I worked with Christine Hawkins on 3 applications. Acceptance with a substantial fellowship to my top choice Columbia Business School and interview invite to Wharton would not have been possible without Christine’s and the SBC team’s amazing dedication (both 2Y full-time; withdrew from Wharton and Stern due to Columbia ED).
Even before the process started, I could tell by Esther's (principal manager) enthusiasm and commitment to me to make sure that I was matched with just the right consultant for me, that I had chosen the right company.

I was a female applicant from an increasingly competitive pool, was educated from a US college with mediocre grades, with no off-the-page leadership or community experiences (oh yes, and no GMAT score yet). During what could have been anxious and unsettling times, Christine was a counselor, confidence booster when I was down with unexpected CFA and GMAT test results, and was an honest critique of all my deliverables in the best sense of the term. Christine would lead me to pull out certain ideas, but would never go ahead and write essays FOR me (for many good reasons); when something seemed off to both of us but neither of us could quite put a finger on it, she steered me toward looking in other arsenals of my anecdotes and experiences (which until that point I didn’t know I had or could turn to!) and pulling essay ideas from there.

Christine's comments on my deliverables always came under 48 hours turnaround (though she is not obligated to work so by all means), and I was amazed by her willingness to go above and beyond her call of duty--for example, encouraging me to network with alumni in my area to see if they could submit sideletters for me, and offering to put in extra mock interview sessions. Also, Lisa Anderson's Flight Test put me at east and gave me that much-needed extra boost of confidence as I prepared to hit ‘submit’ for my first choice & anchor school, Columbia. Bill Chionis, my client liaison, was also extremely supportive in keeping me updated of all the different options for application review and his birds-eye-view of the entire process. All of this careful attention to each of my applications as if they were their own will definitely lead me to recommend Christine & the SBC's comprehensive package to friends who are current MBA-hopefuls.

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The service that Christine and Stacy Blackman Consulting offered me was totally unique and tailored to my needs. SBC team chose a consultant that would be best appropriate to my application, Christine, and offered me access to a platform full of resources to apply to the top MBA schools.
Christine helped through the entire process of application, from the GMAT to the interview, in a professional and a personal way. She always answered me in no more than one day and reviewed my essays as many times as I asked her. She gave me support on when to take the GMAT and TOEFL and which should be my goal score, on how to choose my recommenders, on how to build a strategy to explain my accomplishments and career goals on my essays and resumé, and on how to have a great interview.
Since I saw some of my friends' applications, I can affirm that there is no similar service in the country where I live, Brazil. Christine listened to my entire life story, scince childhood, and helped me build a strategy to explain on my application my life before and after the MBA (which helped me not only in my essays and interviews but also in my life). It ended up being not only a consulting process to my MBA application, but a life coach to better understand myself and my goals.
I only applied to Columbia and was accepted few weeks after I sent my application. I had SBC' support in every step of my application. Due to my tight schedule, I know that it would not have been possible to send it with such an outstanding quality without their tailored support.

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I am so glad that I decided to work with SBC and Yvette Romero on my MBA apps. I got accepted to my top choice school just three months after my initial call! The process started with a multi-hour call with my consultant, Yvette, to lay out my strategy for how I would approach my applications and what message I wanted to communicate about myself to admissions committees through my essays, resume, etc. I felt that by the end of our initial call, Yvette had a strong understanding of who I was and what I wanted to do, and thus, was able to help me throughout the process in defining and sharpening my story. As I started writing and compiling the various parts of my apps, many thoughts, ideas, and tweaks would come up that I would consider. Yvette was always readily available to discuss these and offer further insight. She was very honest with her feedback, and tough in a way that motivated to me make the right decisions and not just the easy ones. When I prepared for my interview, Yvette ran me through a mock and gave very effective constructive feedback that ultimately played a large part in my success during the real event.

Stacy Blackman's suite of tools and resources also was incredibly helpful during my process. The AdCom Flight Test (a mock admissions committee reviews your application before you send in the real thing) allowed me to identify and fix a few high-level things with my application that ad coms look out for. The interview resources were also very helpful, and the practice platform allowed me to prepare in a real-life type scenario.

I cannot stress enough how satisfied I am with Stacy Blackman. I would recommend this service, and specifically Yvette Romero, to anyone interested in applying.

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As a non-traditional candidate (art world entrepreneur) applying to business school was an overwhelming and daunting task. I can't say enough about how professional and great SBC and Yvette were. After my initial consultation with SBC staff, I had a phone meeting with Yvette, and really feel that she understood the best strategy to help me with my applications. We went through a list of schools together, and her insight helped me target programs that not only had brand recognition, but whose teaching style would better fit my unique background and education goals.

Despite an undergraduate degree in Communications, and a VERY light quant background, Yvette helped me draw real world examples of quantitive abilities in my essays and resume. She is extremely knowledgable in what admissions staff are looking for, and really helped brand me as a unique candidate.

Besides helping with essays, Yvette was a great counselor, helping me through a couple (inevitable) anxiety ridden moments before deadlines and interviews. She was always prompt with a phone call or email.

Our work paid off, and I was admitted first round into Berkeley's PT program (top in the nation), and couldn't be happier with my decision to attend.

I truly feel that without Yvette's help, I wouldn't of been admitted.

