback was on point, and very honest. My narrative was compelling, but not clearly articulated. She helped me improve the way I presented my story. This feedback was customized for each school I was applying. And she has an amazing knowledge on what top schools wants.

We also worked together on my interview preparations. Which is not my strength. She knew right away I was doing things common for non native speakers. And we worked together on improving the structure of my answers based on this. I was able to get into 2 schools 1 full ride, 1 scholarship. And I am also currently waitlisted in other 2 top schools.

I cannot say enough about Christina and SBC! She was my biggest advocate throughout the whole application process and believed in me from the start, making me feel confident in my ability to succeed in school.

Professional Aspects
--Before the all in package: I spoke with another consultant, Esther, about my candidacy and to determine who the best consultant to work with would be. Esther was extremely responsive and knowledgeable about the elements of a strong application. She immediately matched me with Christina (it was a perfect match in my opinion!).
--Christina: She has had lots of professional experience in retail and understood the challenges that I faced coming from that industry, which is a less common pre-MBA career. She also completed her MBA at Harvard and understood the rigor of applying to and attending a top program.
--Creating a ?brand? and application strategy: Christina quickly helped create a targeted application approach and helped me focus in on the programs that most aligned with my interests and personality. She was so helpful in getting an understanding of the MBA landscape. She also helped create an application that played to my strengths and offset my weaknesses in order to stand out among thousands of competitive applicants.
--Writing essays: Christina?s writing skills are top notch. In fact, I?m pretty sure my grammar and creative writing skills have improved after working with her. She helped me articulate my thoughts, create an outline, and polish my essays so they jumped off the page and reflected my personality.
--Interview prep: We prepped for one interview together and Christina was prepared with a list of questions that school had asked in recent years. After a mock interview, she gave thorough feedback for each question and helped make sure I was as polished and confident as possible going into the interview. She even went the extra mile and sent good luck messages leading up to the interview day!

Personal Aspects
--Christina truly cares about her clients and it shows. She and I frequently spent long hours on the phone weighing the pros and cons of various schools, discussing post-MBA career paths, editing essays, and prepping for interviews. She quickly became one of the first people I talked to about professional developments because of her positive and constructive feedback. She has been a huge force behind my personal and professional development through the application process - both supporting me and giving helpful feedback.
--Christina is full of positive encouragement, but she will also push you because she wants you to have the strongest application possible. I had a long list of things to do leading up to application submission. While I was stressed at times, Christina was always extremely encouraging and built my confidence.
--When choosing a consultant, I recommend thinking carefully about what it is that you are seeking help with. I was looking for someone to help guide me through the whole process, so I decided to go with SBC?s ?All In? package. I also wanted someone who understood my industry and the challenges that came with coming from a less common pre-MBA career. Finally, I wanted someone who I would get along well with and would help me grow throughout the application process. Christina was the perfect match in every single way. Our phone calls often went well beyond the application itself, and into areas of personal development. Christina goes above and beyond her responsibilities, and that is largely because she genuinely cares about her clients. She is exactly the kind of person you want in your corner throughout the application process!!

Approaching the MBA Admissions process, I had an idea that the applications were rigorous and comprehensive, but I truly had no sense of the level of detail and management necessary to prepare the completed applications for each school. I was pivoting from a career as an independent film director and knew that proving my business and analytical ability would require additional support and guidance. In a quick google search, I found Stacy Blackman Consulting and after reading the reviews felt confident that they would be professional, thorough, and a great resource.

I was immediately paired with Joseph Siesholtz who shared an entertainment background. I cannot speak highly enough about Joey. He was an incredible mentor, highly supportive, and completely transparent. He helped me from the beginning of the process through the end. Definitely request him if you decide to go with their services.
- He emphasized the importance for me to prove my analytical skills through a high GMAT score, which I was able to accomplish with a 710.
- My inclination was to structure my essays so they conformed to more formal business writing. I wasn?t sure what was appropriate to share in the context of graduate admissions. However, Joey coerced me to be authentic and share a genuine personal story, which allowed for much more persuasive and honest storytelling.
- Joey was able to help me define my goals in more MBA-terms and develop concrete lists of roles and skills that I?d like to pursue out of b-school.
- He helped with interview preparation, making sure I presented an appropriate tone and clearly expressed my intentions.

