Stacy Blackman Hourly Services

I decided to apply to INSEAD in March of 2016, just 5 weeks before the application deadline. After starting the application, I realized that there are 7 essays required for this application and that if I were dinged without an invite to reapply, I wouldn't be reconsidered for future admissions.

I decided to hire an admission consultant to help me with the process. Karla from Stack Blackman was extremely helpful and professional. She was a former INSEADer and worked in the admissions office. Within the first 15 minutes of our call, she had convinced me on her credibility because she understands the metric that INSEAD used to select candidates. After consulting her, Karla suggests that I use the 10-hour package and that she will expedite the process for me and help me meet the application deadline.

5 rough edits later, I was able to submit all of the essays within 3 weeks, well ahead of the 5 weeks deadline! When I was invited to the 2 alum interview, she gave me a mock and feedback on how to handle some of the more difficult questions such as what 3 unique values do you bring to the program. Overall, it was a great experience with Karla and I cannot recommend Stacy Blackman enough. The packages may be expensive but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the entire MBA investment.

I worked with several consultants at Stacy Blackman on an hourly basis. The three were Ryan Barba, Maureen Capitolo, and Stephanie Cohn- depending on that consultant's expertise for the different programs I was targeting. All three consultants were very professional and extremely knowledgeable on how to best answer essay prompts in a clear and concise manner, but also ensuring how to most effectively illustrate a person's candidacy and fit in the program.

I worked primarily with Stephanie Cohn and I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed working with her. In additional to her insight and knowledge, having previously worked on adcoms, she is also very professional and very prompt in her replies- even with approaching deadlines when the candidate may have dragged his/her feet prior.

The consultants at Stacy Blackman are not ghost writers, but they will help you craft the best essays possible. I highly recommend using them, and Stephanie C. in particular- regardless of what program you are targeting. With Stephanie's help, I was able to get into 6 out of 8 Top 20 programs (4 of which were in the Top 15).

I honestly went back and forth for a while before deciding to use an admissions consulting service for my MBA applications, but I am so glad I did! Christina was a pleasure to work with and if I could do the process over again (which I definitely don't want to), I would work with her on a comprehensive basis rather than on an hourly basis because I truly came to depend on her for support and guidance. Beyond just helping me with big items like my essays or recommender selections, she also took the time to guide me on the smaller, open-ended response sections of the applications.

Though we worked together on an hourly basis, she was extremely generous with her time. When I scheduled a one-hour interview prep session with her prior to my interviews with HBS and Kellogg, she stayed on the phone with me for a total of 3 hours, to make sure I felt calm, positive, prepared, and excited rather than anxious about my interview. She was more than just an admissions consultant, she was a great emotional and moral support to me throughout the process, and someone I hope to keep in touch with in the future.

Applied: HBS, Wharton, Kellogg
Interviewed: HBS, Wharton, Kellogg
Accepted: Wharton with the Joseph Wharton Fellowship and Kellogg with the Forte Foundation Scholarship

I am thrilled that I chose Stacy Blackman consulting for essay strategy and interview prep. What I loved most about the process was how simple and intuitive they made it. Bill was fantastic at helping me craft my essay strategy and build upon each essay question to create a narrative that was cohesive and compelling. He was incredibly responsive and thoughtful about my approach to the application and would highly recommend him to any MBA candidate. His deep expertise with the process and the various schools was evident in our conversations.
Additionally, since he was very familiar with my school of choice (Columbia), I engaged him to help me with interview prep. After our structured practice and mock interview sessions, I felt so comfortable going in to meet with the admissions committee. I am thrilled that I will be attending Columbia next year and would highly recommend Bill and Stacy Blackman for any future candidate.