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Erin is an amazing consultant! She is so smart, creative and strategic. She knows what the schools are looking for and she knows how to guide. I had some friends help me and they were very good at marking up my essays and telling me what was wrong. I now understand the difference between criticism and coaching. Erin showed me what was wrong, but also explained what was missing and where it needed to go. She then helped me figure out how to get there. She asked me the right questions that helped me to find my answers. It was actually a really cool journey of "self discovery" She was fun to work with - funny, kind and encouraging but also she pushes and coaches hard.
Her interview prep was also excellent. I have anxiety around interviewing and she helped me understand that the right kind of practice was the key. I took advantage of all of the SBC resources - practiced on the video platform, read through their interview guides and looked through all of the transcripts on their resource center. I had a mock with Erin where she helped me hone in on where I needed to focus my efforts. It was the first time in my life that I walked into an interview feeling quite confident, because I know my story well and had so much practice telling it. She psyched me up and prepared me.
Really could not have asked for more in a consultant. In many ways the experience exceeded my expectations. Because I created three great applications and also enjoyed the process (most of the time).

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Beth was my primary consultant at SBC and I cannot recommend her highly enough. It's obvious that Beth truly cares about her clients (or at least me!! haha) She wanted to learn about my career goals and understand why I chose them, what influenced my decisions. She spent a ton of time helping me figure out exactly how to tell my story and what my overall strategy should be. She has a background working on an adcomm and that really showed. When she gave me advice she could speak to exactly how they read the applications and what other backgrounds look like in the applicant pool. I found it very reassuring to know that I had that expertise on my team. I also had the opportunity to show my application to other SBC team members and members of other adcomms (ex-members) Having more than one look at the application was very helpful and definitely increased my confidence.
I also had support from Bill who was my client liaison and was very helpful in answering some questions and reviewing a few things that I wanted another look at. He was patient and knowledgeable and also, seemed to really care. SBC is buttoned up and everyone that I encountered on their team was excellent. Highly recommend.

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I hope this review is helpful to anyone applying to business school and wants to make the best possible decision to be successful: hire Bill at Stacy Blackman Consulting. It's that simple.

I was actually working with another consulting company and felt out of control. I had hired them several months in advance with the thought that I would slowly work on my three applications, no rush, no panic. But I was not making progress and felt like I just was not getting the type of direction I needed, I was not sure of my essay topics or even that sure of my schools. Everything felt half baked. When a friend mentioned that she was working with SBC and was very happy I decided what the hell, hire them for a few hours and see what they could do. I started working with Bill and he literally rescued me from the flames. The difference was so obvious - he added clarity to my application, guided me in picking out schools and coming up with topics to use in my essays. We had a great conversation where I hung up knowing what to do. I had focus and direction instead of utter confusion and chaos. So one step at a time, we worked together and created great apps. By then I was down to 5 weeks until deadline and in a panic. But Bill was calm and cool and responsive. Every time we spoke or emailed I made progress and things moved in the right direction, at a good pace.

In five weeks we exchanged hundreds of emails and went through 30+ essay drafts - cant really believe it.

The approach we took was completely different from what I was doing before. There was a strategy behind the whole story and it really reflected me. In the end I pulled off a hat trick with acceptances to three schools! As Bill knows, he has my eternal gratitude.

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This is a special shout out not only to the entire team at Stacy Blackman Consulting, but especially to Christine Hawkins, my admissions consultant, who worked tirelessly with me over the course of several months.

Christine not only helped me pick out which schools to apply to in the limited time I had (I was applying for round 2!), but also saved my essays! She gave me excellent feedback, and I don't think I would have achieved what I did without her guidance. Her feedback was truly insightful, unbiased, and clear. She also steered me in the right direction, especially when I would get carried away with a particular experience or story in my essays. No matter how stressed I got, Christine was always there to help, and extremely prompt with her responses.

I think the biggest learning I got out of working with Stacy Blackman Consulting is that you get just enough of a push in the right direction, without losing your own ideas. They don't just help you write specific essays or answer individual application questions, they teach you how to think about and approach your applications as a whole.

In the end, I was able to apply to my top 5 schools in a limited window, and finally received two admits of which one also included a scholarship! Even though I was sitting thousands of miles away from my consultant, in another country, I never once felt like she was not there for me.

Thank you Christine for helping me realize my dreams, and not giving up on me!

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I want to thank Amy/SBC for helping me get into one of the top B Schools. I was bit hesitant about the price tag at first but going for full comprehensive package was indeed the right choice. I applied to 3 schools and got interview calls from ALL of them.

Amy has great listening skills and exceptional ability to bring out the best in people. I am amazed by the commitment and thoughtful approach which Amy brought forward - she ensured to strengthen the underlying story by asking insightful questions. She maintained confidence in my profile & partnered wholeheartedly to give the best shot despite time constraints. Moreover, her advice was not limited to essays but to MBA journey & beyond..

Eventually the efforts paid off :) THANK YOU Amy/SBC!!

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I was referred to Stacy Blackman Consulting by a friend who was also going through the MBA application process. I was coming from a non-traditional background for business school and I didn’t have a lot of resources to help guide me through the process and was feeling overwhelmed and lost.

I was matched with Erika and from our very first call I knew that she would be the mentor and support system that I needed to go through this process. She was able to boil down the daunting amount of work ahead and give me insight into the most important things to work on and in what order. Erika’s brainstorming exercises helped me define by short and long-term goals, choose the strengths that I wanted to emphasize, and identify the weaknesses that I needed to explore. She helped me pull my story together cohesively and gave me important feedback that was honest and supportive. Erika was always very quick to respond and her notes on my essays were comprehensive. We primarily communicated via email, but she also made herself available to conduct a mock phone interview before my first interview which was extraordinarily helpful.

Another resource that Stacy Blackman offers that was invaluable is the video platform to practice and review interview responses for each school. Using that program made me more comfortable for Skype interviews and video essays that some schools require. The Flight Test gave me the perspective of a fresh set of eyes on my application and caught a few details that I otherwise would have missed.

I ended up getting into a top 5 school with a large scholarship, and could not be more excited! When I look back, I can’t imagine going through this process without Erika.

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