Maureen

I went back and forth about hiring a consultant given the cost and the fact that several of my friends who had attended top business schools were helping guide me through the process. However, I ultimately decided to hire a consultant, Maureen, and am SO glad I did. Not only did working with her gives me a peace of mind about the entirety of my application and the process in general, but she was instrumental in helping me shape my essays and in pushing me to dig deeper in the most impactful way.

I found Maureen’s turnaround time, process, and feedback to be extremely quick, transparent, and easy to understand. She helped me highlight areas of my experience and background that would most resonate with schools as well as how to best convey my ultimate goals post-MBA.

Ultimately, I earned a scholarship from all three schools that I applied to, Tuck, Kellogg, and Fuqua. I’m so glad I chose to work with Maureen and highly recommend hiring a consultant and choosing her.

I was hesitant about using a consultant at first, simply because of the cost. That being said, I do feel that it was worth it for me – I walked away feeling like I truly built a strong application where I was still able to be myself. Additionally, I feel like I learned many skills that I will use in my future – how to build a strong resume with impactful information, how to prepare for behavioral interview questions and how to write effectively while being concise.

Maureen’s turnaround time was very quick – I would send her something to review, and within a day I had feedback. She let me dictate what to review but helped me stay on track when I would get bogged down with “perfectionism” or minute details.

Her feedback was straightforward, but delivered in an encouraging manner – she helped me tackle my areas of weakness and see how they could alternatively become my strengths.

At one point, I was really struggling with one of my essays (and cutting it down to 300 words). Once I was under 300 words, the essay had lost all of its life. I shared with Maureen some of the “stream of consciousness writing” I had done on the topic, and she helped me re-formulate my essay and bringing it back to life. It became my favorite of all the essays I wrote.

I particularly enjoyed the feedback she gave me on my mock interview. While my work has provided me with examples of behavioral successes and failures, I struggled again with concision. She spent extra time helping me identify the details that were more impactful in each story to deliver my strengths and weaknesses in a polished manner while staying true to my personality.

Lastly, and most importantly, by the end, I felt like I had gained a mentor. I would reach out to her with silly questions on how to reach out to an admissions person, or small things like that. She was again, very quick in her response, but didn’t hesitate to help, even though it was beyond my immediate application. She was genuinely so excited for me when I shared my acceptance, and I am so glad I was able to work with her.

I am a business school re-applicant. I decided to re-apply because I knew that I didn’t put my best foot forward during the first go around. I also knew that if I actually wanted to improve my application, I would need professional help. I spoke with many of the top MBA Admissions consulting firms, and I chose Stacy Blackman after my initial consultation with Maureen Capitolo. Maureen was insightful, sincere, honest, and I truly trusted her experience and guidance from the start. I am so thankful that I did. Maureen was instrumental in helping me create each of my applications. She helped me think through my school selection and craft my overall strategy. She pushed me to dig into my background to help me identify specific experiences that matched exactly what each of my target schools was looking for. She provided tireless, professional support as I iterated on each of my essays and brought every piece together. After I submitted my last application, I had a completely clear conscience knowing that I did the best I possibly could with Maureen’s help. It all paid off last week when I was offered admission to my dream school: Wharton. I did the work, but Maureen and Stacy Blackman provided the guidance and tools I needed, and I am incredibly thankful. I would highly recommend anyone who wants to work hard and submit their best applications to work with Maureen.

I had a fantastic experience working with Maureen from SBC. I honestly believe that I put my best foot forward in my applications and, in large part, I have her to thank. She helped me with everything imaginable: decisions like whether to retake the GMAT, essay and short answer editing, recommender management, and interview prep. Maureen is also just generally a good human and was an incredible sounding board for my reservations, fears, and anxieties throughout the process. One of the best parts of working with Maureen was her incredible essay editing skills: she made me work harder and probed me to dig deeper. She also really understands the lens through which admissions committees view essays and the entire application. I found my interview prep with Maureen to be especially helpful. My practice interview for HBS was nearly identical, in style, pace, and types of questions, to the real HBS interview. And in the end there’s proof that Maureen is awesome: I was accepted to all the schools I applied to including HBS, Columbia, and Kellogg. The b-school admissions process is long and hard but having Maureen by my side made it not so bad.

Stacy Blackman Consulting exceeded my expectations and more than lived up to its excellent reputation. I worked with Maureen, who guided me through the entire application process, from crafting my story, to writing essays, and finally conducting mock interviews with me. I was focused on a very small group of schools, all in the M7. Maureen helped me to tailor my story and application for each school, showing me how to emphasize specific aspects about myself that made me a fit for each program, allowing me to differentiate my candidacy. Maureen was extremely organized, laying out an aggressive but achievable schedule for submitting all of my applications before the Round 1 deadline. She was also incredibly responsive, typically turning around drafts of my essays within a day, and responding to all of my emailed questions within a few hours. I was accepted to both Columbia and to Kellogg with a large scholarship. I feel very strongly that without Maureen’s guidance I would not have been admitted to any of the schools I applied to. In addition to Maureen’s exceptional guidance, Stacy Blackman Consulting has an outstanding set of resources that helped me throughout the process. The application flight test helped me to identify and fix weak spots in my application, and the wealth of information available on the Stacy Blackman Wiki was invaluable to me as I wrote my essays. The MBA application process is far more competitive than I first realized, and I learned that a strong GMAT, GPA, and career path is not enough. Candidates must find ways to differentiate themselves, and Maureen and the team at Stacy Blackman Consulting showed me how to do so. If you are serious about pursuing an MBA at a top program, then I highly recommend that you consider working with Stacy Blackman Consulting.