Working with Stacy Blackman and specifically Joey was transformative in priming my mindset for b-school. Having sophisticated mentors guide you through the MBA process, especially if you come from an alternative background, is highly valuable. I received a full-scholarship to USC Marshall, a partial scholarship and admission into NYU for a dual-degree program (MBA from Stern and Master of Fine Arts in film from Tisch). Truly the best experience.

When I first thought about applying to business school, I didn't think about using a consultant because I didn't realize how valuable they were (particularly given the cost). Now that I'm done with the entire process, I can confidently say that choosing SBC has been absolutely worth it. I could probably write a novel, but I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

I was paired with Christina, who is genuinely one of the most thoughtful, articulate, and hard-working people I have ever worked with. She went above and beyond to make sure that I put forth the best application by working with me on every aspect of my candidacy from pushing me to reach out to current MBA students to bolstering weaknesses on my resume to gathering insights from her friends regarding roles in different industries that interested me! For example, I intend to completely change both my industry and function post MBA, which is extremely risky, but Christina was able to lay out what the flaws would be in my candidacy from adcomm's perspective and how I could improve upon those flaws. She suggested that I find relevant consulting/outside-of-work experience in the industry I wanted to pursue, which ended up being an important part of my story. Without her deep insight into the application process and multiple pointers along the way, I probably would not have even received an interview. She was instrumental throughout the entire process, helping me choose the schools I wanted to apply to, giving essay tips, preparing for interviews, and even post-acceptance, providing helpful pointers before the school year starts.

I ended up applying to 3 schools - Wharton, Booth, and Columbia. I was accepted into all three and also received a scholarship from Booth. Christina is not only a terrific consultant but also an incredible mentor. I could not have asked for a better experience.

As a non-traditional applicant from a creative industry, I was nervous about applying to business school. From the beginning, Erin reassured me that my top choice school was a real possibility if we crafted my profile to play up my unique strengths and strategically address any weaknesses in my application.

Given that Erin previously worked in admissions at my top choice school, she was able to provide me with specialized insight with my essays, resume and application as a whole.

Erin was always available over email or phone and reviewed any materials I submitted to her within the day, while I'm sure balancing many other applications. Furthermore, our discussions regarding interview prep gave me ample talking points and eased my nerves.

I could not have gotten into my top choice school without Erin and SBC!

I am 100% positive I would not have received the admits I did without Beth from Stacy Blackman Consulting. While I was worried about spending money on a consultant, it was 100% worth it in the grand scheme of things. I worked with Beth on Kellogg and Yale, and I was admitted to both. I was also able to transfer what we worked on to my Stern application (goals, resume, job descriptions, etc.) and was also admitted there with a scholarship.

I looked at five other larger and boutique consulting firms. I felt like many other consultants didn?t care much about who I was as a person/what drives me. Some encouraged me to craft a story they thought the admissions committee would want to hear (for example, one consultant told me to craft my goals around ed-tech because it is hot right now). Others said to me that the schools I was interested in were out of reach, and encouraged me to only apply to second and third-tier schools. It almost felt like other consultancies would make you doubt yourself to get you to buy their services.

SBC was the polar opposite. My first call was with Sarah Tsai, who listened carefully to my needs and matched me with Beth. Beth is a former admissions officer and has an acute knowledge of the way the process works. She was direct, highly intelligent, honest, communicative, nonjudgmental, and just overall lovely to work with. She broke down the application process into manageable chunks and helped keep me on track.

Beth took lots of time to consider who I was as a person and what drives me to help me in creating an authentic, but persuasive, application. SBC was very honest with me about my strengths and weaknesses, and carefully considered how we would leverage strengths and make admissions committees feel better about my shortcomings (quant background).

It was incredibly helpful to work with a firm that has so much admissions knowledge amongst its employees. Lisa (a former admissions officer) did a ?flight-test? of my application, and then I worked to revise it with feedback. I also did a mock-interview and got feedback before my real interviews. Finally, the SBC Wiki page is beneficial. I was able to read previous admits? essays and look at banks of interview questions that other students received to help myself prepare.

I went through 12 versions of my resume and over ten versions of my essays with Beth. SBC focuses on every little detail, down to each 100-character response on the apps.

THANK YOU SBC!!!!

