I had the privilege of working with Emily Lammers of SBC throughout my application process, and after receiving admission to my looong-shot dream school (CBS), I can't imagine having worked with anyone else.

After a close friend of mine had incredible success throughout his application process, utilizing the all-in package with SBC, I was sold on the firm. The next step was matching me up with a consultant who not only specialized in candidates with similar profiles to mine, but also candidates who had similar goals. This is where SBC really shines. The curated consultant selection process allows you to be paired up with a consultant who knows your industry, your schools, and how to tailor your story to help you achieve your goals. This is how I wound up working with Emily and receiving admission to my dream program, of which I wasn't even initially planning on applying to, but Emily convinced me was worthwhile.

From day one is was clear that Emily was committed to my success, and further, that she was passionate about the process in general. We reviewed every relevant aspect of my pre-MBA life in depth to further understand strengths, weaknesses, motives, and anecdotes that would support my applications to top programs. From there we developed our application strategy. Emily's knowledge of the nuances of particular programs and their applications processes allowed me to put my best foot forward for each application and to know how to highlight aspects of my profile that each individual school looks for in applicants. I genuinely can't speak highly enough about Emily and her guidance throughout the process. She was available and enthusiastic about responding to e-mails or phone calls at any time, and the level of detail she provided in reviewing and analyzing my essays was far beyond what I expected. She is a straight shooter and completely candid when providing feedback, which is a necessity when it comes to this process. Emily's ability to provide structure and flow to your story helps your essays shine, and prepares you incredibly well for the interview process. Further, Emily goes way beyond her duties with primary research and often times provided me with program information that was relevant to my career goals so that I could include it in my essays or interviews. Emily reads essays as though she is an AdCom member for each program, and provides highly specialized feedback. She was supportive when I felt overwhelmed, and pushed me when I was lazy. Lastly, Emily made this stressful process incredibly enjoyable and I oftentimes find myself missing the late nights of essay writing, frantic messages of concern, relief that comes with submitting the applications, and elation for interview invites and program acceptances.

We ended up securing interviews with all of my programs and received admission to CBS (we turned down the other interveiws after hearing the news from CBS)....an investment well worth it no matter how you look at it. Emily is an absolute legend, and I credit her knowledge, guidance, and passion for the process with my admissions success. Do yourself a favor and ask for her services when you reach out to SBC...you will not be disappointed.

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I cannot thank Christina Fu and SBC enough on my admittance to Columbia Business School with a tremendous fellowship package! I come from a non-traditional background. With a demanding full-time job, extracurricular activities, GMAT-taking, and personal engagements, I knew I had little time to waste, so I was certain to hire someone to guide me in this process.
1. Christina is a HBS alumnus, she is extremely experienced working with professionals of a variety of industries. I have endless number of good things to say about her, but I will highlight a few below:
a. Christina genuinely cares about her clients. I often find our phone conversations go beyond MBA applications. She is not only a MBA consultant to me, but also a career mentor and life coach. She would always guide me in strategic ways to encourage my growth, even in times when I lacked the confidence to do so.
b. She knows exactly my strengths to highlight for each individual program. Her guidance has helped me tremendously in standing out amongst thousands of strong applications.
c. Christina is also an excellent editor that made my essays alive with creative vocabulary usage and correct grammar. With the help of her brainstorming sessions, I never ran out of ideas to write about myself.
d. Most importantly, I was able to establish a bond with Christina - I trust her in that she will put her best foot forward to help me with my applications. She has become a great friend and mentor to me and I am sure we will stay in touch through the years!
2. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the rest of the SBC team - Esther, who I had the pleasure to have an introductory call with and who paired me with Christina, and Lisa, my flight tester, she reviewed my CBS application, which was one of the very few applications she gave a perfect score on! Thank you so much for boosting my confidence!
3. When selecting a consulting firm, I compared SBC and mbaMission. I was immediately sold on Esther’s candidness. She precisely pointed out areas that I was lacking and recommended that I apply one year later (which I did), even if it meant one fewer client for SBC. The conversation with her made me feel that she genuinely cared about my development, a quality that was substantiated by the year-long partnership with Christina and interactions with the rest of the SBC team.
I am extremely thrilled to have chosen SBC as my admissions consulting firm and very grateful to have worked with Christina on such an unforgettable journey in life!

