Excellent Service!

Coming into the process with Square One, I was very concerned that I had little going for me outside my GMAT. I came from a small country, a university that wasn’t even regionally recognized, let alone globally, and had a middling GPA. However, talking to Kathryn and Natalie gave me confidence that my story was M7 material. I worked with Natalie for three schools and was able to apply what I learned through the process for a few more.

Natalie first got on a 3-4 hour call with me to discuss my positioning, strengths, and weaknesses. Afterwards, she provided me a detailed document analyzing each aspect of my application and action items to improve on, particularly me doing the legwork on research for the three schools we were working on. From this launch point, we worked on my resume, going through something like 13 passes to ensure everything was ironed out before moving on to my first school.

For each school, Natalie and I crafted answers not just for the essay questions, but also the short answer prompts on each application form. I have to give a ton of credit to both Natalie and Kathryn here. I found that I tended to gloss over a ton of things in my writing that would have been very meaningful and impactful had I expounded. Natalie found a way to make room for those items while cutting down on the clutter and helping my writing be more concise. Kathryn, on the other hand, gave me the tough feedback I needed to know and made sure that everything in my essay was bulletproof. She made sure everything I wrote was clear and impactful. Their one-two punch was incredibly helpful in ensuring that my essays were not only well though-out but also reflective of who I was and what they knew about me.

With their help, I was able to secure interview invites to 2 of the 3 M7 schools we worked on (with Harvard being the other). Interview prep was also excellent. Natalie gave me a thorough list of common interview questions to prepare for and gave me a mock interview and feedback session. In the interview proper, Natalie also threw me curveballs in the form of questions she didn’t have me prepare for to underline the need to be on your toes and thinking on the fly. With this, I felt like I was able to ace both interviews.
However, what really stood out to me was the concern SOP displayed. There were nearly 2 months between my interviews and decision release dates for the 2 schools we worked on with active applications. Despite this, Natalie was very active in checking up on my application status on even the schools I applied to independently.

Come decision day, I got a waitlist for 1 M7 and instead of letting me wallow in not getting accepted, Natalie and Kathryn immediately got down to business and let me know what the next steps were towards getting off the waitlist. Without a second thought, I had all their waitlist essay prep materials on hand and ready to help me prepare. While we’re still working on those essays, I have to say that I’m very pleased with our working relationship. They strike the right balance between care and concern and directness that keeps you working at optimum efficiency. I’m pleased to say that I got admitted to the 2nd M7 I interviewed with and I’m currently getting ready to place my deposit and secure my slot. While I don’t know if I would have gotten in without Kathryn and Natalie, I do know that they made the entire process much easier to navigate and gave me a lot of peace of mind in the midst of such a daunting process.