When I decided to apply to business schools I was very skeptical about investing in a consultant, but working with Yvette was 110% worth it. Before meeting Yvette I had screened a few consultants from various companies and felt they either tried to sugar-coat things or were skewed toward traditional backgrounds. Yvette was exceptional at striking a balance between being an upbeat cheerleader and a no-BS coach. For example, I was very hesitant to re-take my standardized tests because I felt defeated and believed I was just a terrible test-taker; however, Yvette helped me make an informed decision about the upside of giving it another shot and shared useful test-taking strategies. With more motivation and courage than I would have had on my own, I retook the test and ended up boosting my score substantially. Yvette also identified with my non-traditional background and helped me spin that as a positive attribute throughout my application. Moreover, the level of attention I was given far exceeded my expectations. Yvette was very generous with her time ? both in our verbal discussions and in the effort she poured into every round of edits. Her thoughtful advice and constant encouragement took my application to the next level and I was ultimately admitted to my top school, HBS (which is also Yvette?s alma mater). Yvette made every step of the rigorous process feel manageable and I cannot say enough positive things about her!

I am extremely satisfied with the services offered by SBC and namely, my consultant Christine Hawkins, who did an amazing job helping me craft my story.

I had devoted a considerable amount of time preparing for the GMAT and researching schools, however due to some personal issues, I found myself with very little time (less than a month) to work on the applications of two highly selective schools. After doing a thorough research, I decided to approach SBC for support and I quickly realized that I had made the right decision.

Christine promptly managed to get to know my strengths/weaknesses and my story as a whole. Together, we laid out a strategy (which included guidance on the resume, essays, interviews and other crucial factors) that eventually led to two well-rounded applications that perfectly demonstrated my appeal as an MBA prospect to the adcom. Throughout the application process, Christine was very responsive and approachable, providing constructive feedback on various aspects of my application that helped me refine and systematize my seemingly "rugged" story.

In the end, I got admitted to both of the schools I applied to, with about a 80% scholarship from my top choice. I could not have been happier with Christine and SBC and I highly recommend their services to anyone considering a top MBA!

I worked with Keauna and applied to 8 schools. Although I only worked with her on applications for two schools (it is expensive) I used all of her help/suggestions on the remaining 6 schools so my success in these schools is definitely a result of our work together.

I had an initial free call with Lisa, who paired me with Keauna who does a lot of work with nontraditional applicants. If you are one, I highly suggest working with her! Even in the short consulting call I felt like SBC had a wealth of knowledge and experience and that their services would be money well spent. I chose SBC because they were very straightforward and to the point -- I didn't feel like they were sugar coating anything in order to get me to sign up for their services.

Coming from a nontraditional background, Keauna helped me figure out a cohesive way to tell the story of my career path thus far and why I wanted to get an MBA. Once I got interview offers she also helped me prepare for the interviews. Our mock interview made me feel much more prepared and comfortable going into the real thing.

I was accepted to 5 schools and declined to interview at a 6th. I received two full scholarships, both at top 10 schools. I also received a 50% scholarship at another top 10 school and a 75% scholarship at a top 15 school.

Keanua was always available throughout the process for both the big things like reviewing essays but also smaller, random questions I had along the way. She was also there to talk through which school I ultimately chose to attend. I really felt like Keanua cared about me as a person throughout the process and was genuinely happy for me and my acceptances. Thanks to her I will be attending a top 10 MBA program with a full scholarship in the fall!

After having calls with most of the major consulting firms, I decided to work with Christina from SBC. Most of the other consultants I had met always told me how I was going to get into every top school right from the beginning without having an understanding of my profile. Christina was the only one to immediately point out specific key strengths as well as potential weaknesses and ideas to address them, as well as being realistic about my opportunities. This was exactly what I was looking for.
Working with Christina proved to be a pleasure from the start. Two words that come to mind when thinking about her are ORGANIZATION and DETAILS. Her approach is very structured, comprehensive and well thought-out, and her ability to focus on even the smallest details, strong points, and potential flaws is overwhelming (in a good way of course!). If there is ANY possibility any part of your application might have a positive or negative effect on your assessment she WILL find it, point it out and work with you to highlight or address it. Relentlessly.
On top of this, Christina has an especial ability to retain every single piece of information you provide and bring it up and find ways to use it (even after a very long time). She really tries to get to know you as best as possible and might even bring up a story or a small detail you told her months ago and hadn?t even thought of yourself to help you prove an important point in your essays or interviews! She really takes your application more seriously than you do...
Her understanding of all schools is mind-blowing (although she went to HBS I honestly think she has attended every MBA program), and she will use this knowledge to point out those parts of you that best fit each school and will explain how and why they are a good fit, providing really valuable advice. This is very helpful to understand what schools you should target too.
Personally (having even met her in person) she is an extremely nice and respectful person, and everything about her is completely genuine. She really cares for you and will do everything she can to maximize your opportunities. If you want to truly give your MBA applications your best shot, she is the only option!
I got accepted into my top 2 schools: HBS and Wharton/Lauder. I cannot recommend her services enough, I would give her 6 out of 5 stars!