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I highly recommend Stacy Blackman Consulting. My experience working with DD couldn't have been better. She always gave meaningful and insightful feedback that took my essays and resume to another level. I was skeptical about teaming up with a consulting firm at first, but I'm so happy that I did. With DD's expertise, I was able to fit my entire story into my applications in a natural and authentic way.

I couldn't have asked for a better consultant. Additionally, the whole SBC team was also great to work with. Esther took the time to really get to know me during the on boarding process, and Caryn's feedback on my Flight Test was quick and helpful.

I'm really glad that I chose SBC. With their help, I got into my top programs and received a few scholarships along the way.

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I cannot stress the value that working with Stacy Blackman Consultants, especially my advisor DD Kane had in the app process and the final results.

1) I was a reapplicant for all 3 of my schools (CBS, Wharton and Sloan). As such, DD helped me going through last year's applications, critiquing them, and developing a coherent story for this year. DD's support was always on point: she usually replied to my questions and draft essays within a few hours, and the feedback was always direct and concise. Her viewpoint as a former Sloan Adcom member was key in making judgement calls about what to include/not include in essays, and in developing a general approach.
2) The larger SBC support group was also key in the process. Specifically for Wharton, I used SBC's option for a "flight test", where Rebekah Johnson, a former Wharton AdCom, goes through the entire application before submitting it, and does an in-depth analysis of it. Likewise, when DD did not know the answer to a particular question, she could turn to the broader team of in-house consultants who answered them for me.
3) When comparing SBC to other consulting firms, it became clear that, despite the large investment in SBC, the programs and setup it offered were clearly superior. I could not be happier with the overall results.

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I worked with Beth for my Kellogg application specifically on interview preparation. Beth is extremely professional, patient and knows her stuff. I worked with one other consultant from MBA exchange and it was night and day. As a former member of the admissions team at Kellogg, Beth is very knowledgeable on the application process. She spent two hours to help me prepare for the interview and I felt very confident going into it. The interview questions was exactly what we had talked about and I wasn't caught off guard by any of the questions. I would really recommend Beth if you are looking for a great consultant.

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TL;DR: Given my 680 GMAT score, I wouldn't have been able to get admitted into Harvard Business School (my dream school) without the guidance of Carol Grayson from Stacy Blackman Consulting (SBC).

On Carol Grayson:
- Taught me how to tell my story to illustrate the type of impact I hope to achieve
- Has over 15 years of MBA admissions experience so she knows what is and isn't important across traditional and non-traditional profiles
- No BS, straight-to-the-point. A lot of tough love, but that helped me learn quickly so that I can craft the right story by myself in time for Round 1.
- Bonus: Provided emotional support every step of this grueling MBA application process (GMAT rewrites, late-night essay writing, interview prep/anxiety).

On SBC:
- Extremely patient with helping me find the right consultant (had to be matched a couple times to find Carol, which was the right fit for me)
- Despite a higher cost, I chose SBC over other leading admissions consulting firms like mbaMission and Veritas Prep because of Carol Grayson and the SBC team.
- When you work with SBC, you're working with the best team in the business. Special shout out to Esther (matching me with Carol) and Lisa (Flight-test expert reviewing my application before I submitted to HBS). SBC has actual former admissions officer intel in-house.

Just like pursuing your MBA, hiring an admissions consultant is an incredibly personal decision. For me, if I was willing to invest around $200,000 USD for my MBA, spending an extra $5,000 on the best MBA admissions consulting to maximize my odds was a no-brainer.

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I took Andrea's help to prepare for the HBS interview on campus. While I had prepared and submitted my application by myself, I was unfamiliar with the interview process and was looking for professional help to get a better perspective of how my interview would potentially be. As a former HBS Adcom member and HBS MBA alum, Andrea did a very thorough job of running me through how my interview would likely be.

I spent two hours with Andrea, with the first hour involving going through the interview format and the second hour involving a 30 minute mock interview followed by feedback.

