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365
8,700
Graduate: 5 Years
Firm
Ross School of Business at University of Michigan
Education
Finance
Deutsche Bank
English
Consultant
Stacy Blackman Consulting
Ohio
United States
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions Marketing at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for marketing and student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee.
In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both current MBA students and alumni since 2009.
Prior to joining Harvard Business School admissions, Ms. Kimmel was a Consumer Marketing Manager at Best Buy Corporation for the home theater and family man marketing segments. Ms. Kimmel holds a B.A. in International Relations and Economics from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to attending business school, Ms. Kimmel worked in investment banking and equity research on Wall Street at Deutsche Bank and Lazard Freres respectively.
Andrea resides in Cleveland, Ohio with her husband, 9-year old daughter and 7 year-old son.
Since 2001, Stacy Blackman Consulting clients have been admitted to every top business school worldwide, often with merit scholarships. Stacy Blackman Consulting (SBC) delivers results, as shown through its record of the highest number of online reviews across multiple MBA admissions ranking and review sites. Our online track record includes #1 on MBAinsight, BeattheGMAT, ClearAdmit, and #1 out of 11 firms for our team caliber by PoetsandQuants.
We begin with meticulous matchmaking before we begin an engagement or accept payment. We recommend a primary consultant only after evaluating your candidacy strength and differentiating qualities; we respect your investment and the trust you place in us. We offer a high-touch, limited client-per-consultant experience.
Contact us to request a free MBA advising session with an SBC Principal. Just give us 15 minutes.
OUR TEAM
SBC is the only consulting firm in the industry who has on our team a complete panel of former MBA Admissions Officers from the top US programs and European programs. No other firm has this complete talent. 75% of our MBA consultant team hails from the top seven US MBA programs as MBA graduates and/or former MBA Admissions Officers, including from Harvard and Stanford. The SBC team has MBA expertise at every top school, has graduated from elite MBA programs and understands career paths in every industry, traditional and non-traditional.
Over 1/4 of SBC’s consultant panel is of minority background, and SBC has five consultants who identify as and specialize in LGBTQ+ applicants. This reflects the company’s mission to further diversity in the MBA applicant pool. No other established MBA admissions firm has a team that is as diverse.
OUR KNOWLEDGE
We know what’s going on, and we know it first. We have former Admissions Officers (AdCom) from every top MBA program who are informing us of the current internal program priorities, best practices, unusual dilemmas, successful essay strategies, and interview standards. We have tremendous insight as to what is currently keeping the AdCom up at night and what values they are looking for from their current students.
As one SBC client explained, “What really sets the SBC team apart, however, is the breadth and depth of knowledge; any time that my consultant and I were wondering how to approach a school’s application better, there were numerous former admissions officers from those schools that we could draw on.” Another client said, “I appreciated how the team uses all their former AdCom members to make sure you feel like you’ve put your best foot forward in the application process.”
OUR MODEL
The SBC System™ has eight core modules and is the most robust of all firms.
SBC offers unlimited time with a carefully selected primary consultant, who will be dedicated to understanding you authentically, creating a winning strategy, and defining your unique story for each school. Your primary consultant will be your creative and strategic guide, helping you to create materials that are provocative, informative, school-specific and ultimately effective in resonating with each of your target MBA programs.
Your primary consultant will engage in multiple iterations of brainstorming, development, outlining, and applied review across all MBA application touchpoints—resume, online application form, recommender letters, essays, short answers and more –to eliminate blindspots and optimize every detail so that your story shines and reflects deep knowledge of each of the MBA programs.
SBC also believes in checks and balances, as it has the Flight Test™ which is a complete review by a former AdCom. This structured feedback from a former AdCom mimics a real AdCom review and helps to ensure that a candidate’s application is most compelling to the target audience.
We also include free access to THE VAULT, SBC’s Resource Center with over two decades of sample essays, recommendations, resumes, school overviews, interview transcripts and more. A recent client shared, “The large SBC database was priceless, especially when understanding the differences between schools and when preparing for interviews.”