Beth provided a necessary steadiness throughout this entire process. She kept me on track and organized, so that I could focus on strengthening my portrayal of my candidacy. Her insightful guidance throughout this entire process made her an integral part of my support system and I truly could not have done it without her! Her time, patience, understanding, and extreme organization helped relieve much of the anxiety and stress that often comes up when pursuing a journey like getting an MBA!

Beth armed me with a strong basis of knowledge, confidence, and a realistic understanding of how to navigate this tricky process. I am beyond grateful for her thoughtfulness and the genuine care she put into supporting me and my candidacy. Her constant check-ins and words of support helped propel me successfully through this process. Thank you, Beth!

If you are at all like I was a year ago ? reading this thread and thinking ? is it worth it? THE ANSWER IS YES. Stop reading and go book Stacy Blackman Consulting now. SBC was invaluable in enabling me get into my dream school.
One thing is for sure in the application process -- you are going to have A LOT of questions. Maybe even doubts or concerns. Stacy Blackman Consulting will have the answers that you can TRUST and answers that are tailored to fit your INDIVIDUAL needs/skills/circumstance. This will make all the difference in enabling you to present yourself confidently, efficiently, and effectively in your written applications and in person interviews. I was amazed by how much my consultant, Beth Tidmarsh, brought out the best in me. I have to say if you are lucky enough to work with Beth, you have hit the jackpot. Beth was nothing short of a dream. She was relentless, professional, effective, insightful, supportive, meticulous, responsive, and worked her tail off to teach me how to put my best foot forward. I truly felt like I had superwoman on my side through this process ? there to save the day if I needed her, but all the while coaching me on how to fly on my own!
In summary, go sign up for SBC and don?t look back. Their guidance is worth every penny. When you get that acceptance call from your dream school admissions, you will be so happy you did!!

I cannot express how grateful I am for Maureen and Stacy Blackman. With the help, support, and resources of Maureen and Stacy Blackman, I found great success in my MBA applications. I was accepted to Tuck, Ross, and Fuqua, my top choices!

From my initial consultation with Sarah Tsai, I received customized and tailored advice from Stacy Blackman. Sarah matched me with Maureen based on my background and goals, and it was a great fit! Maureen took the time to really get to know my background, experiences, and goals, and worked with me to create a schedule and application plan. When I fell behind schedule due to disappointing GMAT scores, she helped and motivated me to stay on track and ensure that I ultimately met my round one deadlines. From the beginning, she set clear expectations and made me aware of my weaknesses. This allowed me to acknowledge and address these weaknesses in my application. Most significantly, I had a low GMAT quant score. While I felt discouraged, Maureen pushed me to retake the test multiple times, and even consider the GRE. She encouraged me to take advantage of all possible opportunities to ensure I submitted my best possible application.

Maureen and I worked on countless resume, essay, and email drafts. Because she really understood my experiences and goals, she helped me to create unique and personalized essays. She consistently emailed me back drafts the same day with strong edits and ideas. I emailed her daily with questions and concerns and she never failed to respond in a timely and thorough manner. Maureen was invested in my success throughout the whole process. She provided insight into the particular programs that I was applying to and helped me to differentiate my applications. She followed up with me after each interview and event that I attended. I am so incredibly grateful for Maureen and Stacy Blackman.

I worked with Beth on my applications for Kellogg/MMM and Tuck. I was accepted to both with scholarship at Kellogg!! I also applied to Darden and Yale. While I didn't work with Beth on those schools, I was able to transfer a lot of what we worked on for Kellogg and Tuck to the Darden and Yale apps. Throughout the process Beth checked in with me on how my apps for Darden and Yale were going, and I could bounce some essay ideas off her as well. I could tell she really cared about my success in all my applications. I was also accepted into both those schools- with a scholarship at Darden!

I'm still a little in shock that I was accepted everywhere, and I know I couldn't have done it without Beth. We went through countless revisions of my essays and resume, and even a few rounds on the short answer questions. Also invaluable was the peace of mind I got from working with her-any question I had I knew I could email her about and get a fast response.

