Jennifer

My hope (and mental gymnastics to justify it) in paying the lofty price for the “all in” package was to either 1) receive a scholarship greater than or equal to the price I paid SBC, or 2) to get into a school that I felt I was a longer shot for. The reality was I got both – getting into Wharton with scholarship money!

The value in working with Jen was her inside knowledge of what schools are looking for and her ability to help me make my story shine despite coming from an overrepresented demographic of MBA applicants. She is meticulous in her essay reviews and thought critically and holistically about all the components in my MBA application, and challenged me to to do the same, providing feedback much more valuable than basic writing fixes/improvements.

Would absolutely recommend working with Jen!

I spoke with three different SBC consultants, but once I talked to Jen, I knew she was the one I wanted to work with. A friend of a friend had worked with her and had nothing but amazing things to say, and I would echo the same sentiment.

From the very start, I appreciated Jen’s honesty and directness. I’m a no-nonsense kind of person so I really enjoyed our initial conversation. She clearly explained how the application process would work, how often we’d communicate, and how my profile aligned with the chances at my target schools. Once we started working together, Jen was instrumental in every aspect of my applications. She created a schedule for us and helped me with my resume, essays, and even with minor parts of the applications that I had questions about. She really helped me with finding my voice and answering essay questions in a compelling, interesting, and authentic way. This required lots of rewriting and editing, and I am confident my essays were of a caliber I couldn’t have achieved without her feedback and expertise. She got back to me daily, answering all of my questions thoroughly, which I really appreciated since I was completely new to the process.

Overall, I have only great things to say. I appreciated Jen’s communication, directness, and positive attitude through the process. In the end, I was fortunate enough to get admission to my dream school. Thank you, Jen!

I had a fantastic experience working with Jen this year, and can happily say I will be attending my dream school! What I most appreciated most about working with Jen was that she spent a lot of time understanding and crafting my story upfront, so that all subsequent insights and advice came through this perspective of truly knowing me. Secondly, Jen provided a great balance between being realistic and believing in me, and providing me encouragement. I didn’t want someone selling me a bill of goods that I could for sure get into my dream school, but I also didn’t want someone who thought I had zero shot – Jen was realistic about my chances but gave me confidence in my story. The last thing I appreciated about Jen was her responsiveness and professionalism. She always responded or provided edits to my resume/essays within 24 hours (usually much much less), and always made herself available for ad hoc questions. From my friends who used other consulting companies, getting feedback took days if not weeks, and was equivalent to pulling teeth – this was NOT the case with Jen. Overall I am completely satisfied and would 10/10 recommend – thanks again Jen!

The comprehensive package for SBC is expensive, but it is worth the price. With their guidance, I was accepted to all the schools I applied to: HBS, CBS, Kellogg, and Stern.

Jen was very thorough and responsive. I really enjoyed working with her. I come from an engineering background and was initially worried about adcoms not understanding what I did and seeing me as a stereotypical engineer. After our kick-off call, my worries were allayed. She understood my background, weaknesses, how to overcome them, and what I should highlight in my essays. I don’t think I would have written the essays I did without her guidance.

If you are worried about finding or telling your story like I was, I highly recommend Jen.

I know the first thing people balk at is the price point of the comprehensive package. However, I can say that it is definitely worth it as I got into Kellogg, my top choice for Round 2!

I specifically asked for Jen because of my sister’s great experience with her, and she definitely exceeded all expectations. She quickly pinpointed my strengths and helped me develop a strong personal narrative. She was also very direct in her feedback, and always gave me her honest thoughts on my essays, which helped me present my story in the best possible way. She was incredibly patient and responsive throughout the entire process. She always responded quickly and would go through as many revisions as necessary until we both were happy with the final result. Finally, I could always count on her to answer my questions. In the very few cases when she didn’t have an answer, she would go out of her way to ask fellow consultants to get me one.

I was thoroughly impressed by her commitment to helping me achieve my goals, and I wholeheartedly recommend Jen! It was a great experience and an extremely worthy investment!

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.

I purchased SBC’s comprehensive package with Jennifer Vargo, and I couldn’t be happier with the experience! After my initial 2-hour phone conversation with Jen, she was able to help me identify important life experiences that I could write about – stories that I didn’t think was all that important. Jen was also extremely responsive, and always responded within 24 hours (sometimes at 4am in the morning!) What I really appreciated was Jen’s patience and her honest feedback, as she would at times tell me that my essay theme didn’t work as well or that I should try using a different example, and I would start over and re-write the essay. I had two different drafts for one of my schools (each highlighting a different personal experience), and Jen and I disagreed on which version was better. Instead of just letting me pick one, she went out of her way and asked another colleague within SBC for a third opinion. This again shows the level of dedication that Jen has to make sure that you feel the most confident with your final work. After countless versions and drafts, I was very happy with my final essays because I think they really represented who I am. I am happy to say that I got my top choice at HBS! Aside from Jen, all the staff members at SBC were amazing! Everyone was extremely helpful and I felt that I had more than what I needed to prepare for all my essays and interviews (such as the complimentary SBC guides, the flight test, and their interview questions vault). I highly recommend SBC and Jennifer – especially if you’re looking to apply for highly competitive, top tier schools.