GET STARTED WITH SBC
SBC deeply values mentorship within its client engagements and limits the number of clients for each consultant. We engage with clients only after evaluating candidacy nuances and deciding that we could be successful together.
Our matchmaking process includes criteria such as track record with target schools, proficiency with your career path, demographics, interests and character qualities, and the consultant’s availability at the time you’re interested in engaging. You’ll be matched with a primary consultant who believes in your candidacy and who is truly excited to work with you. Some of our consultants have a sweet spot for non-traditional applicants while others excel with engineers. Just like you, our consultants’ backgrounds and perspectives are varied.
SBC offers a limited number of complimentary phone or email-based consultations weekly for inquiries who have been pre-screened by our tenured team.
Contact us today to request a free MBA advising session with an SBC Principal.
The SBC All-In Service
A FORMER HBS ADMISSIONS OFFICER ON OUR SBC TEAM SHARED THAT MBA ADMISSIONS LOVE A GREAT STORY AND CLARIFIED:
“I believe it’s true that all people, and therefore all MBA admissions boards, love a great story. It’s a way to bring life to your application and show the realness of who you are during what can be a dry process.”
The majority of our clients select our All-In package because they recognize that the competitive admissions process requires an application set that is stellar and strategic on all levels. SBC’s “All-In” engagement includes:
Personal Assessment & Critical Reflection. Your primary consultant will work to understand you through deeply-probing questions that reveal your authentic dimensions.
Your consultant will dig into the who, what, how and why that forms your story through our 360° Personal Orbit™. You will explore the key MBA acceptance triggers that will be central to crafting your personal story.
We will evaluate your school preferences and criteria and develop a school list according to reach, reasonable, or safer program choices that ensures you apply to programs that you’ll love attending.
We will cover career path guidance–selecting and optimizing your career goals to ensure they are ambitious, purposeful, and attainable– and also recommendation letter(s) guidance to support your story and reinforce your aptitude and potential.
You will receive a complete MBA Application Strategy written summary including your value proposition and career path evaluation, as well as deliverables and tasks with an Attack Plan & Timeline.
One AdCom Flight Test™ as described by a recent client: “After I had gotten the applications to a near-finished state, we shared my application with my flight tester, 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. 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.”
Up to three formats of interview coaching. Post-application consultation to work through issues such as interviews, waitlist and deferral strategy and school selection.
Hourly First Services
Start with 2-3 hours for the initial strategy work a la carte to test the waters, and you can then roll up into the purchase of an All-In package.
Hourly Services
Hourly services can include any or all of the below:
Initial Strategic Planning
Background Assessment & School Selection
Resume Review
Recommendation Counseling – selection, prep, review
Essay Review – one draft of set of essays
Waitlist Strategy & Communications
Ding Analysis
Location: Ohio, United States
Phone: 866-667-8229
Email: info@stacyblackman.com
Website: https://www.stacyblackman.com
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Andrea was perfect for preparing for HBS interview and very thorough. She provided pre-mock interview prep, expertly outlining what the Adcoms are looking for and strategies to put your best foot forward. The mock interview and feedback was challenging and very representative of the real experience. I went into my interview feeling very confident and was further reinforced by Andrea’s thoughtful and helpful debrief session. I would recommend Andrea for any one with an HBS interview – no matter how prepared you think you are.
From my very first call with SBC, everyone I spoke to was very candid about my profile and my chances, which was very refreshing. They clearly knew my background (consulting) and all my conversations were very pertinent to that vs. receiving generic advice. Instead of trying to up-sell their bulk packages, I was actually recommended to use the initial Strategy session first and go from there, which I highly appreciated. I ended up using the Strategy session and hourly services for essay review and mock interview prep, all of which were invaluable. I have to say all the advisors went above and beyond not just in terms of their effort and detailed review of my materials, but also in staying in touch afterwards. That made all my interactions seem less transactional, which was again something I hugely appreciated. All in all, I’d say SBC understood my profile right off the bat and was willing to help out in whatever way that worked best for me. In addition to the advisors, even the admin staff is extremely responsive and tried to accommodate my urgent requests whenever possible.
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