I had vetted multiple other consulting firms but ended up choosing SBC because on my consultation call with Esther she was realistic about my weaknesses (a 50th percentile quant score on the GMAT and not a strong undergrad/work quant background) without trying to "scare" me. She also was able to deliver value instantly by accurately teasing out my strengths in 30 minutes. I knew that if I could get that much out of a consultation call the full service would be worth it- and it was!

From the moment I first contacted Stacy Blackman and was received by Bill, I knew I was in for invaluable advice from day one. I had this whole plan in my head for my story and how I was going to approach my MBA applications, and Bill told me straight up what was wrong with it and why it wouldn't fly in reality, and from my experiences since, I have seen why I was wrong in the first place.

After agreeing to take part in the service, I was matched with Amy and she was nothing but fantastic from the start. I could easily tell that she put actual care into crafting my story and putting together everything to make myself look more appealing to each school. She was incredibly responsive and helpful at every step of the way, from helping edit my essays, to helping me arrange my resume and accomplishments in the best way possible, and there is no way I could have ended up landing the offer of a lifetime I did without the help and support from Amy and Stacy Blackman.

In addition, the flight test from Beth really helped my confidence level in choosing the schools that I targetted, and let me focus on doing well at the interviews knowing my profile was good enough for those schools.

I would highly recommend the service to anyone who is serious about their future!

I am so glad I was able to work with Erin, who used to be an admissions officer at CBS. I applied to CBS and Wharton, and I ended up getting into CBS for ED and withdrew my application for Wharton, where I also received an interview invite due to Erin's help.

I spoke with several consultants and ultimately felt that SBC was the right fit for me. I had my intro call with Esther and she was very enthusiastic and encouraging, even though I felt nervous about my untraditional background and not having done as many extracurricular activities as some other applicants.

I truly couldn't have done it without Erin's guidance. My essays went through several edits and in the end, they were completely different from where they started and so much better. My background is a little bit untraditional and Erin was able to help me turn that into a strength. Because Erin used to be on the admissions committee at CBS, she knew what they were looking for and helped me make my application a lot more focused. The Flight Test with Beth was also super helpful, and allowed me to make some final and important edits to my essays.

I would highly recommend SBC!

I utilized Stacy Blackman Consulting, (I chose the All-In package), and it was one of the best investments I've ever made! Not only did I get into both schools I applied to, but I got into my dream school, USC Marshall School of Business, (with a scholarship). I worked with Amy for over a year and she gave me lots of practical advice on how to strengthen my application.

For me, writing the application essays was the most challenging part. Amy's advice on how to both approach the essays and her help with the over half a dozen revisions we did was invaluable. She also motivated and helped drive me to do my best on every aspect of the application, including improving my GMAT score and adding extracurriculars. The flight test, which is offered by Stacy Blackman Consulting, (in which other consultants review your application and essays) is another excellent example of how effective their approach is.

The application process is really a journey and it's important to start early. I would highly recommend Amy and Stacy Blackman Consulting as their expertise and track record speaks for itself. I truly believe that my applications wouldn't have been as successful as they were without their help. Again, I'd highly recommend their service!

Julie worked with me through my business school applications. She helped me with planning my application strategy , all my essays from the first draft to the final product. She also helped me with my interview preparation with a couple of mock interviews.

Julie's guidance and patience really helped me clarify my career goals and dig deeper to be able to write with conviction and clarity on my short-term and long term goals. All her feedback definitely helped me make my essays stronger and her consistent encouragement helped me stay motivated until we were both absolutely certain that it was the best possible version of my essay before submitting it.

I wholeheartedly recommend Julie and I would not have been able to get admitted at my dream school LBS without her.

Meghan worked with me in an hourly capacity on my Wharton and Lauder applications. She helped me with my essays from the first draft to the final product. She also helped me interview prep and even negotiate additional scholarships/fellowships post-acceptance (at no extra cost).

Meghan 's guidance helped me to clarify my career goals and focus on 2-3 specific ways that Wharton would help me to get there. Every time I thought an essay was done, she would come back pushing me to be more focused, more concise, or dig deeper. However, each piece of feedback unquestionably made my essays stronger--despite how much I wanted to just submit them as is!

I highly recommend Meghan Ellis and honestly feel that I would not have achieved the same results without her.