Stanford GSB, here I come!!!

Stanford GSB here I come!!! Working with Square One Prep was just fantastic. My consultant was extremely supportive, always responsive and full of great ideas to help bring my applications to the next level, and then the next level. She knew I had an uphill battle as I am someone who already has investment banking and private equity under my belt; yet here I am saying that I want to stay in private equity---how "vanilla" is that? And how do I prove the need for an MBA?

Well, with Square One Prep's constant attention and ability to push me to think about my past, present and future in a way that helped me better define who I am and break away from the all the other applicants who, on the surface, have profiles similar to my own, I developed a sincere, unique story. Thank you so much for being so invested in my success. Getting into my top choice is really a dream come true!

Something I found really special about Square One was their candor. My consultant initially told me that Stanford was out not a good school for me, due in part to how "vanilla" my ambitions were and because I didn't seem to be driven by passion - passion to do good in a way that was genuinely outward looking and thoughtful. She was right. So we took Stanford off my list of schools because I understood what my consultant was saying. Six weeks later though, I had a breakthrough while working on the essays for another school with her. She probed and probed and suddenly got me to share something from my past that I'd always been embarrassed by but in many ways, I realized by talking to her, define me. By coming clean about a personal struggle, and learning from her that it was nothing to be ashamed about, together we suddenly saw how I could turn my vanilla ambitions into something that was anything but vanilla. Would I still be doing PE? Yes, but with so much more purpose. I was so excited. Then, when my consultant told me that I now had the ingredients to be taken seriously by Stanford, I was ecstatic. Because we worked at such a great pace, we had plenty of time to add Stanford back into our plan. It was the last application we worked on, and the first school I got admitted to!

If you’re applying to business school, I’d strongly recommend you work with Square One Prep

Oh, I also got into Tuck, Haas, and Booth!