Laura

Laura is all that you can wish for in a consultant. She is super responsive and goes above and beyond to help you and guide you through the application process. I would not have been able to secure an admit without her. She made my application shine even with a lower than average GMAT score. Absolute value for money!

I was a nontraditional (i.e., 34 years old, never worked for MBB/Big 4/IB/Big Tech, low-ish GRE Q score) applicant who applied to Ross in Round 3 (and also to Booth and Kellogg Weekend). Laura’s insights into the Ross admissions process were invaluable. I would recommend her to any B-school applicant.

My experience working with Laura Nelson during my application process for Business School’s 2024 intake cycle was nothing short of exceptional. I am grateful for her timely responses and nuanced feedback. Her guidance played a pivotal role in helping me develop a cohesive and succinct narrative for my application, ensuring that my strengths and aspirations were effectively communicated.

Thanks to Laura’s help, I was accepted into one of my dream schools, and I am thrilled to announce that I’ll be starting this fall. I highly recommend working with her!

When first applying to McCombs, I was wondering if a Consultant would be worth the money. I ended up using Laura and I believe it was the reason I was admitted to business school. Laura worked very efficiently and totally enhanced my Cover Letter and Resume in only 2 hours of review. I highly recommend Laura based on her knowledge of admission requirements and efficient work ethic.

Laura was my rock throughout my MBA application process. She helped me not only parse through my thoughts and craft narratives, but was also incredibly responsive to every little question I had along the way. In addition to helping me edit my essays, answer data forms and prep for interviews, Laura was there to calm and reassure me as I faced my application anxieties. I couldn’t have done it without her and am so grateful for her support.

Laura was an amazing consultant to work with throughout my journey in applying to Graduate Schools for Business. Laura was incredibly helpful and provided a hands-on detailed approach. I would not have succeeded in my graduate school applications without her!!! I am super grateful for my experience with Laura. She helped me along every step of the way, from finding schools that would be a good fit, to filling out my application, to considering possible ways to respond to essay prompts, to helping me with the actual essays. Through Laura’s assistance, I will accepted for admittance into my top school!

Laura was incredibly helpful in my MBA application journey. I would recommend her to anyone applying to business school who wants to put their best foot forward.

I decided to apply in late summer. I was shooting for Round 2, without having taken the GRE, after having recently been part of a RIF and coming from a consumer marketing background, without typical consulting or math experience. Laura’s guidance gave me confidence that I was on the right path. She helped me hone my narrative, fine-tuned the details of each element of my application and encouraged me throughout. She was always available and her feedback was timely and thoughtful. Thanks to our work together, I was accepted to three out of the four schools I applied to — NYU Stern, UCLA Anderson and Berkeley Haas. I also received scholarships from both Stern and Haas.

My successful applications are the result of Laura’s coaching, I am proud of our work together.

I came to Stacy Blackman as a re-applicant to the B-schools. That’s when I interacted with Laura. She was very calm, patient and highly responsive in her approach. She listened to my story understood my goals and aspirations and advised me accordingly. Her suggestions were extremely helpful. The best part was that she was extremely reassuring during the tough times and that made me think optimistically. I got into one of my top choices school with a very significant scholarship, thanks to Laura’s guidance and support. I highly recommend working with her..

Working with Laura has been an invaluable experience. Her expertise has been instrumental in boosting my confidence throughout interview preparations and while finalizing essays. She has also helped me navigate the often confusing admissions process with ease. Her input and advice have been second to none, making the journey towards my MBA less daunting. I honestly cannot think of anyone else I would have wanted by my side during this process. I wholeheartedly recommend Laura if you’re pursuing an MBA and want to streamline your admissions process.

I came into my MBA process behind. I was laid off in January and began brainstorming pretty soon thereafter. Most people looking to join the class of 2025 at any school had already submitted applications by the time I began brainstorming!

I started working with Laura in February and she was reassuring of my application and school goals while still being honest with what an uphill battle I would have applying in the final round of most of my targets. After discussing with her I added 3 safety programs alongside Kellogg, Fuqua, Darden and Kenan-Flagler.

She quality checked my work, offered strategic advice, shared examples and kept me on the right track. As an overly ambitious and efficient person I completed 7 applications and took a standardized test in the month and a half I worked with Laura. I had originally purchased 5 hours of her time but then added an additional one hour to finish out my prep. She helped me nail my interviews and gave me the confidence I needed to go for it but kept me humble with a healthy skepticism that I may not get into my top programs.

