Mission accomplished with Ryan Barba

Right off the bat, I will say that I am not a great applicant (M7 was definitely not in the cards for me) and am very pleased with my end result.

In round 1, I initially opted away from SBC because of the very formal (almost corporate) approach it appeared the company took in my initial phone call with the company. For some reason, it rubbed me the wrong way and I chose a different consultant. However, my initial phone call with Ryan stuck in the back of my head and when I reevaluated for R2, I chose SBC. The one school I was particularly interested in for round 2 was Cornell and for that reason, Ryan (a former Parks scholar and Cornell Johnson MBA grad) was the deciding factor.

As a Cornell grad, Ryan perfectly outlined what I needed to do on the schools unique essays, something that gave me a ton of comfort. On the multiple reversions of my essays, he outlined tips and verbiage he used to land a full scholarship to the school. In fact, we made such progress in each iteration and thus, saving such time, that I was able to use a large chunk of my 5-hour purchase for another school. In comparing the final essays I turned in R2 to the failed essays (again, done with another consultant) turned in R1, it is quite clear the sizable talent gap between Ryan/SBC and other consultants... Literally night and day between the two finished products. The truth is, anyone reading this review is here to get RESULTS out of an admissions consultant. To this end, I firmly believe if I did not switch to SBC I do not think I would have gotten into Cornell (my interview at the school was awful so it is clear admissions thought highly enough of my application and essays to accept me anyway).

I will get out the little "bad" that there was as well. As I was on an hourly service, I am not sure if it was as a function of the corporate culture at SBC or not, but every minute of time spent on email exchange, even if it was for simple clarity on a previous confusing email, was tracked and charged. I walked away from a few iterations feeling a little nickel and dimed, but hey this is a business.

Again overall, could not be more pleased. If you are considering any school in that 9-16 range, especially Cornell, I FIRMLY think you should at least give Ryan a call... his expertise led to my acceptance.