The HBS interview is slightly different from most other M7 interviews in the sense that the interviewer is an ad com member who has thoroughly read your application. Therefore, the kinds of questions that you get tend to be different, and speaking with Andrea allowed me to better prepare for the interview.

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My work with Jen started with a phone call and I knew right away that this was going to be very good. It's been a long but extremely productive process and I gained so much including 2 acceptance letters! I was very overwhelmed and nervous when we had our first call. Jen walked me through my background and brag sheet and drilled me on my actions, my decisions, consequences and more. It was a very draining two hour call but it made the rest of the process much better because I had core marketing tenets and great examples to back everything up.
We picked out a list schools that were a good fit for me. Jen helped me think through not just "where I could get in" but also what I wanted out of a school and what the different programs could offer me. She did not push me towards any particular school, but did help me figure out my chances and where I wanted to be.
I had to completely overhaul my resume to fit for an MBA application and I used the SBC resume guide. It was very useful with great examples and a complete step by step walk through of the differences between an MBA resume and a job search resume. Very very detailed and it was a fantastic resource for me - it truly helped a lot, along with Jen's edits and guidance of course.

One thing I greatly appreciated about Jen is that she did not try to force me into a box. This was the case with picking schools and also writing essays. Everything I wrote felt authentic. Me - just better, more strategic and more polished. For example, when we first started talking, we discussed my strengths. I listed off some strengths that she said were good but perhaps generic. After we had the discussion about my background, she suggested strengths that were completely pulled from my examples, but I just never really thought of it from that angle.
Everything Jen helped me with reflected my goals. When it came time to interview I could speak very honestly and passionately about everything in my essays, I think it really came out in the interviews that i was authentic. I was very happy with everything that I did with SBC and with the service from Jen.

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I went to SBC after two friends had a very positive experience. In fairness, I was sold on their references so did not really explore other options. No matter - I am completely happy with my selection. I was very cautious at first because it was such a big investment. I found it hard to comprehend how I could get my money's worth. But the process really helps streamline your application journey in such a smart way. I worked hard and put it a lot of hours (so did my consultant Caryn by the way) And went through all of the steps of exploring my entire background, determining strengths and weaknesses, coming up with great examples and then applying all of the stories across my various applications.
As I said Caryn worked HARD. She truly cares and adapted herself to my schedule. She made it clear that she would not be a bottle neck and she was here to serve me, not to complicate my life by jumping through hoops for her schedule! Refreshing!! She guided me through a structured but flexible process, we went through the steps to create a backbone of an application, but also spent time where I needed it most. In my case I am a fairly decent writer but needed a lot of help structuring my ideas.
I also want to point out that the flight test is a very very valuable program that is offered by SBC. The idea is that your main consultant goes through the application very carefully with you and gets to know you well. This is good, but it is different from the way your application is looked at by the schools. So the flight test actually copies the review of the schools. The reviewer does not know you, does not have any info on you, and just gets your package and goes through it quickly. Then you get the feedback and can apply it with your consultant. I liked that extra level of help and the extra look at my application before I submitted it. The feedback was useful.
Caryn and SBC as a whole were true professionals. Everything ran smoothly. I felt motivated and supported, and I knew I was getting the very best advice out there. In retrospect I cannot imagine doing this without their support - I know it made the difference for me as I am going to a top 5 school in the Fall.

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I am writing from China. I will attend Georgetown University and I think I should write below words down to express my sincere gratitude for having you as my consultant during my MBA application process, though I have been saying this for many times.

I came in late and all the works were under a great time pressure, but you really made me feel authentically supported when I received your feedback in a very short time, sometimes even at late night on your end. I could still recall the time we were working on the Cornell essays, your response was incredibly swift and extremely helpful. You pointed out my problem of not answering the essay question at the first instance and you even helped on correcting many of my grammar errors. I benefit a lot from the advices and trainings you ever gave me, on resume drafting, storytelling, and interview preparing. These have all became a part of my professional competences and will help me to step further on my future career path.

Thank you for being such a genius, patient, nice and professional consultant. I am so lucky to have you with me during the past months. May you inspire others to achieve the greatness you have.

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