Ultimately, I am so proud and grateful to say I got into all 7 MBA programs I applied to and received scholarships to 6 of the 7 programs. I truly don’t think I could have done it without Laura’s quick reviews, always on advice and reassuring presence.

Don’t think twice! Laura helped me immensely and I know she will help you too!

I worked with Laura Nelson at Stacy Blackman Consulting.

Laura’s expertise, quick turn around and guidance through my application journey helped me land an admit to McCombs UT Austin. I could not imagine my success without her help. I strongly recommend her. Thank you Laura and Stacy Blackman for being so responsive and helping me on my application.

After hearing from some current and former MBA students about their success with admissions consultants, I decided to look for consulting options myself. Stacy Blackman was rated highly on just about every site I looked at, so I set up a call with Sarah, one of their principals, to see what consulting with SBC would entail. While I was initially taken aback by Sarah’s critiques of my resume and emphasis on the “softer” parts of the application (I’m more of a facts and numbers person), I knew this type of candid feedback and inside perspective would be exactly what I needed to get into a top MBA program. Although the price tag made me feel a bit uneasy, Sarah’s recommendation that I use an hourly approach was a great one. I ended up purchasing 10 hours for around $4K, which ended up being the perfect amount of time with 2 months before Round 2 applications were due and was an excellent deal compared to the single school packages.

Based on my career background in CPG and my preference for Ross and Fuqua, Sarah connected me with Laura, one of SBC’s consultants. Laura was extremely easy to work with and quickly helped me find a career vision that was consistent with my background and also attractive to admissions committees. She helped me transform my resume into one that would be very impactful. I especially appreciated Laura’s calm personality and straightforward advice for tackling many different types of essays. Her turnaround time was often less than a full day, which always amazed me. Laura is a great editor and really helped me communicate genuinely and concisely in my essays. Using Laura and SBC made applying to six schools much easier by keeping me on track with each draft of essays and applications.

I was extremely pleased to have been granted interviews at every school I applied to, and I set up a few hours of calls with Laura to help me prepare. Laura helped calm my nerves before the interview by helping me point out parts of my background that could help me address most of the common questions. I was impressed that SBC’s interview advice was extremely accurate and I didn’t feel that there were any curveballs in the entire interview process.

After 4 months of preparing with Laura and SBC, I was very excited by the outcome! I was admitted to three of the six schools I applied to (Ross, Tuck, and Darden) and even received scholarship money at one of them, which was very unexpected. I truly do not think I would have achieved these results without the help of Laura and SBC. I feel that the cost of a consultant was more than worth it, not to mention the amount of stress Laura reduced in my short two months of application preparation! Not only did I achieve my admissions goals with SBC, but using Laura’s guidance for my admissions journey has also given me the confidence to enter recruiting at an MBA school with an impactful resume and clear vision for my future career goals.

Laura helped me through all stages of the MBA admissions process from brainstorming schools to deciding on offers. Having conversations with Laura allowed me to present my best self and created a safe space for me to practice presenting my story. Going into this process I was not sure I would be accepted to my target schools, yet I received 5 full-tuition scholarships and two half-tuition scholarships. I applied to 8 schools and my top 2 choices were both full scholarships. Laura is responsive, efficient, genuine, and completely invested in helping you achieve your goals. If you are serious about an MBA, I 10/10 recommend her services.

Laura was an integral part of my MBA application process and key to my acceptance at Duke Fuqua (Class of 2025). I received interview initiations to all three schools that I applied to but withdrew my other two applications as I was accepted to Fuqua in the binding early action round. I have a very nontraditional background and Laura helped me pull from my experiences and craft a compelling application for the admissions committee. She guided me through every step of the process – my school selection, resume, essays, and all other free-response parts of the applications. I am embarrassed that I sent out my resume before Laura helped me rework it. For the first time, I feel like it accurately depicts what I have worked on and accomplished during my ten-year entrepreneurial career. While high school was 10+ years ago for me, she reminds me of one of those special teachers that always brought the best work out of her students. She pushed me to do some of my best writing to date. I highly recommend that anyone that is willing to invest time and money in applying for MBA programs work with Laura – you won’t be disappointed!

I started the process having no idea how to present myself to the ad com. Laura helped me find my own words and guided me through the application process from start to finish. Her feedback both big picture and granular was fantastic, her turnaround was very fast, and the time she billed was very low for the content she gave me.

I worked with another consultant last year and had a horrible experience. Laura was indeed the best person to work with in terms of building up my profile by suggesting what pre-MBA classes I should take and working with me on a timeline to submit my application early. I really appreciated how responsive Laura is as well as candid. It made this application (and acceptance!) experience truly exceptional. I cannot recommend her as a consultant enough.

