HBS/Stanford GSB Dual Admit w/ help of Alex Liff

I am writing to share a phenomenal review of my time working with the Stacey Blackman Consulting team, specifically with my consultant Alex Liff.

After evaluating multiple consulting groups online, I came to the SBC team in January for an initial MBA Candidacy assessment. I felt that their team offered the most robust resources, experienced consultants, and breadth of professional backgrounds/experiences. Given that I was early in the process (applying for R1 that September), Esther provided a succinct, realistic evaluation of my profile/stats and provided some suggestions of where I could work to improve my profile in the coming months to strengthen my candidacy for the top programs that I was targeting. She was also frank about the fact that I came from ORM, competitive applicant pool to set realistic expectations. After the profile evaluation, I diligently worked to address my profile weaknesses and retook the GRE that moved me from the average to top range of my target schools' class.

With a strengthened profile, I reconnected with Esther in May to discuss the next step of finding a consultant to prepare for the R1 application deadlines. We reconnected for an in-depth interview over the phone where she gathered the inputs to intentionally connect me with a consultant on their team. She assessed my background and post-MBA interests, ultimately connecting me with Alex Liff. Next was the fit interviews. I'll add that the SBC team really emphasizes fit with your assigned consultant, so I would highly recommend not taking this step of the process lightly as it is critical that you connect with your consultant that you will spend hours working alongside. Given Alex's aligned background, mutual interest, and wealth of knowledge about the application process, I felt like I had won the lottery from our initial fit interviews! Therefore, I signed up for the all-in package for my two dream schools: HBS & GSB.

Alex & I hit the ground running that week, and he shared several helpful SBC proprietary resources to kick off my application journey. We started very broad by discussing and writing up all of my life experiences to date. Even if it felt like a tangential detail or irrelevant to applying to grad school, I bought into the exercise of starting to put pen to paper. This introspective process lead some key themes to emerge from my life's experiences, and Alex helped to validate as themes that would spark the intrigue of an Adcom. At the start, I remember feeling very vulnerable and uncertain of what I put to paper, but Alex was tremendously reassuring and supportive in helping bring my story to light. From there, I spent very intentional time connecting my lived experiences together in a few first draft essays. With every draft (15+), Alex provided seamless, timely feedback that allowed me to continue my momentum. Ahroughout the process he was extremely communicative, available, and honest. I found that these are the three most important attributes that a candidate can find in a consultant!

SBC offers a tremendous team-based approach to setting up their applicants for success. After I had gotten the applications to a near-finished state, Alex shared my application with my flight tester, Lisa, who was a former MBA admissions officer, to offer a fresh perspective of my entire package. This review was unique and insightful because the reviewer reviews the file in the same way as an admissions officer. An admissions committee member spends, on average, less than 20 minutes reviewing a file in full. The Flight Test provides insight into how the application stands up under the realistic, unbiased scrutiny of an adcom member versus intensely in the details as your admission's consultant. Thus, I found the perspective and feedback additive to my overall drafting process.

Ultimately, Alex was a fantastic sounding board helping me bring to light a holistic picture of my lived experiences and allowing them come to life in a coherent application. His excitement when I was accepted to the programs of my dreams was genuinely felt, and I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with someone who believed in me. I don't feel that I would have had the confidence to be so vulnerable in my application about the things I shared without Alex instilling confidence by rooting for me along the way. SBC's additional resources were also a HUGE time saver throughout the process, as I did not need to do as much in-depth research into every program I applied to, as it was already all there in their wiki. In summary, I cannot recommend Alex or my experience with the SBC team enough to future applicants, and I am tremendously grateful for the chapter that lies ahead! You will be in good hands.