Truthfully, I went into the process a little skeptical. I had heard mixed reviews about utilizing consulting services for MBA applications. Wow was I wrong! I can confirm, with 100% certainty, that Laura’s efforts significantly improved my chances of getting into school. At the beginning of the process, I requested additional support on my resumes and essays. Laura’s incredible attention to detail and knowledge of key buzzwords, that MBA programs look for, was incredibly helpful as I navigated the minutiae of keeping my resume to one page. We also spent significant time going back and forth on my essays, and Laura exhibited extreme patience as I toggled between a few different ideas. Without Laura’s support, I’m confident in admitting that my application wouldn’t have been nearly as strong as it ended up. Thank you, Laura!

I signed up for the all-in package with Laura Nelson and was successfully admitted into LBS and UCLA. I signed up before finishing my GMAT and Laura was helpful throughout the process. Going through the brag sheet early in the process was very in-depth and helpful and allowed us to craft the best story that was a great fit for each school I applied to. Laura was very resourceful and pushed me to find current students and alumni to talk to which was incredibly helpful to understanding each school. The SBC wiki has a ton of resources on the schools, application tips, and essay samples. Laura did a great job of making every sentence count in my essays. Overall, she was very easy to work with, available and efficient, and easy to be vulnerable with and run ideas by. She will keep it real with you which I appreciated. You will need to be proactive to get the most out of SBC, but this shouldn’t be a problem for those motivated to have a successful application and it pays off!

Laura is absolutely fantastic! I went into the application process with a GMAT score I wasn’t thrilled about, so I knew I needed to make my application stand out as much as possible. Throughout the application process, Laura challenged me every which way and helped me tailor my resume and essays to showcase my strengths. Not only was I admitted to multiple programs, but I also received scholarship funds. I know for a fact that I would not have been as successful if I hadn’t worked with Laura. You can have the best resume and experience in the world, but if you don’t frame it correctly, you can leave things on the table.

The last thing I’ll say is I searched and met with multiple application consultants before finally selecting Laura as the person I wanted to work with. From my experience, many consultants are just worried about taking your money and don’t truly care if things work out for you. This is not the case with Laura. I could tell she cared from day one and was going to be a true partner in my application journey.

The application process is not something to be taken lightly and having Laura on your team is something I strongly recommend.

Laura was such a help in crafting my story and guiding me throughout the whole admissions process. She works really fast and communicates extremely well. I relied on her most for editing my essays and asking for advice. I couldn’t have done it without her. Worth every penny. You won’t regret working with her.

When looking for an admissions consulting firm, I wanted to be challenged and to be held accountable. I got that feeling immediately from my consultation. My resume was torn up and critiqued in a very real way. I was not just told, “You have a great GMAT score, you’ll do great”. It was what I wanted. I was paired with Laura, and she was absolutely fantastic. She was very reachable, and we met at least every other week throughout the process. Her feedback was very useful and honest, which helped me bring my essays and story to the level needed. She was also willing to hear feedback, as I contradicted her feedback at one point based on a blog post from the Tuck adcomm. In the end, I felt that I was supported in a way that enabled me to show my truest self. The Flight Test, a defining feature of the application, highlighted some weaknesses that we were able to tactically address. I am very thankful for Lisa, who conducted this flight test. I ultimately was accepted to Ross, Tuck, and LBS while being rejected from Sloan. Results with which I am very happy. I did not make use of other services that SBC provides such as their liaisons and other points of contact, but they appeared very nice from whenever I spoke with them.

Laura was amazing to work with. She challenged me, coached me, and provided valuable insight every step of the way. I couldn’t have completed the process without her. I was admitted to my top choice. I’m convinced that wouldn’t have happened without her!

I loved working with Laura, she was so receptive to my needs and helped me exactly the way I needed! She communicated with me, so much and was always there for me through my application process. I’m so thankful!

Laura Nelson is a godsend! Not only is she incredibly smart and knowledgeable about the admissions process, but she is personable, funny, and she really cares about her clients. Any time I sent an email with questions, she usually responded within 2 hours and mostly within 2 minutes! She guided me rather than telling me what to do and had a thorough understanding of my goals which enabled her to provide the best advice that suited me most. I would (and do!) recommend her to anyone and everyone. I truly believe that, had I not worked with her, I would not have been admitted to NYU Stern or gotten an incredibly generous scholarship from another institution.